The deep revelation of the gospel is not just that “God so loved the world,” (John 3:16), but that “God is Love” (1 John 4:8).
Love is not merely what God does; love is what God is, within God’s own being.
We can see what this divine love looks like in God’s act of giving his only begotten Son for the sake of the world. Therefore, Love is self-giving and other-centered.
Apostle Paul gives us a profound description of this divine love in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8.
Have you ever noticed that vengeance has no place in this description?
Vengeance is not merely indifferent to love. This act is directly opposed to love. Love is not self-seeking; vengeance is.
Love keeps no record of wrongdoings one has suffered or enacted on others, it is not resentful; retribution takes careful note in order for its utiliser to pay back in kind.
Love seeks what is good for the sake of the other; retribution seeks vengeance for one’s own sake.
So how does God deal with those who do wrong? How does He deal with those who curse and abuse us?
God is love, and love is simply not retributive.
Yes, there is divine wrath and divine judgment, but these are not for the purpose of retribution; they have a very different end in view.
In the hands of angry men, wrath and judgment are destructive, but in the hands of divine love, their ultimate purpose is not destruction but restoration.
And, yes, there is divine vengeance, but the way God — the way Love — pays back is very different from the way of the world.
Look at how Paul puts it in Romans 12:17-21: Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay, ’ says the Lord.
On 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.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Paul instructs us here on how we should live.
He is not telling us to be different from our heavenly Father, or from our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the express manifestation of the Father.
No, he is showing us what God is like. God does not pay back evil with evil, but overcomes evil with good. )Emmanuel Archontakis is of the Kingdom Ministries of Christ.
