7 Sep 2011

II Timothy 4:14

Posted by joncooper

II Timothy 4:14: “Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:”

This is a very interesting verse. Notice that Paul did not say “may the Lord forgive him”, as you sometimes see. No, this time Paul actually asked God to avenge him. Nor was Paul the only one in the Bible who did this; Nehemiah did it as well (Nehemiah 13:29), as did many of the psalmists.

I don’t think it’s an evil thing for Christians to cry out for justice. We can even see this in the throne room of Heaven, where believers cried out for the Lord to avenge them. The Lord did not rebuke this; instead the Lord agreed that what they were asking was right and true, and He promised to avenge them (Revelation 6:9-11). We are commanded to pray for our enemies and to do them good, but at the same time it must be noted that longing for justice is not evil.

Now, there were times when Paul asked for others to be treated with mercy, as we can see just two verses later in this very same chapter:

II Timothy 4:16: “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.”

We need to remember that the Lord said “Vengeance is mine; I will repay”. He did not say “Vengeance is evil, and longing for justice is bad. You need to get over yourself.” The key is to allow the Lord to avenge us, and not take matters into our own hands.

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