Deceived

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

The mystery of iniquity- the mystery of sin had begun way back then and it was as real then as it is today. Why don't we believe the Apostles? Why don't we believe the word of God given to them through the Holy Spirit? Why do we choose to ignore the truth in favor of our lies? Because sin has clouded our minds and stained our hearts black.

Sin will continue until it is taken away, it will NOT disappear of its own accord. Sin will not leave quietly, willingly. Sin will need to be taken out of the way, sin and those ruled by sin from the greatest to the least.

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

That WICKED revealed.
That WICKED will be consume, destroyed by our SAVIOR, and until our SAVIOR returns sin will continue with all it's horrors. The wicked controlled by sin from the impersonator of Christ himself, to the beast whose mark will be placed upon all who do not love the LORD of TRUTH, will continue working. He works today and will work endlessly, tirelessly until he can work no more!

2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

HIM- whose coming is AFTER the WORKING of SATAN- with ALL POWER and SIGNS and LYING WONDERS!

This person who will come is REAL! And it will be a PERSON who will be alive when CHRIST returns! They could not be destroyed if they did not exist.  This MAN will do the WORK of SATAN!  Do we believe in a person like this or have we regulated them to the movies and books, to fables and horror stories? We have, haven't we? Seriously, we've put this evil person on the big screen and we watch him commit atrocities and sometimes we watch him be defeated and other times we watch him continue to live on much to the delight of those who want the sequels where this evil wrecks havoc with people in ways we don't want to believe could ever truly be real. Satan has done his work well, and we could expect no less from him.  He's got most people totally deceived.

2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

ANYONE - that include YOU who are reading this, it includes ME who is writing this, and it also includes everyone else in the whole entire world- anyone who does NOT receive the LOVE OF THE TRUTH, will be DECEIVED by UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, and NOT SAVED!!!!!!!   Only those who LOVE THE TRUTH WILL BE SAVED!!!!!!! 

Loving the truth. How unfortunate it is that so many would much rather believe lies, comfortable, familiar lies that keep their lives filled with equilibrium that they rely upon. The truth is hard hitting and does not wait for us to feel comfort, our comfort is not mandatory to the truth! Yet we think it is. We think we have to like what we hear, that it has to be soothing to our ears, but it doesn't!  We are DECEIVED by Satan! Eve liked the way the fruit looked upon that tree, it was pretty. Eve loved the soft, alluring voice speaking to her. Eve felt comfortable in the presence of evil itself and enjoyed the conversation. People can argue that Eve didn't know it was evil-  ARGUE all they like because the point is, WE DON'T RECOGNIZE IT ANYMORE THAN SHE DID! We listen to the soothing voice, we take in the lies and we like it! We follow that voice and we are DECEIVED!   Why? Because WE DO NOT WANT TO LOVE THE TRUTH!  We choose to love the truth! This is a CHOICE we make. It's not automatic to a single person!  The TRUTH!  We say those words in court- the truth and nothing but the truth- but SO MANY lies are spoken and believed.

2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

When our conscience feels the prick of unease, when we sense that tiniest bit of something not being quite right, we NEED to listen to it! We need to comprehend that sin in all its PLEASURE will lead to DEATH everlasting and eternal!  That PLEASURE we have in UNRIGHTEOUSNESS will KILL us eternally! No one is going to tell you that sin isn't fun and pleasurable, that'd be a huge lie! Sin is wonderful fun and great pleasure, but it's like poisoned icing placed upon poisoned cake.  It looks wonderful, it tastes delicious, but eating it will ultimately kill you. You might LOVE every bite of that cake, it could be the best cake you've ever had the pleasure of eating, but it will end up killing you. Don't believe anyone who tells you that sin isn't pleasurable, that you can't find pleasure in unrighteousness. You can find all sorts of pleasure in sin.  You can also deny yourself all kinds of pleasure and your sin will be found in your self-righteousness.  We HAVE to ONLY believe in the TRUTH, not the lies that Satan wants us to believe.  Go to GOD, go to CHRIST'S WORD, read it, study it, live it, love it! If you don't love it now LEARN to LOVE, CHOOSE to love it! 

All by the GRACE AND LOVE OF OUR GOD AND OUR SAVIOR HIS SON JESUS CHRIST!

Be not shaken in mind, or be troubled

2Th 2:1  Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2Th 2:2  That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is REAL.

What do you think you'd believe if let's say twenty years after Jesus died, rose, and returned to heaven, you were told that Jesus wouldn't return for just under two thousand more years? Would that shock you?  What if you were told today, right now, that Jesus would not return for another two thousand years? Would it change anything about the way you hope for His return? It's a given that we ALL, every single Christ follower, want Him to return as soon as possible, right? We want the Bridegroom to come for His Bride, which we are! We want the Master to return home for His servants! We long for our Savior to come save us from not just this awful existence we deal with day in and day out, but save us from ALL sin which has created this horrific world. Don't tell me it's not a horrific world just because you are bent on finding the good in it. We can shove on a pair of rose colored  glasses and see the world as something beautiful, because there IS a lot of beauty in the world. But all the beauty in the world does not negate the horrors that make this world NOT OUR TRUE HOME. The beauty of a newborn babe, does NOT negate the horrific death her mother faced when a total stranger sliced open her belly to remove that babe.  Why am I being so graphic, because this is reality. This sort of thing exists in our world. How many beautiful newborn babes have NEVER reached that stage because their mothers have chosen to scrape them from their wombs? How many children are growing up neglected not only physically but spiritually, emotionally, mentally facing a huge void because of the horrors of this world.  I'm not saying we are to be blind to the beauty God allows us to see, but we can't let that beauty blind us to the sin infested world we live in.  That gorgeous flower will wither and fade, that majestic mountain remains and yet how many have lost their lives on it?  Yes, I'm playing pessimist but I'm NOT advocating anyone worry about any of this. We have to face reality, but trust in our heavenly Father to care for us as only He knows best to do.

We cannot be shaken in our beliefs. We cannot be trouble- not by spirit, not by word, not by Biblical books. We CANNOT let anything  move us from our faith in CHRIST.  We cannot let anyone deceive us and many will try. Many like the idea of getting us to leave our faith because they feel victorious, as if they won some contest and brought us back from the brink of unstable thinking. They want us to be grounded in their logic and fact which do NOT require faith. They believe faith is something detrimental to a person because they set themselves up to believe delusions, not reality. They believe in fantasies and not fact. People want to steal the faith of others because they have none themselves. Many will try to deceive us who believe, they won't stop trying either.

Our Savior will come. We don't know when and yes, we've joined the ranks of those who were alive almost two thousand years ago believing the same thing. That day will come and before it comes there will be a falling away…

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God

The man of sin will be revealed-  the son of perdition- who opposes God, who exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. This man of sin will be as if he is GOD sitting in the temple of GOD, showing that HE is GOD, but HE WILL NOT BE GOD, HE CANNOT BE GOD! He will be a liar, an imposter!  This evil one will be real and many, many will worship Him as if he is God, they will be deceived.

WE CANNOT let ourselves be DECEIVED!  We can let man deceive us, we can, it's within the realm of possibility and we are fools if we think we are above being deceived. We have to PRAY for the protection from deception that ONLY our God can give to us!  We need to desire the truth in all its purity, not sugar coated with deception that will only prove deadly.

It's almost frightening to realize that there will be such a person deceiving those who desire to be God's but not to the point that they desire to believe all His truth with all their hearts. But we are warned! No one is going to be able to say they weren't told, they didn't know, no one informed them. It's right there in God's word for all to see!  His truth is visible, not hidden. It will only seem hidden to those who do NOT truly desire to know the truth. Those who want to be blind will be allowed to be blind, no one is forced to see.

Please LORD help us NOT be deceived by the man of sin,  please protect us! Help us! Love us! Save us, even from ourselves, especially from ourselves and our tendency to seek blindness over the light of truth, because the blindness allows us not to have to adhere to Your truths fully. Please help us LORD.

In YOUR LOVE!

You who are troubled - rest with us

2Th 1:6  Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you

Recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.

GOD will do the recompensing, NOT US. It's NOT our job, not our place to judge. We cannot judge with perfect justice, with perfect righteousness, only GOD can. Our judgment is cloudy and skewed. Even the best of men and women who sit on the benches as judges are NOT impartial. They may claim impartiality, they may claim they stick to the letter of the law without anything else interfering but the truth is even the most minute thing may alter a judges ruling. You might shake your head and say 'no way' they'd be in trouble if they didn't adhere to strict rulings but there is a lot more leeway with judges than people imagine.  It's the SAME with juries.  Juries are made up of 12 average people who are NOT judges and steep deep in the letter of any law. They look at evidence but ALL too often their emotions come into play. Lawyers know all about this. I'm sure you've seen movies about juries and such, and while they are works of fiction they are also based on a lot of truth.  Something a simple as NOT liking the way someone looks can steer a jury a certain way. It's no lie that people on trial are cleaned up good so they don't appear as they would normally, everyday. Our judging, our rendered recompense to those who trouble us is just as faulty because we are basing our judgment on our belief that person troubling us is evil, when in truth we don't know their heart at all. IF they go on unrepentant God will call them to pay for their sins, even the angels will be judged.

Jud 1:6  And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Am I against trials, judges, and juries? No. We do what we have to do to keep some sort of order in our world, even if our justice system itself is filled with corruption.

Personally we have to know that we cannot expect those who hinder our walk with Christ, man or angel, to be punished now, or ever punished at our hands. We are called to LOVE, not hurt, not use our very fallible natures to judge others.

2Th 1:7  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2Th 1:8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:9  Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
2Th 1:10  When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

Our SAVIOR is going to return. This is a FACT.

Our Savior will return and when He returns He will take vengeance- JUSTIFIED IN THE SUREST WAY EVER- on those who do NOT know God, and do NOT obey the gospel of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. The truth is those who choose NOT to know God, those who choose NOT to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ are making that choice KNOWINGLY, fully aware of the consequences. They are NOT being duped. They are NOT being tricked in any way shape or form. NO one and NOTHING is stopping them from believing, knowing, obeying, but themselves and the choice they make. You hear quite a bit that people don't want to believe in a God like the God they believe our God is, unfair, unjust, unloving, etc.  That's the choice they make, and when Christ comes again and they realize in that instant all the LOVE He has, the TRUE love, LOVE we can barely fathom, they'll understand that that the hardness of their own hearts has condemned them. What a tragedy that will be, a tragedy of their own making, egged on by the evil enemy of God- Satan himself.


2Th 1:11  Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
2Th 1:12  That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please LORD count us worthy of this calling. Please LORD, through YOUR righteousness, through YOUR grace, YOUR love, YOUR mercy!  All through YOU!

Glorify YOUR name in US and US in YOU all according to YOUR GRACE both FATHER and SON!

Please Lord, please.

Worthy of the kingdom of God for which we suffer

2Th 1:3  We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
2Th 1:4  So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure

You faith groweth exceedingly.
The charity of everyone of you all toward each other aboundeth.
For your patience and faith in ALL your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure.
The righteous judgment of God.
That ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God FOR WHICH YE ALSO SUFFER.

Yes, there are REAL physical persecutions of Christ's followers all over the world. There are also REAL spiritual persecutions of Christ's followers all over the world. In fact, not a single Christ follower can escape the spiritual persecution. The same goes for tribulations, every Christ follower will suffer them, if NOT physically then spiritually and all too often both.

We truly do need PATIENCE in our persecutions and tribulations. They are NOT going to stop coming not as long as Satan walks this earth, right up until the last possible moment he will be fighting with everything he's got to keep us from our Savior.

Imagine the worst possible human being you can, take history as an example, take the fictional movie bad guys-the worst of them. I say the fictional because there is a lot of reality mixed with that fiction. I'm talking the worst of the worst, the most heartless psychopath torturer and KNOW that Satan is a million, trillion times worst than that person in His unquenchable thirst to keep us from God, no matter what it takes.  Does it take a tragedy in our lives- so we blame God? Does it take a natural disaster we accuse God of allowing wrongly? Does it take giving us our selfish, perverted desires so that the last thing we want is the selflessness of God in our lives? Does it take the self-righteous concept that we know better than any God? Tragedy isn't the ONLY source for Satan to get us from God.  Once we are God's though and firmly established in our faith, Satan LOVES to throw trials and tribulations, persecutions at us and they come in many, many forms. We cannot shrug off a SINGLE simple upset as being merely bothersome. We have to recognize the attacks coming at us. If we don't recognize the attacks then we are in danger of succumbing to worse attacks.  Satan likes nothing better than hearing us blame God for even the smallest thing. He knows if He can get us believing the God abandons us, that God is unjust, that God is wrong, that God is hateful, spiteful, malicious, overbearing, etc, then he's won us. He got Eve to believe that God was unfairly keeping something wonderful from her.

2Th 1:5  Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer

Our patience when we endure LIFE and ALL it's horrors and they are horrors, true horrors, true upsets that rock our very core, our patience in all this can only exist because we have faith in GOD'S TRUTH, in GOD'S LOVE, in GOD! We can be counted worthy but NOT if we waver to and fro, not if we doubt every single time we are faced with trials and tribulations, persecutions and awful spiritual attacks. We must believe! And our belief must be manifested in our LIVES. ALL BY THE GRACE OF GOD!

We are so weak, God, so incredibly weak!  Please LORD strengthen us! Help us endure, help us, LORD WE BELIEVE, HELP OUR UNBELIEF!!!!!!! 

Help us be counted worthy of the kingdom of God which we do suffer for as we are put through life's spiritual warfare, and its physical warfare.  Please Lord in YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, not ours, YOURS!


All IN YOU! Always in YOU!

Abstain from all appearance of evil.

1Th 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil.

This should be easy to do, right?  Wrong. Not in our day and age. Why isn't it easy? Because so much evil is ACCEPTED as being good. It is! It's a fact. Right now our country is waging a war on homosexual marriage and all those who are against it have been deemed evil, while all those who are for it are deemed good. Having morals, having principles, having beliefs is frowned up. We are told if we aren't for this then we are evil through and through and filled with hate, we are called haters. It is FAR from the truth.  As a Christ follower I do not HATE a single person, that doesn't mean I can't hate any and every sin no matter who commits it whether they are homosexual or heterosexual, and all that is in between the two and you can't tell me there isn't a lot in between.  I can hate sin. Just as I hate murder, lying, cheating, stealing, fornication, etc.  I'm allowed to hate the sin, I am NOT allowed by any stretch of the imagination to hate the sinner and I don't! People get outraged by the mere suggestion of non-acceptance and yet their outrage is only proof of their OWN non-acceptance. Their own prejudices against those who have different beliefs rears up but they refuse to see it as such because their beliefs are somehow more acceptable,  they are more humane, more loving, just because they say they are.  I don't have to accept anyone's sexual life, it's not for me to accept it, no ONE answers to me, not one person. No one has to accept my beliefs, not one person. I only answer to GOD. Everyone will have to answer to Him and if those who are caught up in unrepentant sin -whatever that sin might be big or small- that's between them and God as well, not me and them. I won't condemn anyone, I can't because I will be judged by the same standard I judge by.

I'm not going to go on and on about this, I will NOT debate a single person on this subject not online, I don't debate any of my blogs- they are just that- my blogs and no one has to read or accept anything I say in them.

What I'm discussing here is ABSTAINING from ALL APPEARANCE of EVIL and how today it seems all but impossible to do so because we love so much to fit into the current trends of society. We've called so much evil good- a lot more than just homosexuality, that ISN'T even the tip of the iceberg of evil we call good now. Some of the people most lauded as being good are evil inwardly and their hypocrisy is worn blatantly all the while they are under the delusion they are caught up in good.  There are millions upon millions of liars, coveters, prideful, etc. people and all of that is SIN every bit as much as murder, etc. We would have to condemn everyone, hate everyone if we are to HATE sinners, but we are NOT to hate sinners, we are to LOVE THEM as JESUS LOVED THEM! If we want to be loved, we must love and we often are the worst of all sinners aren't we? Those who claim to 'good', are often the biggest hypocrites in existence.

Who am I to say all this? I'm a sinner, I'm a horrific sinner, and I need to be forgiven my own appearance of evil. It's not easy, not at all in any way shape or form.  Yet we are told to abstain from all appearance of evil.  So if I can, by the grace of God and only by the grace of God abstain from all appearance of evil, I should!  If that means NOT fitting in with society, then so be it, right? Who do I answer to? God or mankind? God.

1Th 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Please God of PEACE, please preserve all who love you and long for your return. Please preserve us- our whole spirit and soul and body, preserve us blameless in YOU.

1Th 5:24  Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

PRAISE GOD!

PRAISE OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST NOW AND FOREVER WHO IS TRULY FAITHFUL!

ALL in HIM!

Rejoice Evermore

1Th 5:16  Rejoice evermore.

When you are given a gift you rejoice, yes? But if that gift isn't realized but promised, you might not rejoice completely.  You know the gift is there, it's yours beyond a doubt, it's promised to you, but when something is promised to us and it seems as if it'll never truly be ours we don't seem to rejoice quite so much.

The ultimate gift- Salvation.
A gift beyond compare- our Savior's Sacrifice.
The truth is salvation is OURS, and we can know it.  This is a reason to rejoice evermore, but we get all caught up in life. We get caught up in life outside of our relationship with Christ. We get caught up in all the problems, the trials, the tribulations that life throws at us and we DON'T give all that to Christ. We don't TRUST. We don't BELIEVE. We don't rejoice in that most amazing of gifts, the ultimate gift, because we let other things interfere.

Just imagine how incredibly happy you'd be if you were given special gifts every day. Imagine it. Every day on your pillow before you go to bed there is a gift.  Throughout your day even the worst of days you'd know that gift would be forthcoming. Yet even so you might get so caught up in the cares of this life and you won't even care about that gift waiting. You go in your room walk over to your pillow and just swat that gift to the side, angry, not rejoicing.  Yet inside that little gift box is something you will rejoice about and you know it, but those darn CARES OF THIS LIFE get in the way.

Luk 21:33  Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
Luk 21:34  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Luk 21:35  For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Luk 21:36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

We need to rejoice evermore even in our DARKEST of hours, because the DARKEST hour here upon earth cannot compare to the joy in the promise of salvation in the LOVE of our Savior.

1Th 5:17  Pray without ceasing.

Yes, a constant state of prayer. A constant state of connection to our SAVIOR, to our GOD. We need this, we need to be ready always in prayer, because if we are ready then we have that communication that we need. God, our Father is with us in SPIRIT always! We never need to be without that spiritual connection, we break it off ourselves all too often when we should be strengthening it through the grace of our LORD.

1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

In EVERYTHING give thanks. We do NOT know why we are tried the way we are. We can't comprehend the path we are to walk. We just can't fathom WHY we are called to go through the things we are called to go through and YET, we MUST give thanks because we believe God is in control! God is our creator, our Redeemer, and the ONE we worship and live for! If He's not all that, we have no reason to give thanks in everything.

1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.

We can quench the Spirit.  We are NOT forced to listen to the Holy Spirit. We aren't. The Holy Spirit will not slap us upside the head to get our attention.  There is NO forcing even if we want to be forced. We must listen as the Spirit speaks to us in so very many ways.

1Th 5:20  Despise not prophesyings.

We cannot despise prophesying,  in prophecy we are given proof if ONLY we believe.

1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

All through the glory of God!  Too often we hold fast to stuff that isn't any good at all! We cling to the bad stuff. We wrap the dirty cares of this life all around us and wallow in them rather than giving them to God and clinging to 'that which is GOOD'.

More tomorrow by the grace of our LORD, our SAVIOR!

In HIS LOVE!

Follow that which is good

1Th 5:12  And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
1Th 5:13  And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
1Th 5:14  Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
1Th 5:15  See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

The quest for power is not of God, ever. We are to esteem those who are over us, who are in a position to admonish us because they have the authority given to them by the wisdom of God. Are we to follow anyone blindly? NO! We are to follow truth and if those who are in a position of authority do not speak according to the truth we aren't to have anything to do with them.

 Isa 8:20  To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

So, yes, we are to esteem very highly those who are above us, but only in truth. If we do this we will be at peace among ourselves because we know this is the will of God.  There is an order to things and to vie for superiority, to seek to be the greatest is NOT in God's plan, not the order He wants for us. 

We are exhorted to warn those who are unruly. Warn them, why? Because the unruly cause strife, it's a given. Being unruly is never a good thing.  The unruly are not prone to patience, they are not prone to listening, to learning because their unruliness gets in the way. If we warn the unruly we are letting them know the danger they are in by their unruliness. 

We are exhorted to comfort the feebleminded.  Again this is common sense isn't it? To do anything other than comfort the feebleminded is simply cruel.

We are exhorted to support the weak. To not support the weak is criminal isn't it? Yet we live in a world where bullying is all but epidemic. Attacking the weak is awful! We are to support the weak, always!

We are exhorted to be patient towards…  ALL MEN.  Again, this world we live in is filled with the impatient. Do people show patience towards ALL men? Hardly.  Yet as followers of Christ we must, we have to, we need to beg for the forgiveness of our Savior as we follow in the worldly way of impatience towards others.  I can ONLY speak for myself, but my own impatience is awful and something I struggle with. To read these words-  'Be patient toward all men.' - is to read truth.  We can't pick and choose who we are to be patient towards, but we are to be patient towards all men.

1Th 5:15  See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

Amazing words and yet our thirst for vengeance only grows. Does evil need to be punished? Yes. But are we to render evil for evil? No. Because ultimately when we render evil for evil, we are committing the very act of evil only justifying it by saying the other person deserves is for their evil. So, who punishes the evil of the act given in return? I know this is a very touchy subject and people love to bring up this famous verse-  Exo 21:24  'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand…'  Yet, this wasn't about people giving evil for the evil given, but finding a way to make reparation for a wrong. It wasn't mandatory an eye be put out for another eye taken, but restitution had to be offered equal to that eye whatever it was determined.  Yet, our SAVIOR came and said this…

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.

So what does this do to the old way of an eye for an eye? Was it unjust?  Man is corrupt and perverts even what is supposed to be justice. Christ knew this and knows this. It is BETTER for man to turn the other cheek than to seek revenge, because that revenge can corrupt that man who otherwise has the opportunity to reveal a SELFLESS love.  Our Savior's love, His sacrifice is the ultimate selfless act. He suffered unbelievably, and completely unjustly.  How do we as sinners think we can to otherwise? We who deserve to suffer for our sins, how do we NOT forgive others theirs?  God forgives us and we do NOT and CANNOT ever deserve that forgiveness, not ever!

We need to NOT render evil for evil, but follow the good- among each other as Christians and to ALL MEN.

When we are touched by evil, evil so vile we scarcely can comprehend it in any way, we are to still NOT render evil for evil. We MUST forgive. We MUST seek our Savior because ONLY He in us can enable us to be that selfless, that forgiving, that trusting of HIM to truly reward the evil with His wrath in a way nothing we do can accomplish. 

By His grace may we be HIS in all this, in all things! Help us LORD! Save us! Love us!