| “See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men” (1 Thessalonians 5:15). |
| When someone has done something wrong to us, our first thought naturally is to find some way of doing something bad to them. The world has a saying, “Don’t get mad: get even!” If we do not respond in this way, we may be looked upon as cowards or “wimps.” This is true of individuals and is true of nations as well. If one nations fires missiles at another nation, the nation that is attacked will usually fire some missiles back, or perhaps find some other way of taking revenge. |
| Once again we find that God’s wisdom for us as believers is the exact opposite of human wisdom. When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, they were new Christians who had believed on the Lord Jesus only a short while before. They had been idol worshipers, but now they knew the Lord Jesus. Paul gave them a lot of basic instruction about their behavior as Christians, and one thing he told them, as we see in our verse for today, was never to do something evil to someone who had done something wrong to them. They were always to follow that which was good. |
| When we do this, it does not make us look like cowards, but rather displays the grace and love of God, and opens the door for us to tell people about the Lord Jesus. If they have done something bad to us just because they do not like us, then treating them well will often make them ashamed of what they have done. We can leave the matter of the wrong done to us with the Lord. He has said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay” (Romans 12:19). If those who have wronged us never repent of it, and never come to Christ, the Lord will repay them in a coming day, and we can leave all that to Him. |
