Contemplative Bible Reading

Romans 12:19-20 (New Living Translation)

¹⁹ Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,

“I will take revenge;
I will pay them back,”
says the Lord.

²⁰ Instead,

“If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap
burning coals of shame on their heads.”

Revenge is sweet—so says someone in human history. Revenge is for God—so says Paul in his letter to the Roman church.

I could write about how I want to revenge those who harm me. It does feel so good to “get them back.” Still, human folly.

Instead, we are to take care of those who harm us. Sigh. I understand all this, but, really? Isn’t that just some nice thing to say? A good principal, but not practical and all that.

Isn’t it easy to create such nice excuses? That, however, is all they are: nice excuses. It is plain what God expects of me.