Римлянам 12:19

The Christian, under any provocation, must never avenge himself; we must leave that matter to God, who, in His own good time, will certainly avenge His "dearly beloved." Nothing can be more touching and beautiful than these terms of endearment. Just when provoked and excited to retaliation by wicked and unreasonable men, the voice of tenderest love is heard rising above the strife of human passions: "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath." Retire from the scene; give place to my government, because of the injury you have received. It is my prerogative to punish.

The knowledge of God, as the avenger of His people's wrongs, is not intended to awaken in our hearts the smallest desire that the divine vengeance should overtake our enemies. This we must watch against as a secret desire... To advance in arms against our enemies; to watch for their halting; to wait our opportunity to give out what we have been nursing within; to exaggerate their failures, that they may receive double for their sins; to rejoice inwardly when we think they have been repaid in their own coin, is to indulge a spirit entirely contrary to the mind of the Lord in the passage before us, and to the whole genius of Christianity. To the Lord alone rightfully belongs the prerogative of vindicating the innocent, and of punishing the guilty.

If this be the true meaning of our precept, and the word of the Lord can never be broken, what shall be the vengeance of God, ere long on those who are constantly injuring, slandering, and persecuting the children of God — who make them the butt of their ridicule, and the objects of their jest and reproach? The injuries which they have sought to inflict on the unoffending disciples of Christ shall recoil upon themselves ten thousandfold.

He is not even to assert his rights now, but is called to suffer wrong as Christ did; not to render "evil for evil, or railing for railing, but, contrariwise, blessing" — not to avenge himself, "but rather give place unto wrath" (1 Peter 3:9; Rom. 12:19).

It is a solemn thought that wrath and vengeance belong to God. It becomes us, instead of avenging ourselves, to bend before the blast, looking to God; nay, to render service to an enemy in need and distress. This will bring him to a point with God or with you: if he melt, so much the better for all; if he harden himself, so much the worse for him. For the Christian it is exercise in the divine nature, that is in faith and patience and love... So God, in our own case as with all who love Him, overcame our evil with His good in Christ our Lord; and now also He gives us to be imitators of Him in grace, which wins the victory in His sight and to our own consciousness, even when we may seem most downtrodden before the world.

They may determine to do their own wills; their wild ambition may result in far-flung battlefields and torrents of blood and tears, yet if God permits this He still holds the reins and says "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay" and will say to them in His own time, as to the ocean's billows: Hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.