Life With Others – Pt 9

God’s people would take their
Bibles and turn back once again to Romans Chapter 12. Romans
Chapter 12 of a passage. Barring some. Calamity, we will wrap up this
Lord’s Day. I trust, I pray that you at least
wrestled with the very strong admonition last Lord’s Day to
search your hearts, to examine whether there is some relationship
that still was in the realm of possibility for you to do what
you can to repair in order to be at peace. I had a number of
different comments throughout the week. You know who you are
and I will not share those things, but I had a number of comments
throughout the week of things that had long since been forgotten,
maybe purposefully set aside. Where there was something remaining
that could be done, where we could still yet do some things,
some act Even as as seemingly insignificant as praying about
the issue, asking God to intervene. I had a number of those comments
throughout this week. The last thing that I want you
to do is to come away with the idea that it’s too late. The admonition was delivered
last Lord’s Day, if possible, so far as it depends on you,
be at peace with all men. Perhaps you wrestle with that.
Perhaps you did. Perhaps you walked out of here
like so many do. And completely forgot about that
admonition. Conveniently set it aside. Well. It’s not too late. And even as
we wrap up this great section of scripture, I would encourage
you to search your hearts. And if there is anyone with whom
You believe there’s anything left. For you to do. Perhaps you quit praying for
the relationship to be made whole again. Perhaps you still could
write that little card that you have purpose to do on occasion.
Perhaps there’s some kindness left undone. I would just encourage
you. If possible, so far as it’s up
to you. Be at peace with all men. Well,
the section started much more roughly than that, didn’t it?
Paul, in opening this last section, a section where we are dealing
with the contrary, Paul started with essentially the subject
of revenge. He has dealt with many different
kinds of people in this section, which actually began in chapter
12, verse 9. He dealt with Christians. And
boy, if we could just deal with the Christians, we would really
be in good shape. Except the challenge was so great,
even as we saw there. Let love be without hypocrisy,
abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one
another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in
honor. You mean God demands integrity in our relationships? God demands
us? To say what we mean and mean
what we say and do what we say we’re going to do. He does. He
does. And we began to see already there
how difficult these admonitions would be. Life with others. That’s why I said we would be
the greatest Christians the world has ever known if it just didn’t
if it meant that we just didn’t have to deal with people. Dealt
with Christians he dealt with those who are antagonistic. Not
everybody is going to love our Christianity. Not everyone is
going to love our God. Not everyone is going to love
the things of God. Paul says in verse 14 bless those
who persecute you. He doesn’t lead them out of the
equation. He says that this is a crucial group with whom to
deal. This is a crucial group for the
Christians to have proper interaction. Bless those who persecute you,
bless and curse not. But he also deals with another
people group. We spent several weeks on these,
the downtrodden, those that are either financially down or emotionally
down or spiritually down. Rejoice with those who rejoice
and weep with those who weep, there are going to be difficulties
that come into the world and difficulties that come into the
realm of our friends and acquaintances, and we are to come alongside
of them and really, truly and genuinely empathize with them.
Be of the same mind, Paul said, toward one another. Do not be
haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise
in your own estimation. It starts with us, doesn’t it?
It starts with a real heartfelt humility, a genuine humility
that is not above anyone. That’s where it starts. But he
opens this last section, as I’ve already alluded, with a concept
that we don’t like to admit that we really practice. We don’t
like to admit that we engage in retribution all the time. We love those movies. that are built around some villain
so horrid that retribution really is almost relished throughout
the plot of the movie. Too often we seek our own retribution,
don’t we? And that’s why I said the Christian
really needs a policy on retribution. Otherwise, retribution ever remains
an option for us to exercise. Glance down at that last section. That by God’s grace, we will
complete this morning. Paul says never pay back evil
for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the
sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends
on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge,
beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written.
Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty,
give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap
burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. As I said, Paul opened That beginning
section with the whole concept of retribution, retribution being
by nature a returning of evil for evil. And Paul says that
can’t ever be in the Christians repertoire that can’t ever be
an option available to us. Never pay back evil for evil
to anyone. Paul makes it abundantly clear
with the superlatives of that sentence that that is an option
that is not open to the Christian. Proverbs echoes that Proverbs
2429 do not say thus I shall do to him as he has done to me
that is not an option open to the Christian. Paul makes it
absolutely clear that this principle of retribution we’re to have
a policy on. And it’s a policy just like we
have a policy on no divorce for young marrieds. We urge them
to have a policy develop a policy that divorce is never an option.
Likewise in this. Opening. Principle of this last
great section of this particular chapter Paul says that retribution
would have a policy. The retribution is not an option.
Secondly, the second principle that he introduced, by way of
reminder, is the principle of civility. We spent a little bit
of time on this. Paul says it very simply, respect
what is right in the sight of all men. The world has a standard. The world has a standard of right
and wrong. The world would agree with us
on a great many things of what is right and proper and good.
And we are at the very minimum to live according to that standard
at the very minimum or to respect what is right. Things like punctuality. Things like hard work. Respect
for others. Manners. Respect what is good
and right in the sight of all men. But then we came to that
rather uncomfortable one. We’re doing OK. These are not
pleasant principles to examine our hearts with regards to. The retribution. We can acknowledge
that that is a difficult thing and we need to by God’s grace
set aside and civility we can understand that we’re that the
world has a standard that we’re to acknowledge and live according
to that standard. But this third one. This third
one really. Got to us didn’t it. Because
this touches every one of us. if possible, so far as it’s up
to you, be at peace with all men. There is a principle of
peaceableness and that it starts with us and that we are to be
at peace with all men. And that if there is anything
that we might do that disturbs that peace, we’re to refrain.
And if there is anything that we might do to restore that peace,
we’re to make every effort. And as long as strife remains
We are to continue to make efforts to continue to pray for God’s
grace to continue to seek to make peace with anybody and everybody. That’s Christianity. That’s basically
what we saw is that the world those who don’t love God that
that really are unloving and unlovable. They are the ones
who are irreconcilable. They don’t want to be at peace
with anybody and especially not God. Second Timothy three. The Christianity. Christianity says we are at peace
we are at peace first and foremost with God and then an outgrowth
of that we are at peace with everyone. Everyone that we come
in contact with we are called to be at peace. And that is a
tall order, as we saw. Sometimes there are going to
be those difficult situations, people move away. In this day
and age, though, you can find anybody within a few minutes,
right? Get on the Internet, you can find anyone. The difficult
time comes when people pass away. Nothing is more vexing to those
left behind Then to have those relationships with were broken
or that were damaged some hard thing that occurred some heartache. And we can’t deal with it. We
can’t do anything about it. We can’t worry about those. We
can’t concern ourselves with those anymore. It’s not possible
to be at peace with them anymore except in glory. But there are those that are
stubborn. There are those who don’t want to be at peace. There
are those that don’t want to answer your phone. There are
those who won’t meet with you, who won’t talk with you, that
won’t work through what it is. Stands in the way. There are
going to be those. It just can’t be us. Can’t be. Paul said, if possible, so far
as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. That’s our job. That’s our duty in the Lord.
But Paul begins to wrap up with two additional principles that
we’ll end with this morning. Principle number four, not only
the principle of retribution, the principle of civility, the
principle of peaceableness, but number four, the principle of
reliance. Trust, if you will, faith. Paul says it this way, never.
Take your own revenge beloved and we’ve already essentially
had and enjoyed that principle in verse 17. Never take your
own revenge beloved but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written vengeance is
mine I will repay says the Lord. First of all note as Paul begins
this to introduce this principle He calls out to them as beloved. And in doing so, he puts himself
in with them and he brings them near, he draws them near and
he says, look, I’m going to tell you, this isn’t easy. Come here,
brother. Come here, beloved, come here,
those who are beloved of God. And in so doing, he reminds them
of all that God has done for them. You were formerly far off. You used to be at enmity with
God, but now you are beloved in the Lord. God himself has
drawn you near. You are now at peace with God
and only because of his doing. He’s the one that enacted the
peace treaty. And he signed it in blood, the
blood of Christ. Spotless blood, perfect blood,
the blood of an unblemished lamb, the lamb of God. He says, never take your own
revenge. Beloved. Those whom God has sent his son
for whom to die. Those whom God has drawn near
through the process of reconciliation, those who are now enjoying the
peace of God and peace with God and the Holy Spirit dwelling
within, prompting them to go and be ministers, ambassadors
of reconciliation, peace, Never take your own revenge. Paul issues
this. Essentially, if you’re for those
of you who are Greek students, it’s a participle,
but it comes with the force of an imperative. Paul says, do
this and don’t do this. That’s what an imperative is. The bottom line is when somebody
has done us harm when somebody has wronged us. We are absolutely
not to seek retribution. We are not to pursue that. We
are not to engage in it. It is not to be part of what
we do. Never. Never take your own revenge,
beloved. And that principle works itself
out in a number of different ways, especially in the New Testament.
First Corinthians 6-7. Actually, then it is already
a defeat to you that you have lawsuits with one another. In
First Corinthians, Paul writes about this issue that everybody
was suing everybody. It seems like brother taking
brother to court. Paul says, if you do that, you
sue a fellow Christian. You take them to legal recourse
before. Really, an unbelieving world
you’ve already lost. Even if you win the case, you’ve
lost. You’ve lost your witness. Paul says, why not rather be
wrong? Don’t take revenge. Don’t take
your own revenge. Why not rather be wronged? Why
not rather be defrauded? Here is the principle working
itself out. New Testament terms. Paul uses
that as a very clear example, very practical example, even
to our day. You have a believer who has wronged
you, the last thing you want to do is engage in some kind
of a lawsuit against them. Peter. Peter uses an example
that none of us could argue with, maybe we could all wrestle, well,
he’s not really a believer, he used to go to church, we didn’t
go to church anymore, so I can sue him. Well. Examine your heart,
Peter uses an example that none of us can argue with. First Peter
2 20. What credit is there if when
you sin and are harshly treated you endure it with patience.
In other words if you do a crime you deserve to do the time you
if you’ve done something wrong you deserve the trouble and the
heartache the penalty the fines even the jail time that you brought
upon your head. You deserve it. What credit is.
You know don’t put on a long face and say that you’re suffering
for the Lord in those situations. You see the lights in your rearview
mirror. You deserve it more than likely.
But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently
endure it. This finds favor with God. This
is truly suffering for the Lord. This is the one who really has
sought to do what is right and is being punished simply because
he’s a believer. And he says for if you’ve been
called for this purpose and not everybody enjoys this calling,
but most of us will if you’ve been called for this purpose
to suffer for the sake of Christ. Since Christ also suffered for
you, leaving you an example to follow in his steps who committed
no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, and while being
reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered
no threats but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.” Peter says, consider the example
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t lash out. He didn’t
offer threats or utter threats of revenge. He didn’t lash out
personally against anyone. Not even with his words. Peter says, Look to the example
of Christ Paul says look to the example of the courts but here
in this passage Paul says never take your own revenge beloved
but leave room. Leave room for the wrath of God
now literally if you again if you’re a student of Greek you
glance down you look at it in the Greek and it doesn’t say
the wrath of God that’s interpretational. The New American Standard, in
my case, has gone so far as to interpret that and say that that
refers to the wrath of God. If you want to back the train
up and you look at it, it just refers to wrath. Whose wrath
is it? And throughout the centuries,
there have been different ideas of whose wrath we’re supposed
to leave room for. Some say that it’s the wrath
of the injured party. It’s our wrath. Leave room for
the wrath of God. In other words, you better look
out because I’m about to uncork. It’s the wrath of the injured
person, they say, that is counseled to bottle up his anger. And find
some other outlet for it, said one. Another referred to this
kind of wrath is the natural resentment of him who sustains
the injury. In other words, it’s almost It’s
almost a rubber stamp for whatever behavior is going to happen.
Well, they had it coming. Leave room for the wrath of the
offended person. There couldn’t be a more ludicrous
interpretation of this passage, given the context. Couldn’t be.
When Paul says, never take your own revenge, how on earth would
he say then, let me rubber stamp whatever behavior, whatever response
comes from you? Utterly unacceptable. Some said
that it’s the wrath of the injurer. We’re just supposed to stand
idly and let the fury of their wrath pour out upon us. Whatever
happens, we’re supposed to take it. They say that it’s the wrath
of the opponent, the wrath of the offender, if you will. One
described it as the furious rage of one who inflicts the injury.
Well, we are supposed to bear with them. We are supposed to
refrain from responding in kind. We’re not supposed to return
evil for evil. But I don’t think that he’s talking
about the wrath of the offender at all here. I do believe that
Just as the New American Standard and many translations have done,
what they do is they glance down and they interpret and they say
the wrath here refers to the wrath of God. And so let’s translate
it as such. Paul, when Paul uses that word
wrath, and especially when he uses the article there, the wrath,
he has a particular wrath in mind, not just any anger, not
just any wrath, not just any rage of fury. This is talking
about the wrath. The wrath of God. That’s how
Paul uses it almost always. One pastor commenting said wrath
here refers to the moral disapprobation, the judicial displeasure of God
against all injustice. Paul says leave room. God sees
the wrongs that we face. God sees the difficulties that
we come across. God sees when people have mistreated
us and slandered us. God sees. Paul says leave room
for the wrath of God. The wrath of God will deal with
wrongdoing. Another described it in these
terms. He said the wrath spoken of is the following word show
is that of God to give place to God’s wrath means not to take
God’s proper work out of his hands. I love the way he says
that. When we respond in kind, when
we return evil for evil. An occupation we should never
employ. When we take our own revenge, we have just usurped
the place of God. We’ve just stepped in the way
of God and said, no, let me deal with this one. And folks, the
scary part is we do it all the time. We do. I monitored conversations this
week. And that’s where it starts. Conversations
and somebody makes a kind of a harsh comment and somebody
else returns in kind and on and on it goes. When Paul says, give place, he
says, leave room, don’t get in the way of God’s wrath, stay
out of the way. We’re not the judge. God is the
judge. God is a perfect judge because
God is perfectly righteous. We are far from that, right? We see what we want to see, we
see from our perspective, we see only when we are offended
and we forget very conveniently when we offend others, don’t
we? We need to give God has rightful
time and place to do what God will do when God will do it.
And when God will do it, he will do it perfectly. God will repay
to all, and that ought to make us shudder. God will repay to
all according to what it is, what is due. One pastor referred to this stepping
in the path of God as the essence of ungodliness. It is the essence
of ungodliness, he says, that we presume to take the place
of God. That’s what Adam did right. To
take everything into our own hands, but it is faith. To commit
ourselves to God, to cast all our care out of. Or rather upon
him. And so we are to stand aside,
we are to step aside. We’re not to pray for that wrath
necessarily, but we know that that wrath is coming. We know
that God will sort out all wrongdoing. We know that God will repay everyone
according to what is due. God is the one who will take
care of that God is the righteous judge. So the idea here. Paul isn’t
saying that instead of taking our own vengeance, we Stand back
and fold our arms and and wish for God’s wrath upon those who’ve
offended us. That would go against the entire
spirit of this passage, wouldn’t it? We’re to stand back humbly. We’re
just stand back even with broken hearts were to stand back with
compassion were to plead as we saw several weeks ago, plead
for God’s grace to intervene, plead that they might come to
know Christ. Plead that they might come to
repent of their own sin, all of their sin, not just the sin
that inconvenience does. To plead with them. John Calvin, commenting on this
section, said we give place to wrath only when we wait patient. For the proper time of our deliverance,
praying in the meantime that those who now trouble us may
repent and become our friends. See. It absolutely does not mean
that we stand back and begin to wish evil upon them. Wish
difficulty, wish wrath upon them. And Paul. moves to argue this
point, as he so often does from the Old Testament, says, let
me give you some proofs of this situation. Vengeance, he says,
is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
He quotes Deuteronomy 32 here. Vengeance is mine and in retribution
in their in their in due time, their foot will slip. For the
day of their calamity is near and impending things are hastening
upon them. That is true of every person. When God says, I will render
to everyone what is due, every one of us is going to look to
God. Not just for scrutiny. For judgment. And we don’t lose
our salvation because we look down our nose at our brother.
But Everyone is going to answer to God in time. Everyone. You
know what’s fascinating about that passage? Deuteronomy 32.
Vengeance is mine and retribution in due time, their foot will
slip. That’s a truth. You know what’s
fascinating about that passage? That’s the text that Jonathan
Edwards used in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,
he was uttering a truth. It’s axiomatic. Sinners are going
to answer to God. That’s a truth. Likewise, the
truth that vengeance is mine. Vengeance is God. Retribution
is God’s. Revenge is God’s prerogative
and only God’s prerogative. The whole point of this quotation
is that we stand here and now since Vengeance, since retribution,
since revenge are all God’s prerogative, we leave those to him. We don’t
even engage in that business. That is territory that we don’t
even traffic. Leviticus 19, he echoes that
you shall not take vengeance nor bear grudge against the sons
of your people. Proverbs 22, 2022. Do not say
I will repay evil. Wait for the Lord and he will
save you. Proverbs 2429, which verse we’ve
already considered, do not say this should be done to him as
it’s been done to me. I will render the man according
to his work. Those are examples of. Sinful tendencies in the human
heart. Let me show you a graphic example of it turned a second
Chronicles. Chapter 28. I realize some of
you are going to have to thumb around for a moment. Second Chronicles,
Chapter 28. If you found Kings, go right. Second Chronicles, Chapter 28.
We’ll glide through this as quickly
as we can. We find. We find King A has essentially
at the helm, one of. The sinful kings, and it says
the sons of Israel carried away captive of their brethren, 200000
women, I mean, per se, sons and daughters, and they took also
a great deal of spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria.
But a prophet of the Lord was there whose name was Oded and
he went out to meet the army which came to Samaria and said
to them behold because the Lord the God of your fathers was angry
with Judah. He has delivered them into your
hand and you have slain them in a rage which has reached even
heaven. God saw God always sees. Now you are profit proposing
to subjugate for yourselves the people of Judah and Jerusalem
for male and female slaves. And you get what’s happening
here right. The kingdoms had divided and now King has one
of the long line of evil kings. King of Israel has gone and taken
captive Judah the other kingdom. And he’s taken them back captive
and is proposing to make them slaves of his own kingdom. Verse 10. You proposing to subjugate
for yourselves the people of Judah and Jerusalem for male
and female slaves. Surely do you not have transgressions
of your own against the Lord your God. If we would pause at
any time that we’re offended and ask that simple question.
Wouldn’t that save us a lot of trouble. Examining our own hearts. How have I offended you God in
the same exact way. Now, therefore, verse 11, listen
to me and return the captives whom you captured from your brothers
for the burning anger of the Lord is against you. That some
of the heads of Ephraim as a riot, the son of Johanan, Barakaya,
the son of Mesh Millah, Jezekiah, son of Shalom, Amasa, son of
Hadley, arose against those who were coming from the battle and
said to them, you must not bring the captives in here. For you
are proposing to bring upon us guilt against the Lord by adding
your art to our sins and our guilt for our guilt is great
so that his burning anger is against Israel. They recognized
that what they were doing was wrong. They recognized that retribution
was not theirs. So the armed men left the captives
in the spoil before the officers and all the assembly. Then the
men who were designated by name took the captives and they clothed
all their naked ones from the spoil and they gave them clothes
and sandals and fed them and gave them drink and anointed
them with oil and led their feeble ones on donkeys and brought them
to Jericho the city of palm trees to their brothers and they returned
to Samaria. At least they gave pause. They stopped doing what they
were doing. They stopped doing the business
of God. Which is revenge. God says it’s not our business. Never take your own revenge,
beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. And as I said,
Paul argues from Scripture, He presents, first of all, Deuteronomy
32, vengeance is mine, but then he goes to another argument,
another line of argument entirely. Not just hold back from doing
revenge, but get this. If your enemy is hungry, feed
him. What? If he’s thirsty, give him a drink,
huh? For in so doing, you will heap
burning coals upon his head. Now we get our revenge. Or do we? The bottom line, it isn’t enough
to hold back from trying to inflict injury on somebody else, returning
evil for evil, seeking our own revenge. It’s not enough just
to hold back what God says. Through the Apostle Paul, through
the Holy Spirit, writing this scripture, compiling these things,
and he dips back into the Proverbs and he says, if your enemy is
hungry, feed him. We need a completely different
spirit. And we do a lot of things, a lot of times we hold back,
a lot of times we’ll even pray for people. But when was the
last time that we actually did a kindness? Actively engaged
in a kindness for an enemy. We’re supposed to do good things. Sometimes we think that. We’re
loving them merely by refraining. From an argument or merely by
refraining from having anything to do with them, you know, as
I said last Lord’s Day, the worst thing that we can do to our enemies
is to shun them, have nothing to do with them. We’re not only. to not seek revenge. But on the contrary we’re supposed
to dig down and do everything in our power. Everything within
that we can even possibly conceive. To the good of our. Self-professed
enemies. To those who are at enmity with
us were to do good and kindness. When Paul says feed him. This
word, the way that it’s used is to literally feed from the
hand that I want you. We’ve all seen it in. Nursing
homes or perhaps with a small child, you know that the most
tender of human interaction where you take a piece of food and
you actually place it in the mouth, that’s the word, that’s
how it’s used. Supposed to do what’s right,
do kindness, show love. Proverbs 2521, which verse he’s
quoting. If your enemy is hungry, give
him food to eat, and if he’s thirsty, give him water to drink.
I’ll come back to that in a moment. First Peter 2.15 Such is the
will of God that by doing right, you will silence the ignorance
of foolish men. Very general proposition. Again, in Peter. Another very
general proposition, keep a good conscience and the thing in which
your slander that those who revile your good behavior, that’s all
they’re supposed to see from us is good and kind. What he
points to is any kind of good, it’s not confined to some literal,
you know, we’re supposed to buy him lunch someday. Or send them
a lunch certificate, how distant could we be from that? If your
enemy is hungry, feed him, if he’s thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heat
burning coals on his head. And I would say that of all the
passages of Scripture. I’ve heard more confusion and
nonsense about what that means. He can’t possibly mean literally
right. It’s obviously a metaphor for
something, because to put burning coals on the head of anyone would
essentially be Not just to inflict pain, severe pain, but ultimately
it could even produce severe injury and death. And if you notice, I’ve already
pointed out that this is a quote from Proverbs 21, pardon me,
2521. If your enemy’s hungry, give
him to drink. If he’s thirsty, give him water
to drink. For you will heap burning coals on his head and the Lord
will reward you. That’s the only part that Paul
leaves out the reward part. And so what does this mean. This
burning pain. I counted up at least seven different
suggestions and some we can go very quickly. The calls are fires of pain said
one but healing pains of remorse and repentance. Perhaps that’s
a process though. Secondly, somebody said it’s
of the result of a spirit of love producing at length the
incense of prayer and praise from the conquered heart. I don’t
even know what that means really. One good commentator said putting
coals of fire on the head was one of the tortures which the
persecutors inflicted on early Christians And this, obviously,
as I said already, this can’t possibly be the meaning. It can’t
possibly be literally. The proverb says another fourth
refers to an Egyptian ritual in which a man gave public evidence
of his penitence by carrying a pan of burning coals on his
head. You mean to tell me the only
way that we can really know if our friend’s heart has been changed
is if we see him walking down with a pan smoking and smoldering
upon is silly. The fifth one. It’s a reference
to future divine punishment. Doing good to one’s enemy will
cause his punishment in the event of his not repenting. Now, mind
you, that’s a delectable morsel, isn’t it? That sounds really
good, especially when somebody is really wrong. You’re going
to get it. God’s going to deliver it. And
at the end, you’re going to have burning coals on your head. Similarly, several others described
it, one said divine judgments, which the sinner will bring on
himself unless he repents. Another doing your enemy kindness
will increase his guilt and magnify his punishment. And that’s what
we want, isn’t it? No. In so doing, in doing kindness,
you will take the most effectual vengeance upon. That’s not what
we want. Try this, right? Here’s some
cookies, enemy. You just wait. You you’re going
to get what’s coming to you now. I’ve just heaped it upon your
head. Love the way one commentator
put that in perspective. Enemies will be much more severely
punished if we leave them in the hands of God. Is that what
that means? The revolting character of this interpretation is mitigated
by the remark that the enemy is not to be thus treated from
any wish or intention drawing down the divine wrath on him.
We don’t take pleasure in that. That’s not what we’re wishing
for. We don’t hope that someday he’s
going to have burning coals heaped upon his head. It’s got to mean
something different. It’s not talking about the judgment
of God that we relish in time. One described it. Option number
six is this. It’s the melting of the evil
doers heart by such conduct as of metal by fire. And so he takes
us into the you know, the the the Smith’s shop. And he says, you know, he’s in
there melting metal and that’s what kindness is going to do.
It’s going to stoke the fire. One described it, that argument
in these terms, he said the whole phrase is figurative, borrowed
from the art of metallurgy. Fire is used to convert the ore
into a metallic state. It’s difficult to lodge by any
means. So he’s pointing really to the
difficulty of the human heart and that we’ve got to do more
kindness, not less, because that is what it means to stoke the
fires. I guess, to a degree, that’s
true. But the one that made absolutely
the most sense, far and away. Is as one described, it’s burning,
the burning of shame produced by returning evil with good. Another said the burning pangs
of shame and contriteness. He goes on and says, by thus
ministering to one’s enemy, enemies need one will inflict upon him
such an inward sense of shame as will either lead him to real
contrition and bring no more enemy but a friend. That’s what Paul’s pointing to
here. That’s what Paul’s citing Proverbs 25 to do is that do
kindness. Do kindness to them and in time.
They’re going to feel terrible about the way that they’ve treated
you. Not going to inflict any pain on them. You’re not calling
down the judgment of God upon them. You’re not returning evil
for evil in that form. You’re doing what’s right and
good and noble. And in so doing, you’re bringing
them into the very kindness of God himself. Just as you’ve been
touched by kindness. There’s a fifth and final principle
that Paul points to here. We’re looking at the godly principles
for dealing with enemies, the principle of retribution, civility,
peaceableness, reliance, leaving God room for his wrath if he
chooses to exercise it. The fifth and final is the principle
of reciprocation, and really this is just a summary of the
entire section. Verse 21, do not be overcome
by evil. But overcome evil with good. Now, on the face of it, you might
say, well, this is the evil that that my friend has done to me,
but you’re overcoming much more than just that. You’re overcoming
the evil of the one who prompted him to do evil in the first place,
the devil. You’re overcoming the principle of evil with the
principle of good. You’re overcoming his practical
little inconvenience and mistreatment
of you. With the very grace of God, with
which we’ve been touched, aren’t you? You’re overcoming evil with
good, and there is no good in us naturally, right? If there’s
anything good in us, it’s because there’s been a work of grace
that has touched our life and our hearts. And we now can, by
God’s grace, respond with an entirely different response Before
we would have lashed out before we would have given him what
they felt they deserved. We were very good at it. We had
it all prepared on the tip of our tongue. We had those plots
of revenge. We still can echo them in our
hearts. We still can conceive of things
of returning unkindness to others. We can’t practice them. Can’t
practice them and walk in the grace of God, we must. Return
evil with good. We must respond and overcome
the evil that is in the world, the evil that is in the world
that affects our friends, that only trickles out and touches
us. It can’t emanate from us, it must not. One pastor said
that to retaliate is to be overcome both by the evil of one’s enemy
and the evil of one’s own heart. which responds to the others
evil. The Christian is to overcome evil with good in his accepting
injury without resentment, without allowing his love to be turned
into hate or even only to be weakened. We talked about that
a couple of weeks ago, even to back away, even to just let it
be diminished. Even to just let our. Passionate
love of their soul. Wayne, just a little bit. That’s
to give in. That’s to let evil begin to conquer. To examine your hearts before
the Lord with me. Oh, God, we thank you for this
section. In many cases, we needed reminders.
We needed to be reminded of dealing with fellow believers and and
how we’re to do that. Lord, we’ve talked so many times
about. Persecution and how we’re supposed
to respond, Peter addresses it at length. That perhaps that
reminder of dealing with those who are antagonistic to our faith.
Perhaps we felt like we. We had that one managed, but
Then when we came into the downtrodden. And to those who are contrary
to those who are positively against us, Lord, we know. Not only were
we in need of reminder, we were in need of instruction as if
we have never heard these things before. We get ourselves so off
course and so far from dealing with things the way that they
should be dealt with that. Perhaps the world, if they were
to scrutinize us, might even wonder if we’re even saved at
all. God, grant us the grace to examine our ways, to go back
and look at the way that we treat people, the way that we live
with others. Lord, whether it’s believers
or those who hate Christ, those who are down on their fortunes. Those who are Absolutely against
us. Contrary to us. Grant us the
grace, Father, to examine our hearts. To look to your word and to these
principles. And to be schooled by your own
Holy Spirit in our lives. Grant us your grace, Father,
in Jesus name.