With great vengeance and furious anger.
Pray for your enemies, it will drive them crazy. Seriously you must pray for them and keep a good attitude toward your enemies so you will not be judged as guilty as they are.
A knuckle sandwich. To start....
The most disarming thing you can do is to respond the opposite of what is expected for the situation.
In a meeting I was chairing a much higher level Israeli manager made a vicious and personal comment about me. The room froze. I smiled my most becoming smile and said, “Thank you. I appreciate your opinion. But we have a serious problem to resolve and I’m hoping you can help us by adding your views on the data.” All heads swung back to him like a tennis match and he stammered, “Uh, I think it might be related to the labor loading...” (Which was his problem and he was right. The meeting came up with a solution which he didn’t want to implement but did.)
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36
Response? Attack!
Attack = defend
Insult = ignore
This is one of the most difficult passages in Scripture:
Rom 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
Rom 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Rom 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
It’s difficult because we’re prideful. Our feelings get hurt and we want to hurt right back. But God said HE is the one who will take vengeance on those who persecute us:
2Th 1:3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
2Th 1:4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
2Th 1:5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
2Th 1:6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
2Th 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2Th 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
2Th 1:10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
And it’s a terrible vengeance He’ll work on them, eternally and mercilessly torturing them. Whatever we in our pride try to do to them is but a drop in the bucket compared to what God will do to them.
Interestingly, those under the very altar of heaven have this attitude:
Rev 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Rev 6:11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
No forgiveness there at all. Just a desire that God take vengeance on those who had killed them. And God doesn’t rebuke them in any way, but rather rewards them.
By speaking Truth with love. But we cannot cease speaking Truth.
Christ said to turn the other cheek. He didn’t say to do it twice.
Suppression fire while advancing...
Reading from the NIV version, in Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus tells us:
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[h] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
His words are revolutionary and contrary to human nature, yet His words witness to Proverbs 25:21-22 which reads:
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat: if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. 22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.
It is interesting to note that in both Deuteronomy 19:15 (One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.) and Deuteronomy 17:6 (On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.), God establishes that two or three witnesses are required to establish the validity of something. In Jesus’ Ministry on Earth, His words confirm the Old Testament, thereby establishing its validity.
In our daily, personal living, if we sense that the Holy Spirit is leading us, we need to verify it back to the Bible or, as Paul said, test the spirit. If what you believe the leading is from the Holy Spirit, if it lines up with the Word, you have the two witnesses required to validate that leading.
“If you are truly humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. ... God is truly humble”
-Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) (1910-1997)
I think that a meaningful distinction can be made between an attack by an individual and an attack by a cohesive group. Next consideration is the intensity of the attack; i.e. a slap on the face is one thing coming at one with an ax is another.
Remember 793, Lindisfarne!
Whatever you do.....no bashing!
When confronted by insults and personal attacks by non-Christians, a Christian should pray to God for the complete and absolute destruction of the attacker - pray that God destroys him or her in exactly the same manner He did Saul of Tarsus. Completely destroy the old man and turn him into the greatest evangelist that the Church has known. That is how we should pray for our enemies.