Repair not Repay

Some people might suppose that the Old Testament law of “an eye for an eye” allows personal revenge, but this is not the point. This law actually says that the severity of legal punishment should never exceed the severity of an offense. In other words, if someone put out another person’s eye, he could not be penalized by anything greater than the forfeiture of his own eye.

My first thought is if this were practiced it would transform our justice system. Those who steal would lose or repay whatever they had taken. Those who injure would be injured. Those who kill would die.

However, the point of today’s devotional reading is not about the authority God gave governments to avenge civil and criminal injustice. It is about God forbidding His people from taking personal vengeance. He says,

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. (Romans 12:17)

In the original Greek, this seems to put some emphasis on how I think toward others who do evil as well has how I treat them. It goes something like this: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.”

When someone does an evil thing, my first thoughts are often “holier than thou” rather than merciful. But I have no right or ground to stand on for doing this. That person might deserve punishment and God’s wrath, but God could choose grace; He did so for me.

As far as how I think about evil people, I need to remember that in God’s mind, all of us are sinners so He could retaliate, and for some He will, but in Christ He has chosen mercy and grace that transforms lives. For myself, He didn’t do to me as I deserve. Not only that, He gave me the mind of Christ, so how can I think anything less toward others?

This is an amazing thing about the change God works in the heart. People who are saved from their sin and are given new life have the capacity to forgive others. I think of a Christian man whose son was murdered in a school shooting, yet this man forgave the boy who did it.

This story is repeated in many lives and situations. Christian people feel the same pain and loss at the hands of evil people as others do, however God gives us the inclination to forgive rather than retaliate. We can do it because He has forgiven us, and He has forgiven us because His thoughts toward us are noble. He says,

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

When someone mistreats me, I am to think about them with the mind of Christ, having the thoughts of God rather than my old inclination to retaliate. He wants me to respond with ideas about peace not evil, and ideas about how I can give that person a future, even a hope for eternity with God.