The Revolutionary War was complicated by the fact that it was often also a Civil War.
Families were on both sides of the conflict. William, for example became the governor of New
Jersey because of the influence of his famous father. The shocking thing was that William wanted
to be loyal to the crown of England. This led to a crisis, and after a heated battle with his
legislature he was sent to prison for two years.
When he was released in 1778 his heart was filled with anger for the colonies, and he fled to the
British to join them in the fight. He became a leader in terrorist activities against the very colony
as he had served as governor. When King George created an official guerilla army in 1780,
William was made its leader. Revenge drove him to lead his men to arson, rape, mutilation, and
murder. He was so obsessed that even when the war ended in 1781 he kept up the violence and
brutality in New Jersey into 1782. Benjamin Franklin called the war in New Jersey a Civil War,
and he knew, for the revenge-ridden man who kept it going was his only son-William Franklin.
What a paradox that one of our founding fathers had a son who sought to destroy our nation in
its infancy. History makes it clear that one of the quickest ways to ruin your reputation, and put ablot on your name is to let the spirit of revenge take control of your life. Much of the evil of this
world is due to the seeking of revenge. The problem is, it is a vicious circle. When you get even,
the one you got even with does not feel the score is even until they get in another hit, and the result
is the spirit of vengeance winds up as a Hatfield and McCoy type conflict where there is no end to
the injury.
Revenge itself must be avenged. It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and that goes for the
fire that destroys as well as the fire that warms and uplifts. That is why vengeance is an emotion
that a Christian must always keep under control. It is not that it is not a legitimate emotion. In a
world of evil and injustice where you or others are hurt by man's inhumanity to man you cannot
escape the feelings of anger which cry out for vengeance on those who inflict such suffering. Even
the saints in heaven cry out in Rev. 6:10, "How long, sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you
judge and avenge our blood." God does not say shame on you, but just be patient.
Never to feel the desire for vengeance is to lack the Spirit of God who feels it constantly.
Numerous are the text which say vengeance is mine saith the Lord. The vengeance of the Lord
and the day of God's vengeance are common themes of the Old Testament. The point being that
evil will not escape, and the injustices of life will not be ignored. God will set everything right,
and so the feeling of the need for this is not wrong. I am not expected by God to feel guilty about
the desire for vengeance. It is a normal feeling for anyone who cares about justice. The feeling is
God-like. The problem is in the actions this feeling generates. This is where we need to face up to
our limitations and surrender to God's authority. That is why Paul says in verse 19, "Beloved,
never avenge yourselves." Notice it is an absolute-never. Human revenge is never the will of
God.
I read of a college professor who was awakened at 3:00 A. M. by the phone. The caller said,
"This is your neighbor. I just wanted to let you know your dog is barking and keeping me
awake." The professor thanked him and hung up. The next morning he called his neighbor at
3:00 A.M. and said, "This is your neighbor. I just wanted to let you know that we don't have a
dog." That was clever, but not Christian. The original caller made a blunder, but revenge did not
likely make him a better neighbor.
The point of our text is, you will feel like taking revenge in life, for nobody gets by without
being the target of some injustice or some foolish mistake, or even pre-meditated meanness. The
feeling for the need for revenge is normal, but Paul says not to act on it, for when you do you
become part of the problem rather than part of the solution. This text is almost identical to the
teaching of Paul when he said, "Be angry and sin not." The emotion is not forbidden, for it is
impossible not to feel it. But do not follow through and let this emotion determine your actions
which will then make you a contributor to the total package of evil. The Christian is in the world
to reduce the level of evil, and not to add to it. Therefore the Christian is to be one who does not
let his feelings run his life.
The reason a savage is a savage is because he does just what he feels. He feels you have
offended him by stepping on his territory, and so he feels angry at you, and feels he should get
revenge, and so he kills you. The more civilized men become the more indirectly they kill the
intruder. The more Christian men become the more they leave judgment to God and concentrate
on the hope that their so-called enemy may yet become a friend. The Christian agenda in life is
not to get even, but to get ahead by overcoming evil with good.
It is a curse to become obsessed with the need to get revenge. When you are the victim of
injustice this does not mean you are not to press charges as a Christian, and seek to have criminals
arrested. This does not mean you never take people to court that justice might be done. Paul
demanded his rights as a Roman citizen. The Christian has all kinds of rights, and he ought to
demand that they honored. Paul is talking about the Christian becoming a peacemaker in his
society, and not a trouble maker. The Christian is to live peaceably with all men in so far as this
depends upon them. In many cases the enemies of the Christian will not permit this peaceful
relationship, and so the ideal will not be achieved. Paul's point is that it ought never to fail being
achieved because of the Christian.
You cannot make other people choose to live in peace, but it must always be your choice. The
Christian must be one who is ever ready to forgive rather than get back at another for the evil they
inflict upon him. The Christian has a choice to make as to how he deals with the emotion of anger
that leads to the desire for revenge. He will either choose to be overcome by evil, or overcome the
evil with good. Paul says it is a matter of choice, for he commands us to choose the second and
not the first. This means that if a Christian becomes obsessed with the need for revenge it is
because he made a choice to go that route. He chose to let his feelings rather than God's will
determine his action. The result will be that the Christian will not set the record straight, but will
add to the record of folly, and add himself to the list of those to be judged.
David Augsberger said, "Revenge is the most worthless weapon in the world. It ruins the
avenger while more firmly confirming the enemy in his wrong." Paul says if there is ever a time to
apply your Christian faith it is when dealing with an enemy. This is where the Christian can really
be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Do just the opposite of what is normal. You feel
like getting revenge, but that is the time to act in love and fed the enemy. It is so contrary to
human nature that the enemy will be defeated by your love. This reversal of revenge will as
powerful a force for good as revenge is for evil.
Paul gives an illustration that is so obsolete in our culture that it is hard for us to see his point.
He says that if you feed your hungry enemy and give your thirsty enemy drink you will heap
burning coals on their head. This almost sounds like Paul found a loop-hole in his own high
standard. It is as if he was saying you can't get revenge directly, but I found a back door by which
you can get into the arena of vengeance and watch your enemy burn. This is not what Paul is
saying at all. He is using a familiar image of his day to say that by love you can do what hate will
fail to do. It was a very common practice to eliminate an enemy scaling your city wall by
dropping from the top of the wall heaps of burning coals that would destroy both the enemy and
his ropes and ladders.
Paul is saying that in Christian warfare we do not fight with such weapons, but rather with
love, care, and kindness in meeting the enemy. But in so doing we heap coals upon his head. That
is, we defeat his enemy spirit and eliminate his threat. But not by wiping him out, but by winning
him over into our friendship. This is what he means by overcoming evil with good. He is not
referring to literal hot coals, but to the burning passion to win the enemy with love.
The good news is that it works. Back in 1818 Tamatoe, the king of a South Sea Island, became a
Christian. He discovered that some of his fellow natives had a plot to seize him and
other Christians, and burn them to death. He captured them all, and instead of killing them when
they were in his power, he had a feast for them and talked with them. He shared his goals with
them. They were so overwhelmed that they burned their idols and became Christians.
During the Korean War a Christian leader of an orphanage saw his 19 year old son shot before
his eyes by a young communist leader. Later when that communist leader was about to be
executed by the United Nations forces who had captured him, this Christian father pleaded for
them to spare him and release him into his custody. His request was granted. He took the
murderer of his own son and trained him, and he became a Christian pastor. Just as a firing squad
would have eliminated the world of this enemy, and just as heaps of burning coals would have
eliminated this rebel, so the love of this Christian father banished this enemy from existence. But
the Christian way was far superior, for it not only got rid of an enemy, it added a friend to the
family of God. It overcame evil with good, which is the only real way to win.
Christians have proved all through history that what Paul describes here is the Christian
strategy for conquest that works. Food and drink have brought millions of people into the
kingdom of light. The director of the Christian Student Center in Bangkok and a dynamic leader
of the church in Thialand was once an enemy of the church, just as was the Apostle Paul. He was
a Buddhist who won a scholarship to go to a Christian college. For the first time in his life he had
enough to eat. Some of the Christian students found him crying and asked why. He explained that
he now had so much, and his family still had so little. So the Christians took up an offering at the
school. They packed a large sack of rice and it was taken to his family. They could have rejected
this man for being a Buddhist, and had no compassion on him for his need. But because they went
out of their way to show love by meeting his need, he became a Christian, and one of the most
dynamic Christians in his land.
Of course, not all respond to love. Many rejected the love of Christ, and many will reject our
love, and so not all enemies will be eliminated by this strategy. The point is, this is how the
Christian is to deal with the negative emotions of anger and hatred, and the desire for revenge.
They are felt, and they are real when the Christian is hurt by injustice, but the Christian who goes
by the Word of God does not let how he feels dictate his action. It is probably life's most common
form of idolatry, however. The Christian who lets his feelings be his guide rather than the Word of
God is an idolater. The Christian lives by his feelings, he lives on the same level as those who
have no other standard. This explains why Christians can do so many things that are so
sub-Christian. They simply do not control their feelings, but let their feelings control them. This
leads to the loss of sanctification in that particular area of their lives.
Francis Bacon said in his famous essay on revenge: "This is certain, that a man that studieth
revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal." This illustrates why
Christians are not to handle their own revenge, but are to surrender it to one who can handle it, and
that is God. Man is not made so that he can express this emotion wisely. God can do so with
perfect justice, and make sure that the measure of judgment fits the crime. Man does not have the
wisdom or control to be this precise.
The wise Christian surrenders this right to God. You have a right to feel hurt and offended.
You have a right to feel the offender should pay for his evil. But you do not have the right to
exact the payment. That is presumptuous, and is a taking on of a responsibility that only God can
justly carry out. So Paul says to leave it to the wrath of God. Don't worry that in the end injustice
will triumph. The God of all justice will make sure that all evil not repented of will be justly
punished.
So you see, your emotion or feeling of revenge is not wrong. It is a justified feeling, for God
has it Himself, and He will satisfy all the legitimate vengeance that is necessary. What is wrong is
for you to take God's job into your own hands and try to meet out judgment. Revenge is rejected,
for it is a form of idolatry whereby a man says, "I will rise above God and take over His duties and
crown myself the Lord of all." Such was the spirit of Satan, and such is the spirit of all who will
exalt themselves above God rather than submit to God.
Terrorism which is so much of a part of the world scene is a primary example of the result of
men taking upon themselves the task of getting revenge for life's injustice. Man is constantly
trying to usurp the authority of God, and the result is that we live in a world of terror. There is
room for revenge in God's plan, but it is His job and not man's to execute it. The wrath of man
does not work the will of God.
No one has ever wronged you more than you have wronged God, and so just as you place
yourself in God's hands of mercy, so you are to yield up all your enemies into those same hands. If
they never repent they will be justly punished. If they do, they will be your brothers and sisters in
the family of God, and like you be saved by grace. Either way the destiny of your enemy is not in
your hands. If he repents, only God can save him. If he continues to rebel, only God can judge
him. God has not delegated these two functions to anyone. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay says
the Lord." God reserves this right to Himself.
History reveals the horror of what happens when Christians have assumed that God had
vacated his office of Judge, and left man free to take over the reins of revenge. The Inquisition in
Spain, and the witch hunt of Salem, Mass. are two terrible examples. 20 people were executed for
witchcraft in 5 months in 1692. But what we seldom hear is that it was Christian leaders who put
a stop to this spirit of vengeance. They prevailed upon the governor William Phip to stop the
proceedings as contrary to the will of God. Samuel Sewall, one of the judges, publicly repented
for being used by the frenzy of the masses. He admitted that it was likely that innocent people
were condemned. The spirit of vengeance had led many good people into evil and folly. It is an
obsessive emotion, and if it is not surrendered to God it can become a cancer of the soul.
Lucien was a highly respected leader in the state of Kentucky many years ago. A good friend
of his ended up in the state pen. He went to the governor and asked if his friend Sam could be
pardoned, and put in his custody. He was basically a good man, and he would give him a job in
his business and provide a place for him to live. He would be doing the state a favor, and the
governor owed him a favor.
The governor agreed on one condition, and that was that he talk to his friend for two hours
before he was released. "If you still think he should be pardoned, I will do it." Lucien sat in the
warden's office and said to his friend Sam, "I can get you out of here, and you can come to work
for me." Sam said, "I can't until I do something very important." "What is it?" asked Lucien.
Sam said with hatred in his face, "I am going to get the judge who sent me here, and the one
witness, and I am going to kill them with my bare hands." Because he was so obsessed with
revenge Lucien had to leave him in prison and forget the pardon that could have set him free.
There is not way to calculate the blessings of God that cannot be received because people have
their heads filled with schemes of revenge. "And infernal round of revenge is danced ceaselessly
around the earth." Getting back and getting even are the themes that lead to perpetual warfare
between nations, communities, institutions, and people. Revenge is also a major cause for suicide.
People kill themselves just to get back at parents and others for their failure to meet certain needs.
Sometimes it is to get even with their own evil nature. But in any case it is folly and a trying to
play God.
The Christian has the answer for this destructive emotion, and that answer is to leave it to God.
Don't suppress it, but feel it, and then surrender it to God. Lady Carew wrote,
The fairest action of our human life
Is scoring to revenge an injury,
For who forgives without a further strife,
His adversary's heart to him doth tie,
And tis a firmer conquest, truly said,
To win the heart than overthrow the head.
The bottom line is, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Evil overcomes
us when we as Christians fight evil with the same spirit and weapons that evil uses. Even if the
Christian wins the battle, if he wins it by use of evil means, evil is the real winner. Luther wisely
said, "See to it that he who hurts you does not cause you to become evil like him." If a man curses
you, you do not rise above him by cursing back. If you do, he has now succeeded in making you
one who curses, and evil has overcome you. The only way to win and overcome evil is by means
of its opposite, which is good. Good can overcome evil. It is a superior weapon. The battle can
go either way, and both are happening all the time with evil winning over good and good winning
over evil.
Paul's message is that the Christian can shift the balance of power to the side of righteousness
by leaving vengeance to God and concentrating on doing good. Never is doing good more needed
than when you feel like revenge. Victor Hugo tells of Jean Valjean whose only crime was that he
stole a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children. After 19 years in the galleys he was
released. Not able to find work, he came to the home of the bishop who gave him supper and a
bed for the night. He yielded to temptation and stole the bishop's silver and slipped away. He was
caught and returned to the home. The bishop had a choice to make. Should he get revenge and
publish him for his ingratitude, or help him escape from his life of crime. The bishop chose the
latter and told the authorities that he gave him the silver. He said, "Jean you forgot the candle
stick." He was off the hook, and was so astounded by this act of love that he repented and was
saved.
There is no guarantee that all evil will dissolve in the presence of good, but it is for sure that
evil will multiply in the presence of more evil. The Christian has no other wise choice but to
control the desire for revenge and surrender it to God.
We cannot all be heroes
And thrill a hemisphere,
With some great daring venture;
Some deed that mocks at fear.
But we can fill a life time
With kindly act and true;
There's always noble service
For noble hearts to do.
Author Unknown
The three steps to overcoming evil with good are, feel the negative emotion of anger and
revenge. Forsake these as motives for action. Focus on the good you can do to counteract the
motivation of evil. This puts revenge in reverse, and the reversal of revenge does not get you even.
It gets you infinitely ahead.
