Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
If we didn't allow the word to speak to us from yesterday's verse because we were overcome with emotions from a painful relational experience, Paul takes it to another level. He reminds us to not ever seek revenge. Revenge is worse than paying back evil for evil in that it adds insult to injury. This is our flesh and the devil seeking to disrupt the Kingdom of God.
Paul tells us not to do so for three reasons. The first is that all judgment is to be left in the hands of God. While the government may be able to pursue others to punish them (Romans 14), we are not able to seek revenge. God will take care of it, either in this life or the next.
The second reason for us to not take revenge is that it breaks the Kingdom code of "forgiving as Christ forgives us." We all deserve the punishment of hell for our sins and it is for love and mercy that Jesus came to us. We are to be conformed to the image of Christ in love, grace, and mercy.
The last reason to not seek revenge is that it removes the opportunity to be a blessing to the broken. Only hurting people hurt people. They do it because they have not experienced the love of God and others. Therefore, these are the opportunities for us to shine. "If our enemy...enemy...enemy... is hungry, feed him. We are called to give love in the name of Jesus to those who are least likely to love us back.
Hopefully, our lives are not met with many reasons to exercise this exhortation, but these experiences do come from time to time in everyone's life. Now we know. We can choose to be a blesser even in the worst of circumstances.
Love, Pastor Stuart