Wait for the Lord

Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the Lord, and He will avenge you. (Proverbs 20:22)

 

Our lives are strongly bound by old habits and customs. A problem is a fact that we don’t fully realize how and what we are bound by such old things. One of our wrong attitudes accustomed from long time ago is gossiping about others, and the mind of retaliation. Because the faith is which comes with salvation in Christ, a person of faith following Christ becomes look at the world through Christ. Moreover he who believes in Jesus as Savior knows that the Lord is the Judge of everything. He thus will have to treat the world and others according to God’s will. And he must comply with it after knowing that a matter God is in charge of even the retaliation.

 

“The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts,” is written in Proverbs 18:8. In this verse, the ‘choice morsels’ means a special food that we don’t usually eat. When we look at the ‘choice morsels’ set up at the table of feast, we put other things aside and eat firstly a lot that. As like that, it means it is persons’ characteristic to like more to talk gossip about others. But, the Bible teaches us not to do such wrong act. The mouth was made for telling and eating, but the mouths that speak ill of others must be closed. The mouth should speak selected the good words, and it should be used especially for praising Christ.

How vulgar or wicked tendencies of humanity are, some even curse and kill their own father or mother. Such men are ones as bad as beast. Why guys worse than beasts appear is that the human soul had already changed due to sin. Beasts do not intentionally hurt any other animals than to get prey and fight for self-defense. Unlike that, men are full, the more sins they commit. Some hate others and do to be harmful to others even though those don’t harm themselves. Humans commit suicide or kill others, and further they kill even their parents to death. Those who curse their parents will fall into the pit of hell, and will perish forever. Please remember God the Lord’s commandments clearly demand us “respect your parents.”

People are usually boastful of that they succeeded when they earned honor, status, and wealth early than others. Yet the dignity of such a successful person early may not have maturity enough yet, so it is dangerous as if carrying explosives on the back. Everyone can be excellent person to do whatever of one’s job well only when the soul and body mature evenly. Rich only in skills and knowledge does not mean that the person is properly mature. Or doing of special talents of entertainment does not mean that they can live a faithful life. God had made a man who is the combined being with the soul and body in the beginning. Therefore an excellent person can be formed through continuous efforts to renew mind in the Spirit as well as training the body.

It isn’t a strange phenomenon at all that all kinds of discords and fights between people one another continue. To commit evil is bad definitely, it isn’t also desirable for those who have been harmed to seek revenge. Repeated act of inflicting harm and retaliating is nothing more than like a vain chicken fight. Before either side surrenders, they are going to bite and tear to no purpose until the end each other. If we see the martial arts movies, they retaliate against each other by continuing generations to resolve their resentment between individuals and families, or between political factions and martial arts genealogy. In the end, there isn’t anything good left for each other, yet they continue futile retaliation.

Ah, foolish lives! By repeated doing retaliation of killing between people, any problems will never be solved fundamentally. The judgment on a person is not an affair that man can do for oneself. Things on the object and method of retaliation are matters wholly depending on the hand of God. Christ came down to man from God’s throne in the heaven and solved the problem of sin. Thus the shape of the cross is often explained as a top-down, left-right relationship, which refers to God and people, and between people and people.

 

We live with people who are seen by eyes horizontally. And at the same time, people also live under the upper and lower relationship with God. The fact that we believe in Jesus Christ means that our relationship with God has been normally established. If so, we must live activating faithfully between people, and obey with awe for the Lord the Judge too. Just as the Israelite passing through the wilderness waited for their departure whenever the cloud pillars or fire pillars stayed, waiting for Jehovah, if we live following the commandments of Him, God will allow us to enter the land of Canaan to be blessed forever.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on Feb 20th 2022)