Romans 12:17a

Repay no one evil for evil.

It isn’t a good thing for us to take matters into our own hands and do wrong to others because they have done wrong to us. This is what we see between some countries at war. It is also what we see between gangs in gang wars. One side does harm to the other and the other side does more harm and on it goes back and forth, each side thinking that they are justified for “getting back” at the other side.

I believe that some Christians think that we are just supposed to accept it and forget evil done to us, but that isn’t correct either. In fact, God takes it quite personally and is committed to harm those who harm Christians. God, however, does not harm people right away. He has a time and place for everything and He is very orderly in how He does things. To learn more about this read 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.

We should actually fear the harm that God will do to those people who harm us. They will be utterly destroyed for all eternity if they don’t find the mercy of God like we did. That is still the point of this chapter. The mercy we received should be the mercy we want for others so that they can experience God’s forgiveness and love. The Holy Spirit brings this to mind and also gives us the strength to payback good for evil.

Government: It is important to understand that God is still for justice on earth today. We read more about this in chapter 13. This means that we should allow the law to take its course against those who wrong us. That is the hand of God helping us and it is good. We always have the option to show love and have mercy, even in these situations, but God will eventually repay evil to those who reject Jesus because He is righteous and to do anything else would violate His word.