daily java

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,
    “I will take revenge;
     I will pay them back,”
     says the Lord.
Instead,
    “If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
     If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.
     In doing this, you will heap
     burning coals of shame on their heads.”
Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. (Romans 12:19-21)

When Jesus was tried, convicted and killed, there is one thing that stands out about him: he never answered back. He knew he was innocent and he knew it would do no good to defend himself. So he remained quiet.

That was so apparent when he was taken to see the Israelite King, Herod. Herod was interested in him. He had heard of him and wanted very badly to talk to him. He figured that since he was Jewish too, they would discuss stuff. Maybe even Jesus would do a miracle.

But Herod was a hypocritical person to the max, a poseur, one who tried very hard to balance subservience to Rome with pretending to be a great king himself. He was a debauched person with a debauched court.

I always thought the portrayal of Herod by Josh Mostel in Jesus Christ Superstar was a great one. His court was full of transvestites and weirdoes and he himself was not all that great looking.

It was evident that Jesus had nothing but contempt for him and didn’t even say a word to him. It made Herod so mad.

So it is in my life. In the past couple of years I have had some bad things happen. But I made a decision that I will not answer, and I will not defend. If my life cannot show my dedication, nothing I say will either.

And I will not take revenge. Revenge is for God. One day the accounts will be settled and I will be justified, if I need to be.

And I will be nice to those who have hurt me. I will not necessarily like them, but I will be kind.

Now I have to admit, I fall down here and do not always follow my own advice. I am after all human. When people hurt me, I bleed. That sounds kind of pathetic, but what I mean is I don’t always do the right thing.

But I try. And that is all God wants.

Doing nice things for people who have hurt you affects them far more than doing bad things. Paying back in kind never does any good.

And they may continue to be the way they are. If so, it is not your doing. You not acted like Jesus, they have not.

This does mean that I accept them back into the leadership they left. It just means that I treat them the best I can and allow the love of Jesus to show through me.

I don’t always and I am sorry when I don’t. But evil is prevalent enough without it ruling in my life, too.

High sounding words and I wish I did them better.

daily java

Daily Java: For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. (1 Peter 2:15-16).

It is the natural state of human behavior to want to pay someone back for something bad they did. Look at little children. They are human nature at its purest. Someone hits them, they hit back. It is normal. That is one of the byproducts of original sin, or human nature, or sin nature or whatever you want to call it.

But Jesus came to overcome the sin nature, to cause people to take the godly way.

When Jesus was in his trial, and when he was finally killed, one thing that stood out was the fact that he did not defend himself.

Now his accusers ranted and railed at him. It is a fact that when people are mad, they will say anything. And if you stand around long enough, you will find that to be absolutely true. I am reminded of a meeting in which some people had a grievance against me.

I stood, saying nothing (an action hard learned for me), as the leader of the insurrection spoke. He began listing a litany of complaints even down to the placement of a table in the back of the sanctuary and the fact that he had heard I was going to move the pulpit. He even complained that I stepped down off the pulpit area to preach.

I said nothing, not because he was right or any other reason. I have just found that answering in kind always hurts any situation. After he was finished, I said a couple of things and dismissed the meeting. He looked like an idiot and knew it. Even his kids could see it.

In Mark 13:3-5, Mark records Jesus at his trial. The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

Jesus knew it would do no good to answer so he just shut up. It amazed Pilate because he was used to people angrily defending themselves. Add to the fact that Jesus was obviously innocent and Pilate didn’t know what to do.

At his crucifixion, when he was vulnerable, they still continued. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads  and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” … In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. (Matthew 27:39-40, 44).

John records Jesus saying a couple of things, but they were rather innocuous.

He knew that there was no answering people who had their blood up. When people decide to do something to you, they will do it, no matter what you say. And it is a truth that you cannot shout down someone who is in the wrong and knows it. Watch debates on TV news shows if you want to see that.

And people are their most vindictive when you are down. It was an interesting thing that even the Roman centurion in Luke 23:47 could see that. He even went so far as to say, “Surely this was a righteous man.” Other people see that.

You can do one of two things. You can lower yourself to their level, or  you can stay above it. Jesus chose to stay above it.

It is true that the best revenge is no revenge. When Jesus was killed, he said nothing. His opponents knew they were wrong. For the most part, nothing you can do can make a better witness than your life. People will see who you are and how you are. And if they refuse to see this, it will make no difference. God will know it.

BTW, that does not mean that I will not fight to defend my family. That is different and is part of my mandate to provide for  them. Touch them and you are toast.

daily java

Daily Java: Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my 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."
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

I was just reading an article that said Amish businesses have a 95% success rate. One of the reasons give: they do not sue anyone.

We have become a revenge oriented society. We are ready to exact revenge at a moment’s notice. And of course, lawsuits are the main way to do it.

It is a mark of a culture that is having trouble that it takes offense so easily and wants to blame someone. We feel hurt and we want to hurt in return. I suppose that is a natural reaction, to strike out.

But the Bible tells us to do otherwise. Part of the Christian walk is to run somewhat counter to the normal human reaction to things. The normal human reaction is to be angry and give it back. The Bible says don’t.

Nothing is harder than this. Nothing is harder than to do something nice for someone who is not doing something nice for you.

And it is absolutely true that they will not appreciate what you have done. Do something nice for someone who is trying to hurt you and they will be so angry. That is because they know they are wrong, and they know you are right.

But it also on occasion makes far more of a positive impact than the force of your mighty right hand can. Your good treatment of someone who has wronged you cuts to their soul, and sometimes causes change.

I know this has happened in my own life and can point to others that have had this happen too.

Add to this the fact that there is a strong shame involved – the burning coals – and you will have made far more of a positive lasting impact on this person than you ever could have by doing otherwise.

When it comes down to it, retaliation only breeds retaliation. Compassion, on the other hand, if nothing else, breeds confusion, which tends to stop the escalation. That leaves room for speculation and maybe something positive.

Besides, God says he will take care of it, so why should you worry? Sure it hurt and that is natural. So is the anger you feel. But it never does any real good.
It’s hard to do, but God will take care of it. All you can do is show the love of Christ in your life. after all, he forgave people who were mistreating him even to killing him.

How can we as his people do any less.