BE OVERCOME BY EVIL OR WIN REVENGE WITH LOVE!

BE OVERCOME BY EVIL OR WIN REVENGE WITH LOVE!
The law or the word of God may look difficult and impossible to many but it is indeed very precious and important. A person who doesn’t like to heed to God’s word is in fact in great difficulties. In his difficulties he finds no time for God and is going away from Him day by day. He becomes so stubborn that he finds it difficult to acknowledge His very presence. A small stone could be broken by a bigger one. If it is not possible to break it we use a hammer or a much stronger article. We know that they use dynamites to break the mountains. But do you know there is something which cannot be broken even by dynamite! In fact there is no instrument which could break it. Would you like to know what it is? Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” So, we can now make out that stone which could not be broken by any instrument. It is of course man’s heart. Knowing this fact God said, “Is not My word like a fire? And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”(Jeremiah 23:29). It is only the word of God that can break man’s stubbornness. But man’s heart is so filled with revenge that there is no room for the word of God to enter into his heart.
The one who is filled with revenge has no space for love or relations. Revenge is like a poison which destroys all the good in a person. All the good a man has- mercy, compassion, justice, humility, love, and many more are wiped away when he is occupied by revenge. Then he doesn’t hesitate in killing his own brother like Cain. He can kill even Jesus like the Jews of those days. He goes to church regularly with the same heart, sings songs, gives money and thinks that he loves God a lot. But does God approve of him and his love? 1 John 4:20 says, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” Is there anything wrong in this? No, because if you hate your brother and say that you love God then you are a liar. If you know who God is and who your brother is then you would understand it. God is spirit and the same spirit also dwells in your brother. When the same spirit dwells in each one of us how can we love one and despise other? Isn’t it a lie then? People look for beauty, complexion, wealth, status, etc before they love others. They do not see the spirit which is in them. In fact we should love a person because of the spirit which is in him. Jesus loved everybody in the same way. We see even Christians giving importance to outward appearance and status. They pretend like friends in front of the pastor or in church and greet each other Praise the Lord. They don’t mind even hugging each other in front of others. But do their hearts meet? Is there love for the person in his heart? If you can only see his heart then you would know how much grudge he has on his enemy. You would find his heart burning with revenge. There is no difference between men and women, poor or rich when one is filled with revenge. It would not let the person sleep till he takes revenge.
John the Baptist, who tried to make everybody repent and lead a righteous life, reprimanded King Herod saying it was not good for him to take his brother’s wife. The Herodias was so filled with grudge that she wanted to take revenge on John at any cost. She wanted him to be killed but it wasn’t in her hands. She waited for the right moment and when it was her daughter’s birthday, she made her dance in front of the king to please him. He was so pleased that he was ready to give her half his kingdom. But the mother made her daughter ask for the head of John the Baptist (Mark 6:17-28). Though he offered her half his kingdom means half the wealth which he gets in his kingdom she didn’t prefer it. One has to spend many years in acquiring so much wealth but even
then it appeared nothing to her in front of taking revenge. She hated his eyes which looked at her angrily, his hands which pointed at her, his mouth which spoke against her. She hated his form on the whole. She wanted his body to fall lifeless in front of her eyes. She had no interest either in power or property. All that she wanted is John’s death and she couldn’t sleep till she achieved it. So bitter is the revenge! It will not leave you till you do it. What did she achieve through John’s death? Absolutely nothing! Even she died after some days. So why do they want to avenge? It is only because the wicked in the world wipe away the good to continue in their wickedness and this has been going on through ages. All the principles, morals, law of this world couldn’t change man. It is only possible to God.
We all know Saul, the first king of Israelites. When he had no courage to face the Philistines and defeat Goliath, David slaughtered Goliath with the help of God. Then the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. When the women sang and praised David saying Saul has slain thousand enemies and David ten thousand, Saul couldn’t bear it. He wasn’t sad in giving his wealth as a reward to David but he couldn’t tolerate when David was honored more than Him (1 Samuel 18:6-9). So Saul eyed David from that day forward. Can you see how closely the eyes, nose and ears are interrelated? The moment the ears heard the people praising David more, the eyes became poisonous. From then on we see Saul trying a lot to kill David.
Dear readers did you see how dangerous revenge is? It doesn’t care even if the person is our own relative. It cannot see others becoming prosperous. It only delights in others down fall. People waste their whole lives in trying to take revenge in some or the other way. Though they compromise in front of the judges and shake hands, their hearts do not meet. It craves for revenge and waits for the right time. So, Jesus Christ tried to change the hearts of the people. He tried to lay the foundation of love in everybody’s heart. He taught them how to love one another and asked them to leave the matter to God. Jesus said that there is a great Judge above who would punish the wrong. He said in Romans 12:19-21- Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The world thinks that the evil could be overcome with evil but in fact we can overcome evil with good. We should love our enemies and forgive them. If they do not understand our love and still continue in the enmity then God would intervene and heap coals of fire on their heads. But if we do not obey His words and still try to avenge ourselves then we should forget about His kingdom for we will not have any place in it. God strictly wants us to follow His instructions.
Just think about it. The woman who wanted the head of John the Baptist also died after a few days though no body killed her. Death is inevitable and it visits each one of us. There is no need to make plans to kill somebody. He is going to die some or the other day even if we do not kill him. But the world could not wait for it and commits evil in killing the person themselves. So, we should try to educate people with God’s word. We should change them with God’s powerful words. We should be able to replace the enmity with love. The love in them should destroy evil but not the evil person. We should change the person with love. Revenge is dangerous but it can only be overcome by love. It is in your hands whether you would overcome evil with love or be overcome by evil.