Our text today is 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, looking again just at one verse today, verse 15. And interestingly, it is this text that made me think of something from my educational past. It made me think of Newton's laws of motion. Now, if you took any kind of physics class, if you took a physical science class, anything related to those. I'm sure you were told about Newton's laws of motion. I'm sure you think about them every day in everything that you do. There are three of them, though, just to remind you, and they describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. More specifically and more famous is Newton's third law, and it states this, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So maybe at least that part is jogging a few memory cells for you. For every action there is an equal reaction. This means that whenever an object moves and hits or pushes against or presses on even another object, that second object reacts, as it were, by returning the same amount of force. Well, now you're thinking, what in the world does that have to do with anything that we're studying today in 1 Thessalonians? Well, interestingly enough, the connection is found in what is a default setting of our flesh. Our flesh is what the Bible calls our unredeemed humanness, even though we come to Christ and are regenerated, given new life, that means we have a new orientation. Some people say a new nature, but I think a more accurate way of thinking of it is a new orientation toward Christ and a new position in Christ. We're no longer oriented toward Adam or in Adam. We have all that, but there's something that does not change until we're glorified in heaven, and that is our unredeemed humanness, the flesh. Even though we're saved from sin, we carry the flesh with us until we're glorified. And it is because of the flesh, what we can also call, by the way, the principle of indwelling sin, it's because of that that we will at times sin. Because sinning is the only thing that the flesh knows how to do. My flesh is very, very skilled in that. So if we're faced with temptation, There's a battle between our new orientation in Christ, our new position, and our resources, and who we are now. There's a battle between that and our flesh, and we must say no to our flesh. We must say no to fleshly thoughts and fleshly desires so that we don't give in to the temptation and sin. The sad problem is, like I said, we do yield to the flesh in moments of time. Now, though all sin originates in the flesh, there is one sin in particular that our text today addresses. It is this one, the sin of retaliation, retaliation. It's a sin that means we're merely reacting. See, there's the connection with Newton's third law, in my own mind at least. We're merely reacting to something. or what someone else has done to us. When we're sinned against, when we're offended, when we're hurt, our fleshly default setting is to react by getting angry or lashing back or putting the other person in their place, we might say. In short, this is called getting revenge, retaliation, revenge. sinful reacting to what someone else has done. Now, I'm not saying this is literally an example of Newton's law. I'm certainly not saying that Newton had this on his mind when he created all the physics formulas that have to do with his laws of motion. I'm just saying I couldn't help but think of Newton's third law about reaction as I studied today's verse. I was therefore reminded that reacting to what someone else has said or done is essentially one of our biggest problems. I've told many married couples along the way, and I've taught this in many a marriage conference, that reacting is 90% of our marital problems. One person says or does something and the other one reacts to it, and then the first person reacts to that, and then the other person reacts again. It just escalates. You cut out reacting and you deal with 90% of your issues. So today, we will see how important it is that we not react sinfully when sinned against or hurt or offended in some way. Instead of reacting, we need to act, which is why I've entitled today's sermon, as you see, Act, Don't React. Now, we can react sinfully in more than one way. With sinful attitudes and thoughts, we can react in the way we speak and so forth. But the primary sinful reaction that our verse addresses is using words and using actions to seek revenge. That's verse 15. Now, before we look at the verse, let's review what we found last week in verse 14 because the outline we're following does cover both verses. So this is a continuation of that. We began our study of these two requirements related to various interactions that church members may face with other people. The first requirement is our own personal involvement. And so we saw last week these areas that the Apostle Paul mentioned where there is an expectation of our involvement as church members. We have to face sometimes the unruly. And each member of the church is to sense the responsibility our Text verse 14 last week said, we are to admonish another member who is unruly or a member who is just negligent in their biblical responsibilities in some way. He mentioned another group, the faint-hearted. Each member of the church is to sense the responsibility to encourage those people, the faint-hearted. They're the ones who are discouraged or disheartened for some reason. And then he mentioned a third group, the weak. Each member of the church is to sense the responsibility to help those who are the weak, those are the members who are greatly struggling in some area of temptation, or who are weak in just knowing how to live their lives in light of the theology they say they believe. That's what's expected in specific situations, and then we moved on. and found what was expected of us and what is expected of us in all situations, whether we're dealing with the unruly or the fainthearted or the weak, or we're just facing differences in the body due to different ethnicities and social status and so on. Verse 14 said, patience must be exercised at all times toward everyone. Well, now in verse 15, we come to the second requirement related to the various interactions church members may face with others, and that is, number two, personal constraint. On one hand, we're to jump in and get involved in certain situations, but there's something else now we're going to see that we must exercise great constraint, restraint even. And this requirement applies to a wider scope of people than just those in the congregation. In other words, the patience that we're to show toward the other church members is also required toward non-Christians. And the reality is, people don't know Christ, they can't hurt us. They can sin against us in a variety of ways. They can sin against us with their words. Proverbs 12, 18 is right on when it says, there's one who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword. When they speak, we feel like we're being attacked or they're out to do us harm, it's James 3, the quintessential verse in the New Testament about the power of the tongue, and we're familiar with it. But verse 5 says, the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it boasts great things. In other words, it's this small organ related to the rest of the body, but it can set a forest aflame. Verse 6, and the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body. Even though it's so small of an organ compared to the rest, it ruins everything. It sets on fire the course of our life. And then he tells you what he really thinks, it's set on fire by hell itself. No one can tame the tongue. It's a restless evil. It's full of deadly poison. And here's the sad part, he says in verse 10, from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. It shouldn't be that way, he says, but it is that way sometimes. Hurtful speech, abusive speech, words that attack, words that belittle, words that put down or criticize or manipulate as well as gossip and slander. People can hurt us. that way. They can hurt us by what they do. They can hurt us by what they don't do as well. Their actions, they can manipulate, ostracize, ignore us, and so on. But the point of today's passage is that even though being attacked and hurt or offended by others can happen to any one of us at any time, we have a certain responsibility for what claim to be followers of Christ. And our responsibility is to constrain any fleshly tendency toward retaliating and to instead respond in a way that pleases the Lord, to respond in a way that displays to the Lord that we truly are followers of Christ. So let's see how this constraint should be manifested. The first thing given to us in verse 15 is the categorical prohibition. Here it is. see that no one repays another with evil for evil." And that verb translated see in this translation is a present tense command. It just means this. It doesn't mean just look with your eyes. It means to be careful. Be on your guard. It's the idea of constant watchfulness being necessary. And in this case, it is watchfulness to keep this prohibited practice from creeping in and the prohibited practice is seeking revenge, retaliation. That's what the verb repays is meaning. And it's combined with this negative phrase there, no one. So repays combined with the negative no one means then any and every act of retaliation by any individual is prohibited in every way. This is a meticulous watchfulness. And so it applies even to a single instance. It doesn't mean that you can do what you want 90% of the time and just be meticulously watchful 10% or even vice versa. No, it's all the time. We must constantly be on our guard during each individual moment so that no situation, in no situation are we ever trying to pay someone back evil for evil. And that just means doing something harmful or injurious to them out of an evil motive. We're to constrain our thoughts, our emotions, our actions, and never react with the attempt to avenge ourselves. Now, we've learned something about the Thessalonian believers along the way that in that city, they truly were facing a lot of hostility from the unbelievers there and even persecution. We saw a little glimpse of that back in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 14. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches that are in Judea." In other words, in Judea, there's suffering over there at the hands of the Jews, their own countrymen. But you also, he says, endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen. So because of the hostility they were facing, there was this danger, even this motivation for the believers there to seek ways to avenge themselves, to join the avengers, so to speak, and avenge themselves on their persecutors. Now, moreover, we've also seen this, that within the church there were issues. Obviously, there were the unruly and so forth. There were members who were not completely conforming to the moral standards that was expected of believers. There were people taking advantage of other members financially. And so that could have presented a temptation to retaliate even against people in the church. But either way, Paul was compelled by the Holy Spirit to give instructions on this topic. Now, before we proceed with his instructions further, we need to discuss something that's found in the Old Testament. It's something called the Lex Talionis. It's a Latin term, so you're learning science today, you're learning Latin today. It's a Latin term that means the law, lex, the law of retaliation. And the general idea behind lex talionis is that any punishment meted out should resemble or match the offense that was committed. The retaliation, the punishment should match both in kind and degree. Now, we do find this in the Old Testament. We find in Exodus 21, for example, it says, but if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life. And here's the part we're all familiar with, eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. I mean, that's become a colloquial saying now, a metaphor. We understand, well, you know, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. Believers have about two Bible verses they love to quote, unbelievers. This is one of them. An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. And the other one is, don't judge lest you be judged. They're life verses. It's found in Leviticus 24, 19, if a man injures his neighbor just as he has done, so it shall be done to him. One more, Deuteronomy 19.21, thus you shall not show pity. No, it's life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Somebody knocks out your tooth, the punishment is we knock out their tooth. Somebody plucks out your eye, the right punishment in kind and degree is to pluck out their eye. But you got to understand what the original point was of lex talionis for the nation of The original point of this Old Testament law was to seek to prohibit, first of all, going beyond the appropriate punishment. That was part of its role. It's not two eyes for an eye, three-tooth teeth for a three-tooth, for a tooth. But even more important Stick with the appropriate punishment, but the appropriate punishment was not for individuals to carry out. It was carried out by the officials, the leaders of the community. This was not sanctioning personal retaliation. Their leaders, their government, in other words, it was their role to mete out any required punishment. But people distorted the law's purpose. began to claim that it justified their personal revenge. The scribes especially did that. That is what we call taking things in your own hands, forming a lynch mob. So what had been given as restrictive law to be enforced by community leaders had been transformed into a permissive law for individuals to carry out. And that is the natural tendency of humans. It makes sense to our flesh to do that. So much so that it became culturally accepted. It became the culturally accepted default setting for how to respond to evil. The norm, we would say, became that it was fine to think this way. It was fine and even expected to avenge yourself. By the time you get to Paul's day, the Roman culture was like that. It supported retaliation. If a person lost honor in the eyes of the community in some way, social honor, that was a terrible thing to happen. And so it was expected that that offended person would extract vengeance in order to reestablish their place in the community. It reminds me even of those back in the day, you know, hundreds of years ago, the old slap in the face with a glove. Somebody's offended you and done something to you, you slap them in the face with a glove, and that was a sign that you're challenging them to a duel. Be out at such and such corner of the town, tomorrow morning there's going to be a duel. We're going to settle this to get honor. You violated my family in some way or whatever. But that kind of personal retaliation has never been supported in Scripture. We find verses like these in Proverbs, do not say, I will repay evil. Wait for the Lord, He will save you. 24, 29, do not say, thus I shall do to him as he has done to me. So Paul's instructions in our verse here It goes against the cultural norm. It's a totally different kind of path to follow than resorting to personal vengeance. This verse is a categorical prohibition against any and all forms of retaliation. It doesn't matter how natural it is and how it feels. It doesn't even matter that to many it's considered a virtue. Christians are clearly prohibited from retaliating against anybody. And that means that compliance with this prohibition is an important test of our character, our Christian character. It's evidence of whether or not we're maturing as believers. And just so you'll know, the command to constrain one's anger and desire for retaliation is put in plural terms in the Greek, and so it's clearly addressed to everyone in the church. But there's a major reason why. A major reason why all believers have this perpetual duty to not give in to this fleshly tendency, this prohibited practice, it's simply this, the only one who has the right to do it is God. Deuteronomy 32, 35, vengeance is mine in retribution, not yours, mine. Nahum 1 verse 2, a jealous and avenging God is the Lord. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries. It's quoted, repeated in the New Testament, Hebrews 10.30, for we know Him who said, and when you see capital letters like this in a verse in the New Testament, that means it's a quotation of the Old Testament. For we know Him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, we find this in the Old Testament, the Lord will judge. It's God's job, and that's why it's categorically prohibited. Well, if so, then what should we do? How should we respond? I'm glad you asked. The verse goes on to give us the constructive alternative. In other words, there's an acting side to it, not just reacting side that's being discussed. That's why I entitled the sermon, Act, Don't React. It's now the acting side, verse 15. But always seek after that which is good. Now, this whole verse is a great example of the biblical motif for change. To change and grow, we have to do both sides of this. There has to be a renewing of our mind, first of all, with truth. But once that occurs, we have to put off what's wrong and put on what's right. Both are necessary. Putting off wrong thinking and wrong behavior that goes with it and putting on right thinking and the right behavior that flows out of that. We don't change unless we do both consistently. Both are necessary. So we need to put off any thoughts of retaliation. and put on active good. How often? What kind of situations are we talking about? Well, the answer is found in that little word, always. That term always confirms that there are no exceptions to this injunction. This is to be the approach on every occasion, no matter how trying the circumstances may be. Well, how serious should we be about fulfilling this? That goes back to the verb seek after. This is an interesting verb. The verb translated seek after here has actually two nuances to its definition. One, and it's translated this way sometimes in the New Testament, is persecute. It means to persecute. If you read it that way, You're missing the sense of the verse because there's another way it's translated in the New Testament, and that's with the word pursue. Here's some verses where you find either one of those translations. Romans 12, verse 14, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. So there in Romans 12, 14, it's translated persecute. How can it possibly be meaning persecute and pursue? Well, think about persecution. Persecution is someone chasing after you, pursuing you. So Romans 12, 14, same Greek word, we're to bless those who are seeking after you to do that. Look at 1 Timothy 6, verse 11, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness, same Greek term. Hebrews 12, 14, pursue peace with all men. Here in our verse, it is carrying that second nuance of pursue, but I'm convinced that Paul actually wanted both meanings to come to the minds of the Thessalonians when they read this, because in their situation, they were being persecuted by their enemies. And so by using this term that has both nuances, they're reminded that that's going on, but that on the other hand, they are to continue to seek after them, to pursue them in order to carry out what would be beneficial for the persecutors. And that's what Christians are to actively pursue doing. returning good for any wrong against us. The term good refers to acts that are helpful, acts that are beneficial, so it's the opposite of anything that would be harmful. It's acts that are beautiful, it carries that nuance. Noble, true, loving, kind, excellent. Good means all that. It's a word that's used in the New Testament of a way we're to live our lives all the time. We're to live our lives all the time pursuing good. Here's some verses about that, that present it as the normal lifestyle. 2 Corinthians 8.21, we have regard for what's honorable. We're to love what's honorable and pursue that. Even what's honorable in the sight of men, he says. Ephesians 4.25, we lay aside falsehood. speak truth, that's good. So these are not all the same Greek term as good, but all these other Greek terms are fleshing out what good means. Philippians 4, 8 gives us a lot of terms. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there's any And if anything, worthy of praise. First of all, dwell on those things. Think about those things all the time. Let your mindset be on those things because that's spiritually healthy to do that. So our verse is saying, yeah, all that those things mean, do that for the one who offends you. That just means we're not to abandon our normal Christian lifestyle when it comes to our enemies. or to those who frustrate us and offend us and irritate us, those who oppose us or hurt or attack us. We're still to put off any forms of retaliation and put on then words and acts of kindness and love in order to do that person good. Again, it's the consistent biblical perspective, especially in comparison to treating our enemies wrongly. Lots of verses about this as well, 2 Kings 6 verse 22. He answered, you shall not kill them, your enemy. Will you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink. Proverbs 25, 21 is quoted again in the New Testament. If your enemy is hungry, here's what you do. Rejoice. He could starve to death at any day and then he'll be out of your life. No, if your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he's thirsty, give him some water. Matthew 5.43, Christ speaking, you've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor, hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That was shocking. 1 Corinthians 4.12, when we're reviled, we bless in return. So Christians have to make these kind of acts their constant pursuit. They must always be on guard, keep looking for ways to do that, to show kindness and to do good even in the face of open hostility. But this isn't natural to us. It doesn't come easy. It doesn't come without some effort. And that's found in the verb seek after as well. It's an imperative, a command is indicating that this requires actually intentional effort on our part to do it. So the goal of doing the difficult person good is a goal that we have to intentionally choose to constantly and earnestly pursue. Maybe the imagery would be like a hunter who's stalking his prey. He just doesn't give up. He keeps going after it and after it and after it wherever it goes. So no half-hearted efforts on this. You can't put forth half-hearted efforts because this goal is very difficult to reach. Our flesh hates it. And of course, all this doing good starts with how we respond to other believers. It doesn't exclude people in the body. He does say in verse 15, for one another, he says that first. I need to be concerned about the welfare of everybody, including those in the body, even those in the church who may seriously offend us in some way, and that happens in churches. I mean, I've seen those kind of churches where somebody sits on this side of the worship center and somebody else sits on that side. They've been doing it for 40 years. Don't speak to one another. That's common, actually. So yeah, it applies to them, but the main point of our verse 15. is that such beneficial activities must not stop with the church family. It's also applied to everyone else as well, captured in that little phrase, for all people. All individuals with whom we come in contact, those inside and outside the church, even those who have done us evil, Christians must diligently endeavor to produce what is intrinsically beneficial and helpful for others. Here's some other verses that talk about it being for both, all people. Galatians 6.10, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people. 1 Timothy 2.1, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made behalf of all men. I mean, not every individual. You don't know every individual, but all kinds of people. Pray for all kinds of people in the government, whether you voted for them or not, includes Neighbors, co-workers, family members, church members. 2 Timothy 2.24, the Lord's bondservant must be kind to all. Titus 3 verse 2, malign no one. Be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. So this is a consistent biblical way of thinking and living. And it doesn't matter how serious the abuse is. That's not the issue. Some Thessalonians, no doubt, they were the victims of very unjustified, severe, and harsh treatment at times. But regardless, this positive Christian response is the only suitable recourse. That means our prime objective is not us. Our prime objective is the welfare of the other person. Here's a quote by William Neal. The aim of the Christian must always be to secure the greatest good of all. I mean, this mindset that we're talking about, it is not cultural. It is not natural. This is a distinctively Christian mindset. In fact, it goes back to the teaching of Christ Himself. It connects with what He taught. Matthew 5, you've heard that it was said. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Yes, they were all familiar with that. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person. Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Again, you can imagine how they were thinking when they first heard Jesus say things like this. But it was picked up by the apostles. Peter is one good example of that. He exhorted believers to adopt this attitude because it's a direct imitation of what Christ did, 1 Peter 2.23. And while being reviled, he, Christ, did not revile in return. He didn't flesh out Newton's third law here, you know, okay, I'm being reviled, I got to revile in return. That's the proper reaction. No, while suffering, he uttered no threats. He kept entrusting himself to Him who judges righteously. He kept thinking this, the father knows, the father sees, the father will take care to do what is right on my behalf in his time, his way. 1 Peter 3.9, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. Paul, though, is the one I think who put the most meat on the bones here about this teaching. It's not just in our verse. but probably the most fleshed out section is what he wrote to the church in Rome, Romans chapter 12, verses 17 through 19. I'm gonna camp out on this passage for a few moments this morning. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 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. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. In so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head." You can stop there and you can think, well, now I'm liking what I'm reading because that sounds like it could really be painful for somebody. I don't mind pouring burning coals on the guy's head. We'll get to that in a moment. do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Look at verse 19. You can see, again, it makes it clear that vengeance is God's role. It's God's job. It's His prerogative. And I can tell you something about that. He has no intention of giving it up ever to anybody. And that's a good thing because if it was in our hands, there's a problem with our kind of retaliation and our wrath. Our wrath arises too often out of emotion, out of personal feeling and personal offense. I'm offended. I'm injured by somebody's words or deed. I'm bothered. I've become frustrated and angry. It's not like that with God. When he avenges a wrong, he does it with perfect equity. perfect justice. So that's why it only makes sense to do what verse 19 says, leave room for the wrath of God. Let me tell you what that means. It literally, to leave room, this Greek term means literally to give place to the wrath of God. It doesn't mean leave room for the wrath of God. Okay, I get I'll take care of 90% of it, but I'm going to leave a little room, 10% for God to kind of come in and He can close the deal for me. No. It's the idea of standing to one side even as His wrath, His vengeance is rushing toward us. Stand alongside and let it go by you. I'll put it more bluntly. Leave room for the wrath of God means get out of the way. You're in his way, trying to retaliate and avenge yourself. He's a lot better at it than you are. And how he does it is his prerogative. When he does it is his prerogative. But he'll always act in accordance with his perfect righteousness. So we're not to repay, it says in verse 17, evil for evil. But there is a kind of repayment that is permitted. So here's how he says it in this text, verse 20, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. In other words, our job is to find ways to minister to that person and meet their needs. If you're having thoughts, I'd like to kill the person, well, this is saying you have permission to do it, but do it this way, kill them with kindness. And so the words food and drink are just pointing to things that are tangible. Tangible helps. And notice the potential result this kindness can have, for in doing so you'll heap burning coals upon his head. That term coals is symbolizing something here. There's lots have been written on this verse, so I'm giving you the right view on it. The term coals symbolizes the burning pangs of shame and contrition. This is a way. of potentially making the enemy ashamed of himself, and thus potentially paving the way for his repentance. And that term, heap, means piling it up. So this whole approach is not just, you know, I'll go to the same church with him, but I'm not going to talk to him. It's a lot more than just saying, okay, let's bury the hatchet and shake hands here. It is thoughtful, generous, unwearied kindness with which you are to overwhelm the person who has hurt you or offended you or disappointed you. And I can tell you what this approach is going to require from us, a lot of humility. To get rid of our own pride and our own sense of hurt and our own sense of rights. And it's also going to take a lot of patience to see what effect it's going to have. I mean, it's going to have some effect. It's just that it's like the truth that's proclaimed. The truth will harden some hearts and melt some hearts. So will this approach. It'll either melt or harden, but it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is not the result. The only thing that matters is, biblically, it's the right thing to do, to pursue acts of kindness. And so the approach is then summarized in that powerful statement in verse 21, do not be overcome by evil. In other words, don't be overcome by what they're doing to you because when you get overcome by what they're doing to you, you start adopting, potentially adopting some of the same attitudes that they have and the actions that they have. And those actions and attitudes are not in keeping with our life in Christ. And then we've become evil like them. So if we retaliate, the bottom line is the other person wins. He or she has succeeded in bringing you down to their level. So that's the negative side of what's said in the summary statement, but he urges us to take a positive step as well, verse 21 says, but overcome evil with good. So now this is going on the offensive, so to speak. And the verb is present tense again. The action is to be continual. Keep doing this. I don't know, pastor. I'm just not certain it's going to work. My answer would be, well, first of all, you need to define the word work. If your definition of work is, this is going to stop the person from hurting me, or this is going to stop someone from disappointing me or offending me or opposing me, No, there's no guarantee here by Paul that this will always have that desired effect. It could bring him to repentance, but there is a more significant definition of work always. The highest definition of work is this, it's what works to glorify God. And with that definition, yes, this approach always works. It brings glory to God. Or said another way, it always pleases Him. And even more significant, I think in some ways, is that this kind of agape love that you're showing, it corresponds to something. It corresponds to the way God has treated us as enemies. Romans 5.10, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. In other words, when we take this approach of subduing evil with our own good, we're acting like God. He did that. He overcame our evil. with His grace and His love. There are two connected ideas to all this I want to leave you with. You just need to keep in mind this idea, and that is the reality of suffering. We may suffer when doing what is right. We may suffer if we take this approach. And because of that reality, here's what Peter wrote. And I said I was going to come back to verse 23 of 1 Peter 2, but here's kind of the whole section, a little summary of the whole section. This finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, in other words, what points with God do you get if? When you sin, you're being harshly treated. In other words, in this whole thing that's happened, you've actually have played a role a bit. You've caused some of it. You've influenced some of it, perhaps. So there's no credit for that if you endure it with such patience, you know, when you're part of the problem. But if when you do what is right and suffer for it and you patiently endure it, that finds favor with God. You've been called for this purpose. What purpose? To suffer. We can't get out of all suffering. Christ also suffered for you, and He left you an example of how to suffer. And it's that verse I read earlier. While being reviled, He did not revile in return. While suffering, He uttered no threats, but He kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. We trust as well. The Father sees, the Father knows. He'll do what is right on our behalf. Now with all that said, I want to give one balancing thought here. It's the reality that in some cases, the harm or the abuse or the attack may reach a level where it is even criminal. And when that's the case, it is wise and necessary to seek legal and or governmental In other words, the exhortation to personal constraint is about just that. It's my own side in this, no revenge and no sense of retaliation. That still applies. But the exhortation to personal constraint does not preclude Christians from seeking lawful action by civil authorities when it's criminal. In fact, the civil authorities are appointed by God for that purpose, Romans 13. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. For it does not bear the sword for nothing. It's a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil." That could be necessary. But I will say this, a person certainly ought to seek counsel from their elders if they're on a path like that, to reach some sort of decision in such a severe place in life. But second, I will say it again, even still, the actions you take are not for the purpose of revenge and retaliation. And what would be the purpose? For the protection and good of others sometimes, and in some cases, even for the greater good of the offender that they suffer in this way. But the bottom line still remains. When it comes to merely personal injuries and offense, we are privileged to honor Jesus by doing what He said, turning the cheek, giving our cloak, doing good, to do all that to the one who's unjust toward us. There's a second idea. Number two is, and this is connected to it as well. It's the whole subject of forgiveness, how that enters in. What is that? Well, this is such an important topic. Guess what my sermon is going to be on next Sunday? The biblical doctrine of forgiveness. Hopefully, what it is and what it isn't. So, we're going to do a topical study next week of that very important topic, a topic we need to revisit from time to time. because we all have opportunities to practice it in some way or other. Father, we thank You for the marching orders that You've given to us, hard words to swallow. Depending on the circumstances, we may find it even more difficult, but Lord, we know Your Word is true, and we can trust it. We don't have to question it. We don't have to try to reinvent things and try to re-explain things. We can take You at Your Word, but we just want to accurately understand it. So, Lord, help us with this. There may be people here right now thinking of someone, someone that they work with, someone they're close to, someone in their own family, a child, a spouse, a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a neighbor, someone in this church. Lord, help them to take all this to heart and to trust You in this and to flesh it out in a way that pleases You. In Christ's name, amen.