Proverb

Peace. It is one of the most valued things in the world today. Mahatma Ghandi, arguably the greatest peacemaker in the 20th century knew this. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," he said.

Explain: Revenge is the natural desire of man when he is wronged. But if everyone who is injured takes revenge, then everyone will wind up injured, because we all mess up.

Proof: Everyone will wrong someone in his life. It is practically unavoidable. We are all human. If it wasn't for forgiveness, we would destroy each other.

Examples: The classic examples of this go back to the ancient periods demonstrated in Roman culture and the epic of Beowulf. Blood feuds dictated that if you kill someone from my family, I will kill someone from yours. It goes on until there is no one else to kill.

You could also look at many murder motives. Someone kills their spouse because they cheated on them and then they go to jail. Revenge comes back to bite you.

In contrast, there was an elderly woman who was in the process of being robbed in the parking lot. She treated the young man with grace and talked to him about the Christian gospel. The man let her be.

Testimony: In the Pentateuch, an eye for an eye was not revenge as much as it was a just course of action in many judicial settings. Jesus took the Law and showed that following the letter of the law isn’t always the most desirable. “Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who persecute you”

The apostle Paul also said so. By returning the evil with good, “you reap colas of fire on his head.”

In other words, as the Talmud says, “Live well. It is the greatest revenge.”

Epilogue: May the whole world look to forgiveness and lead by example—end revenge and perhaps change a few lives in the process.