Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
– Romans 12:14,17,19
I often find it interesting to notice what verses and phrases people recall from the Bible. While it is great that people will use scripture as a source of guidance in life, sometimes I hear how people apply it and I think, “You might want to check the context of that,” or “It might help if you looked at that in light of the whole witness of scripture.” One such verse comes from Exodus 21:24, (repeated in Leviticus 24 and Deuteronomy 19). The scripture address may be unfamiliar, but the words would not be; it is from this biblical text that we get the phrase, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” It is not hard to imagine why anyone would like to keep this verse in a handy “grab bag” of scriptures from which we can draw when we need to justify our actions. Doing so will help us to feel completely justified when we want to take retributive action against someone who has harmed us. What could be more satisfying than to impose justice (our version of it, anyway) upon a wrongdoer and to know we have followed scripture in doing so? You can almost feel the gratification just thinking about it, can’t you?
Understanding a verse like this requires some context. I don’t want to take space here for a lengthy explanation; suffice it to say that such commands in scripture are more restrictive in nature than they are prescriptive. The social orders in which people lived at that time were particularly unrestrained. As such, God’s people needed to take a first step in the right direction regarding how they should do life together. It would not be, however, the only step. The New Testament, with much contribution from the Gospels, challenges us to move the rest of the way down the road to holy living. You get a clear picture of this in Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus repeatedly uses the phrase, “You have heard it said…but I say to you…” (see Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-44). In each case Jesus was taking what the people already knew from the scriptures and, to borrow a phrase from celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, “kicking it up a notch.” Jesus was revealing glimpses of what full conformity to God’s social order looks like.
Retaliation is a natural response when we have been wronged. For the follower of Jesus though, the challenge faced is the clear reality that retaliation is not the best response. To be more precise, it is not the Christian response. Consider the apostle Paul’s words recorded in Romans 12:14. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” You are welcome to join me in acknowledging this is not a natural reaction for us. Paul reinforces the statement in verse 17 saying, “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.” So much for the eye and tooth pathway to justice. As if he hasn’t made it clear enough, Paul states in verse 19, “Never take your own revenge, beloved….” At this point you may be feeling like Paul is robbing us of every bit of satisfaction we could derive from witnessing justice first hand (i.e. by our OWN hand). But as we see so many times, the Jesus way of living is not the natural way of living.
There is an additional comment Paul includes in verse 19, and while it may not help us recover any sense of satisfaction, it does give us helpful perspective. Paul reminds us that our abstinence from revenge allows room for God to work. How God will choose to work, we do not know. Our demonstration of Christ-like character may be part of what God uses to bring someone to repentance from their evil ways. Then again, it might simply be that God will work out ultimate justice for the parties involved in His sovereign way, which may happen in this life, or if not, in eternity. It is true, this may not give our flesh the satisfaction we enjoy. What we must remember, though, is that Christians are not called to walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit (Romans 8:4-5). If, then, we are walking according to the Spirit, our desire will be for obedience to God’s Word, not for the satisfaction of the flesh.
It would be incomplete not to specifically mention what Jesus himself taught on the subject. After all, some people only observe a truncated version of the Bible. So if you are the kind of person who takes the position, “I only observe what Jesus said,” here you go:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”
– Matthew 5:38-42
The next time we feel a desire for revenge rising up within us, perhaps we will remember our exhortations from scripture. After all, there are enough missing “eyes” and “teeth” in the world. We don’t need to add to the problem.
See you along the Winding Path.
