Theme: AVENGE NOT YOURSELVES
Text: “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD”. – Leviticus 19:18.
Comment: During his first advent here on earth, on a certain occasion, one of the Pharisees, who was a lawyer, asked Christ which is the great commandment. He answered that it is to love God and to love one’s neighbor as himself. (Matthew 22:35-39). Love or charity, is the virtue on which hangs all other laws. Apostle Paul puts it this way, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: there love is the fulfilling of the law”. (Romans 13:10). It is only where there is true love amongst the people, that there can be true forgiveness. Where there is no love, the people will always seek out vengeance. And the devil has so blinded the hearts of some that their pursuit for vengeance is so strong, that they pass it down their generations where families remain at loggerheads for ages involving children who might not even know the cause of the disagreement, but are forced to put away their own friendships and interest, to follow the family’s ungodly trend.
Anyone who claims to be a true Christian therefore must have genuine Christian love for his neighbour, else he is deceiving himself and his religion is in vain. John the Apostle stated, “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him”. – 1 John 2:9,10.