Title When I Met an Enemy
Contents
Romans 12:19-21 When you meet the enemy
As with anyone, in life, you will meet good people, bad people, and sometimes enemies. Especially, if you do not have the right posture when you meet the enemy, there is a lot of risk that your life will become unhappy. Therefore, today's text teaches us very well about the right Christian attitude when we meet our enemies.
1. We must not take revenge ourselves.
This is verse 19 of the text. “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord.”
Gentlemen, why should we not avenge ourselves? This is because not only the enemy he considers himself to be, but also all of us are unrighteous. So, in principle, we have no right to revenge. Think about it. How do sinners judge sinners? And we cannot judge others 100% right. Sometimes there is a fear of being biased and biased.
Even if someone else has done us an obvious wrong, we must not take revenge on our own. Because revenge like that does not completely solve the problem. Rather, it only makes matters more complex and more tangled.
Among Tolstoy's works, there is an article titled 'The Cause of Disasters'. It tells the story of what happened between two houses that lived together with a fence in between. One day a hen from this house crossed the fence and crossed over to the other house. After a while, the hen came back saying "Kok-kuk-kuk!", but it was after laying eggs without a hitch. So the kid from this house asked the kid from the other house to find some eggs.
Then the child from the house over there looked for it and said it was not there. In the end, these two children quarreled over whether they were with each other or not, and even punched each other and quarreled. Seeing this, the two mothers joined in. They fought fiercely, pulling each other's hair. Later, fathers also joined. The two houses had a very big fight. The father of this house, who lacked strength, could not contain his anger and set the house on fire. The fire burned for a while in the house, and then the wind blew and moved it to this house. As a result, both houses were burned down.
Folks, revenge is just that. A grudge is bound to breed another grudge. So Jesus said: "He who wields a sword perishes by the sword." In other words, the vicious cycle continues. Taking revenge doesn't solve the problem. So what should I do ? Today's text says: “My beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but leave it to wrath.” That is, leave it to God's righteous judgment. It is to surrender to the wrath of God.
The Apostle Paul quotes the words of Deuteronomy 32:35 for the reason. “It is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Ladies and gentlemen, we who are unrighteous are not worthy of avenging ourselves. It is entirely within the authority of a just God.
It was time for David to flee from the rebellion of his son Absalom. At that time, a man from the house of Saul named Shimei cursed David by throwing stones at him. Then one of David's servants saw it and said that he would immediately go up to him and behead him. But David did not allow it. David left it entirely to the judgment of a righteous God.
God was patient with Shimei. However, when Shimei did not repent even during the reign of King Solomon, God judged Shimei. Why didn't God judge Shimei at that very moment? Because God is righteous. Because God is fair. God has been patient with us for a long time. Then, wouldn't it be fair to have patience with others, even with those who did some evil to us?
Therefore, no matter how unfair and upsetting we are, we must not take revenge on our own. God's wrath must be left to us. If a person repents while God is patient, he will come to us and kneel and beg for forgiveness. But if he does not repent, the God who judged Shimei will judge him. We have no right to avenge ourselves. We must entrust everything to a righteous God. Because God will repay us.
2. We must love our enemies.
This is verse 20 of the text. "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink, and you will heap coals of coals on his head."
At that time, Pastor Spurgeon thought quietly and answered: "Of course, God did not send Stephen to escape. Stephen prayed for the enemies who stoned him in the face of an angel while he was being stoned to death in pain. This is what God did for Stephen. "
That's right. As we well know, there was Paul who wrote today's text in the field where Stephen was martyred. What kind of person was Paul? He was the enemy of Jesus Christ. Then he changed. He became a great apostle of Jesus Christ. Like Stephen, he became another martyr.
Saint Augustine famously said: “It was entirely thanks to Stephen that the church was able to obtain the great Paul.” In other words, Paul's hardened heart was already shaken and shattered the moment he saw Stephen, while being stoned and martyred, praying for his enemies with the face of an angel.
His daughter, who could not stand it, looked at it and confronted her father. "Father, do you not hear the voices of your brothers complaining to you? Don't you hear the voices of your brothers with sad faces and crying out for revenge from heaven? If you don't do that, do you not believe in Jesus?"
Everyone, I want you to think about the relationship between God and us. We are enemies of God because of our sins. How did God love us? How did you reconcile? God has generously sent his only begotten Son to us. He was nailed to the cross. you made me die In doing so, God was reconciled to us. We received this tremendous love and became children of God.
Then we, the children of God, must imitate the love of our Heavenly Father and love even our enemies. Folks, love is not just an emotion. Willingness, effort. Even if there is no feeling of wanting to love at all, trying and trying to love is the true form of a Christian. And when it is not our will and effort to love our enemies like that, we must earnestly pray for God to give us the strength to love our enemies.
3. We must overcome evil with good.
Today's text is verse 21. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Gentlemen, is it because we are weak that we do not take revenge ourselves but leave it to God? Do we lose to our enemies because they feed us when we are hungry and drink when we are thirsty? It's not like that. Only the strong can do it. It is a life of true victory. There is a saying in the Grandson's disease law as well. “It is a real victory to win without fighting a hundred times than to win a hundred times in a hundred fights.”
Gentlemen, true victory consists in winning without fighting. Verse 21 of today's text gives us two exhortations. He said to be passive and not to be defeated by evil. He said to positively overcome evil with good.
So, what specifically is losing to evil? It is none other than taking revenge on his own. Let's think about it. Is it easy to get revenge ? It's not like that. In order to get revenge, you must first harden your heart. must be rough. A gentle heart cannot take revenge. The eyes should be alive and so on. Words should be harsh. Behavior should also be aggressive. And my nerves are so sharp that I can't sleep well at night. Because you have to sharpen your revenge knife.
How hard and painful is this? This is what it means to lose to evil. This is something the devil would love to do. As a child of God, this is something we should never do. We must keep in mind that evil can never be ruled by evil.
In a village there was an old pawn shop who was a usury. He raked in a lot of money in a bad way. But not a single penny was spent on good things. Looking at it, a young man thought this way. "You have to kill such a scumbag. I'll take his money and use it for a good cause."
He rationalized himself and killed the old woman. I stole the old woman's money. I used that money for a good cause. Nevertheless, there is no joy and peace in his heart. No matter how hard I tried to rationalize myself, no matter how much I made excuses for myself, nothing came to my mind. In the end, he suffers for the rest of his life because of his remorse for killing the old woman. This is a passage from Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' that we know well.
That's right. Evil cannot be justified under any circumstances. Evil can only beget more evil. So how can we control evil? There is only one way. How to overcome evil with good. It is to feed the enemy when he is hungry, and to drink when he is thirsty. This is the true example that Jesus gave us. Jesus prayed for those who beat him, spit on him, and crucified him. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we believe that Jesus overcame evil with good. Jesus conquered hate with love. Then, as disciples of Jesus Christ, shouldn't we also imitate that image and overcome evil with good? Should we not conquer hate with love? Even if it is too hard, shouldn't we be the way we try to do it?