One of the marks in God’s Kingdom of a forgiven person is that he has become merciful toward others. Vengeance is never to be found in the weapon store of some one whom the Lord has forgiven.

Ephesians 4:31,32—Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
(MSG) Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.

 

Romans 12:19,20a—Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
(MSG)17-21 Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it." Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

 Deuteronomy 32:35¾To me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
(MSG) I'm in charge of vengeance and payback, just waiting for them to slip up; And the day of their doom is just around the corner, sudden and swift and sure.

 

I John 2:6¾He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.
(MSG) 4-6 If someone claims, "I know him well!" but doesn't keep his commandments, he's obviously a liar. His life doesn't match his words. But the one who keeps God's word is the person in whom we see God's mature love. This is the only way to be sure we're in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.

The above verse from I John is most compelling. As we are being drawn into the Kingdom of which Jesus Christ is the Head, we are being called to live even as He lived. But, the fact is, this is that call to impossible living about which we have spoken. Of course—the solution for this is that we learn to let the Lord Himself do our living for us.  We learn it is not for us to live for Him. It is that we allow Him to live for us.

Learning these lessons is what makes us children of the Kingdom. It is the Kingdom that has come into the earth from the heavens. This is a realm that has Laws quite different from the laws by which we are accustomed to living. The Laws of the Kingdom are as strong as the laws of the universe, indeed if not even stronger.

For instance, we give little thought to the law of gravity. It is a law so strong that we are drawn into it, compelled even to live by it, to give ourselves to it without being aware that we are doing so. It is a law unto which we submit because to ignore it means we suffer. So are the laws of the Kingdom. To ignore them, to try and live above them—which is really to live beneath them—in rules we have drawn up for ourselves, expels us from the very Kingdom we hold with a pretense.

Rules of the Kingdom of the Heavens are so foreign to the rules of earthly kingdoms that they only confound those who refuse to repent. But, for the soul that will repent—this means to change one’s way of thinking—Heaven’s Laws become the very essence of Life. It is Life so expansive and grand that one might feel he has never lived till he has submitted, finally, to the greatest Laws for living ever conceived in all the universe.   

DEAR LORD, I am learning that the joy and peace of forgiving others is far better than holding resentment. Oh, please move into who and what I am and make me into a person who quickly forgives others. Then, let the grace of Your Kingdom move freely through me to others.

Often, the one who has been forgiven the most loves the most.—Luke 7:40-48

 

 

 

 

 

 

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