The Sweetness of Revenge
1 Thessalonians 5:15 Be sure that no one pays back wrong for wrong. But always try to do what is good for each other and for all people.
Revenge, they say, is sweet. When someone wrongs you; when someone hurts you and you choose to take revenge, in the instant when you see them get their just desserts, something deep down in your innate sense of justice, is satisfied.
But the problem is, that the sweetness of that revenge doesn’t last. That initial flush of satisfaction quickly turns into something else.
Have you ever bitten into a lemon and then sucked on it? Bitterness and sourness mixed together in such high concentrations, that just the thought of it makes you wince, right?
And that’s exactly what the lives are like, of people who are into taking revenge, because here’s what happens. The revenge never really placates your soul. Deep down, the injustice of what that person did to you festers on, until you just can’t contain the bitterness in your heart.
That’s why repaying evil with evil never works. So what’s the alternative?
Be sure that no one pays back wrong for wrong. But always try to do what is good for each other and for all people. (1 Thessalonians 5:15)
Rather than trying to deal with a wrong by doing another wrong; rather than repaying evil with another evil, what God is saying here is that instead, we should repay a wrong, with a right; we should repay an act of evil with an act of goodness. I know, I know … it may sound crazy. But there’s something special that happens when we bless the one who’s cursed us. God heals you on the inside. He takes away the anger and the resentment, the bitterness that’s eating away at your soul, and replaces it with a peace and a freedom, that words can’t describe.
Who is it in your life, who’s wronged you? Towards whom to you harbour bitterness and resentment, a sense of unforgiveness, a desire to extract your “pound of flesh” as Shakespeare put it?
Let me ask you, is it a nice feeling? Is it a feeling that you want to carry around with you for the rest of your life? Probably not. So, here’s the answer:
Don’t repay wrong for wrong, but instead, try to do what is good for that other person.
Counterintuitive though it is, let me tell you, it sets you free. It restores your peace. It actually works.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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