Christian Marriage - Christian and Rachel Lange

University Lutheran Church at Purdue University

June 27, 2024

What God Has Joined Together

CrossTalk: How to live at peace when surrounded by evil

“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” Romans 12:17-18.

The Apostle, Paul, wrote these words to the Christians in the heart of the Roman Empire. Rome was the Washington D.C. of its day—the place of unprincipled power and backstabbing.

Against the backdrop of this brutal regime, Paul teaches how a Christian should behave. More than that, he teaches how all people should live. God does not have two standards of justice. But He holds all people accountable to the same standard.

It is a common lament today that public discourse has become nasty, brutal, and mean. Without actually citing Romans 12:17-18, critics of Christianity apply these biblical standards just as stringently to anyone else.

Humility is the foundation of true humanity. “Do not be haughty.” This is not a behavior, but an attitude and an orientation. As Rick Warren put it: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” Humility treats every single person as your equal, including your opponent and adversary.

Pride is poison. It enables one person to treat another like dirt while feeling self-justified in doing so. Pride applies stringent standards to “thee” while carving out exceptions for “me.” It makes a person judge, jury, and executioner over everyone else.

How can a judge and executioner “live at peace” with the one whom he condemns? And, if a judge’s duty is to condemn, wouldn’t it be wrong to let him off the hook?

In this way the devil uses our internal sense of justice to disrupt and destroy a peaceful society. God solves this problem by relieving you of the duty to judge. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19).

You may be right in the way that you see the world. But if you are not the judge appointed to dish out vengeance, you are a fellow defendant before the judge of all. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

When you are relieved of the heavy responsibility of parceling out justice, you are free to “love your enemies and do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27).

This is not a neglect of justice. It does not require that you call good evil and evil good. The standards of right and wrong remain intact. God does, however, require you to see that He has taken the sword of justice from your hand and given it to another.

Six verses later, Paul writes that the governing authority “is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).

God provides for a peaceful society not by allowing evil and wrongdoing to go unpunished, but by assigning specific people to certain jurisdictions. Here—and here alone—they serve justice. This allows those without that assignment the freedom to love.

Parents have the job of disciplining their own children—so that others do not. Teachers have the job of correcting academic errors so that all of us need not act like schoolmarms. Judges have the job of sending people to prison or to the executioner so that we need not be vigilantes.

All these servants of God are responsible to God for how they judge. If they judge unrighteously, God will hold them to account by someone higher still. And ultimately, He Himself will act as judge.

Because God has promised to punish every evil and to right every wrong, you are free to live in harmony with one another and at peace with all.