God’s Word to You is
Matthew 5:38-39
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Exodus 21: 23- 25
23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Romans 13:1-5
Submission to the Authorities
13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
Each of these verses speak of evildoers. The first and last point to Christian values and the middle one sets the standards for punishment of crimes. Our country, like it or not, is founded on these Judea Christian values.
We’ve forgotten that. Many believers will point to only the first verse when faced with certain situations. The world always has found excuses for sin. We see that daily here. Oh, those people are angry for injustices from the past so we need to be kind and understanding and not hold them accountable. Oh, those people come from countries not as good as ours so we need to excuse the fact they entered our’s illegally. Oh, those people need grace and mercy because they were raised in a bad home and… on and on and on.
Folks, we all need His grace and mercy. Every one of us. And we need to be able to offer it to others so they see Him. He is the only one who can change hearts and wow, so many hearts need Him today. The challenge is in our attempts to offer those, we can’t ignore fighting evil can mean enforcing punishments on those committing crimes. Which is when we use the verse from Exodus to mete out justice. Not using the standard we are given is why crime is so prevalent in our country today. It’s why our borders, our streets and our homes are under fire by those who don’t fear punishment for their deeds.
We live in an evil world. We live in times where good is called evil and evil is called good. We know we were warned about these times and even though we can’t fight prophecy we still must hold onto and follow Him. Grace, mercy and love are our standards but tough love is part of the equation too.
Tough message. Tough world. It’s harder than ever to just be His, huh?
me n’ God love ya