Being Kind & Forgiving Instead, Part 1 (TMF:1424)

Thursday, July 30, 2020
Peace to Live By: Being Kind & Forgiving Instead (TMF:1424) - Daniel Litton
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       In the Old Testament, God had commanded the Israelites many things in how to live and conduct themselves as a nation. One of these things was that they were to repay back a wrong for a wrong committed. This is how their justice system worked. On the other hand, Israelites in one-on-one relationships were never to practice this law individually themselves, as if they were to carry out the force of law as a vigilante. When it came to one-on-one relationships, people were supposed to be kind to one another, and forgiving of each other. Apparently, by what Jesus tells us here, the Scribes and Pharisees had perverted the Jewish law by teaching that people individually should retaliate against each other when wrongs were committed. They had taught that people, on a one-on-one level, should take matters into their own hands. So, Jesus here goes completely against their teaching. We can conclude then that Jesus is talking about how unbelievers treat us, for he says, “Do not resist the one who is evil.”