Tag: Vengeance

Digging in Deeper: Romans 12:19-20

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“Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.’ But ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.’” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We’ve all been there. Someone comes along and does something that makes you mad. What’s more, they meant to do it. Now you are left with a choice: How are you going to respond? Do you get them back? Do you let it go? Do you express your displeasure in some unmistakable way? If we’re being honest, for most of us, our first instinct is to start plotting how we can get revenge in some way. That’s normal. It always has been. And if there’s no God, or if we can’t trust the gods to avenge us, that kind of thinking makes sense. But if there is a God as is revealed in the pages of the Scriptures, it doesn’t. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 12:19

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“Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in the day of the dystopian future story. Not all that long ago, historically speaking, this wasn’t the case. There was a time when a popular view on the return of Christ described in Revelation was post-millennialism, which held that the world was just going to keep getting better (because we made it that way) until Jesus returned to reward us for all our good work. Then the 20th century happened. After two world wars and an ensuing half century of chaos mostly released on the world by the ideas of Darwin, Freud, and Marx, we gave up on a hopeful future, and our thinking turned dark. The Last of Us on HBO, is a great example of this. With the second season now behind us, let’s talk about how it was, and why the Gospel is better.

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Digging in Deeper: Psalm 37:7

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“Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him; do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way, by the person who carries out evil plans.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever seen someone get away with something? Maybe it was something small and didn’t really matter, but maybe it was entirely more significant than that. Either way, when a person escapes justice, something in us rises up to say, “No!” Injustice is simply out of sync with our souls. What do we do in times like this? David offers some wise counsel here in Psalm 37. Let’s explore what this does and doesn’t mean together this morning.

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Morning Musing: Proverbs 24:29

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“Don’t say, ‘I’ll do to him what he did to me; I’ll repay the man for what he has done.’”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

I have three young boys. They’re all boys. Our household is generally in a constant state of noisy chaos. And they are brothers through and through. If you have boys you know what that means. While they will get each other’s backs, they fight like cats and dogs much of the time. But more than that, they’re kids. Their brains run on kid logic. That can be enormously frustrating as parents sometimes, but it is to be expected. They’re kids. What is disturbing is when adults operate on kid logic. 

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