By John Stallings
Recompense to no man evil for evil……Romans 12:17
In 1992, Andre Dawson was playing for the Chicago Cubs & came up to bat. He struck out & had an argument with the umpire about the call. He thought it was a bad call & kept on arguing with the umpire until he was thrown out of the game.
Dawson was fined $1,000. He willingly wrote the check which for him wasn’t all that big a deal. But on the bottom of the check in the memo lines he added these words: “Donation for the blind.”
Dawson couldn’t resist that all too common impulse to tweak the nose of those who’ve rained on our parade.
Have you ever noticed that hurting people end up hurting others & healed people end up healing others?
A few months back I wrote a blog named “The rape of Dinah.” You will probably remember from Genesis 34, that young Dinah was violated by a fellow named Shechem. Her brothers took matters in their own hands & wreaked vengeance on the Shechemites. They savaged & killed a lot of innocent people.
Their response to their father was, “well they shouldn’t have treated our sister the way they treated her.” Sounds about right doesn’t it? I don’t mean Right-right, I mean it sounds about the way we all sometimes act & overact when people cross us in some way. We don’t do as bad as these boys did but still we react in some way that too often isn’t the Calvary way.
Here’s a fact that we all should be aware of; it’s not our actions we have to keep a close watch on as much as it is our reactions. It’s not that hard to go along not having much of a problem as long as we aren’t agitated in some way. Put us in a room alone or in a cubicle all by ourselves & we don’t have that many problems. But get us out among people & let someone say or do something that rubs us wrong & watch out, a reactions coming.
It seems as though hurt people end up hurting other people. But sadly the people they hurt usually aren’t the ones who hurt them in the first place. The kid who beats up a kid at school is often the kid who was beaten by dad the night before. Sometimes a wife who is subjected to unfair treatment by her husband will inadvertently take it out on her kids.
When people are hurting, they act in strange ways. If you’ve ever been in a delivery room when a woman was giving birth you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’ve never had the stomach for it but I’ve heard all about it.
People in emotional pain will do the same thing. If you’ve ever been betrayed or rejected you know how it felt. You may have lashed out at other people who hadn’t hurt you in a vain attempt to ease your pain over one who had.
Joseph in the Old Testament was hurt by many people on his journey & experienced much unfair treatment. Yet he allowed God to bring healing & restoration to his life. At the end of Genesis, Joseph who’d been sold down to Egypt as a slave by his brothers when he was only seventeen, let them know that had nothing to fear from him. He said, --You meant me harm but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
See the contrast? Dinah’s brothers, because they chose to retaliate against the perpetrators of their sister’s rape, wiped out just about a whole nation. But Joseph chose to not allow bitterness & hatred to consume him & consequently a whole nation was saved from starvation, including his family.
Joseph, a healed person was bringing healing to a whole nation. I would rather be a healed person who heals others than to be a hurt person who hurts others, wouldn’t you?
A few years ago there was a very popular movie called “Pay it forward,” based on the idea that when good things happen to us, instead of “paying it back,” we pay it forward, passing the goodwill to the next person we meet. Wouldn’t you like to be one of those who break the cycle of passing on our hurts & grievances to others? I know I would. A healed person heals other people.
In 2 Corinthians 2:3-4 Paul says,---We praise the God & father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of all comfort who comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
What Paul is saying is, we who’ve been through trouble & were comforted by God, instead of hurting others, should be a source of healing & pass this comfort along to those around us.
Isn’t it true that too often when we’ve been hurt we want to pass the hurt to others? We get hurt by someone & store the knowledge of that hurt so when the time comes we can make someone else feel the same pain & humiliation we’ve felt. Instead of absorbing a hurt & consigning it to the bone yard of our past because we know how nearly lethal it was to us, we put the experience in a file & now we have a tried & true way to devastate someone else. We’ve felt the sting of that particular hurt & we know it works. I have often called this Christianity in reverse.
It’s so beautiful to see a woman whose experienced abuse in her life that is healed & able to help heal other people who’re going through the same thing she’s been through. It’s beautiful to see a kid who’s grown up with abuse by his parents but instead of passing that on to others, later in life, even with his own kids, he steers as far away from that kind of behavior as possible & brings healing to those going through what he experienced. Healed people heal people. Don’t you want to be one of them? Have you ever noticed;
LITTLE PEOPLE, BELITTLE PEOPLE?
It’s true. People who feel little make others feel little if they possibly can. In 1 Samuel 17, there’s the story we’re all familiar with; David & Goliath. David shows up & asks what he can do to help slay this giant who’s defying the armies of Israel.
His older brother Eliab says to him, --what did you come down here for, & who did you leave those few sheep with? I know how conceited & wicked your heart is.
What would make his brother talk such trash & speak so hateful to David? Why would Eliab be so abusive to his young brother & do everything in his power to humiliate him? Do you know why? Because for 40 days he’d been cowering like a baby in the face of the giant. He was so weak he was ready to throttle David when he started to look strong.
Have you ever noticed that an individual who feels physically inferior will try to make others feel intellectually inferior? They feel stupid in some area so they don’t have a problem making someone else look stupid where they consider themselves strong. Little people belittle people- have you noticed that? They do it all the time. If we get it our minds someone is strong in an area where we’re we weak, if we’re not prayed up, we’ll start busting their chops to try to pull them down to our level.
But thankfully, the reverse is also true; little people belittle people but strong people strengthen people. Isn’t it great how strong people can make others strong?
Moses originally felt bad about himself. He told God he couldn’t go to Egypt because he had a stuttering problem. We all remember the way God worked with Moses & made him a great man. Later a young man named Joshua came into play. Because Moses had failed God with his temper, God was going to use Joshua to take Israel into the Promised Land. Instead of belittling Joshua, Moses calls him in front of all the people & tells him to be strong & courageous. He tells Joshua that God will be with him & never leave nor forsake him & not to be afraid nor discouraged. It’s like Moses is saying, “Joshua, I want to build you up & encourage you all I possibly can.”
Wouldn’t you like to be a person like that? I would!! Wouldn’t you like to know that when people think of you they don’t get this picture of a weasely, small-minded person; a person who’s threatened by everything & everybody & does all possible to put other people down because that’s the only way they can feel good about themselves? Damaged people damage other people but healed people heal others. Have you ever noticed;
REJECTED PEOPLE REJECT PEOPLE?
In Genesis 4 we meet this guy named Cain who has a brother named Abel. Abel’s offering was accepted by God but Cain’s wasn’t, so Cain got all bent out of shape about it. Notice Cain never repents or asks God for a second chance. His attitude is horrendous. Cain so hated his brother for this, he took him out & killed him because his offering had been rejected & Abel’s was accepted. That’s what the Columbine schools shootings were all about. It’s horrible what the feeling of rejection will lead people to do. Rejected people reject others all the time.
In Acts 9, Paul was rejected by the Christians in the early church. Nobody trusted him & nobody wanted him around because of his background of incarcerating & killing Christians. But a man named Barnabas wasn’t having a bit of it & he stood with Paul bringing him to the people & more or less sponsoring him. He laid his name & reputation on the line for Paul. Wouldn’t you like to be a person who would say, come on, let this person in? Accepted people accept people. Have you ever noticed;
CONDEMNED PEOPLE CONDEMN PEOPLE?
Have you ever noticed that often people who live in glass houses will be the first to throw stones at others? They seem to have a blind spot in their lives & can’t see what everyone else clearly sees.
Years ago I knew a pastor who also sat on a board of directors for his regional church denomination. This group of men had the duty of interviewing fellow ministers who’d been accused of some infraction, very often it would be a moral complaint or maybe a total moral collapse. The pastor I knew was always the hardest man on the board in dealing with the preachers who’d failed & were in need of prayerful correction & discipline.
A few years later this minister fell into a moral sin himself & came before this board in dire need of mercy. It didn’t go unnoticed among the other men on the board that this man who’d always been so rough on those who came seeking mercy, now had his proverbial hat in his hands needing the mercy he’d always withheld from others. Isn’t that strange? It’s clear that by taking such a hard-nosed judgmental position with other ministers, this pastor, maybe not realizing it, was vicariously punishing himself.
In Matthew 18 there was a man like that. He owed a king a great debt so the king decided to forgive him the debt. But just as soon as he left the king’s presence, joyous at being forgiven, he saw a man on the street that owed him a little piddling amount. He went up & tried to collect the money from him & when the man couldn’t pay him the small amount; the forgiven man had him thrown in jail.
My father told me when I was just a kid to watch people who always suspected others of lying, because they were usually liars themselves. They were merely judging others out of their own guilty hearts. The thing we won’t like about another person will often be our own weakness we spot in them. If we didn’t have that problem we probably wouldn’t have spotted it. I guess what we knew in fifth grade is true, “it takes one to know one.”
Unforgiving people don’t feel forgiven so they aren’t going to forgive others. Judged people judge others & condemned people condemn others. I will guarantee you that if you find a judgmental, condemning person, they are struggling with the very thing they are condemning in others.
In Roman 2:1 Paul said, You therefore have no excuse you who pass judgment on someone else for whatever point you judge the other you are condemning yourself because you who pass judgment do the same things.
My friend, it doesn’t get much clearer than that does it? Abused people abuse people. Damaged people damage people. Rejected people reject people. Condemned people judge & condemn people. As long as you & I hold onto all the stuff that’s happened to us we will just end up passing it on & perpetuating the sickness.
But healed people heal people. Strong people strengthen people, accepted people accept people, and forgiven people forgive people. Do you need to be healed, strengthened, accepted, forgiven so that you can be an instrument of blessing?
Listen to the words of Paul in Romans 12:17-21---Recompense to no man evil for evil….if it be possible live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved avenge not yourselves ….for it is written vengeance is mine saith the Lord…Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink…….
God can help us with our temptation to perpetuate what has been done to us. Would you like to spend the rest of your life touching & healing others rather than fighting them? Tell God you need the healing only He can give so that in the time you have left on this planet you can be an instrument of healing to all with whom you come in contact.
Jesus said, --Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Who are the merciful? They’re the ones who help & bless others & forgive freely. They are the ones who understand that since God has been merciful to them, they should be merciful to others.
Mercy begets mercy, which in turn begets still more mercy.
In Christ we have the perfect example of what to do with our pain & hurt. He was hanging on a Roman cross in mortal pain but He never lashed out at His tormentors. He could have said many things to them & they would all have been true but He didn’t think of Himself. Rather He thought of the ones He loved.
He looked at His mother & gave her a replacement son—Woman here is your son. And to John, here is your mother. He thought of others in the hours of His greatest pain & agony.
Christ is at work in us, helping us to live lives that are a blessing to others. And what a marvelous & miraculous thing to know, that –
By His painful wounds we’ll be healed.
Blessings,
John
Recompense to no man evil for evil……Romans 12:17
In 1992, Andre Dawson was playing for the Chicago Cubs & came up to bat. He struck out & had an argument with the umpire about the call. He thought it was a bad call & kept on arguing with the umpire until he was thrown out of the game.
Dawson was fined $1,000. He willingly wrote the check which for him wasn’t all that big a deal. But on the bottom of the check in the memo lines he added these words: “Donation for the blind.”
Dawson couldn’t resist that all too common impulse to tweak the nose of those who’ve rained on our parade.
Have you ever noticed that hurting people end up hurting others & healed people end up healing others?
A few months back I wrote a blog named “The rape of Dinah.” You will probably remember from Genesis 34, that young Dinah was violated by a fellow named Shechem. Her brothers took matters in their own hands & wreaked vengeance on the Shechemites. They savaged & killed a lot of innocent people.
Their response to their father was, “well they shouldn’t have treated our sister the way they treated her.” Sounds about right doesn’t it? I don’t mean Right-right, I mean it sounds about the way we all sometimes act & overact when people cross us in some way. We don’t do as bad as these boys did but still we react in some way that too often isn’t the Calvary way.
Here’s a fact that we all should be aware of; it’s not our actions we have to keep a close watch on as much as it is our reactions. It’s not that hard to go along not having much of a problem as long as we aren’t agitated in some way. Put us in a room alone or in a cubicle all by ourselves & we don’t have that many problems. But get us out among people & let someone say or do something that rubs us wrong & watch out, a reactions coming.
It seems as though hurt people end up hurting other people. But sadly the people they hurt usually aren’t the ones who hurt them in the first place. The kid who beats up a kid at school is often the kid who was beaten by dad the night before. Sometimes a wife who is subjected to unfair treatment by her husband will inadvertently take it out on her kids.
When people are hurting, they act in strange ways. If you’ve ever been in a delivery room when a woman was giving birth you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’ve never had the stomach for it but I’ve heard all about it.
People in emotional pain will do the same thing. If you’ve ever been betrayed or rejected you know how it felt. You may have lashed out at other people who hadn’t hurt you in a vain attempt to ease your pain over one who had.
Joseph in the Old Testament was hurt by many people on his journey & experienced much unfair treatment. Yet he allowed God to bring healing & restoration to his life. At the end of Genesis, Joseph who’d been sold down to Egypt as a slave by his brothers when he was only seventeen, let them know that had nothing to fear from him. He said, --You meant me harm but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
See the contrast? Dinah’s brothers, because they chose to retaliate against the perpetrators of their sister’s rape, wiped out just about a whole nation. But Joseph chose to not allow bitterness & hatred to consume him & consequently a whole nation was saved from starvation, including his family.
Joseph, a healed person was bringing healing to a whole nation. I would rather be a healed person who heals others than to be a hurt person who hurts others, wouldn’t you?
A few years ago there was a very popular movie called “Pay it forward,” based on the idea that when good things happen to us, instead of “paying it back,” we pay it forward, passing the goodwill to the next person we meet. Wouldn’t you like to be one of those who break the cycle of passing on our hurts & grievances to others? I know I would. A healed person heals other people.
In 2 Corinthians 2:3-4 Paul says,---We praise the God & father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of all comfort who comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
What Paul is saying is, we who’ve been through trouble & were comforted by God, instead of hurting others, should be a source of healing & pass this comfort along to those around us.
Isn’t it true that too often when we’ve been hurt we want to pass the hurt to others? We get hurt by someone & store the knowledge of that hurt so when the time comes we can make someone else feel the same pain & humiliation we’ve felt. Instead of absorbing a hurt & consigning it to the bone yard of our past because we know how nearly lethal it was to us, we put the experience in a file & now we have a tried & true way to devastate someone else. We’ve felt the sting of that particular hurt & we know it works. I have often called this Christianity in reverse.
It’s so beautiful to see a woman whose experienced abuse in her life that is healed & able to help heal other people who’re going through the same thing she’s been through. It’s beautiful to see a kid who’s grown up with abuse by his parents but instead of passing that on to others, later in life, even with his own kids, he steers as far away from that kind of behavior as possible & brings healing to those going through what he experienced. Healed people heal people. Don’t you want to be one of them? Have you ever noticed;
LITTLE PEOPLE, BELITTLE PEOPLE?
It’s true. People who feel little make others feel little if they possibly can. In 1 Samuel 17, there’s the story we’re all familiar with; David & Goliath. David shows up & asks what he can do to help slay this giant who’s defying the armies of Israel.
His older brother Eliab says to him, --what did you come down here for, & who did you leave those few sheep with? I know how conceited & wicked your heart is.
What would make his brother talk such trash & speak so hateful to David? Why would Eliab be so abusive to his young brother & do everything in his power to humiliate him? Do you know why? Because for 40 days he’d been cowering like a baby in the face of the giant. He was so weak he was ready to throttle David when he started to look strong.
Have you ever noticed that an individual who feels physically inferior will try to make others feel intellectually inferior? They feel stupid in some area so they don’t have a problem making someone else look stupid where they consider themselves strong. Little people belittle people- have you noticed that? They do it all the time. If we get it our minds someone is strong in an area where we’re we weak, if we’re not prayed up, we’ll start busting their chops to try to pull them down to our level.
But thankfully, the reverse is also true; little people belittle people but strong people strengthen people. Isn’t it great how strong people can make others strong?
Moses originally felt bad about himself. He told God he couldn’t go to Egypt because he had a stuttering problem. We all remember the way God worked with Moses & made him a great man. Later a young man named Joshua came into play. Because Moses had failed God with his temper, God was going to use Joshua to take Israel into the Promised Land. Instead of belittling Joshua, Moses calls him in front of all the people & tells him to be strong & courageous. He tells Joshua that God will be with him & never leave nor forsake him & not to be afraid nor discouraged. It’s like Moses is saying, “Joshua, I want to build you up & encourage you all I possibly can.”
Wouldn’t you like to be a person like that? I would!! Wouldn’t you like to know that when people think of you they don’t get this picture of a weasely, small-minded person; a person who’s threatened by everything & everybody & does all possible to put other people down because that’s the only way they can feel good about themselves? Damaged people damage other people but healed people heal others. Have you ever noticed;
REJECTED PEOPLE REJECT PEOPLE?
In Genesis 4 we meet this guy named Cain who has a brother named Abel. Abel’s offering was accepted by God but Cain’s wasn’t, so Cain got all bent out of shape about it. Notice Cain never repents or asks God for a second chance. His attitude is horrendous. Cain so hated his brother for this, he took him out & killed him because his offering had been rejected & Abel’s was accepted. That’s what the Columbine schools shootings were all about. It’s horrible what the feeling of rejection will lead people to do. Rejected people reject others all the time.
In Acts 9, Paul was rejected by the Christians in the early church. Nobody trusted him & nobody wanted him around because of his background of incarcerating & killing Christians. But a man named Barnabas wasn’t having a bit of it & he stood with Paul bringing him to the people & more or less sponsoring him. He laid his name & reputation on the line for Paul. Wouldn’t you like to be a person who would say, come on, let this person in? Accepted people accept people. Have you ever noticed;
CONDEMNED PEOPLE CONDEMN PEOPLE?
Have you ever noticed that often people who live in glass houses will be the first to throw stones at others? They seem to have a blind spot in their lives & can’t see what everyone else clearly sees.
Years ago I knew a pastor who also sat on a board of directors for his regional church denomination. This group of men had the duty of interviewing fellow ministers who’d been accused of some infraction, very often it would be a moral complaint or maybe a total moral collapse. The pastor I knew was always the hardest man on the board in dealing with the preachers who’d failed & were in need of prayerful correction & discipline.
A few years later this minister fell into a moral sin himself & came before this board in dire need of mercy. It didn’t go unnoticed among the other men on the board that this man who’d always been so rough on those who came seeking mercy, now had his proverbial hat in his hands needing the mercy he’d always withheld from others. Isn’t that strange? It’s clear that by taking such a hard-nosed judgmental position with other ministers, this pastor, maybe not realizing it, was vicariously punishing himself.
In Matthew 18 there was a man like that. He owed a king a great debt so the king decided to forgive him the debt. But just as soon as he left the king’s presence, joyous at being forgiven, he saw a man on the street that owed him a little piddling amount. He went up & tried to collect the money from him & when the man couldn’t pay him the small amount; the forgiven man had him thrown in jail.
My father told me when I was just a kid to watch people who always suspected others of lying, because they were usually liars themselves. They were merely judging others out of their own guilty hearts. The thing we won’t like about another person will often be our own weakness we spot in them. If we didn’t have that problem we probably wouldn’t have spotted it. I guess what we knew in fifth grade is true, “it takes one to know one.”
Unforgiving people don’t feel forgiven so they aren’t going to forgive others. Judged people judge others & condemned people condemn others. I will guarantee you that if you find a judgmental, condemning person, they are struggling with the very thing they are condemning in others.
In Roman 2:1 Paul said, You therefore have no excuse you who pass judgment on someone else for whatever point you judge the other you are condemning yourself because you who pass judgment do the same things.
My friend, it doesn’t get much clearer than that does it? Abused people abuse people. Damaged people damage people. Rejected people reject people. Condemned people judge & condemn people. As long as you & I hold onto all the stuff that’s happened to us we will just end up passing it on & perpetuating the sickness.
But healed people heal people. Strong people strengthen people, accepted people accept people, and forgiven people forgive people. Do you need to be healed, strengthened, accepted, forgiven so that you can be an instrument of blessing?
Listen to the words of Paul in Romans 12:17-21---Recompense to no man evil for evil….if it be possible live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved avenge not yourselves ….for it is written vengeance is mine saith the Lord…Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink…….
God can help us with our temptation to perpetuate what has been done to us. Would you like to spend the rest of your life touching & healing others rather than fighting them? Tell God you need the healing only He can give so that in the time you have left on this planet you can be an instrument of healing to all with whom you come in contact.
Jesus said, --Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Who are the merciful? They’re the ones who help & bless others & forgive freely. They are the ones who understand that since God has been merciful to them, they should be merciful to others.
Mercy begets mercy, which in turn begets still more mercy.
In Christ we have the perfect example of what to do with our pain & hurt. He was hanging on a Roman cross in mortal pain but He never lashed out at His tormentors. He could have said many things to them & they would all have been true but He didn’t think of Himself. Rather He thought of the ones He loved.
He looked at His mother & gave her a replacement son—Woman here is your son. And to John, here is your mother. He thought of others in the hours of His greatest pain & agony.
Christ is at work in us, helping us to live lives that are a blessing to others. And what a marvelous & miraculous thing to know, that –
By His painful wounds we’ll be healed.
Blessings,
John
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