When someone hurts us, our first reaction is to want to teach them a lesson. The caveat is that “man’s anger does not work the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20). In other words we will never be able to teach the other person a lesson that glorifies God. We will only succeed is escalating the situation.
Jesus put it this way, “Do not resist an evil person. But whenever someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away” (Mathew 5:29-42).
I have found that God will allow us to fail when we resist this principle. When we seek to be the judge, God turns the table on us so that we pay instead of the evil one. God loves us enough to allow us to suffer so that we will learn to depend on him to defend us. When we try to do it ourselves, we experience greater loss.
