not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath; for it is written, Vengeance [belongs] to me, *I* will recompense, saith the Lord.
Paul has just told believers to live at peace with everyone as far as it depends on them. Now he turns to the harder case. Someone has really wronged you, and you want to settle the score. Who has the right to repay? And what should the injured person do instead?
A word of affection at the worst moment
Notice where the word "Beloved" falls. It comes just when a believer is most stirred up:
No matter what the provocation, a Christian must never take revenge. We must leave that to God. In His own good time He will avenge those He calls His "beloved." Nothing could be more moving than words of such affection. Just when cruel and unreasonable people have provoked us and stirred us up to hit back, the voice of tenderest love rises above the noise of human anger... Step away from the scene. Make room for My rule, because of the wrong done to you. Punishing is My right alone. See Deuteronomy 32:35.
Why God keeps the right to repay
The reason is not that wrongs do not matter. It is that we cannot measure them fairly. One writer explains what goes wrong when we take the job on:
God is the only One who has any right to exercise vengeance. If man tries to avenge himself, he will always go beyond what is perfectly just and right. We can never be trusted to make perfectly fair judgments in our own case. We may also think judgment should come sooner than it does. But God knows better than we do when judgment should fall and what form it should take.
Standing aside, not weakness
Leaving room for God's wrath means stepping back so that His anger, not yours, deals with the wrong. Refusing to step back is not neutral — the space you keep for yourself gets filled by someone else:
It is very hard for the heart to bow and say, "I will be nothing but a lamb." But that is our place, because the Lord says, "Vengeance is mine." We are told to "leave it to the wrath of God" (Rom. 12), and to "give no opportunity to the devil" (Eph. 4). If you do not leave room for God's wrath, you will leave room for the devil. Do we lose anything by staying quiet and taking things patiently?
The hand and the heart
You can withhold retaliation and still nurse the wrong inwardly. One writer warns about what we go on nursing inside:
Knowing God as the One who avenges the wrongs done to His people is not meant to stir up in us the least desire that His vengeance should fall on our enemies... It is a very unhappy thing to keep dwelling on the injuries we have received — real or only imagined — either in our own minds or in talk with others. How much happier to forget them, and commit ourselves and all our affairs into the hands of the Lord! To take up arms against our enemies, to watch for them to stumble, to wait for our chance to pour out what we have been nursing inside... is to give way to a spirit completely opposed to the mind of the Lord.
Personal restraint, public justice
Giving up private revenge is not the same as letting crime go unpunished. One writer draws the line:
The law of Moses laid down "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."... For the Christian it is quite different. God has dealt with him in grace, so he must act in grace towards others... Now it is the day of grace. But a day of vengeance is coming for those "who do not know God and ... do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." A Christian's duty not to avenge himself does not clash with God's government through rulers. Their authority comes from Him, and they use it to hold back and punish evil.
God's own pattern with us
What replaces revenge is not silence but active good. It copies what God has already done for us:
Instead of avenging ourselves, we should bow before the storm and keep looking to God. More than that, we should help an enemy who is in need and trouble... For the Christian's rule is Christ: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That is what God did for us, and for all who love Him. He overcame our evil with His good in Christ our Lord. Now He lets us copy Him in grace. Grace wins the victory in His sight, and we know it ourselves, even when the world sees us as beaten down.
Summary
- Beloved — the command comes wrapped in affection. It is spoken to people at the moment they are most provoked.
- Reserved — God keeps vengeance in His own hands because we always overshoot. He alone knows the right time and the right measure.
- Vacated — leaving room for God's wrath means stepping out of the judge's seat. The room you refuse to leave for God gets taken by the devil.
- Searched — the test reaches past the hand to the heart that quietly hopes judgment will fall on the one who hurt it.
- Overcome — active kindness takes the place of revenge. It copies how God met our evil with His good in Christ.