Monday-Payback

They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

2 Peter 2:13

We all have a skill. This skill has been sharpened and improved on over the years. And this skill is especially important when using the internet or social media. The skill I’m talking about is the ability to judge and condemn.

Now some of us are better at it than others. Personally speaking, I’m really good at it. I can read some words and instantly find out what’s wrong. My mind is filled with all sorts of juicy things to say about them. How foolish and stupid they are. Everyone with half a brain knows better.

Then there’s judging the way people live. We look at what they’re doing, or not doing, and come instantly to some great conclusions that only an idiot couldn’t think of. They obviously aren’t as smart as we are because everyone knows that this way would be a whole lot easier and better.

But judging people comes especially easy when it’s about the way other people drive. How many times have you said, “What’s wrong with them? They’re going to kill someone. Where’s the police when you need them? Why can’t people like me give out tickets?”

Yes, we love to judge people. But we think it would be so much better if we could also hand out punishment. After all, punishment is so much more satisfying then just talking about them.

And this is where Peter has arrived with his readers. False teachers have snuck into their community and churches. And they are leading people astray from the truth of who God is all he’s done in Jesus.

The natural thing to do is to take some kind of action against them. To take them out. Take them down. They are hurting these people, so the false teachers should receive pain. After all, their falsehoods are moving people from the truth and into error.

I’m not talking about ignoring false teachers. Not at all. We all have a responsibility to not just tell the truth but to speak against false teaching. Not saying anything is perhaps the most unloving thing anyone can do. Silence says that you don’t care.

What Peter’s telling us is that we’re not responsible for their punishment. God claims full responsibility for punishment and vengeance. I can’t think of a more serious promise in the Bible then, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord[1].

That is why we’re to let God handle the payback. We weren’t built for it. Only God can do it and not go too far. Think about this for a minute. All the false teachers will be paid back for all their false teaching. Yes, we have a four-fold responsibility.

• To live the truth. Our lives are to be lived to overflowing with God’s love for people[2]. Why? Because that’s how he acts and speaks towards us. Everything that God does for and to us is ultimately for his glory and our good. This is Job One when it comes to the truth.

• To tell the truth. In everything we do, and in all our conversations, we need to speak the truth. But that’s not all. There’s a way God wants us to speak the truth. It must be said in love[3]. Out voice and attitude needs to want nothing but the absolute best for everyone.

• To teach the truth. This was one of the things that people saw and heard from Jesus. He always taught the truth[4]. For us, this means really knowing what God says and sticking to it. We have to do our best to say it in a way that people understand and can receive it.

• To point out falsehood. This starts in our own lives. If we haven’t pushed falsehood out from our own lives, what right do we have to speak about it to others? We also need to be open and honest about our own struggles[5] when it comes to falsehood.

We can’t just sit back in our spiritual bubble and let evil run around, saying and doing anything. Before God, we need to stand up and show them that there is a better way. And that way is to follow the one who loves us so much that he died for us. We show our care for them, speaking the truth and warning them that it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God[6]. Someone once spoke this way to us, we need to do the exact same thing to the people around us.

Noodling Questions

• Describe a time when you paid back someone and it want all wrong.

• How is God’s payback so much different from ours?

• How can we correct false teaching without beating up other people?

[1] Romans 12:19 NKJV

[2] 1 Thessalonians 4:1

[3] Ephesians 4:25

[4] Luke 20:21

[5] Ephesians 6:12

[6] Hebrews 10:31