I am sure most people know the Bible verse that says vengeance is the Lords:
Romans 12:19 New International Version (NIV)
19 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.
I know there are times where I want to just smack people upside the head. I have told my wife that I pity the person that harms anyone that I love, but think about that. If I am told to love my neighbor as I love myself and everyone is my neighbor that I am to love everyone and no matter what happens I am not to take revenge.
Have you ever thought why this might be? I know I have and hopefully it will make sense to a few.
- God made all of us. If I seek to take revenge on someone, then essentially I am saying God you have no idea what you are doing and my way is the right way. If God made all, then God owns all and as such is the only one that avenge.
- By taking revenge, I may be destroying a persons chance to repent and be saved. If you just said good, then there is a problem. I know our flesh side will say good, but Jesus instructed us to the two greatest commandments. If you truly love everyone, then you would want everyone to be in Heaven. Of course that is an idealistic point of view because even Christ said that few will walk the narrow path, read Matthew 7:13-14.
- To protect us. Once you decide to go down a path that includes taking revenge on another, it will change you forever. Sure you will feel good for a bit, you just destroyed a person or persons that have hurt you in someway. However, think about what this has done to your soul and your relationship with God. Sure you can repent and God will forgive, but every time you sin in this way, how much harder is it to return. It is better to leave the revenge gig to God.
This is not easy when someone has hurt us to our core such as killed or raped a close loved one, but I am urging you to take a step back and ask God for help. Sure it will be challenging, but by doing this, you will be healed much quicker.
I have made statements to my wife when I see another human hurting another human that lethal injection is too good for them. They should suffer the same fate, but 100x worse. That is the wrong attitude to have. What we should be asking is why did this person just do what they did and what is hurting them? Yes it means caring for someone that may have just seriously hurt someone else that is close to you, but that is what God would want us to do through Jesus.