August 20, 2019
Romans 12:14
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”
For most people their very first instinct when someone offends them is payback. Either they want to do exactly what that person did to them or in some cases do worse than they did. Payback, however, is never the answer for anything. As Christians, if we follow the concept of payback we will cease to be Christlike because everything we do will be vengeful and out of spite.
The Bible states so simply that we should bless those who persecute us. Meaning if someone offends you the answer is not to offend them or in some cases if someone hurts you whether emotionally or physically you don’t hurt them back to be even. We are not like the world and for this reason, our mandate is not to mimic the actions of this world rather it is to do what the Lord would do. Let us look at the life of Christ. During His crucifixion He was beaten beyond recognition, insulted, disrespected, humiliated, etc. but not once did Jesus snap back at anyone. He even healed the man whose ear was cut off even though he came to arrest Him.
Christ is our perfect example. To be a Christian is to be like Christ in every way including how we react to persecution. If we walk this walk of Christianity the correct way we will encounter persecution, however, our response shouldn’t be payback rather it should be to bless those who persecute us.
