DEALING WITH REVENGE & CHRISTIAN CONFLICT
By Ezekiel Kimosop
I was edified by a powerful lesson by Elisa Morgan on self restraint for God's people even where we are heavily provoked!
There are times that we are tempted to repay evil for evil. This is human. However, we are God's special people who should manifest His grace to the world (1 Peter 2:9, Matthew 5:13-14).
I was speaking to a brother yesterday who had suffered deep bitterness for being arbitrarily dismissed from a plum government job and has been fighting a court case for five years without employment.
I also happened to have been a victim of wrongful dismissal many years back and I understand the pain and humiliation that one suffers from that experience.
Even though the brother admitted that he had forgiven his tormentors, I could sense that a strain of bitterness was intermittently evident in him. He was yet to fully heal.
God promised to fight for us our battles. He declares in Romans 12:19 that vengeance is mine, I shall repay. This is also highlighted in Hebrews 10:30. It is not easy to forgive those who wilfully mistreated us and memories of the incident sometimes spark some pain but God has promised to heal our wounds and restore to us the years that the locust has eaten (Joel 2:25). Psalm 20:7 also exhorts us to count on God for our protection.
God does and will certainly repay our enemies and those who wrongfully inflict pain on us in this wicked world. They will receive God's fury in this world and in the world to come.
God will however exercise His sovereignty in deciding what manner of punishment He will prefer for them unless they seek forgiveness and make amends.
God may also forgive our enemies if they repent of their transgressions! That may sound rather unfair to the victim but when we remember that we too are forgiven sinners, we should be grateful to God for His mercy.
We should therefore not be preoccupied or consumed by a revenge mission neither should we constantly wait for fire and brimstone from God to fall upon our tormentors! We should leave it to God and move on. He is judicious and precise in dealing with our enemies at a time appointed by Him. He will fight for us.
We should therefore neither revenge nor celebrate when our enemies are eventually punished or suffer some misfortune. God will not be pleased with us if we hold a revenge attitude or bitterness. Remember that we are commanded to pray for those who persecute us!
This however does not suggest that believers cannot go to court to enforce their civil and constitutional rights when discriminated against or offended or when they suffer legal injury of any sort.
The only circumstance that Scripture contemplates judicial restraint concerns taking a fellow believer to court over conflicts emanating from our interpersonal dealings in church ministry.
These kind of conflicts usually centre on leadership issues as was the case in Corinth. Believers should not sue their church leaders over decisions made in the exercise of spiritual discipline. Instead we are to apply the principles established in Matthew 18:15-20.
The Bible forbids us from washing our dirty linen in public or before civilian tribunals, no matter how we are aggrieved. This would injure the reputation of the Christian community and hinder our Christian witness.
We can borrow this principle from 1 Corinthians 6:1-7 where Paul warned the Corinthian church to desist from dragging their leadership conflicts before civil courts but to handle their issues internally using church organs and tribunals.
My view is that any other civilian matter which is not related to inter-church or inter Christian conflict such boundary disputes with a neighbor or employment related disputes should therefore be mediated or adjudicated or litigated through established civil tribunals and even through judicial arbitration in the courts of law.
The principles of God's word should guide our decisions and moderate our reactions so that God is glorified in all things.
© Ezekiel Kimosop Teaching Series 2018
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