Revenge or Recovery

As I look at Romans 13 today I am seeing more and more connections to the context from chapter 12. I think these instructions on how to relate to authority are an expansion of what it looks like to overcome evil with good. They are also unpacking what it means to never take your own revenge or pay back evil for evil, for it is often likely that most causes inducing a desire for revenge will come from those in authority.

And now that I think of it the same has been quite true in my own life. Most, if not all, of my rebellious attitude came from abuse of authority when I was growing up. My inability to defend myself created an intense sense of injustice inside my heart and a desire to settle accounts or get even with those bigger and stronger than me. I can remember incidents where brute force was used to suppress me and attempt to subdue my anger but it tended to only increase my anger. But because I was powerless to act out my increasing desire for revenge I learned to internalize and hide it to avoid further abuse and pain.

As a consequence my heart was trained to hide my emotions, for emotions displayed almost always got me into trouble with authorities such as parents and teachers. I early learned to become an image manager although I never mastered the technique of projecting effectively a different emotion than what I was feeling inside. I only learned to mask them enough to keep them from becoming very obvious to most people. I also learned that rationalization and creating misleading manipulations of facts were effective tools to keep people from knowing what I was really feeling inside. But all of this was primarily because my heart did not know how to deal with the pain inflicted on it by those in authority over me.

What I am starting to see more clearly now is that most of my life could easily be described as being afraid of authorities. Along with that has been cultivated deep-rooted desires for revenge and because revenge conflicted with being a “good Christian” it transformed into roots of bitterness. The suggestions that I should treat my enemies with kindness, respect and unselfish love in this context has always sounded very repulsive to me, at least at the emotional level especially since these notions often came from the same authorities that were using abusive methods to try to control my life and suppress my emotions.

It is now easier for me to understand why I have had such an aversion to Romans 13. Besides it being used to justify unquestioned abuse by authorities I always reacted strongly to the idea that I had to submit to that abuse willingly. I suppose that was because to do so would be to give up the desires for revenge that naturally ensued from many of the actions of those authorities.

Revenge is the secret hope that many people carry inside somehow believing that revenge would alleviate the pain in their heart caused by abuse. We believe the lie that if we could just make others suffer at least to the same degree that they have caused us to suffer that justice would be “served” and we could then be free to return to what we felt like before the abuse or maybe even better. But that is another illusion of Satan's philosophy designed to destroy the image of God in our soul. A desire for revenge does not represent justice like we think it does but is actually a surrender to the spirit of hatred and bitterness that motivates those who have abused us. Abusers generate the same spirit in their victims as they have in their own heart which in turn was received from a previous abuser themselves.

So what I am beginning to see here is a sharp contrast between the natural reaction that the human heart will have toward abusive authority by desiring revenge and wishing evil on my abusers, and the way to freedom outlined by God which looks very different than my natural way of reacting to these things. For everything that I read here conflicts sharply with what my natural flesh wants to do to protect my heart. And to complicate things some of the abusers themselves have used these passages to try to control and manipulate me into compliance with their selfish desires. So I have to disconnect these passages from the spirit of my abusers that use this to justify themselves and try to see them in the light of the Spirit of heaven.

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Co-perception

Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake. (Romans 13:5)

I know that I am jumping around in these verses a little bit, but I find that to be very helpful to perceive and grasp more of the important connections that make up the context for these instructions. It is only in properly understanding the context and carefully examining the fabric and its composition that I can come to a correct view of what this passage is really teaching. Of course it is also important to keep my spirit open to the impressions from God who is the one that inspired this to be written in the first place.

I just looked up the Greek for this word conscience and got a real surprise. I found this word quite different than what I had expected and actually very exciting. It literally means co-perception with lots of subtle nuances underlying that. The implications of this are stunning and enlightening.

First of all I discovered this means that conscience is a part of me that accesses another perception not of my own to join with mine to make it more complete. In fact, as I went deeper into the roots of this word I found that it is a combination of two things. First is coming to understand something with the assistance of the other consciousness that makes up the co part. Conscience is the uniting of my perception with God's perception. Then the word includes the idea of receiving clandestine information or to be privy to important missing information that makes my perceptions much more complete.

This act of uniting is also an important aspect of the meaning of this word. The union is a very close union that denotes companionship, resemblance, possession, becoming an instrumentality and all of this to create completeness. This apparently is primarily for the purpose of having a more perfect understanding or perception that would be impossible of myself.

This is a rather different view of conscience than what I am used to hearing. And in this verse Paul is saying that we need to be motivated by much more than just fear which is often one of the first emotions to get us to act or be motivated to change something in our life. It seems evident that fear is certainly one of the primary motivations used by earthly authorities to induce compliance, but that is not really the relationship that God desires to have with us. Just as we crave a much deeper relationship of love and companionship with our children that goes far beyond outward conformance to our rules out of fear of punishment, so God intensely desires us to move past the simplistic, cowering motivations of fear that is sometimes needed to get our attention initially, and move far beyond that into a relationship of co-perception with Him.

This is rather interesting when placed together with the declaration in verse 1, there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. What Paul is really describing in these verses is our proper relationship to God, not just to the poor demonstrations of authority that we see here on earth. When we perceive, or better yet co-perceive, that any and all true authority is in some essence an demonstration of God, albeit very confusing or distorted at times, then we will be able to enter into the position of having no fear of authority. (v. 3) Given this thought, maybe fear is an indicator or symptom of how much I do not yet have heaven's perspective merged with my perspective.

This ability to be free of fear is not dependent on the inferior authorities we have to deal with being proper demonstrations of God's authority. They may be very corrupt and abusive and unjust; the authorities in Jesus day certainly fit that description. But Jesus was never afraid of authorities and that is because He demonstrated this principle of co-perception with His Father just as we are invited to do. Jesus was the ultimate demonstration of how to be in subjection to authorities while not surrendering His integrity or rupturing His relationship with His Father in the slightest degree. He was continuously perceiving everything through the vantage point of Heaven's perspective using the co-perception of the Holy Spirit so that He would even say about those abusive authorities, Father, forgive them for they don't really know what they are doing.

It is very often the case that authorities do not really know what they are doing. We are all living with the severe mental handicap of sin and separation from God's perspective. But anyone alive has the option of listening to the inner voice of a greater Mind who can see what we can never see with our own perceptive abilities. And if we will choose to submit our perceptions to be corrected and enhanced supernaturally by the mind of the Holy Spirit, especially in our dealings with authority according to this passage, then we will finally be able to become free of fear and will be able to move far beyond that into a much deeper relationship of intimacy and co-perception with the perfect Source behind all authority. And when we do this we can then be empowered to experience the very presence of God in new dimensions never before imagined.

God, this is very fascinating and intriguing to me, but I want it to go much deeper than that and become a reality in my heart. I don't want to just know about this wonderful insight but far more importantly I want it to be a description of my own experience. I ask You to mentor me in how to have co-perception with Your mind and heart. Help me to listen more carefully and accurately and willingly to the perceptions that Your Spirit is offering me all through the day and not lean on my own understanding. Dwell in my heart today and bring me into right relationship and attitudes toward authorities so that my life can be completely free of all fear of them. Do this for Your glory and for Your reputation.

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Resistance and Forgiveness

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

Evil is more powerful than us and if we resist it we will be overcome. But though evil is more powerful than us, it is not more powerful than real goodness. Therefore, we must not attempt to overcome evil ourselves through resistance but need to seek a clearer perception and connection with the Source of all goodness so that His goodness will flow through us as its channels and overcome evil.

But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. (Matthew 5:39)

Jesus tells us very plainly not to resist an evil person. If we do not want to be overcome by evil, it will not be accomplished by resisting evil people but by showing them the goodness of God who is living in us.

Unforgiveness is the poison of bitterness that contaminates many with cynicism and resentment and the desire for vengeance. On the other hand, true forgiving is releasing our resistance with those who have hurt us or may even be presently hurting us. Resisting authority then, can indicate a failure to forgive them.

Resistance always produces heat and pain and ultimately death. Romans 13 says that authority is a minister of God to teach us that resistance is painful and leads to death. The authorities may not act like God or be very righteous, but when we learn to not resist evil and live in proper relationship to authority, we also learn not to resist love which is an even more fatal problem.

This suddenly makes more sense. The shell that I build around my heart to protect me from pain is a wall of resistance in an attempt to not be hurt again. But that same wall blocks love from flowing in and out of my heart. This involves resistance, and resistance is one of the biggest problems we have as well as being our greatest liability in hell.

While not resisting, it does not follow that we need to surrender our spirit to be controlled by abusers. That would be to surrender to evil inwardly as well as externally. That is breaking the spirit. In fact, that is being overcome by evil, the very thing we are told here not to do. We can be overcome by evil by giving up our following after God because of hopelessness, and allowing evil to destroy us that way, or we can be overcome by evil by believing and indulging in its enticements and deceptions. We can also be overcome by evil when we choose to cling to our desire for vengeance and by not releasing our pain to Jesus who offers to exchange it for peace and a spirit of forgiveness.

Our spirit belongs to God and God alone. He is the one it was made for and for whom it really yearns for. But in our daily life we must be careful to not become entangled or trapped by resistance and thereby poison our spirit with bitterness.

One of the greatest faults or dangerous choices of resistance is to resist forgiving someone. When we resist forgiving someone we actually give them authority over our spirit and heart and allow them to hold us hostage in our mind. We often secretly, or not so secretly, want to see them suffer at least as much as we have and we deeply desire some arbitrary punishment for them. We somehow believe that we are justified in our unforgiveness until we think they have suffered or repented sufficiently.

But that is a lying illusion that will never bring us peace or satisfaction no matter how we feel. To make them suffer or enjoy watching their pain if that is possible, only amplifies the fleshly desires of our own heart and increases our thirst for vengeance and our sense of emptiness, but it never brings peaceful satisfaction like we hope it will. To refuse to forgive is to deface the true image of God from our souls and take on the character of Satan, the accuser.

Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. (Romans 13:5 NIV)

We must move beyond fear of punishment as our motivation for submitting to authority and see things through heaven's perspective. And from that perspective we begin to see the danger of resistance itself. Conscience is the voice of the Spirit reminding us of our need to own and then pass along to God the pain others have inflicted on us instead of reflecting it back to them or onto someone else. That is what is entailed in genuine forgiveness.

As I ponder these verses in Romans 13, willing subjection looks like a close cousin to forgiveness. We do not resist the pain or the evil but neither do we reflect it in a desire for vengeance; we pass it on to Jesus who takes it into the tomb where it can die with Him. As we choose to do this we receive resurrection power and life back from Him to pass on to those who are abusing or hurting us instead of the bitterness and pain and resentment that we would normally reflects back on them.

When we let down our resistant defensiveness as our shield of choice to protect our heart, and instead we take up the shield of faith – faith in Jesus' ability to handle any and all death-tipped missiles coming into our heart, we then will not suffer the ill effects of resistance but will instead began growing and maturing and thriving and become life-giving as we function more consistently as a channel for God's resurrection life. This is the abundant life Jesus offers.

Some have taught that it is very important that we spend at least an hour every day meditating on the life of Jesus and especially on the closing scenes of His early ministry. As I think about these things today I begin to realize that the reason this is such valid advice is because the closing scenes of Jesus life on earth are probably the best example known to humankind of what it looks like to forgive without conditions and in real time. Jesus portrayed the ultimate example of how God wants His children to respond to abuse, free of all resistance. To forgive while abuse is being carried out without any resentment or bitterness is truly a miracle of God.

But this is a miracle that must begin take place in every one of our hearts if we are ever to be prepared to respond positively when we all arrive in hell on the day of Judgment. And if we want to be found among those who glow with glory instead of sizzling from insanity, we must begin to practice today the skill of the heart we so much need to learn, that of complete release of all resistance to evil people. It is becoming more and more clear that our greatest danger is resistance itself.

Fear is a symptom as well as a form of resistance. That is why Churchhill during World War II proclaimed that the greatest thing we had to fear was fear itself. Fear is debilitating and that is one reason Satan is so intent on making us more and more afraid. Fear often also leads us to engage in more resistance as well as resentment. But these things will not bring us to freedom but will only tend to mire us even deeper into slavery of our spirit.

In God's kingdom we overcome by abandoning resistance itself and instead, trusting in the One who showed us how to do that by His own example and has promised to be our Justifier. By refusing to defend ourselves through resistance we open the way for our Covenant Partner and our Heavenly Father to justify us in His way and also bring great glory to His reputation. By overcoming evil with the goodness of God we also become the overcomers referenced in the book of Revelation.

He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (Revelation 3:21)

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Resistance or Respect

Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. (Romans 13:2)

The more I consider this the more I question that Paul was even talking about an idealistic version of authority as I previously mentioned. Certainly many of the authorities in his day were very corrupt and abusive and that was the context in which he was writing. The underlying principle that he is revealing here is the same one that Jesus referred to in the Sermon on the Mount.

"You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.' "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. "If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. "Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. (Matthew 5:38-42)

If these two passages are paralleled then it would appear that very possibly the authorities portrayed here are indeed evil in some ways themselves. Do not resist an evil person (in authority). If this is in doubt look on a phrase or two further. If someone is suing you they are appealing to authority to take something away from you while manipulating the law against you. Even more clearly, for someone to be able to force you to go with them a mile brought clearly to mind the actions of Roman soldiers who were given the right to force anyone under Rome's domination to carry their packs for one mile, but one mile only.

Both Paul and Jesus are here saying that even though others, even those in authority, may be evil and unfair does not give us excuse to be disrespectful, bitter or hateful. Those reactions internally are actually the deeper intent of those who misuse their positions of dominance against us, for indulging in those feelings is a way of disempowering us. Satan has set up the world's systems to induce fear, anger and hatred in the heart of everyone so that he can destroy their capacity to receive and give real love as God designed they should. It is Satan's highest goal to erase the image of God in our hearts that is our original design and steal all the characteristics of God from our souls. But it is God's purpose to undo the works of the enemy and restore in us, particularly at the heart level, the likeness of Jesus who never resisted evil while never compromising with it.

One of the greatest fears of “religious resistors” is that if we do not resist evil people in our lives that somehow we will become accomplices with them and will be condoning what they are doing. I can clearly remember that line of reasoning being used frequently by my own father and now am beginning to realize that it may have been a major contributor to much of my spirit of rebellion and my strong reactions that often put me in conflict with authorities. What is at issue here is really the problem of respect, not endorsement. But another problem with respect that now emerges is that most people believe that respect must be earned before we are required to give it.

But according to what we have been learning from the series, Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson and Sarah Eggerichs, the Bible teaches that respect is something that is unconditional just as love is to be unconditional. This is a shocking and almost untenable idea to many people, but it is what the Bible teaches. Because of this misunderstanding and my own lack of internal training in the area of respect, my own life has been very rocky at times and I still need a lot of remedial repair work done inside that definitely affects many of my relationships. God still has a great deal of reeducation to finish in my mind and heart.

I am still also pondering this contrast that I noticed yesterday between fear and no fear found in verses three and four. Tied in with what I am seeing today it is starting to look like that maybe evil is at least partially defined as a lack of respect in the face of injustice.

The kind of resistance described here is not the resistance referred to in James.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:7-8)

According to what I see in comparing these passages, it is wrong to resist an evil person but it is important to resist the devil. Evidently the devil is not an evil person but is linked more to the internal spirit war going on inside of our minds and hearts. So the conclusion that might be drawn here is that our resistance needs to be against the internal temptation to absorb and reflect the spirit of evil, while at the same time not resisting the external forces of evil imposed on us.

We are to treat with respect, and even on-going, instant forgiveness those who may be abusing us while at the same time resisting the internal force of evil that is tempting our hearts to be angry, bitter, resentful, hateful and desiring revenge against them. We are to treat with respect those who have not earned our respect. This ties very closely back into the previous chapter that talks about respecting what is right and never paying back evil for evil (12:17). What is right is respect and love, and even then not because people have earned them from us. Evidently, if we fail to respond with respect (and love) due to internal spirit contamination by our flesh, we are still double-minded.

These descriptions of how to live in our relationships to others and to authority appears to me to be quite impossible to accomplish without a great deal of healing, transformation and much grace. That is why the verse just previous to those quoted from James says, But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6 NRSV) I certainly fit into the category of someone who needs all the more grace.

But if I do not choose to follow through with this challenge to treat others with respect no matter what they deserve, they I will unavoidably find myself in the other position of being afraid because I am doing what is evil (v. 4). According to this passage in Romans, doing what is good must mean doing the very thing that does not come natural to me – respecting an abusive authority figure. That certainly does not mean that I value or agree with the spirit that they are displaying or endorse their actions, but it does require that I seek to observe them through the eyes of heaven and see a human being with a heart that has been hijacked by the enemy and is acting out Satan's character in their life and not their redeemed image of God.

But if I do not respond from my flesh or display that my heart is also hijacked by retaliating or being disrespectful; if instead, I have a heart that is transformed by all the more grace; if I am willing to die to the clamorings of my flesh and allow the sweetness of Jesus' Spirit to emanate from my life through my words, my demeanor, my actions and my complete inner freedom and peace, then God can use me as a truthful witness to appeal to the hearts of the very ones who themselves are deluded and confused inside and long for a similar peace and freedom for themselves.

This is the secret strategy of God to subvert the works of Satan and steal away from his vicious clutch those who have been held captive and hostage by him all of their lives. By apparently losing, we allow God to win. By dying we become more fully alive. By not resisting we end up having the most power. The ways of God often seem so backwards to the typical way we are used to thinking.

This is just beginning to dawn on my understanding but it will take a transformational miracle of even more grace to make it a settled reality for me at the heart level. With men – and me – this is impossible but with God all things are possible.

God, please cause these insights and principles to become more than just something I am beginning to perceive with my brain. I want to see them appearing in my gut-level reactions – from my deepest heart – whenever I am facing abusive people in my life that have authority over me. While I do not have to endorse or participate in their evils and injustice, I need to see them through Your eyes and have Your heart to love and respect them unconditionally.

You know me better than I know myself and You know my history of problems in this arena. But I need to perceive and believe in the true identity that You have placed in my heart that is radically different than the exhibitions of resentment and resistance that I have acted out so many times in the past. Those demonstrations are not my true identity no matter how I may feel or what anyone else says about me. My true identity that is already inside of my heart is still largely hidden but You are bringing it more into the open to display Your glory and character in me before an astonished world. It is all by Your grace, Your love, Your power and Your faithfulness that this is all taking place.

God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I am Yours – save me! Finish the work You are doing in me. Continue to transform me, my spirit, my triggers, my bitterness and fears. Heal me at the deepest levels of my heart so that my true reflection of You can glow unsullied by the damage that Satan has worked in my heart. Continue Your experiment of grace in my life as a means of attracting others into a similar relationship with You. I ask this for Your reputation's sake and in the name and authority of Jesus Christ entrusted to me after His resurrection.

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