“Don’t get mad,” the World tells us, “get even.” But do you know what? While you are looking for that opportunity to get even, that person is occupying space in your head rent free! I mean every time you see them, or are reminded of them in some way, you experience the same emotions as you did with the original offence. With me it was not so much revenge that used to occupy my thoughts, but rather it was obsessing on the injustice of it all. But in any case, whether we admit it or not, when we respond in these ways we are allowing who they are, or what they have done, to rob us of peace and the abundant life. And again, whether we want to admit it or not, we are in fact becoming like them, because we are responding in the very same spirit as the perpetrator.
But just trying not to think or dwell in these things does not work. The Lord gives us the antidote which can, I think, be expressed as coming against the offence and/or the offender in the opposite spirit. Jesus puts it this way “I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). This might not make too much sense if this World is all there is, but first of all it is not. In the context of this verse Jesus is speaking about the rewards we get in heaven for following Him in these ways (verses 46; 6:1, 19, 20). Secondly, it is part of what we need to do in order to have peace, and enter the abundant life in the here and now.
It can also work for the Kingdom turning enemies into friends. In two separate but very similar incidents I was owed certain sums of money. On both occasions I was offered half of what was rightfully mine. Also on both occasions I gently refused to take the half, telling them to either give me the whole thing, or nothing. In the first case it took months, but I eventually got the whole thing and gained a friend. I don’t know the end of the story, but I prayed for him this morning, as I remembered him, to come to know the Lord if he has not already done so. I might not have been quite so gentle in the second case, but what is interesting to me, is that the second man was a Christian. And it remains true that I have been hurt more by Christians than those who do not know Him. But that is perhaps because I expect more! In both cases however, I was free of resentment and bitterness and seeking to guard my heart in this way gave me peace.
Lord Jesus, You were certainly hurt most (at lease spiritually) by religious people. And perhaps You are the only one who ever practiced what You preached. You certainly loved your enemies Lord when, as the drove cruel spikes through Your hands and feet, You prayed “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!” I am not there yet Lord but I love and admire You so much. You are truly my hero and I worship You this morning, in Your precious and lovely Name Amen
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