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Well, God became man for awhile, and one of the reasons, is so we would know that He understands our every emotion, including fury. However, in scripture, He tells us to not seek revenge, because "Vengence is mine, saith the Lord." If we are His, and somebody does us enormous harm, God remembers that. They don't just get away with it stock free. They definitely reap what they sow, and God takes great offense when someone hurts His own.
As a Christian, my job is to forgive, not retaliate (Luke 6:27–31). We can set healthy boundaries in destructive relationships. We can protect ourselves from further harm and report to authorities, someone breaking the law (James 5:20). But personal vigilante justice is never condoned in Scripture. Two wrongs do not make a right. We have a Higher Authority to whom we report, and He has promised to right all wrongs done against His own (Isaiah 54:17). God’s ways are not like our ways, so what the Bible says about retaliation might contradict what we naturally feel (Isaiah 55:9;1 Corinthians 1:27–29). His thoughts are not our thoughts. His perfect, sinless character, knows how to conduct justice the right way, without evil intentions, since sin is not in His thinking, corrupting it. So His ways are just and perfect. God’s commands always come down to heart attitudes (1 Samuel 16:7;Mark 2:8). He has issued commands regulating outward behaviors because He knows the inward evil that motivates them (Matthew 15:18–19). A man using a gun to take revenge is sinning, because the motivation is self retaliation to harm or kill. Something for the law to handle. However, that same man using a gun to protect his family from an intruder, is not sinning, because his motivation is protection of the innocent, not vengeance.
There's a right way to do things and a wrong way. Our first instinct is to do great harm, or kill. Even manmade laws say that's wrong. God knows the right way and "just" way to seek justice. Jesus’ followers are to seek to practice every scriptural principle in their personal and family lives. That's personal. But Government works differently, not thinking of godly things.
Government was instituted by God for the common good of a people (Romans 13:1–2). There are times when a nation must retaliate in order to preserve its freedom and its people, such as the United States’ response to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. A nation is given permission by God to exercise force and retaliate against other nations, in defense of its citizens (1 Samuel 15:2–3;1 Samuel 30:1–2,8,17–18). A state can also “retaliate” against lawbreakers for the common good (Romans 13:3).
As a Christian, my job is to forgive, not retaliate (Luke 6:27–31). We can set healthy boundaries in destructive relationships. We can protect ourselves from further harm and report to authorities, someone breaking the law (James 5:20). But personal vigilante justice is never condoned in Scripture. Two wrongs do not make a right. We have a Higher Authority to whom we report, and He has promised to right all wrongs done against His own (Isaiah 54:17). God’s ways are not like our ways, so what the Bible says about retaliation might contradict what we naturally feel (Isaiah 55:9;1 Corinthians 1:27–29). His thoughts are not our thoughts. His perfect, sinless character, knows how to conduct justice the right way, without evil intentions, since sin is not in His thinking, corrupting it. So His ways are just and perfect. God’s commands always come down to heart attitudes (1 Samuel 16:7;Mark 2:8). He has issued commands regulating outward behaviors because He knows the inward evil that motivates them (Matthew 15:18–19). A man using a gun to take revenge is sinning, because the motivation is self retaliation to harm or kill. Something for the law to handle. However, that same man using a gun to protect his family from an intruder, is not sinning, because his motivation is protection of the innocent, not vengeance.
There's a right way to do things and a wrong way. Our first instinct is to do great harm, or kill. Even manmade laws say that's wrong. God knows the right way and "just" way to seek justice. Jesus’ followers are to seek to practice every scriptural principle in their personal and family lives. That's personal. But Government works differently, not thinking of godly things.
Government was instituted by God for the common good of a people (Romans 13:1–2). There are times when a nation must retaliate in order to preserve its freedom and its people, such as the United States’ response to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. A nation is given permission by God to exercise force and retaliate against other nations, in defense of its citizens (1 Samuel 15:2–3;1 Samuel 30:1–2,8,17–18). A state can also “retaliate” against lawbreakers for the common good (Romans 13:3).
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