Matthew 5:38-39 (New International Version)

38 You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’. 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

When Jesus was arrested, He never spoke a word to defend Himself. He showed us how to be under the control of the Holy Spirit and control our mouths, and He showed the final magnificent benefit of doing it God’s way. God is always the same, His ways are to conquer evil with good in Holy Love. This may cost us, but it will be worth it in the end. We have the Holy Spirit who is our teacher and our encourager, and He will not tell us to do anything different to what the Bible is teaching us to do.

Romans 12:19-21 (New Living Translation)

19 Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,” I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. 20 Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” 21 Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good

Proverbs 25:22 (Amplified Bible)1

22 For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord will reward you.

revengeful act intended to embarrass its victim, but just the opposite. The picture is that of the high priest (Lev. 16:12) who, on the Day of Atonement, took his censer and filled it with “coals of fire” from off the altar of burnt offering, and then put incense on the coals to create a pleasing, sweet-smelling fragrance. The cloud or smoke of the incense covered the mercy seat and was acceptable to God for atonement. Samuel Wesley wrote: “So artists melt the sullen ore of lead, By heaping coals of fire upon its head: In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow, And pure from dross the silver runs below.”

God is our avenger, and He knows how to conquer the hearts of the people we might consider our enemies. He knows the reason in their hearts why they are the way they are. It is often connected with their past hurts or circumstances that make them overreact. It is a wellknown fact in the psychological circles that the abuser used to be a victim of that same abuse. God knows but we do not know the whole picture. To us it looks a mess because we are too close to see the whole picture. Let us leave it to God to turn their mess into a message, their scars into stars.

Romans 2:4 (New International Version)

4 not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

The reason some people hurt us is that their hearts have become hard and callous through the circumstances of their lives. God is the only One who knows how to reach them. Love is His weapon to conquer their evil hard hearts. The aim is to defeat the Devil and to set people free from his clasp. If we understand that people don’t understand because they are being deceived, we can have compassion on them and let them off the hook. Jesus knew that and He did it! When He was hanging on the Cross He said “Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.”

I pray that the eyes of our understanding would be opened, that we would be set free by the truth, that we would be able to see people through the eyes of God, as victims of the enemy, and understand that we too can be a victim without knowing it. I pray that the Lord would show us all where we are being deceived, and that we would be sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit to hear that truth. We are all on different parts of our journey.

  1. Why do we need to let God be our avenger?
  2. What does God know about our enemies, we do not know or understand?
  3. What is God’s aim for our enemies?

  1. This is not to be understood as a ↩