An eye for an eye...

"If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him."--Leviticus 24:18-19.  In this passage we find one of the laws handed down by God under the Old Testament that has been at the heart of almost every case of someone seeking revenge for something that was done to them, an eye for an eye.

An eye for an eye.  Almost every group of people has taken this law and tried to apply it as an excuse to return evil with evil.  Present day gangs apply this law when one of their members has been killed by a rival gang.  The gangs and mobsters of the past have applied this law for the same reason.  Furthermore, individuals apply this law when they have been injured in some form or fashion by another person.  But what I find most heartbreaking is that even today in the the Lord's church, we Christians would rather apply this law and return evil for evil when others, even our own brethren have injured us in some way.

An eye for an eye.  So the question we have to ask is it ever acceptable to apply this law in the Lord's church today? I am here to say that I don't find any evidence to say that seeking revenge for something done to us is acceptable in the Lord's church today.  Evidence points to quite the opposite in fact.

An eye for an eye.  More often than not, when there is a disagreement between parties in the church, one will avoid the other and/or quit talking to the other altogether.  My question is have we forgotten what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:10 regarding divisions among us?

An eye for an eye So then we have to ask what do we do when someone in the church injures us in some way?  Well first and foremost consider the words of Hebrews 10:30 where we are told that God has said "Vengeance is Mine. I will repay." A passage we will look at in a future blog.

An eye for an eye.  Proverbs 25:21-22 tells us that if we do good to our enemy, "we will heap burning coals on his head."

An eye for an eye.  Most importantly what we have to remember when someone has injured us is that we injured God because of our sin but God repaid this evil with the ultimate good which was giving His one and only Son to die on the cross for the evil we inflicted upon Him.  We have to remember that if an eye for an eye were applied to our own sins, it would have been you and me on that cross, not Christ.

An eye for an eye.  So what now, with this small glimpse into what eye for an eye means today, what do we do? Well as I said, I have witnessed brethren go at it against one another time and again.  Maybe you have witnessed the same or maybe you are one of two warring parties in a disagreement.

An eye for an eye.  Whatever the case, my encouragement to you is this.  Whatever evil has been done to you or someone you know, return that evil with good.  If someone has offended you in some way, make an attempt to resolve the situation but also see if there some way you can do good to that person, as difficult as that might be.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!