Hasn’t everybody heard of the infamous 19th-century feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys? It all started with a fight over a razorback hog and turned into a vendetta that continued unabated for several decades. Members of both clans committed murders, and their fighting brought heartache to every family in the valley of the Tug Fork River, along the border of Kentucky and West Virginia.
The men who started this bitter and destructive violence, William Hatfield and Randolph McCoy, were responsible for scores of deaths, but they were never brought to justice in a court of law. Although they both lived long lives, they had to watch the suffering and death of their loved ones.
The world tells us, ‘Don’t get mad; get even!” But, Paul said, “Do not avenge yourselves,…for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
I’ve learned that if I don’t seek revenge, God fights my battles for me. Have you seen that work in your life, as well?
Tags: battles, hatred, vengeance
‘Schadenfruede’ is a German word that, thankfully, has no English equivalent. It means: joy at the suffering of another. Journalist and author Henrie Fairlie called this “The Revenge of Failure”. He claimed that taking pleasure in a gifted person’s demise is the disease of our time. If we cannot paint well or write well – or preach well – then we take great pleasure when others, who do these things well, fail. The gossip column and the grocery store tabloid have become the symbols of our envious age.
We Christians must separate ourselves from this worldly practice. We should rejoice when our brother/sister rejoices and weep when our brother/sister weeps. Perhaps this is called “bearing one another’s burdens”.
Tags: jealousy, vengeance