bp137

after my lying Granny called my promised truck a dream, i sought revenge. Revenge might well be called the battle cry of the modern age. Everyone wants to get even or get back or get to someone else. The world is full of inequality & always will be. i devoted my life to leveling the playing field with Granny. This is what i used. i waited till i was a Senior in 23 months to unbuckle & pray for death, go through a window, decade rehab, countless surgeries, nerve damage, speech impairment, limp, etc., etc. Revenge might well be called the battle cry of the modern age. Everyone wants to get even or get back or get to someone else. The world is full of inequality & always will be. There will always be good & bad, rich & poor, famous & unknown. Perhaps, I should riot because I do not have as much as Billy Graham. Perhaps I should kill because everyone does not agree with me. GOD FORBID!!!!  Revenge Forbidden by God Romans 12:17; Recompense to no man evil for evil. Romans 12:17 New International Version (NIV) 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 1 Thessalonians 5:15; See that none render evil for evil unto any man. 1 Thessalonians 5:15 The Message (MSG) 13-15 Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out. 1 Peter 3:9; Not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing. (Insult) 1 Peter 1:3-9 describes the state of being defined by God’s “great mercy,” which gives us a “new birth into a living hope,” and fait that is “for salvation” (1:3, 5). This new birth leads to two “outcomes,” in the “now” and in the “then.” Now, this new birth leads to rejoicing “with an indescribable and glorious joy.” “First Peter reflects the rapid expansion of the early church in Asia Minor.

The writer explores issues of community, mission, and suffering -- issues these young faith communities may have been facing.”1

Over the next four weeks the Revised Common Lectionary gives us four readings covering most of the first two chapters of 1 Peter. Each of these successive readings from 1 Peter speaks to the shaping of identity in the fledgling Christian community; the first two readings (1:3-9 and 1:17-23) address the source of faith and hope (cf. 1:3-4; 1:21).

In the third selection (2:19-25, which is actually the fourth reading chronologically) speaks to suffering and struggle, appealing both to the example which Christ Jesus set in his own suffering, and to that which is effected by his suffering, forgiveness of and cleansing from sin. Finally in the fourth reading (2:2-10), a pastiche of biblical references is employed to define Peter’s audience, to speak them into being as God’s people.

Each of these four readings contains the fundamental language of faith, spoken by the author of 1 Peter, to establish, to shape, and to grow the early Christian community. Such language, employed for the shaping of Christian identity, is fitting not only for the fledgling life of faith, but for the ongoing, present-day life of faith, and its church.

1 Peter 1:3-9 describes the state of being defined by God’s “great mercy,” which gives us a “new birth into a living hope,” and fait that is “for salvation” (1:3, 5).

This new birth leads to two “outcomes,” in the “now” and in the “then.” Now, this new birth leads to rejoicing “with an indescribable and glorious joy.” Now, new birth is into joy. Then, “the outcome of your faith,” is “the salvation of your souls” (1:9). And it is the promise of the “then” that brings hope and joy into the “now,” most importantly and promisingly into any now that is marked and marred by suffering, by trials, and by testing.

In the midst of 1 Peter 1:3-9 we find a metaphor which captures all of this now/then tension. 1 Peter 1:7 describes a faith that is more precious than gold, but understood through the image of gold. Gold and faith; faith as gold. Faith, like gold, must be refined, tested, and purified; made “genuine” (1:7). This refining of (primarily) the people themselves is a fairly common metaphor in the Bible:

Zechariah 13:9: “And I will put this third into the fire, refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

Malachi 3:2b-3: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.”

Cf. Isaiah 48:10, where the precious metal is silver, but the metaphor essentially the same: “See, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.”

And in Proverbs 17:3 the turn is made more explicit, where the metaphor of refining the people themselves, is taken to the heart of the people: “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.”

Here in first Peter the metaphor is of the devotion of the heart to God, both as it is refined, and in the joy it produces. This is faith. This is life in Christ. This is what 1 Peter is all about.

Proverbs 24:29; Say not I will do so to him as he hath done to me.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(29) Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me.—A wonderful anticipation this of New Testament teaching, very different from the spirit of Leviticus 24:19-20. Comp. Proverbs 20:22, and James 2:13, “For he shall have judgment without mercy that shewed no mercy.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
24:28,29. There are three defaults in a witness pointed out.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
A protest against vindictiveness in every form. Compare marginal reference.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
29. Especially avoid retaliation (Mt 5:43-45; Ro 12:17).
Matthew Poole's Commentary
Say not within thyself; give not way to any such thoughts or passions.

I will render to the man according to his work; I will repay him all his calumnies and injuries.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me,.... He has falsely accused and reproached me, and bore a false testimony, or suborned false witnesses against me, and I will do the same to him, now an opportunity serves; but as private revenge itself is sinful, so especially when it is pursued in a wicked way;
I will render to the man according to his work; this should be left to the Lord, whose prerogative it is; see Proverbs 24:19.

Geneva Study Bible
Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I {i} will render to the man according to his work.
(i) He shows what is the nature of the wicked, to revenge wrong for wrong.