Life In A Fallen World

And that word means to be abused. When he was abused, he didn’t give back abuse. He committed himself to a faithful Creator. He left the retaliation to God. He left the vengeance to God. He left the anger to God to bring about whatever execution of divine justice was appropriate. We don’t have the right to be angry at things that come at us. It’s very hard to be righteously angry about that, because we get our own egos and self-protectiveness caught up in it. In Matthew 5, we have some straightforward instruction with regard to this.

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 21, you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. This is a common teaching, you shall not commit murder. Jesus said, but I say to you, the law goes a lot deeper than that. Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. You’re just as guilty as a murderer if you’re angry with your brother. And whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court.

And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. You don’t have to kill somebody to go to hell, just be angry at them. That’s the same as murder. Just like Jesus said, you’ve heard it said that you shall not commit adultery, but I’m telling you, if you look on a woman to lust after her, you’ve commit adultery in your heart, and it has the same consequence. We don’t have a right to be angry, to revile back to people, even when they falsely accuse us. Romans chapter 12 speaks to this very practical reality.

Listen to what Romans 12 says, verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Did you get that? Bless those who persecute you, and do not curse. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Again, go down to verse 17. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Never. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 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, for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So when evil comes at you, don’t let it overcome you. You overcome that evil with good. People have recently been saying to me, you’re getting pretty hammered on the internet, people attacking you and assaulting you. Are you going to respond? Yes. The only thing I can say is I want to bless those who persecute me and not curse.

I never want to pay back evil for evil to anyone. As much as is possible, as far as it depends on me, I want to be at peace with all men. So you can’t pick a fight with me. I’m not going to fight. But what about the wrong they’re doing? 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. You think God doesn’t know? You think somebody’s getting away with something? Guess again. God keeps those accounts. I don’t need to deal with that.

I don’t need to seek revenge. I don’t need to retaliate. I don’t need to curse back. I just need to do what Jesus said and commit himself to a faithful creator. In Colossians 3, again, we have very similar instruction. Colossians 3 5 talks about, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things the wrath of God will come on the sons of disobedience. God’s wrath will be exacted with perfection, perfect justice. You used to walk in them, but you don’t do that anymore.

Now, verse 8, put aside all anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. You don’t need to do that. You don’t need to retaliate. There is a righteous anger, but it’s not going to be a self-defensive anger. It’s going to be in defense of God or someone else. Back to Ephesians. If you allow yourself to lie or you allow yourself to cultivate anger, verse 27 says you gave the devil an opportunity. You threw the door wide open and said, come on in devil and take over territory in my life. As I said two weeks ago, lying and anger are the default postures of fallen humanity, because Satan, John 8 44, is a liar and a murderer.

So there’s nothing more devilish than lying and hating, anger. But the anger of the Lord is always righteous. The anger of the Lord is always righteous. Listen to Numbers 25 3 and 4. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor. That was the god of the Moabites and Midianites, in other words, an idol. And the Lord was angry against Israel. The Lord said to Moses, take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the Lord so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. God’s anger could only be ameliorated in the execution of idolaters on that occasion.

This is what Jeremiah in Jeremiah 4 and Jeremiah 12 calls the fierce anger of the Lord. And it is always measured appropriately. It is always just, it is always right. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. The anger of the Lord is always righteous, always righteous. But our anger is not always righteous. So that’s why it says, be angry, but don’t sin. Don’t be angry in an unrighteous way. But even more than that, an explicit statement is made in verse 26. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. What is that meaning? Don’t go to bed mad.

Don’t go to bed angry. This is the first impulse toward murder. It doesn’t matter what offended you. It doesn’t matter what hurt you. It doesn’t matter what injustice came your way. What inequity came your way. What cruelty, what harm came your way. That’s life in a fallen world. I mean, we’re living in our culture and looking right down the barrel of a deadly gun called critical race theory. That is nothing more than people cultivating massive amounts of anger, much of it over something that was done to previous generations and not even them. It doesn’t take much of insight to see the devastating effect of that kind of anger.

You don’t want to cultivate that. You don’t want to start a movement built on anger. You don’t want to live that way. You don’t want to be always angry with someone or some group or some politician or something in the culture. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of life in a fallen world. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.