Note: To download/print the document, click on the
title below.
Psalms
80:1-19 Give ear, O
Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!
Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, Stir up Your strength, And come and save us! Restore us, O God; Cause
Your face to shine, And we shall be saved! O LORD God of hosts, How long will
You be angry Against the prayer of Your people? You have fed them with the
bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in great measure. You have made
us a strife to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves. Restore
us, O God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved! You have
brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. You
prepared room for it, And
caused it to take deep root, And it filled the land. The hills were covered
with its shadow, And the mighty cedars with its boughs. She sent out her boughs
to the Sea, And her branches to the River. Why have You broken down her hedges,
So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the woods uproots it, And the wild beast
of the field devours it. Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from
heaven and see, And visit this vine And the vineyard which Your right hand has
planted, And the branch that
You made strong for Yourself. It is
burned with fire, it is cut
down; They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. Let Your hand be upon the
man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. Then we will not turn back
from You; Revive us, and we will call upon Your name. Restore us, O LORD God of
hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved! Father God, help us to live a life
modeled after your only begotten Son. Jesus constantly reveal to us of our
short comings so that we will be regenerated into a new human being that will
project your light. We give you all the glory and praise. Amen!
Romans 12:17-21 NKJV
The
balance of this chapter is about our conduct. Last week we studied what we are
commanded to do and this week we will learn how to conduct our life as children
of God. In reading the verses for this lesson many things come to mind and I
have had to change my opinion about some things going on in my life. Is good,
all a Christian should display by turning the other cheek? What should we stand
up for and oppose? This is something we all wrestle with and we need to allow the
Holy Spirit to guide us through God’s Holy Word the Bible.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good
things in the sight of all men.
Repay
no one evil for evil;
We have all heard this many times that we are never to pay back evil with more
evil. Vengeance belongs to God as stated in verse 19. When we hold grudges we
are living for our flesh and not for God. In fact we are disobeying Jesus and
what He commands us to do. Our flesh wants to have the satisfaction of seeing
someone hurt in some way, whether physically, mentally, or just held back and
not given the opportunity to advance in their life. We as human beings tend to
play judge when it comes to others. For instance, someone at work may rub you
the wrong way and therefore when a promotion or an opportunity for that
individual to advance, he or she is held back because they have had a
disagreement with one or more individuals that make the decisions. The people
making the decisions don’t look at the qualities of the individual, they only
see what has ruffled their feathers. If we proclaim to be Christians, aren’t we
to wipe the slate clean and start out fresh?
Now I don’t want to give
you the wrong idea, because we also have to weigh the individual’s actions by
what this individual does after an incident. Did they learn a lesson or do they
continue to lead the same life? Do they continue to cause strife within the
workforce? Do they only think about themselves? If there is no change in the
person’s behavior and attitude, then that person should be let go for the good
of everyone else. Paul did this with Hymenaeus and Alexander. 1 Timothy 1:18-20 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you
may wage the good warfare, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some
having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 20 of whom
are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not
to blaspheme. They
were causing dissention, division, not being truthful in what scripture meant
by twisting it for their benefit, in other words being gossiping busy bodies. 2 Timothy 2:17 And their message will spread like cancer.
Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, So with coaching
and explaining the truth that resulted in no change, Paul removed them from the
group of believers in order to have unity among God’s children. Romans 12:10 Be
kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving
preference to one another; Romans 12:16 Be of
the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but
associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
Have
regard for good things in the sight of all men; Do things in such a way that everyone
can see you are honorable. The word “good”
in this verse means “morally good,” “noble,” or “praiseworthy.” This is the
positive side of the negative command not to return evil for evil. A Christian should not concentrate on the evil in
others, but instead should focus on what is good and let his lifestyle portray
light. By doing this, we will encourage others to do good also. 1 Peter 3:9 NLT Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with
insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is
what God has called you to do, and He will bless you for it.
18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you,
live peaceably with all men.
If it is possible; this expression implies that it could
not always be done. Still it should be an object of desire as a Christian, and
we should strive to obtain it.
As much as depends on
you, live peaceably with all men; This
implies two things; we are to do our best to preserve peace, and to soothe the
anger and hatred of others and we are not to begin a quarrel. We are to seek
peace, but sometimes peace is not within our control, this is why Paul limits
the command.
Others may oppose and
persecute us, they may hate religion, they may slander, revile, and injure us,
or they may assault our persons or property. For their assaults we are not held
accountable for, but we are accountable for our conduct toward them, and under
no circumstances are we to start a confrontation with them. Psalms 34:14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and
pursue it. Matthew 5:9 Blessed
are the peacemakers, For they
shall be called sons of God. We are to do all that we can to live in peace
with everyone. If all would follow this command, it would put an end to the
turmoil that exists in the world today.
19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is
written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.
This verse portrays action
but not on our part. It is God and only God that has the right to send his
wrath upon someone. We are to stay clear and allow God to do his will in our
defense. Sometimes it may not seem like justice is served in our eyes, but we
can’t see the future and what is in store for a person that wrongs us.
Beloved; is an expression of tenderness in a call
to peace.
Do not avenge
yourselves; to avenge
is to take action against an offender, in order to gain satisfaction for harm
he caused you.
But rather give place
to wrath; this expression is
to induce us not to attempt revenge ourselves, but to leave it with God. To
“give place,” is to leave it for God to come in and execute wrath or vengeance
on the enemy. Give yourself and your enemy to Him and be assured that he will
vindicate you, and punish him.
Vengeance is mine; this expression implies that it is not
right for people to interfere with that which belongs to God. When we are
angry, and attempt to avenge ourselves, we are infringing on what belongs to
God Almighty.
I will repay; its design is to assure us that those
who deserve to be punished, shall be, and the business of revenge may be safely
left in the hands of God. We must believe that God will take the matter into
his own hands, and that he can administer it better than we can, and if our
enemy should be punished, he will be. God will vindicate his people and is
clearly and abundantly proved in 2 Thessalonians
1:6-10 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those
who trouble you, 7 and to give you
who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with
His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do
not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 9
These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His
saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony
among you was believed.
In this day of lawsuits
and never-ending demands for legal rights, Paul's command sounds almost
impossible. When someone hurts you deeply, instead of giving him what he
deserves, Paul says to make friends with him. Why does Paul tell us to forgive
our enemies? Because forgiveness may break a cycle of retaliation and lead to
mutual reconciliation, or it may make the enemy feel ashamed and change his or
her ways. Repaying evil for evil hurts us just as much as it hurts our enemy in
God’s eyes. Even if our enemy never repents, forgiving him or her will free us
of a heavy burden.
Forgiveness involves both
attitudes and actions. If we find it difficult to feel forgiving toward someone that has hurt us, try responding
with kind actions. If appropriate, tell this person that you would like to heal
your relationship. Lend a helping hand. Send him or her a gift. Smile at him or
her. Many times you will discover that right actions lead to right feelings.
20 Therefore "IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED
HIM; IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP COALS OF
FIRE ON HIS HEAD."
This verse is taken from Proverbs 25:21-22 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
22 For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the LORD will
reward you.
Being free from vengeance,
believers can show love and mercy toward their enemies. By acts of kindness,
the believers will heap coals of fire
on the head of their enemies, perhaps bringing shame and repentance to the
offender. It is possible for an enemy to become a friend by the extraordinary
power of God’s love that believers are connected to through Jesus Christ.
What exactly does this
phrase mean, “HEAP COALS OF FIRE ON HIS HEAD”? When the believer returns love
and kindness back to the offender, it is possible by God’s Almighty power and
the work of the Holy Spirit the offender may become gilt ridden and repent of
his wrongdoing. This heaping on of coals is a figure of speech meaning to
causing the offender to have conviction of wrong doing. The more good the
offended does the more shame and guilt the offender will have, hopefully.
Through the good actions of the offended, seeds of hope are planted in the
spirit of the offender. With these seeds of goodness being planted, maybe the
offender will see the light of Jesus Christ shining from the offended and give
their heart to Jesus.
The concept here is like a
man wanting to get to know a lady that he has seen and would like to court. The
lady has the view point of what this fella is like from casual acquaintances
and her seeing him in public. Her point of view is that he is boastful, not
caring, insensitive, and constantly talks about himself. She wants nothing to
do with him. He introduces himself and gets the cold shoulder. The next time he
see her he buys a cup of her favorite coffee and has the waiter deliver it to
her. This type of kindness continues in form of a card, a single flower, a
dessert, etc. which eventually he does the delivering. Through these acts of
kindness the woman’s heart softens and finds out he isn’t such a bad person
after all and eventually dating occurs. This is what heaping coals of fire on
ones head is all about with the hopes of a heart being changed from evil to
good.
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil
with good.
Another way of saying this
verse is, don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
Do
not be overcome by evil;
don’t let your Christian principles to be abandoned or allow your mild, kind,
and benevolent temper to be ruffled by any injurious experience. Maintain your
Christianity and show the power of the gospel.
But overcome evil with
good; As Christians
we are to display peace, harmony, and love. We are to love one another with the
love Jesus loves us with. That love is the love of benevolence meaning we are
to love the person, but hate the sins of that person. It is through this type
of love that souls are won.
Romans
1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is
the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…...
Psalms
51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit
within me.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless
one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Bill Wiesbrock
Last Week’s Trivia: Who was Achan?
Answer: Achan was a greedy, deceitful man,
Achan disobeyed Joshua’s orders and the nation’s pact against looting Jericho,
and secretly stole some of the booty. Israel’s next assault was a bloody encounter,
and the leaders suspected a breakdown of the community vow. Achan was tried and
executed, along with his family. Joshua Chapter 7.
This week’s Trivia: Who was Achsa?
No comments:
Post a Comment