Tag Archives: Revelation 16:4-7

Romans, Part 76

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Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people.[1]  The words translated evil for evil are κακὸν ἀντὶ κακοῦ in Greek.  Both κακὸν and κακοῦ are forms of κακός.  Love is οὐ λογίζεται τὸ κακόν (literally, “not counting” or “not reckoning the evil”) Paul wrote believers in Corinth.  Love is not resentful (NET), does not take into account a wrong suffered (NASB), keeps no record of wrongs (NIV), are a few English translations.  Love does no wrong (κακὸν, a form of κακός) to a neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.[2]  So the love that is an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit (along with joy, peace, patience, etc.) fulfills μηδενὶ κακὸν ἀντὶ κακοῦ ἀποδιδόντες (literally, “no one evil against evil deliver”), part of the definition of love in Paul’s letter to the Romans, translated Do not repay anyone evil for evil in the NET.

The next clause, consider what is good before all people, while accurate mostly seems to me to have been toned down some to become a rule I might obey in my own strength.  The word translated consider is προνοούμενοι (a form of προνοέω), “to perceive before, foresee” in the definition in the NET.  In other words, demonstrate this foresight (apart from the Holy Spirit) at the very moment I am most offended at having been wronged (or burn in hell for all eternity).  Have I belabored this point enough yet?  And as I’ve said over and over, I belabor it mostly for my own benefit since I’m the one who seems most hell-bent on perceiving the Bible as a book of rules rather than as a Gospel of salvation!

The word translated good is καλὰ (a form of καλός).  I’ve written elsewhere contrasting the beautiful good of Jesus to the pious good of religious people.  You are the light of the world, Jesus said.  A city located on a hill cannot be hidden.  People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good (καλὰ, a form of καλός) deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.[3]

The Jewish leaders picked up rocks again to stone him to death.  Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good (καλὰ, a form of καλός) deeds from the Father.  For which one of them are you going to stone me?”  The Jewish leaders replied, “We are not going to stone you for a good (καλοῦ, another form of καλός) deed but for blasphemy, because you, a man, are claiming to be God.”[4]  It is probably worth noting that Jesus didn’t turn to Genesis 1:26 and say, “God said, ‘we will be made man.’”  So the difficult (NET notes 84 and 85) answer recorded in John 10:34-36 may serve as circumstantial evidence for an early date for vowel points.  But Jesus turned his listeners’ attention back toward his beautiful good deeds (John 10:37, 38 NET):

If I do not perform the deeds of my Father, do not believe me.  But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, so that you may come to know and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.

Jesus’ beautiful good deeds recorded in John 1-9 are listed below:

2:1-11 Jesus turned water into wine after his host ran out of wine
2:14-22 Jesus cleansed the temple of thieves and profiteers
2:23 Other unspecified miraculous signs prompted many to believe in his Name
4:4-42 Jesus prophesied to a Samaritan woman
4:46-54 Jesus healed the son of the royal official of Capernaum
5:1-15 Jesus healed a disabled man who did not believe
6:1-15 Jesus fed more than 5,000 people, many of whom did not believe (John 6:26)
7:31 The preponderance of miraculous signs persuaded many
8:3-11 Jesus’ gracious answer to an angry mob dissuaded them from violence
9 Jesus healed a man born blind

I debated whether I considered the cleansing of the temple a beautiful or pious good, but decided that the worthiness of the goal overshadowed the violence of the act.  I included John 8:3-11 because it is still in the text, it is beautiful, I believe it is true, and otherwise don’t have a dog in this fight (John 7:53 NET note 139).  But this exercise put something into focus for me I hadn’t fully appreciated before.  The religious minds of the religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus not so much for his words but for his beautiful good deeds which gave those words such weight with the people relative to their own teachings.  “No one ever spoke[5] like this man,”[6] the officers excused themselves for failing to arrest Jesus.

The Holy Spirit does no miraculous signs through me, whether it is my disobedience, disbelief or that the people who raised me are correct that miraculous signs are no longer necessary because we have the New Testament.  (I haven’t found the latter in the Bible myself.)  Paul described a non-miraculous way to consider what is good before all people as it pertained to financial matters (2 Corinthians 8:18-21 NET):

And we are sending along with [Titus]  the brother who is praised by all the churches for his work in spreading the gospel.  In addition, this brother has also been chosen by the churches as our traveling companion as we administer this generous gift to the glory of the Lord himself and to show our readiness to help.  We did this as a precaution so that no one should blame us in regard to this generous gift we are administering.  For we are concerned (προνοοῦμεν, another form of προνοέω) about what is right (καλὰ, a form of καλός) not only before the Lord but also before men.

The sins of some people are obvious, Paul wrote Timothy, going before them into judgment, but for others, they show up later.  Similarly good (καλὰ, a form of καλός) works are also obvious, and the ones that are not cannot remain hidden.[7]  And he contrasted beautiful good deeds with those which are not for Titus.

Beautiful Good Deeds

Those Which Are Not
This saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good (καλῶν, another form of καλός) works.  These things are good (καλὰ, a form of καλός) and beneficial for all people.

Titus 3:8 (NET) Table

 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, quarrels, and fights about the law, because they are useless and empty.

Titus 3:9 (NET)

If possible, Paul continued in Romans, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people.[8]  The Greek word translated live peaceably is εἰρηνεύοντες (a form of εἰρηνεύω).  The all people part of this will be difficult for a soldier in battle.  As for the rest of us: Salt is good (καλὸν, another form of καλός), but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace (εἰρηνεύετε, another form of εἰρηνεύω) with each other.[9]  Paul added, live in peace (εἰρηνεύετε, another form of εἰρηνεύω), and the God of love and peace (εἰρήνης, a form of εἰρήνη) will be with you,[10] and, Be at peace (εἰρηνεύετε, another form of εἰρηνεύω) among yourselves.[11]

How do we fulfill these commands, admonitions, rules or laws?  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (εἰρήνη), patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[12]  What I didn’t say in the previous essay because of my own phobia of turning these verses back into rules I strive to obey in my own strength, I will say now since my phobia is so out in the open:  We are given permission here to live as the Holy Spirit is prompting us to live.  We are free to believe that, Against such things [e.g., love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control] there is no law.[13]

Where the NET translators chose You must put away for ἀρθήτω ἀφ᾿ ὑμῶν, Young’s Literal Translation reads: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice, and become one to another kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, according as also God in Christ did forgive you.[14]  The verb ἀρθήτω (a form of αἴρω) means to lift.  Let all of this be lifted from you by the mighty carrying capacity of that river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High,[15] that fountain of water springing up to eternal life,[16] the Holy Spirit who produces his fruit within me when I get out of his way and stop making sinful, theological or ecclesiastical excuses.  John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away (αἴρων, another form of αἴρω) the sin of the world!”[17]

Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, Paul continued in his letter to the Romans, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.[18]  I want to pause here briefly to highlight how God’s sense of justice may differ from our own (Revelation 16:4-7 NET):

Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they turned into blood.  Now I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are just – the one who is and who was, the Holy One – because you have passed these judgments, because they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets, so you have given them blood to drink.  They got what they deserved!”  Then I heard the altar reply, “Yes, Lord God, the All-Powerful, your judgments are true and just!”

Rather, Paul continued, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.[19]  The good with which we overcome evil is ἀγαθῷ (a form of ἀγαθός) in Greek.  According to Jesus, No one is good (ἀγαθὸς) except God alone.[20]  The good with which we overcome evil is God alone: for by grace ye are having been saved, through faith, and this not of you—of God the gift, not of works, that no one may boast; for of Him we are workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good (ἀγαθοῖς, another form of ἀγαθός) works, which God did before prepare, that in them we may walk (περιπατήσωμεν, a form of περιπατέω).[21]  In the Spirit walk (περιπατεῖτε, another form of περιπατέω) ye, and the desire of the flesh ye may not complete.[22]

[1] Romans 12:17 (NET)

[2] Romans 13:10 (NET)

[3] Matthew 5:14-16 (NET)

[4] John 10:31-33 (NET)

[5] See: Matthew 9:1-8 (NET)

[6] John 7:46b (NET)

[7] 1 Timothy 5:24, 25 (NET)

[8] Romans 12:18 (NET)

[9] Mark 9:50 (NET)

[10] 2 Corithians 13:11b (NET)

[11] 1 Thessalonians 5:13b (NET)

[12] Galatians 5:22, 23a (NET)

[13] Galatians 5:23b (NET)

[14] Ephesians 4:31, 32 (YLT)

[15] Psalm 46:4 (ESV)

[16] John 4:14b (NET)

[17] John 1:29 (NET)

[18] Romans 12:19 (NET)

[19] Romans 12:20, 21 (NET) Table

[20] Mark 10:18b (NET)

[21] Ephesians 2:8-10 (YLT)

[22] Galatians 5:16 (YLT)

Justice, Vengeance and Punishment

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Then Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart.[1]  It is a story about a persistent widow nagging an unrighteous judge for justice.  Finally the unrighteous judge thought to himself, Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.[2]  Won’t God give justice to his chosen ones, Jesus asked, who cry out to him day and night?  Will he delay long to help them?  I tell you, he will give them justice speedily.[3]

Those who pursued a law of righteousness[4] expected justice.  They hoped for the overthrow of the Roman government, and that Gentiles would be dealt with by God according to their alignment with Jewish tradition and the law of God.  That’s not exactly how things went down.  It causes me to wonder what I—one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous[5]— should expect of justice.  What should I always pray and not lose heart about in this regard?

The word justice in the rhetorical question Won’t God give justice to his chosen ones, and its answer he will give them justice speedily, is ἐκδίκησιν (a form of ἐκδίκησις)[6] in Greek.  In a very strong way that should not be discounted this promise was fulfilled less than forty years later.  But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, Jesus said, then know that its desolation has come near.  Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.  Those who are inside the city must depart.  Those who are out in the country must not enter it, because these are days of vengeance (ἐκδικήσεως, another form of ἐκδίκησις), to fulfill all that is written.[7]

It is not lost on me that the justice Israel hoped for the Romans was also the vengeance they received from them in 70 A.D.  I bear that in mind when I read Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 NET).

For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.  With flaming fire he will mete out punishment (ἐκδίκησιν, a form of ἐκδίκησις) on those who do not know (εἰδόσιν, a form of εἴδω)[8] God and do not obey (ὑπακούουσιν, a form of ὑπακούω)[9] the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed – and you did in fact believe our testimony.

The penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength is not the justice I hope for those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  For Paul also wrote: Do not avenge (ἐκδικοῦντες, a form of ἐκδικέω)[10] yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance (ἐκδίκησις) is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.[11]  There is always the hope that the Lord’s vengeance (justice) will be more merciful than mine might have been.  I and all the Gentiles who have been called to faith rather than dealt with according to law or Jewish tradition are the proof.  Rather, Paul continued, if your enemy is hungry,  feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.[12]

There is a troubling passage in Revelation:  Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.  They cried out with a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge (κρίνεις, a form of κρίνω)[13] those who live on the earth and avenge (ἐκδικεῖς, a form of ἐκδικέω) our blood?”[14]  And this was after the four horsemen were sent out to conquer,[15] to take peace from the earth, so that people would butcher one another,[16] cause famine—A quart of wheat will cost a day’s pay and three quarts of barley will cost a day’s pay,[17] and kill a fourth of the population of the earth by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.[18]

I didn’t know what to make of it.  Was it a revelation of some decadent time when Christ’s witnesses are of such inferior quality to Peter and Paul?  Was it a revelation behind the veil, so to speak, into what Peter and Paul are actually like?  Was it what I am meant to become?  I thought such bloodlust was at least part of what the Lord’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control[19] was saving me from.  But the explanation of the fifth seal continued.

Each of them was given a long white robe and they were told to rest for a little longer, until the full number was reached of both their fellow servants and their brothers who were going to be killed just as they had been.[20]  Obviously the death of a fourth of the earth’s population was not what God considered vengeance (or, justice) for those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.[21]  I kept reading to see what He considered justice (Revelation 16:4-7 NET).

Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they turned into blood.  Now I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are just (δίκαιος)[22] – the one who is and who was, the Holy One – because you have passed these judgments (ἔκρινας, another form of κρίνω), because they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets, so you have given them blood to drink.  They got what they deserved (ἄξιοι, a form of ἄξιος)!”[23]  Then I heard the altar reply, “Yes, Lord God, the All-Powerful, your judgments are true and just (δίκαιαι, a form of δίκαιος)!”

I can live with that.  It sounds like the Lord I am beginning to know and love.  And if I think He valued his witnesses too cheaply I am reminded of the purpose of our calling: As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[24]  As for the other seals, trumpets and bowls, even the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, I’m not in a position to judge what is deserved, what weight is sufficient to balance the scale of offense to God afflicted, by unrepentant sinners.  I trust that He is just and merciful.  And the justice I nag Him about is the mercy upon which all repentance depends: So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[25]  Freely you received, Jesus said, freely give.[26]

[1] Luke 18:1 (NET)

[2] Luke 18:4, 5 (NET)

[3] Luke 18:7, 8a (NET)

[4] Romans 9:31 (NET)

[5] Romans 4:5 (NET)

[7] Luke 21:20-22 (NET)

[11] Romans 12:19 (NET)

[12] Romans 12:20, 21 (NET) Table

[14] Revelation 6:9, 10 (NET)

[16] Revelation 6:4 (NET)

[17] Revelation 6:6 (NET)

[18] Revelation 6:8 (NET)

[19] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[20] Revelation 6:11 (NET)

[21] Revelation 6:9 (NET)

[24] Romans 8:36 (NET) Table

[25] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[26] Matthew 10:8b (NET)