“Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; And let the strangers spoil his labour. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; And in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the LORD continually, That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, But persecuted the poor and needy man, That he might even slay the broken in heart.”
Psalm 109:11-16 KJV,https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.109.11-16.KJV
Undeserved Mercies
When someone hurts you or, worse, hurts somebody that you love, revenge can seem appealing. After all…
They were mean.
They were selfish.
They talked behind your back.
They broke a vital promise.
They lied about you.
They criticized you.
They ignored you.
They did the unthinkable.
They walked away.
They deserve to be punished, right? To feel some of that same pain? They deserve a consequence that will not only help them learn, but will be just as severe as the inflicted wounds.
And yet—because God sees things differently, both His standards and tactics can be surprising. And that’s why the apostle Paul, writing to the believers in Thessaloniki, said:
“See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.”
1 Thessalonians 5:15 NLT
Paul’s words sound a lot like Jesus’ words—to love your neighbor as yourself; to do to others what you’d like them to do to you. (See: Matthew 22:38-40)
God’s ways ...