A Christian woman farrier customer of mine today despaired of the following apparent contradiction that has plagued her as she has struggled to know what to do during times when she's experienced the world's justice system letting her down, not satisfactorily serving up her fill of justice to certain wicked individuals, leaving her with the desire to take measures into her own hands and pursue her own need for revenge.
I can't tell you how gratified I was to hear someone bring up a problem they were having deciphering scripture.
She wasn't sure what to do. She posed what appeared to her to be a contradiction in scripture because she was unable to figure out how to reconcile the following two verses.
1) * "AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH." and...
2) * "Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord"
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(1) Mt 5:38
"You have heard that it was said, `AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.'
(2) Ro 12:19
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.
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As usual, I was not ready with a very convicting explanation. I told her it was a "covenant" thing; one old, lived out in the Old Testament, and the other new, as explained by Christ in the New Testament. A dispensational thing. And then I fumbled around explaining the old covenant of the Law and the new covenant of the ministry of the Spirit.
We love our verses. Memorizing them and throwing them around abbreviatedly to explain God's revelation to us through His scripture.
Here's where I went wrong. I had not simply gotten my Bible out.
But even if I'd gotten my bible out, still how would I have quickly found these two verses and made some sense out of them - without fumbling and skimming and searching for a long long time? I would have done it with the Bible Concordance under my seat.
I could have made, perhaps, complete sense of the dilemma in minutes...perhaps looking at least for a moment, like a complete Christian finatic, controlled by the love of Christ even - which I truly hope I am anyway- and sent her away with the complete scriptural answer.
But instead I thanked her for making me think, told her I was going to have to go and fill out my own understanding and come back later with a more satisfactory answer.
I wish I'd taken a moment with her and looked at these verses in my Bible because there instantly appeared the complete answer.
All we'd needed to have done was to go to the remainder of both verses, and then to the following verse, where things would have been instantly cleared up for us.
We could have gone to Romans 9.
Rom. 12:19
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.
From this passage it should be very clear never to take your own revenge. He tells us where, when, why, and how.
And then we'd have gone to Mathew 5.
Mt 5:38
"You have heard that it was said, `AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.' 39 "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person;
With the word "But" here Jesus tells us Himself that we are no longer to avenge an eye for an eye.
No more eye for an eye, or tooth for a tooth style self-administered justice. No more revenge. Leave room for the wrath of God.
God tells us now that that was how it was then, but... this is how it is now. Straightaway we are now fully instructed.
Well I'm more prepared now.
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44 "But I say to you, love your enemies..."
45 "...so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven;"
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Praise be to God, with thanksfulness, through Christ, who is our full knowledge and wisdom in His Word to us.
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