Main Idea: A disciple makes a commitment to refuse to respond with revenge to personal injustice.

This morning we come to the last of the messages in our Essential Discipleship series. We have spent these summer Sunday mornings exploring Romans 12, discovering principles that are essential to our becoming a complete and competent follower of Jesus Christ. We have said that if something is essential then it is something you just have to have to make everything else complete. The factors essential for us to be a disciple of Jesus Christ are a decision to surrender to God’s will; a relationship to Christ’s Body, the local church; functioning in the Body by using the gifts God has given me; devoting myself to love and seeing my problems and troubles through God’s perspective.

This morning we want to talk about an essential commitment that a disciple must make. What is that essential commitment? It’s this: A disciple makes a commitment to refuse to respond with revenge to personal injustice. Why, of all the commitments that a disciple must make, is this one so essential? The reason is that unless you and I decide to refuse to respond with revenge to personal injustice the bitterness that is born from revenge will, over time, render all other commitments worthless. If we are not vigilant to deal with the bitterness, then it will cripple our effectiveness as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Bitterness is the result or emotion that occurs inwardly when we hold a grudge against someone, hate someone, allow animosity to exist between someone. It is a piercing, painful, distressing, disturbing, miserable emotion. Bitterness is the result of not responding positively or scripturally to personal injustices in our lives. We imagine that our feelings of revenge, while never acted out, do us no harm and we feel smug and justified, and we never realize that the bitterness that results is slowly destroying us. One person said, "Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." The only way to prevent bitterness from consuming our soul is to make a commitment to refuse to respond with revenge to personal injustice.

How do you refuse something so spiritually dangerous as revenge? In our text for this morning Paul admonishes us about five individual commitments we must make to be vigilant against revenge. Before we begin looking at these let us say that I know there are in your lives an unlimited member of things that you feel are a personal injustice. You have been hurt by a child, a friend, a spouse, a company, a church, a minister, a co-worker, a disease, an illness, and maybe you feel hurt by God himself. In all of those hurts there are degrees of injustice—everything from destroying your marriage, your reputation, your future, your life, to someone just being an irritation in your life. Yet just like cancer can spring from a single cell gone wild, so bitterness, whether from a horrible injustice or a minor offense, can cripple us!

So, how do I refuse revenge? I refuse revenge by making a commitment to think before I act. (Romans 12:17). In verse 17 Paul gives a negative and a positive command regarding a personal injustice. He says clearly that a believer is to not get even with someone when they have hurt you or offended you. Then he says that on the positive side we are to act in front of others in a way that is honorable or right. Now, the first command I get very easily: payback isn’t Christian! Regardless of what I feel, the degree of hurt, the personal offense—payback isn’t Christian. That’s not what I want to do or feel good about doing but I can’t get around this very clear command: Payback isn’t Christian.

You see this in sports all the time: Your pitcher hits my batter then in the next inning I’m throwing at your head, your defense takes out my quarterback, your quarterback is dead meat, you hack my shooter then you are going to pay. We do it in our own life: You tailgate me, I’ll slam on my brakes; you snub me, I’ll snub you; you try to hurt me, I’ll make you hurt. Paul just says, "Payback isn’t Christian."

Now, the next statement gets a little deeper. What it actually means is that when we are hurt and want to respond with revenge, we are to think about how it looks in the eyes of others. That’s what I mean when I say, "Think before I act." What this tells us is that when people know we are a believer, they expect us to act like Jesus. Now we don’t think we are supposed to act like Jesus and they don’t think they are to act like Jesus, but they think we are to act like Jesus. Jesus didn’t live by "payback." So when I want to respond with revenge I need to stop and think: How does the action or response I’m about to choose make me look in the eyes of others. Somehow in that moment before you act ask yourself the question: "Will this make me look more or less like Jesus to someone else?" In order to refuse to respond with revenge I must make a commitment to think before I act.

There’s another commitment that we must make to refuse to respond with revenge. That is: I make a commitment to do all I can to make the relationship the best it can be (Rom. 12:18). Paul says, "Do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible." Again Paul places upon us a very heavy responsibility. The responsibility for making the relationship with someone who has committed a personal injustice the best it can be lies with us. Once again I don’t like this! I mean why should I be the one who is responsible for what they have messed up? Why do I need to try to rebuild what they have destroyed? What they did wasn’t fair and it isn’t fair that I have to try to fix this problem!

Now before you go too far with this, let me shape it for you just a bit. First, when you have experienced a personal injustice the one thing you have to admit is that the only control you have over the problem is you. You can’t control their actions, behavior, emotions, responses, beliefs or life. You can’t control them. You can’t control a company that fires you without notice or a spouse who serves you divorce papers when you are planning your anniversary. You have no control over them. But you can control you. That’s why it says, "Do your part…." Not "do their part…." So help yourself out and just say, "I’m the only one in this deal I can control."

Next, you need to say or admit there’s only so much you can do. There are some people and some situations that there’s only so much you can do. You can only write so many letters; you can only ask for understanding so many times; you can only offer so much money; you can only do so much. You have limits and the issue that caused the injustice has its limits also. Yet—and this is the hard thing—you need to make sure you have done all you can. We want to say, "I made a phone call and they weren’t there so that’s it. I tried to work it out!" That doesn’t get it! When you feel there is some matter of personal injustice we need to be able to honestly say, "I have done all I can!" As we ask that question over and over, I promise you there will come to your mind "one more thing" you can do. If you are going to refuse revenge, then you must make a commitment to do all you can to make the relationship the best it can be.

Now there comes a point where the injustice is so deep and so painful that you have done all you can and things are still broken. When that happens, the commitment you make is a commitment to trust God’s justice (v. 19). Now to be honest, this is a pretty scary verse because it tells us something about ourselves and it tells us something about God. Paul tells us that we are not capable of being in charge of revenge for ourselves when we have been the recipients of personal injustice. What is that? The reason is I am not capable of being fair or just. When someone cuts you off in traffic and you wish you were in a "monster truck" to run over them, that’s just a bit overreacting. We can see something that really is a slight injustice as if it were worthy of a capital punishment. We just can’t be fair or just when it comes to a proper response to a personal injustice.

That’s why Paul says we are to leave that to God. Paul quotes Deut. 32:35, which says "I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it. In due time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny will overtake them." Now if that makes you smile, then you have a problem. What this verse assures us is that God knows what is really wrong. In other words, he knows what the real degree of injustice is. He also knows what is really right. In other words, he knows the adequate degree of punishment or discipline needed in someone’s life. You and I are too close to the situation to clearly evaluate the real degree of injustice and the degree of punishment. That is God’s job and you are not God.

Do you see though how liberating this is? Instead of your plotting or wishing for payback toward someone, you leave it to God. You have made a commitment to think about how Jesus would respond. You have then done all you can do to make the relationship the best it can be but you finally just say, "God’s it is your call!" and you get on with your life. When you and I stop being God and we trust his justice, then he does what is needed to vindicate us and deal with the one who hurt us.

So far, our response to refusing revenge has been more general than specific. In verse 20 Paul describes some specific actions we are to take toward those who have hurt us. What he is saying is that if I am going to refuse to respond with revenge, then I must make a commitment to act with extreme grace. Paul says we are to deliberately act for the good of someone who has hurt us. The way we are to do this is by meeting a real need in their life similar to feeding them if they are hungry and giving them something to drink if they are thirsty. Doing something specific to serve a real need in the life of someone who has hurt us is what I call extreme grace!

Jesus taught that we are to act toward those who have hurt us with extreme grace. He said, "You have heard that the law of Moses says, 'If an eye is injured, injure the eye of the person who did it. If a tooth gets knocked out, knock out the tooth of the person who did it.' 39But I say, don't resist an evil person! If you are slapped on the right cheek, turn the other, too. 40If you are ordered to court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. 41If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles." (Matt. 5:38-41) and "But if you are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you." (Luke 6:27) Jesus lived with extreme grace. Peter writes, "This suffering is all part of what God has called you to. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps. 22He never sinned, and he never deceived anyone. 23He did not retaliate when he was insulted. When he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly." (I Peter 1:21-23) By both his teaching and his example he showed us what it is to demonstrate extreme grace when we are the victims of personal injustice.

Now what is the result when I act with extreme grace? Paul says the grace exposes the guilt! Paul says that somehow the act of extreme grace will be so convicting that the person who has hurt us will see the hurt they have caused and feel a sense of guilt. Other translations say, "heap burning coals upon his head" (NASV). In other words, your actions of extreme grace will inflict pain in their conscience so deep that they see how evil they have been. How can I guarantee you this will work? My question is, "How can you guarantee you that it will not?" Acting with extreme grace is a commitment I must make.

There is one final commitment we must make if we are to refuse revenge and it is this: I make a commitment to never surrender to revenge (v. 21). The words that Paul states let us know something very ominous about revenge: Left to itself, revenge takes over everything! He says, "Don’t let evil get the best of you," which is also a reminder that evil, the evil brought on by bitterness and revenge, can rob the best of us—the best of our days, the best of our joy, the best of our dreams, the best of our life. Left to its own, revenge takes over everything. You wake up with it; you wake up in the night with it. You carry it with you all day long. It has just taken over!

The solution? Paul says that we "conquer evil by doing good." There is just something powerful that takes place when we choose good over evil. It may be that because of the volatile situation that the best you can do is pray for them, but that’s good. The key is that the more you act for good the more the revenge is diminished. However, it is a decision we make once and for all time that we will never surrender to revenge.

In 1977 Mike Carmichael made a decision. He decided that he was going to paint as many coats of paint on a baseball as he could. Today Mike’s baseball is 35 inches in diameter, weighs 1,300 lbs. and has 18,000 coats of paint on it. He says he paints on it once a morning and then a couple of times at night. He doesn’t have to worry about paint because he just signed a deal with Sherwin-Williams! The baseball is still there but it has been covered over so many times that you really can’t tell. (Sports Illustrated, 4/12/04, p. 26) When you and I face the choice of refusing revenge by making a commitment to never surrender to revenge, we do it daily. In place of revenge we act for good. Eighteen thousand acts of kindness later, the hurt is still there but you just can’t tell anymore! The decision to never surrender to revenge starts with your next choice for good!

At the end of this month Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ is released for home purchase. I thought this week about two other movies in which Mel Gibson was not only the director but also the key actor and I thought what a contrast they are to The Passion. In 1995 Mel Gibson directed and starred in Braveheart. In the movie he played William Wallace of Scotland who sees his land controlled by England. He is content to sit by and let things be until the brutal rape and murder of his wife. Out of revenge for a personal injustice, he gathers the Scots to drive the English from their land. He is executed in the end but he has demonstrated his commitment to freedom.

In another movie, The Patriot, Mel Gibson directs and stars in this equally stirring film. This time he plays Benjamin Martin, who resists involvement in the Revolutionary War against the British in South Carolina. He was a hero of the French and Indian War but has chosen to live with his family in peace. At last, when Martin’s home is burned, his oldest son captured by the British and his youngest son murdered, Martin takes out his revenge upon the British and then forms his own militia. He decides that the only way to protect his family is to fight for freedom.

I’ve seen both those movies and I can’t help but get excited when William Wallace and Benjamin Martin decide it’s "payback time." There is just something appealing about revenge. However, when you come to The Passion of the Christ there is no revenge. Gibson portrays graphically the intensity of the suffering of Jesus. What makes it so hard is that it just goes on and on with no "payback." Instead, we watch the nails driven into the flesh of Jesus and hear the words, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). We see and hear Jesus refusing to respond with revenge to personal injustice. And if we are going to be a complete and competent follower of Jesus Christ we will make the same commitment.

I will commit: to think before I act

to do all that I can do

to trust God’s justice

to act with extreme grace.

to never surrender to revenge.

"Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." If you don’t want to live with bitterness, then refuse revenge for personal injustice. "It’s payback time" – no it’s not for a disciple!

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org