Proverbs 24:29 - Homiletics

Rendering evil for evil

It is interesting to note that this conduct is not only rebuked by Jesus Christ, but also forbidden in the Old Testament, and even in the Book of Proverbs, which is thought to deal too much in temporal and self-regarding motives. So utterly is it foreign to right mindedness. Yet it is most common, and apparently most natural.

I. LET US CONSIDER HOW IT SEEMS NATURAL TO RENDER EVIL FOR EVIL .

1 . It appears to be just . There is a natural fitness m things, and this seems to be satisfied by the lex talionis , "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."

2 . It offers to check evil . It appears to be a natural form of punishment. Indeed, it was sanctioned in rough, primitive times, though subject to judicial inquiry ( Exodus 21:24 ).

3 . It satisfies the craving for revenge . This is the reason which encourages it far more than considerations of abstract justice or anxiety about the public weal. "Revenge is sweet," and to restrain the impulse to strike an offender in return for his blow is hard and painful.

4 . It agrees with prevalent customs . It is "after the manner of man" to avenge a wrong, and apparently the habit springs from innate instincts. At all events, it works without reflection. Therefore it appears to be a part of the economy of nature. To refuse it is like denying a natural appetite.

II. LET US LEARN WHY IT IS WRONG TO RENDER EVIL FOR EVIL .

1 . The sense of revenge lies in our lower nature . It is shared by the brute creation, like hunger and. lust. But it is aggravated by the sin of hatred and by selfishness. There is nothing noble or elevating in it. On the contrary, it drags us down. Long-suffering braces the moral fibres of the soul; revenge relaxes them.

2 . We are not called upon to execute sentence on our fellow men . If there is to be a requital, this must come from God, to whom belongs just vengeance ( Romans 12:19 ). We are usurping the rights of God when we impatiently take it into our own hands. Moreover, we are the worst possible judges of our own rights. When deeply wounded, or irritated by insults, or blinded. by passion, we are not in a fit condition to exercise judicial functions. Yet it is just on such occasions that we are most tempted to wreak vengeance on the head of an offender.

3 . It is our duty to forgive and save our fellow man . Even if punishment be due to him, vengeance from us is not owing. Our business is to seek to reclaim by "heaping coals of fire" on our wrong doer. Instead of doing to him as he has done to as, our Christian motto is to do to him as we would that he should do to us.

4 . Revenge is un-Christlike . Christians are called to follow in the footsteps of the patient and brave Jesus, who was patient under provocation, even praying for his enemies.

5 . Revenge is unseemly in those who need forgiveness . We are dependent on the mercy of God. He has not taken vengeance on us. But if we forgive not men their trespasses, neither will our heavenly Father forgive us our trespasses. Thus Portia rightly says to Shylock—

"Consider this—

That in the course of justice, none of us

Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer cloth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy."