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“Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work” (Proverbs 24:29).
When someone does something bad to you, the world around us has a saying, “Don’t get mad: get even!” A doctor with whom I worked for many years ago once boasted that his daughter did both of these things, when someone treated her badly. He said, “She gets mad and gets even!” This kind of reaction has been going on for thousands of years, even escalating to feuds between families that sometimes last for generations. No one ever wins with this behavior, for everybody gets hurt in one way or another. It is the sinful heart of man wanting revenge.
Even back in the Old Testament, before they had the full light of Christianity, Solomon recognized the wrong and the futility of taking revenge like this. But you and I might say, “Am I just to let everyone else do whatever they want to me? Can I not stick up for myself?”
Tomorrow we will see what the Lord’s answer is to this question, for it is a good question.
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