A Little Revenge Won't Hurt!

Perhaps one of the most difficult things in the Christian walk is to treat someone kindly who’s treated you poorly. I’m not simply speaking of people outside of the Church, but of those inside the church as well. Given the opportunity, many of us would like to either give someone who’s mistreated us an earful of our thoughts, or perhaps see their efforts in life come to a big time fail!

While there’s a time and manner in which to confront offenders, there’s also a way to deal with those who are unrepentant and repeat offenders. Romans 12:18-20 tells us to ‘do good’ to those who hurt us. Right now you might be thinking “you’re reading that wrong.” But the Bible goes even further and tells us not to take any kind of revenge on these people, or to retaliate or try to vindicate ourselves. Normally these types of actions are ways to let others see that we are innocent and we’ve been wronged.

The action God is calling for in this circumstance is to do good to the person who has wronged you, and to do so in thought, word and deed. That doesn’t mean you become a rug and serve this person with gifts, it means you take opportunities that arise to bless the person, keep your mouth shut about the wrong that was done to you (don’t gossip), and let God work on the person’s heart. If he or she doesn’t respond to your kindness and the conviction of God, that’s for God to deal with, not you.

You might say “what if the person thinks I agree with him when I’m kind?" So what! It doesn’t matter what the person thinks. If they want to engage in meaningful, graceful conversation then do so as the Lord leads you, otherwise, keep quiet and follow Christ. Jesus wasn’t concerned about what people thought of Him as He carried the cross to His death, nor should we be concerned about dying to self and following Him unquestionably.

Dealing this way with a person who has hurt us will also keep us in humility. It’s very difficult to be kind and benefit someone in this type of circumstance if we have pride in our hearts. But God is giving us the opportunity to help the offending person by means of extending love and forgiveness, the same thing He gave to each of us which melted the hardness from us and brought the life of God into us. These are the ‘burning coals’ that we heap onto the offender – not for revenge but for redemption!