God’s Purpose in a Variety’s of Testings: Opportunity to Retaliate

God's Purpose in a Variety's of Testings: Opportunity to Retaliate

This evening, we're turning to Luke chapter 6, beginning the reading in verse number 26. Jesus says, "And unto you, when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. But I say unto you which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other. And him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. And as you would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? For sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again and your rewards shall be great and you shall be the children of the highest for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful." We'll conclude the reading there in verse number 36.

Another test that God allows to come into our lives is in situations where we are treated unfairly. Whether that be in words spoken to us or actions taken against us, when children are growing up and a sibling takes something from them or takes the bigger portion than they get, they might say, "Hey, that's not fair, right?" The way I was treated, the way someone spoke to me, can feel unjust. We face at times unfair treatment or unfair words that are spoken to us, and the temptation in the trouble, we might say, is to retaliate. The temptation is to get even. How many times have we heard that two wrongs never make a right?

We see in verse 26, "Woe unto you, when all men speak well of you." It doesn't mean that we should be out to make enemies and cause people to hate us, but if you love the truth, eventually you're going to come across somebody who doesn't like you because of what you stand upon. If you don't, you must be doing something wrong. Even Jesus was hated and spoken against, as well as anyone, seamlessly He did it, and still He had many enemies because of the truth. But we see here in verse number 28, there are those that will curse, but we're to bless those that curse us, that speak harsh words against you. Bless them. We see that there are those that will take advantage of you, that will despitefully use you. There are those that will hate you. They may not even speak a word, but they may withhold things from you, or they may treat you in an unfair way that makes it clear that they don't give you the promotion or the job because you're a Christian. They don't like you very much because you are a conscience, perhaps because you remind them of their sin, even if you don't say anything to them. You may just be a prick to their conscience, and therefore they're not going to like you for that.

We notice in verse 29, there even may be, for the cause of Christ, those that offend you. Here I don't think the smiting of the cheek is talking about getting beat down in the street and having your bones broken, but this is talking about something like a spit in the face or a slap on the cheek. I think of when Paul would testify before a council, it’s like the physical equivalent of "shut up" or "get out of my face" attitudes. It may come with a push, a shove, a slap. Don't retaliate to that. Especially here, if men are not speaking well of you, it shouldn't be because you suffer as an evil-doer, but suffer as a child of God. If there's some persecution, if there's some mistreatment that comes to you in the world, count it joy. If you are called upon in some fashion or form to be treated wrongly for the cause of Christ, in verse 30, give to every man that ask of thee, go the extra mile, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. God will take care of you through every day, all the way. Don't worry when others are unjust in some way to you.

The law demands justice, doesn't it? The law says an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, right? And God is a just God, and no sin will go unpunished. It will either be that a person lays their sins on Jesus who took the punishment for us, or they will perish in their sins. It's just as simple as that. And if we, as Christians, are living our lives and we sin, we have to get right with the Father. We talked about Abraham this morning and how, though we don't have the direct commentary of the Lord in that passage saying definitely that Abraham sinned in going to Egypt, I think the principle is very clearly there because the Lord didn't tell him to go there. He just went of his own accord. We don't always have to be told and spelled out in every word that this was a sin, but we can see that even in that, if we sin, we need to make it right. If we sin against a brother or a neighbor, we need to make that right. Zacchaeus had this desire in his heart when the Lord saved him: if I have stolen from someone, I want to restore it fourfold. I just want to make it right. This is something how God puts that desire in our hearts to make things right when our relationship is right with Him.

So we notice the law demands justice, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, but God, our heavenly Father, is full of mercy. We read that here tonight. He's got justice, but He's got mercy. Justice will ultimately have to come for those who do not receive the mercy, those who do not claim the mercy, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we see that this God, this Father we serve, is long-suffering. He's kind. We want people to know that. In fact, we ought to let people know that by not only our words but show them by our interactions with them and how we treat people, not only to the good and the kind ones, not only to the ones who give us stuff, but especially love our enemies, the Scripture says. Not only love your neighbor, love your enemies, those that despitefully use you. That's where the rubber meets the road when it comes to faith. That's not something we're going to do by sight. Sight versus faith. If we live by sight, live by feelings, we'll never be able to obey God's word because we'll just live based on how we feel about reacting and retaliating to those things.

But look with me, hold your finger here in Luke 6, and turn with me to Psalm 103, verse 10. It's there in verse number 10 that we read these words: "He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us, like as a Father pitieth His children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." When we recall to mind, like Jeremiah said in the book of Lamentations, the Lord's mercies, then we have hope. When we recall to mind how God has been merciful to us and good to us and kind to us, that will curb our desire to retaliate, and it will curb any desire that may rise up in us to be angry and to get even because we wouldn't even love God in the first place if He didn't first love us. And we certainly can't love others, especially our enemies, unless we remember how God has treated us, how He has been and is to us. He is our standard. God is our standard. He wants us to think like He thinks. He tells us, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ," right? A mind of humility, service, sacrifice, not my will, but Thine be done. Obedience, all the way to the end of whatever He has for us to do, don't stop midway. Don't say, "Well, this is too tough for me. I guess I tried giving them a mess." No, obedience, humility, faith, trust.

We notice that He wants us, God wants us to respond as He responds. He's long-suffering, isn't He? He's long-suffering with us. We account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation. He's merciful, He's kind, He's good. He wants us to pray for those who despitefully use us and take advantage of us. Is it an employer? Is it a mean neighbor? Is it a disgruntled family member? Any number of people we could put in that blank. Is it somebody that, as I said a moment ago, is convicted by or jealous of? I think about how Cain was toward his brother Abel, right? Abel's obedience to God made Cain feel bad about his disobedience. Well, we need to pray for those who would try to take advantage of us. Father Jesus said, "Forgive them for they know not what they do." Nobody's putting us on a cross, at least not yet. The worst probably that's happened to us is somebody spoke ugly words to us at some point. I doubt anybody's punched you for Christ's sake. And yet, if they have, even that would be small compared to what Christ went through for us. If someone slapped you on the cheek, so to speak, well, this is what our Lord wants us to do. He wants us to think as He thinks. He wants us to respond as He responds. As we read in the text tonight in verse 36, "Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful." Mercy withholds that justice which is due. Mercy withholds wrath which could be released upon another. Even if we might say the law demands it, God's great example of mercy before us reminds us that we ought to be merciful as well.

But look over, if you will, also in Matthew chapter 7, verse 12. Jesus says, "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." We might say, "Well, I thought the law demanded man's justice." But the whole reason God gave us the law was to remind us that we're in need of mercy, right? We're in need of mercy, we're in need of grace because if it was up to us to keep the whole law, we fail miserably. We're not to be puffed up by the law and say, "Look how good I am." If we've offended at one point, we've broken the whole thing. No, we're to say, "God be merciful to me, a sinner, a lawbreaker." The only way I'm going to make it is I've got to receive mercy. Otherwise, I'm just deceiving myself. If I think I'm going to get into God's heaven by doing the best I can, works righteousness, that's not going to cut it. It cannot cut it in God's view because all have sinned. And if I say that I haven't sinned, I make God a liar. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So this understanding here is not based on our righteousness that we're supposed to be merciful, but based on God's righteousness, God's mercy, God's love. I'm to be merciful because I've received mercy. Therefore, I'm to show mercy. When I'm faced with the temptation to retaliate in any form or fashion, the truth that needs to pop into my heart and mind and my thinking immediately is God. He's merciful, full of mercy toward me.

Well, the whole point of the Old Testament law is to bring us to see our great need of God's love to fill and His mercy to fill our hearts and our minds and our attitudes toward others, toward one another, toward others in the world. We love Him because He first loved us, and we love others because He first loved us. We love others because of His example. Looking at Galatians chapter 5, verse 14, we're reminded, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." That's one word that summarizes the law. We just read a moment ago in Matthew 7:12, this is the law and the prophets. What things whatsoever ye would men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Though we call that the golden rule, as we would want people, not as they do to us, but as we would want them to do to us, we should do to them. Well, love your neighbor as yourself, and we treat them like we would want to be treated. That's, you know, when we think about what makes a marriage work, it's not, "Well, I'm going to wait to see how you treat me, and then I'll treat you accordingly." That's not how you build a good marriage. Both parties have to give 100%. You can't say, "Well, I'll throttle my expectations and my responses based on how you treat me." If you do that, it won't last very long.

There's that truth in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Among many other things about love, there's that statement that love or charity thinketh no evil. The basic idea of that phrase, "thinketh," means to take into account, to take inventory. It has the idea of computing something, to think about, to go over in the mind all the evils that have been done against me. No, that's not what love does. It doesn't sit there and say, "Let me, I've been making a list and I'm checking it twice. I'm looking at all the bad things you've done against me." No, love doesn't keep a long ledger of all the evils done against it. In fact, love is not easily provoked because of that. Love is not prone to retaliation and provocation because it does not keep a long list of the wrongs done against it. Does that mean that love is just blind? No, love doesn't rejoice in iniquity. Love doesn't rejoice in sin or wrong, but love is also merciful in the way that it treats others, as one would want to be treated themselves.

You remember when Peter came to the Lord and said, "How oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?" "How oft?" Well, "seventy times seven," the Lord said. You're going to lose count by 491. You're going to lose count of all those, and we shouldn't be keeping the count anyway, but the point is, anytime your brother sins against you, trespasses against you, you need to be ready and willing to forgive your brother, countless times. Don't say, "Well, you've used up your quota, you've run out of minutes, you've run out of mercy." No, be merciful, be forgiving. When it comes to brothers and sisters with each other, I think about that little phrase, "That's not fair." Maybe we think about something our brother or sister did against us, something they didn't treat us right. Does that mean we have the right to treat them wrong as well? No, we don't have the right to treat our brother or sister just because they might have done something wrong. No, we need to set an example of being merciful to them and being forgiving to them. Remember, vengeance doesn't belong to us, no matter what the context is. Vengeance is the Lord's. We shouldn't be seeking vengeance. We shouldn't retaliate, get even with one another.

If we're talking about two brothers or sisters in the Lord, well, we need to show mercy and just pray that God will deal with that person. God will deal with that individual. Now, if it's something that we need to talk to them about, yeah, we need to say, "Would you please stop doing this?" We might say that to our brother in the Lord. "I would ask that you would consider this offense that you've done against me," but going with humility to that person, not retaliating against him. You know, oftentimes we have a tendency to go rashly about something, right? Go with anger in our spirit, even as parents. We have to be careful not to chasten our children with anger in our hearts, even when we have to correct them over things. We must do it in love. We must do it not with anger in our spirits and retaliating against them for what they have done.

Let's look in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 5. Our pattern and our example is, as our Father in heaven is merciful, we're to be merciful, right? As He is merciful, we likewise are to be merciful. 2 Corinthians 2:5 says, in the context here, Paul’s talking about the brother that had sinned in fornication in the church, and they had to put him out of this simply because of his unrepentant sin that was commonly known among them. And in verse 5 here, it says, "But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise, ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him." Yes, it is true, we’ve got to be careful how we delineate this, but it's true that if someone doesn't ask to make things right, we can't have full forgiveness and restoration of that fellowship between us. If there's an outstanding unrepentant sin, if there's open and unrepentant sin in the church and the person is not willing to make it right, then Matthew 18 deals with how we're supposed to approach that, right? They won't listen to one, they won't listen to that individual going back with one or two witnesses, and then they won't listen to the church, and there's a way to deal with that. And that's evidently what’s happened here, but now the brother has repented, got the matter right, and is truly sorrowful over his sin. You have no right keeping that arm's distance, is what Paul is saying here. You need to receive him back into the fellowship, you need to love him, you need to comfort this brother. You need to confirm your love toward him. Don't let the devil get advantage over him because he's obviously been under conviction about this sin, and he's made the matter right with the Lord, and he wants to make it right with the church. Don't you dare close the door to him, be merciful to him and receive him back, because, except for the grace of God, any one of us could have been in the same situation he was. So receive that true reconciliation with that brother, and bring him back in. Forgive him and show mercy towards him for Christ's sake, as you've been forgiven.

And then in 1 Peter chapter 3, I want to read something there as well. In verse 8, Peter says, "Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another." This is certainly again talking about the context not of those that hate us as Christians in the world, but among Christians, of course. Be all of one mind, having compassion one of another. Love as brethren, be pitiful, showing pity, showing mercy one to another. Be courteous, not rendering evil for evil. Was that retaliation? Don't retaliate one against another. Don't render railing for railing. This is how, you know, he railed on me, so I'm going to rail on him. No, don't do that. But contrariwise, blessing. Knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. You know, in the world, the way the world in sin thinks, the way sinners think is, if you're a real man, you'll get it back to him, every bit of what they gave you. Don't let anybody tread on you. Don't let anybody talk down to you. Well, even if we respond with truth, we need to have a right spirit in the way that we say it back. That doesn't mean be a doormat. That doesn't mean just let people walk all over top of you. But especially as it pertains, even if it's just in business and it has nothing to do with Christ as far as the testimony of Christ or the gospel you haven't been trying to present, even then, be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.

I think of one of my weaknesses is when somebody purposely cuts me off or puts me in a bad situation as I'm driving down the road. Boy, that just irritates me. When somebody just about took my bumper off the other day, just cut in, people just not paying attention. And the Lord convicted me for, I mean, I laid on the horn at them and got upset a little bit about it. And I didn't do anything stupid, but just, you know, I just need to let that go. Just let it go. And don't get my blood pressure up over it because it's going to happen all the time. It's just going to happen. You can't stop it from happening. Now, this is not even anywhere close to what we're talking about tonight in the standpoint of someone coming up and smiting you on the cheek or hurling curses at you. But at the same time, we have got to be careful about our responses in this world in which we're living. We've got to, we're representing Christ. We're representing the Lord in the way that we handle these situations. And especially even among brethren, don't respond with railing for railing, respond with blessing. Lord, help me. May the Lord help us in our responses, one to another, in our responses with people in the very basic interactions of life that we have day by day. We are called to inherit a blessing.

I want to give you another example before we close tonight. That's in 1 Samuel 24. Here's a man, David, whose life is being hunted by Saul. None of us even know anything about that, as far as I know, unless you haven't told me something. His life is being hunted. He's actively being hunted down by Saul. And in 1 Samuel chapter 24, I want to read a few of the verses here. This is going to happen. I'm just going to read from this passage, but we could also read, if time permitted, from chapter 26 as well about what Saul does there in that passage. But in 1 Samuel 24, let's look here, beginning at verse 1. And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him saying, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi." Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. Well, this is a rugged territory, isn't it? They're not going out there to have a cup of coffee with him; they're going out there to kill David. And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to cover his feet, and David and his men remained at the sides of the cave. And the men of David said unto him, "Behold, the day of which the Lord said unto thee, 'Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thy hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee.'" Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. And he said unto his men, "You know, Lord, I shouldn't have even done that. I shouldn't have even cut off the skirt of his robe." And it came to pass afterward that his heart smote him, and he said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." So David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul, but Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way. David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave and cried after Saul saying, "My Lord, the king." And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself. And David said to Saul, "Wherefore hearest thou men's words saying, 'Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?' Why do you listen to these lies? Behold, this day, thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee today into my hand in the cave, and some bade me kill thee, but mine eye spared thee, and I said, 'I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.'" It seems that David, there was some degree of anger against Saul, exasperation, frustration. "Why is he trying to kill me? I can't kill him, but I'm going to cut part of his garment off and show him that I could have killed him. I'm going to show him that I could have killed him if I wanted to." But even that, his conscience convicted him about even doing that. And he speaks to Saul here. "Moreover, my father," he says in verse 11, "see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand, for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand. And I have not sinned against thee, yet thou huntest my soul to take it. The Lord judge between me and thee." And he commits judgment to the Lord here, into the Lord's hands. "And the Lord avenge me of thee, but my hand shall not be upon thee."

You know what? If we take justice into our own hands, if we retaliate, we're going to get in the Lord's way. We're going to get in the Lord's way of either convicting that person and bringing them to repentance and getting right before the Lord because they can't sense the Lord's conviction because all they can see is us retaliating. That's all they can see. Or, ultimately, if they do not heed the Lord's conviction, just as Cain rejected the offer of the Lord to get right about Abel, eventually he was judged in his sin. So we may be a savor of life to some, or a savor of death to others, but it is not our place to condemn and ultimately judge another. It is our place to be like our Father. It is our place to represent our Father and say, "Father, forgive them." Is that not so contrary to our human nature, our natural way of thinking? Get even is part of our nature, isn't it? Naturally speaking, our flesh says, "Get even," and God says, "Have mercy." God says, "Be pitiful." God says, "Forgive."

You know, we talked about how revival can't come if there's not confession of sin, right? There's not getting sin out before the Lord and saying, "Lord, you're bringing this to my awareness. Lord, purge me of this. Get it out of my thinking." We don't even want to just say, "Help me not to do that." "Lord, help me not to even think that way. Help me not to think that way because, you know, we're in the world every day. We're interacting. And it can rub off on us, can't it? It can rub off on the way that we think." Just talking to David about that earlier. Just on the job, hearing people the way they talk, the way they act. It just, over time, can build up the influence of that. We see things on the internet, don't we? Even if you're not looking for trouble, you hear and you see things, you just sense the mood that's out there. Like I say, driving up and down the road, you see the mood, it's just aggressive everywhere. Be merciful. We still have no excuse, still we must not fail to be like our Father. He's been merciful to us. He is merciful to us. Let us be merciful. Oh yes, justice will be served one way or another. God will serve justice, and it is our responsibility to be merciful. May our spirit be under the control of the Holy Spirit. May our thoughts and our words be acceptable, well-pleasing in His sight. May we be like our Father.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us in these things that we've said. Lord, we know that as we go out this week, we will be tempted in some form or fashion, and maybe it will come to each of us differently. It'll come in a different way to each one of us, but Lord, we are going to be tested. Are we going to walk by faith or are we going to walk by sight? Are we going to retaliate or are we going to be merciful as our Father in heaven is? Are we going to turn the other cheek, so to speak? Are we going to slap back? Help us, Father, to do what is right. Help us by faith to obey your word and to reap the blessings that come when we trust and obey. There really is no other way to be happy in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, than to be trusting and obeying. We pray these things now, asking them in Jesus' name, Amen.