August 25

August 25

Balancing the Books

We should neither return evil for good, nor take revenge for the trespasses of others.


Proverbs 17

13 If a man pays back evil for good, evil will never leave his house.

This proverb must be viewed by the believer by other words from the Bible:

19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Ro 12:19 NIV)

29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb 10:30 NIV)

35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."
(Deut 32:35)

The tenor of these words is that all of us are partakers of God’s mercy and it is His work, not ours, to repay or to compensate. We should neither return evil for good, nor take revenge for the trespasses of others. It is God’s work and his alone to balance the scales of justice.

The truth is that people who return evil for good are those who have lost perspective by not taking habitually practicing kindness, mercy, forgiveness and grace. Those who do evil for good are the same people who return evil for evil. They have seared consciences. People do simply do not come to the place of “returning evil for good” in a vacuum. It is because they have lost perception of the impact of their attitudes toward others. They have become God players and made themselves the center of their own universes.

The truth is, dear reader, if we do not take on the nature of God’s love and revere Him we bring a curse upon ourselves and our households for generations. In that sense, evil will never leave (our) houses. We must never see ourselves as “repaying” anything. Instead, we are to give the gift of kindness and let it do its perfect work in bringing others to repentance before God. Let us do good that He may get glory and others may catch a glimmer of the mercies under which we live.