Revenge Is Not Sweet

Reverend Jack Howell

The world has this prevailing mentality that revenge is sweet. Every day we
read about killing taking place out of revenge. We read of ex-boyfriends ,
ex-girlfriends, ex-spouses getting revenge for a perceived or actual wrong
done to them. Even Hollywood promotes this idea of sweet revenge in its
movies. We see conniving men and women plotting their revenge in the
daytime soap operas. According to the scriptures, we find that the early
church had a problem with Christians seeking revenge on others who did
them wrong and this had to be addressed in order to preserve the peace in the
congregation as well as its witness for Christ. Let me tell you something
brethren, revenge is anything BUT sweet. It effects everyone associated with
you, including your friends and loved ones. The desire for revenge can eat at
you like a canker worm or cancer and you can become so obsessed with the
desire for revenge that nothing else matters to you, including your walk with
God. The desire for revenge is self-destructive. In fact, an ancient proverb
from China I believe that addresses the desire for revenge says that if you
are seeking revenge against someone, you had better dig a grave for yourself
as well, pointing out the destructive nature of the desire for revenge. In
addressing the church at Rome the apostle Paul spoke about revenge and
pointed them to the Word of God. We read at Romans 12:9 from the New
Living Translation: “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.” Now, you may be asking, “what scriptures
is the apostle Paul referring to in this verse?” He is referring to Leviticus
19:18 which reads in the New Living Translation, “Do not seek revenge or
bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as
yourself. I am the LORD.” and Deuteronomy 32:35 which again in the New
Living Translation read, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back. In due
time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny
will overtake them.”
Now, what these scriptures are telling me, and I believe this is the point Paul
was trying to get across to the Roman Christians is that we are not to seek
revenge on a fellow Christian or even a non-Christian who may have
wronged us. Rather, we are to leave it in God's hands and continue to show
Christ's love to them, rather than let the desire for revenge eat at us and
cause us to damage our testimony for Christ. Now that we have seen what
God's inspired, written Word has to say on the matter of revenge, any
seeking of revenge against another is disobedience to God and is therefore
sin and opens the door to more sin and disobedience in our life. We need to
examine ourselves and ask ourselves if getting revenge on someone is more
important than our relationship with God? We need to ask ourselves if
getting revenge is worth damaging our testimony for Christ? Is it worth
hurting our relationship with others? Is God more important to us than
getting back at someone? The Christian who desires to please God is going
to put God first and foremost in his or her life and not seek to hurt that
relationship with Him by disobeying him. I hope that this short message has
given you something to think about today.