- Romans 12:17 (NIV)
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
- Romans 12:19 (NIV)
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.
To him it was only a platitude or religious expression … something someone else was telling him was right. But they didn’t know.
Why can’t we realize that God’s words are more than optional instruction as we pursue life and meaning.
God’s words are life and there is no other route to true life apart from the things he breathed to us and had written down.
Spoke with someone very close to me earlier today. My sadness is that he is still paying back offenses to a person that happened many years ago.
And he can’t see that vengeance (pay back) however so subtle is the way of death. And forgiveness is the way of life.
“Never pay back” is more than a rule to follow. The life, the joy, is not merely successfully obeying one of God’s rules but of buying into his way of living.
Our “seem right” way leads to death, not just the ultimate death of the grave but death now as we go about our days on the planet.
Our step of faith is following God’s contrary plan for our lives. Contrary as in different, contrary, as to what we would choose.
Live his words; step into a life we couldn’t have imagined.
But this person I love so much is still chasing life as he envisions it.
Often a drink from God’s fountain of life comes from following a contrary direction. God’s direction that is veiled until we trust.
- Proverbs 14:12 (ESV)
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
- John 6:27 (NCV)
Don’t work for the food that spoils. Work for the food that stays good always and gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because on him God the Father has put his power.
