Romans 12
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord. 20On the contrary:
”If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is a very encouraging part of chapter 12 but also convicting. When in vs 17 say don’t repay evil, which I wouldn’t, but it is comforting knowing God will have his wrath. Because I do truly try to be kind and help when I can help whole heartily. And when I get burned by so called christian folks drives me crazy, but knowing God will take care of it, makes it ok to walk away. Then to finish it off in vs 20-21 and pay back evil with kindness. That is so hard, I know that because I am going through this right now in my life. I get ripped of by someone and once he starts yelling over nothing, and accusing me of stuff I never did. I just have to not argue and try to smooth the conversation enough to just get off the phone and not resort to my flesh and want to whoop his ask. But kill them with kindness is where that may have come from. God will clear this up. Thanks Jesus for the freedom to rely on you and gaining your heart and helping me with dealing with this situation.
Can you imagine if we all really levied our lives this way, wow what a world it would be. I think Heaven will be much like this, everyone just loving one another and you can always trust the other person, which will be nice. I guess Paul, and Christ, just wants us to have a little Heaven here on earth. It is a hard chapter to live out because my flesh wants to get revenge and get what’s mine, what’s fair. Did to check my heart. Life can be difficult, Lord help keep me in check.