Today’s post is going to be a short one which in my opinion is rather surprising, given that I’m on a summer break now and should be writing more. But there are other things happening in my life in these weeks and although I have a few topics to write on, I’m busy working on those other things in my life. Anyway, to today’s post . . .
As part of growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, one of the lines I must have said so many times is “do me, I do you, God no go vex” In UK English: “I’ll repay what you’ve done to me without annoying GOD.” Thinking of it now, that’s just a wacky mis-read and misinterpretation of “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the LORD”, by reading the ‘I’ there to mean you and me. It was such a silly way to excuse taking vengeance.
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Jesus commanded us to do unto others as we would want others to do to us, not as they have done to us, nor as we think they’ll do to us. Doing as they have done is paying them good for good or bad for bad. Doing as they would do is rooted in fear or self-preservation. Neither of those was well favoured by Jesus in His teachings. Luke 6: 32-33 tells us doing good or loving others that love us or do good to us does not make us different from sinners. Basically, it was a no-brainer.
The real McCoy comes when you have to do good to those who haven’t done good to you more so if you know they wouldn’t even do good to you after the good you’ve done to them.
As I read the chronicles of the kings of Israel in 1 Chronicles 10: 11-12, I realised that the (sub-) tribe of Israel that gave Saul and his three sons who were all killed in a battle against the Philistines, a befitting burial, were the people of Jabesh-gilead. Now when Saul had recently been made king, the Ammonites wanted to enslave the J-G’s and pluck out their right eyes (the heart of man, eh?) See 1 Samuel 11.
They reached out to the rest of Israel who were deeply saddened by what they heard was about to befall the J-G’s. When Saul heard, he got righteously angry and came to their rescue commandeering the whole tribes of Israel to fight for the J-G’s against the Ammonites.
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It was this same group of Israelites that broke through to the country and temples of the Philistines to recover the decapitated body of Saul and those of his sons and give them a burial befitting royalty in Israel, with a 7-day mourning period thrown in. I think David noticed and even rewarded them.
So sow seeds today in people’s lives, whether or not you think they’ll be able to pay back, for you never know when those seeds will sprout and bear fruit to bless either you or the generations coming after you.
To our doing good and loving others in spite of them/us, . . .
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