Compassion for evil doers

Mat 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Mat 5:40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.

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Exo 21:24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Exo 21:25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.


Lev 24:20 Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.


Deu 19:21 And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

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It had been said, in fact it was a common practice for criminal matters to be handled this way- an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If you did something bad to a person and were caught- you paid with a *like* action. It sounds like fairness doesn't it? More than one person would easily say that a person who steals deserves to have their things taken from them, a person who maims another deserves to be maimed, a person who murders deserves to be killed, and so on. It's only fair, right? Those who intentionally hurt others deserve to be hurt- justice needs to be served, vengeance needs to be had.


We've thought it, we've felt it, we've wanted justice, we've wanted others to get their just reward, we're guilty of this - none of us are exempt. Now with that in mind ask yourself this question… did you ever want *more* than justice for some wrong done to you or a loved one of yours? Did you ever want them to suffer more than they really deserved? Did you want that simply because that person had the audacity, the evil in them to commit the evil act? Do we want a person to pay double, triple because they had NO right to do what they did? Do we sometimes want their death even if they did not commit murder- simply because of the horrifying pain they caused? Do we in our finite judgment really believe we have a right to take life from anyone?


I'll be the first to admit that evil, true, real evil exists- that there are people who have embraced evil to its fullest and their lives reflect that. Evil deserves to be wipe out, but we aren't the ones who are to do that wiping out.


We were given an instruction on how to deal with the wrong doing others would inflict upon us and we weren't satisfied with getting just and eye for an eye- we wanted two eyes for one eye. We weren't happy with getting a tooth for a tooth we wanted a whole mouthful of teeth for a single tooth. We couldn't be trusted to err on the side of good because inevitably we would err on the side of evil. Our own evil nature would take over and we don't mete out justice fairly but allow our judgment to be colored by all that makes us who we are. Who hasn't heard about a judge being harsh because he/she was having a bad day? We can try our hardest to be fair and that's a good thing- as far as it goes- but we are very imperfect and the imperfect judging the imperfect is never very good.


Does this mean I think all evil should be simply ignored? No.


But I believe ANY evil person we judge needs to be judged with compassion.


Mat 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Mat 5:40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.


Those who would hurt us need to get compassion from us- not returned evil. What's this doing? What's this compassion all about? It does what? It REVEALS JESUS.


The salvation each of us can have is given to us freely and totally undeserved. The compassion that is within us through the love of our Savior can be freely given to those undeserving. This is the message we are to hear from these words of our Savior, this is the lesson we need to learn. Not to do unto others as they've done to us, no… but do what our Savior would have us do unto them… reveal undeserved compassion and in doing so we reveal the love of God.


By His amazing love and grace may we seek Him and His wisdom whenever we are in a situation needing compassion over justice or revenge.


In His love!