Romans 12:18

RESENTMENT

‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.’

Romans 12:18

Not with all Christians, you observe, but with all men. They were to act as leaven in the world, and to bring their Christian influence to bear upon it, until the whole be leavened.

I. Christians are not to withdraw themselves altogether from the world, but to mix with it, that ‘others may take knowledge of them’ and see the ‘beauty of holiness’ and the peace and blessedness of Christianity. This attitude is not an easy one. To confess Christ before men is oftentimes a difficult task. The temptation of most men is to follow the line of least resistance. The days of open and active persecution may have passed away, but sneers and ridicule remain—and to sensitive natures they are very galling and exasperating, and their first impulse is to resent such gross impertinence. St. Peter and St. Paul both tell us we must take this form of persecution patiently.

II. We are following in the path of our Divine Master, Who ‘left us an example that we should follow in His steps.’ ‘When He was reviled, He reviled not again,’ ‘When He suffered, He threatened not.’ ‘Avenge not yourselves,’ says St. Paul, ‘but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’ This advice is of a piece with the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Resist not evil.’ Rather than give ‘an eye for an eye’ and ‘a tooth for a tooth,’ or as we should say—‘pay others back in their own coin,’ and actively resent an injury, we should ‘turn to them the other cheek’ or let them ‘take our cloak also.’ Leave vengeance to God. Our weapons are kindness and forbearance. Armed with these we shall the sooner convert an enemy into a friend.

III. We shall find these tactics of great value if we wish to ‘live peaceably with all men.’ We have said that it takes two parties to make peace. It takes two also to make a quarrel. The teaching of the text, we take it, is: Don’t seek or provoke a quarrel, and if it seeks you—well, prove yourself the better man of the two, by showing your opponent the ‘more excellent way.’ If you are wrong, acknowledge it, and you disarm him at once. If you are right, then you can the better afford to wait until the heat has subsided, and when the scales of wrath, which have blinded your opponent for the moment, have fallen away, he will see his mistake and acknowledge it.

—Rev. C. Rhodes Hall.

Illustration

‘The foremost blessing promised by the Gospel is that of peace. One of our Lord’s last promises to His disciples was “My peace I give unto you.” He forewarned them that in the world, to which He was sending them as ambassadors of peace, they would have tribulation. He foretold them that the path on which they were to travel to bear witness of Him was not a path strewn with roses. On the contrary, He told them they would be brought before governors and kings for His sake, and that they should be hated of all men, for His Name’s sake. Still, through all their privations and trials for His sake and the Gospels, they would be sustained and comforted by a “peace which passeth all understanding.” But it was essentially an inward peace. Outside themselves they were to expect war and tumult.’