I saw an article with the title, "What If Christ Had Not Been Born, and it set me to thinking my own thoughts. There's no end to the things that could be said, but somehow, my mind went to the words "vengeance," and "revenge." I looked them up an a concordance and found that although there are many instances of individuals and armies taking revenge on others, the New Testament had only seven instances of either word or their derivatives, and not one of them gives us the right to take revenge on another.

And that’s totally in keeping with the teachings of Christ. He not only instructed us to “turn the other cheek” (Matt 5:39, Luke 6:29), but when He was asked how many times we should forgive someone who does us wrong, we should forgive seven times seventy (Matt 18:22), and of course what He meant there is no limit on how often we should forgive. Hard words, but there they are.

But we should remember that although we should not take vengeance, God has that right and that obligation, because those who fail to give their hearts and lives to Christ, must pay their dues, which include ending up in the hell that the Bible so often speaks of, and losing our place in the Heaven that He has promised to believers. God said “vengeance is mine” (Romans 12:19) and “vengeance belongeth to me” (Heb 10:30), and He will fulfill His promise.

What else, if Jesus had not come to live with us as the New Testament relates? Even we who totally follow God, would still be offering sacrifices daily, weekly, monthly, yearly...it was a tremendous chore to follow. And we’d not be eating much of the foods we now enjoy, and there would be so many rules that had been added by priests, that our lives wouldn’t be our own.

We talk so much today about “human rights,” that it had become a burden...authorities deciding that it’s ok to burn our flag, or to scream obscenities at the funerals of boys killed in service to our country. But it’s a small burden, in comparison to what was the rule back in the days before Christ. Be concerned, but be happy in the Lord.