If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Romans 12:18
Are you kidding, Paul? Live at peace with all people? Didn’t the apostle Paul live in the same world that we do? Didn’t he have people in his life who really got under his skin?
Everybody knows that when someone hurts you, your immediate and natural instinct will be to want to hurt them back. They brought you down, and you find a certain pleasure in bringing them down. How do you restrain the desire to even the score?
Again, the truth of God’s judgment helps us, and Paul explains how: “Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (12:19). God will repay, so leave room for His wrath.
When a coworker says something behind your back at the office, or a “friend” minimizes your contributions right in front of you, you don’t need to “stick it to ’em.” You don’t need to take it into your hands when you know it is in His. God will deal with this. You can leave it to Him.
On the foundation of God’s judgment, Paul goes on to say, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head” (12:20). The hardest truth can produce the most tender heart. If you don’t believe this, you will always be trying to even the score.
Are you caught up with trying to even the score? Take some time right now and apply this truth to the situation.
