Author: Rev. Lek Aik Wee

There is indeed course to take stock to the responses of our heart whenever we would want to retaliate with evil. We need to acknowledge that it is wrong and need to repent and have a renewed faith and obedience by the power of God’s grace to trust God to work things out without taking vengeance into our own hands.

Charity bears no grudges. The word “thinketh” is from the root word “to count”, it is an accounting term, “to keep a mental record”, “to take account”, “to keep in mind.” Charity enables one to not count the evil suffered from others who have offended us and is willing to forgive these offences. Charity does not return evil with good but rather prepares the heart to return good with evil. This is the supernatural love of God in action. It is beyond the comprehension of the carnal man. It enabled Jesus to pray for his persecutors and not hold it against them, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). The first martyr Stephen uttered these words to the same effect, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60).”

The first covenant home set up by Adam and Eve was devastated when we saw one sibling killing another, Cain killed Abel. It must have grieved the hearts of the parents to see such carnage in the home. The Bible says Cain was very wroth (very angry). What happened? If we can perform an open heart surgery to examine the heart of Cain, you will realise that there is that boiling anger that causes Cain to lose his the peace in his heart, to be provoked so much as to take the life of his brother Abel.Family life grinds to a stand still!

“To provoke” is “to rouse to anger or indignation.” It describes one who is short-fused. It has the idea “to irritate, to cause to be upset”. The grammatical context tells us that it is an external provocation that stirs up this anger perhaps when our expectations are not met. This charity is that God-given grace not to be easily offended in the face of provocations.

When Jesus was in Gethsemane, He agonised greatly because He knew what suffering He has to endure for our redemption. The Bible says, that he agonised in prayer that He may have the strength to fulfil the Father’s will, His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground (We see this in Luke 22:44).

Charity is not selfish but is sacrificial. She does not consider her own interest to the exclusion of others. It has a considerate and sacrificial interest for the things of others. This is quite contrary to the character of the natural or fallen man that seeks only to further his own interest.

There is the other example where unruly behaviour during Worship Service that disturbed the sanctity of God’s House in 1 Corinthians 14. The Apostle Paul wrote to admonished the women folk to keep silence in churches (1 Corinthians 14:34) and instructed those who speak in a language that the congregation cannot understand to refrain from speaking for it does not edify the listeners who does not understand what is being said. He concluded with 1 Corinthians 14:40 when he said, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” The members of the Corinthian Church were asked to restrain such unruly behaviours in the House of God.