Romans 12:19 (punishment, bible, God, verse, Christ)

[Rex]

19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.




What does that mean to you?

[robtex]

That the human author of that passage was having a bad day and the editors was either apathetic or indifferent to the passage as applied to the overall continent. Probabaly overtime when the Christans finish "editing" the NIV version over centuries that line will change to something less abrasive.

[true blood]

Rex are you asking how that verse applies to us in our lives? Robtex seemed to show some hostility to the authors of the bible, casting his own judgement, as if he himself is having a bad day. However the verse means that in the case someone wrongs us we are not to get revenge. If someone does me wrong, I'm not suppose to go give him a beat down. If someone rips me off I shouldn't go vandalize his property. But rather to have a place for that wrath I feel, and that place is in the Lord. To move on and keep walking in the truth even when others do us wrong. To not sway from the path.

[michel]

Originally Posted by Rex_Admin

19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
What does that mean to you?

To me, it means 'turn the other cheek', because God will deal with the guy who did 'the nasty' to me. Good in theory, hard to follow in practice.

[may]

Originally Posted by Rex_Admin

19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.




What does that mean to you?

"Be peaceable with all men. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but yield place to the wrath." (Romans 12:18, 19) Let God determine when and upon whom vengeance is to be brought. He can do so with full knowledge of the facts, and any retribution originating with him will reflect his perfect justice.

[jimbob]

Originally Posted by Rex_Admin

19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.




What does that mean to you?

It means that you don't have to worry about getting even with the person who did you wrong, leave it in God's hands, and he will administer an even punishment.

[martha]

I will quote the rest of that chapter in Romans 12: 20,21 as part of my answer. " No, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head." " Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

You can find out a whole lot about the reasons for peoples evil behavior by being nice to them. There are reasons behind people's evil actions. God knows the truth about all of us. He tells us to leave it to Him.
When we are nice to someone who is evil, it can change their whole life around. Think about it, have you ever been in a real foul mood and said or did something nasty to someone? Perhaps someone you didn't know witnessed it and judged you to be an evil person, but you are not really. Then they started telling others about your evil actions and they began to judge you on this too. Everyone thinks you are evil now, so perhaps you start to act more nasty, because, " Well, that's how everyone thinks I am anyway." Now think about this, if that person who didn't know you, had come over to you later and spoke kindly to you, perhaps you might have explained that you were having a bad moment and you really didn't mean it. Now things would be different. Now he would be telling others that you aren't such an evil person, it was just bad reaction to a bad day. You see if we take the time to be nicer to each other, we can over come evil. God made us, He understands us better than we understand ourselves. IMHO