I am the Lord

Well, if God is God then we do not have to worry about either avenging or getting revenge on another follower of Christ who has done us wrong.  We also do not have to deny any who asks us for a favour, even you were denied a favour by them.  Jarchi illustrates it this way –  one says to him (his neighbour) lend me thy sickle; he answers, no (I will not); on the morrow (the neighbour comes, who had refused, and) says to him, lend me thy hatchet; he replies, I will not lend thee, even as thou wouldst not lend me; this is vengeance: this was reckoned mean and little, a piece of weakness with the very Heathens:

In fact, if God is God then you can not even bear a grudge against another follower of Jesus Christ.  Almost like you never saw the injury even take place, did not even take notice of it and definite do not even remember it – forgotten.  So  much so that you do not even call out the former unkindness, because that means that you have retained the grudge.

So, if God is God, then we should love our neighbour as much as we love ourselves – sincerely and with purpose – doing as much good to them as we would do for ourselves.  We would desire that all blessing would be theirs and that all suffering would be refrained from their lives.

If God, being God, is the Creator of everything, including us, and He asks us to love one another and leave the avenging, revenge, mean-spirited, immature nature of others and grudges with Him.  All He wants is radical obedience.

What does that look like?  It should be the same as when we wrong ourselves, but we soon forgive ourselves those wrongs, and they do not at all lessen our love to ourselves; in the same way, we should love our neighbour. We must in many cases deny ourselves for the good of our neighbour.

How do we so all this?  Simple to say – hard to do – because God is God and we are not God.  We only mess up when we think we are God and all these things fall under our jurisdiction. They do not.  Our one call, our one purpose – love our neighbour – nothing else matters.  For when we engage in judging – we cannot love.  When we love – we cannot judge.

 

Related articles

• Vengeance is Mine saith the Lord! (morninggloryinspirations.wordpress.com)
• Forgiveness: Is It Always the Best Answer? (africanempress.wordpress.com)
• Ephesians 2:11-22 Peace and reconciliation (boynhillbiblestudies.wordpress.com)
• Lord, Where Are You? (fathermckenna.wordpress.com)

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