At the start of ROTS, Anakin and Obi-Wan try to save the Chancellor from Count Dooku and General Grievous. Anakin beats Dooku in a lightsaber duel. Listening to Palpatine, Anakin kills him.
Anakin begins to regret his decision, but Palpatine tries to convince Anakin that “it is only natural. He cut off your arm, and you wanted revenge.”
It is still true today when someone wrongs us.
There is a feeling or sense that we want to retaliate, a kind of tit for tat.
As believers, we are told in 1 Peter 3:9, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”
Paul, in Romans 12:19, beseeches the believers to “never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”
This flies in the face of what we naturally want to do, but that is the point. We should let go of our “fleshly” desires and act more as Christ would act.
Paul shows us how Christ would act when in the next verse, Romans 12:20, he writes, “To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.”
This is what Jesus said in Luke 6:27-36 and Matthew 5:43-48.
We “do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” as Paul writes in Romans 12:21.
Consider the price it cost Jesus to redeem us and then think of what it would cost us to live out what He told us in Matthew 5:38-42.
We would turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and give without expecting a return.
This is impossible by ourselves and is only possible with God’s help.
Will we ask for His help today?
