As a prerequisite to this topic, read the Releasing the Past topic first, then Wipe Away Tears and Suffering topics.

It is possible that you are reading this and have the thought that your pain, suffering and desire for revenge cannot be as great as this author or others.  We absolutely should never compare our Suffering with others which is then judging God with the assumption that God let something evil happened, when we know Suffering is part of the extremely sinful world, along with incorrectly believing that we have suffered more than anyone else. 

Jesus Christ suffered:

1. Ridicule throughout his childhood and adulthood being called a bastard,
2. His life had other areas of suffering as described in Isaiah 53.
3. Hit in the face by the Temple Guards during the mock trials at night.
4. His beard pulled out of His Face, Isaiah 50:6, to the point of not being recognizable.
5. Whipped by the Roman soldiers by the device later called the "cat o' nine tails" that usually killed the recipient.
6. Finally, the Crucifixion with the most extremely painful form of a torturous death.

Every one of us, because of painful experiences, will in our lifetime:

• Contemplate seeking revenge.
• Wrestle with truly giving forgiveness.

The good news is God, with absolute certainty, will bring people into your life that are Christians, who have experienced your exact same Suffering, and they have conquered the pain and thoughts of revenge, with forgiveness, where they will be there to help you. 

Preface

Most likely everyone wants forgiveness from the times they have hurt others, but then there is difficulty with many of the same people not extending forgiveness to others.   

Five points concerning Revenge:

1. Revenge is the personal actions taken against someone or a group of people for perceived and real damage done which can be:
   (a) Physical,
   (b) Psychological, and/or
   (c) Absence of denied emotions such as love. 
   The person doing the actions against someone and people is carrying out vengeance, retaliation, reprisal, vindictiveness or retribution, which can collectively be called "revenge".  The revenge is often called the payment for the damage done.  
2. Remorse is a regretful feeling and a thought because of anything done purposely, accidentally, unknowingly or as an act of revenge.  Remorse can be felt by:
   (a) Someone who caused another person or group to experience pain, when not intending the pain to be caused.
   (b) Someone who retaliated against someone or a group in an act of revenge.
3. Guilt is the final feeling that the Christian should feel right after Remorse.  The feeling of Guilt will have the Revengeful Person desire to have the ability to go back and stop oneself from doing something wrong.
4. Forgiveness is what is always required of the Christian, even if the Christian has acted out any types of Revenge.
5. Unrighteous Vindication can be felt by someone who receives revengeful actions against themselves that can cause them to be satisfied that they initially caused the person acting on revenge to have received pain first.

Often remorse and guilt are followed after revenge because:

• The person acting on revenge sometimes realizes they have now done something wrong that makes them just as bad as the person they were inflicting revenge on another person.
• The initial damage done is now essentially doubled with the knowledge, remorse and guilt, that a person is now carrying in their memory of:
  (initial damage) + (revenge that led to remorse/guilt) = {compounded sinful actions and feelings}.

The Christian should use the Word of God in all times of desires to have revenge.  When the Christian realizes that God will use all suffering experienced by the Christian, that can even be justified, to become a blessing then the victim of anything done wrong can rejoice. 

Most Christians understand the power in sowing and reaping good, but may not fully understand that sowing and reaping negatively for doing wrong also applies to our lives.  Christians have even begun to call the negative side of consequences, for reaping negatively by acting on revenge, by the Buddhist law of Karma, as it is observed in people's lives so often.

There are even secular quotes that reflect the negative consequences for seeking revenge, where the Christian should adhere to Romans 12:19.

A Righteous Victim Gets Rewards

The most profound incite to recognize that our desires to obtain something, such as revenge, may actually do us harm and even potentially cause life-long consequences with remorse and loss of Rewards.  By participating in any activity that hurts others with the goal of making ourselves happy by others misery, will never accomplish the goals intended. 

Every time we are the victim, we need to recognize that the other person(s), who did anything against you, will never obtain the end result that they wanted.  In fact, God will always intervene in the Christian and non-Christian's life to not let anyone enjoy ill-gotten rewards for very long.  Anything in life that we participate in to get anything wrongly will absolutely turn into a detriment, problem, hindrance and much worse. 

Thank God for Grace and Mercy for the Christian, but we need to know that the Holy Spirit will guide us in our actions where when we ignore the clear knowledge not to do wrong, then we are circumventing the Grace and Mercy God uses in our lives along with potentially removing the Rewards that we would be receiving from Righteous Suffering.

There is absolutely nothing in our life that we can suffer, even unto death, when not caused by our actions that God will not reward us many times over in the next!  Read the topic on suffering for more details.  Additionally, God will use our sinful actions to our benefit when we respond correctly to correction from the Holy Spirit.

Goals in Revenge

The main points for seeking revenge are:

• To inflict a punishment for wrongs done on the person or group of people for actions they have done.
• To satisfy the person's emotions of anger and loss for something done to them.
• To attempt to obtain peace of mind by accomplishing the punishment onto someone or a group of people.

all of which puts ourselves in the place of God to judge righteously.

God will repay all those who do evil, and it will be in God's perfect timing.  By avoiding the doing of evil and living righteously, we all will reap benefits, and by seeking revenge we lose the blessings.  God will avenge absolutely.

Does Revenge Satisfy?

The answer can be "yes" for a very short period of time, which can be as little as a few moments. 

Three earthly perspective problems with seeking revenge:

1. Revenge always requires an expense of time, money, effort and emotions.  This adds on to the damage that initially was received by the person who is seeking revenge.
2. Revenge requires a person to temporarily, or for a sustained amount of time, to abandoned worthy and righteous goals.
3. Revenge makes a person to have to think in negative ways that will always harms oneself.

The best revenge is acting as God would have us to do, which reaps blessings and reward in Eternity.  God will take care of vindication and revenge for you.

Long Term Consequences / Harboring Revenge Desire

There are always:

1. Painful consequences for acting out revenge, because we are putting ourselves in the place of God's role as Judge.
2. Thoughts, which is unforgiveness, and acting on revenge will cause damage to ourselves when harboring and speaking about revenge.  The damage is:
   (a) Loss of productivity in God's service,
   (b) Collateral and intentional hurting of others because they remind you of someone who hurt you,
   (c) Depression, and
   (d) Loss of rewards in Heaven.

In our lives, revenge can be desired and acted upon because we will:

• Encounter people who are narcissistic, self-centered or have psychological disorders that do hurt people emotionally, financially and physically.
• Be hurt in many ways by people we love and those that are our friends.

When acting on revenge, the long-term consequences are:

1. Revenge will never accomplish the three goals listed in bullet points of Goals of Revenge section.
2. Revenge will lead to a sense of loss and emptiness that is very difficult to remove because revenge is putting oneself in the place of God who is the Judge of all of us.
3. Revenge will ultimately give feelings of anger and remorse against one-self for the realization that justification of acting out revenge now made the person as bad as the person/people who did the wrongful deeds in the first place.

The most important aspect to consider is the two greatest commandments given by Jesus Christ:

and when understanding and applying these two greatest laws to the parable of the man forgiven of a large debt, who then does not forgive a small debt of another in Matthew 18:21-35, will give us knowledge on the importance of forgiveness and not acting on revenge with the possibilities of:

• Losses and consequences in our life. 
• Losses in Eternal Rewards in Heaven.

The implication from Jesus Christ's speaking of the parable means God will hold us accountable for:

1. Receiving forgiveness in countless sins, because of Jesus Christ's death on the cross, and
2. Then not forgiving others. 

In the parable of the Matthew 18:21-25:

• The king represents God the Father. 
• We are in place of the man who was a servant who owed a great deal of money to the king, because we owe God because of our sinful lives.
• The king forgave the servant,
• The servant does not do the same for someone who has difficulty paying money owed to him, which should have been done right after the forgiveness of the debt by the king.
• The consequences are the servant is placed into prison.  In our life, thank God for Grace and Mercy, the "prison" has the consequence stated above:
  (a) Losses and consequences in our life. 
  (b) Losses in Eternal Rewards in Heaven.

The key verses are 32 through 35, that should make all of us know of the paramount importance of forgiveness of everyone.

Instead of Revenge

These are the only thoughts and remedies to take instead of taking revenge on anyone. 

1. Revenge and consequences, for those who do evil against someone, is for God to administrate.  At 60 years old, it is utterly astonishing the consequences seen for how God handles justice for wrongs done by others.  We always need to remember:
   (a) That there is also the matter of loss of rewards in eternity that none of us should be losing.
   (b) All of us are not perfect and have the possibility of having done something in our life which others may be angry with us and want revenge. 
   (c) God administers Grace and Mercy in all of our lives.  The last thing we want from God is to exercise perfect justice on all of us.  As we mature in our Christian walk, we realize that we always need God's Mercy and want God's Grace.
2. Criminal activities and Civil disputes are to be handled by the established legal processes.
3. The best revenge is to live our lives to the fullest that God intended which will give us the greatest rewards and happiness in this life and eternity! An additional way of thinking is the commonly heard expression "The best revenge is showing that nothing done by someone else has had any effect on you."
4. Be kind and respectful in return to those who have done anything wrong against you or others.  This is always the correct thing to do and it will keep your consciousness clear of not repaying evil with evil.  Notice in Proverbs 25:21-22 that God also sees your correct actions and will reward you. 
5. Understand that suffering, when not deserved, will always benefit the Christian in the long run.  It is absolutely amazing the benefits, rewards and love God rewards.  The topic on suffering explains this in further details.

Remorse and Guilt

There are two types of remorse that results from knowingly doing something wrong, and also doing something wrong without knowing it.  In the scriptures, Saul who later becomes the Apostle Paul, is an example of someone doing evil and did not know it. 

Before Paul became an Apostle, he was known as Saul, a Pharisee.  Saul spent time trying to stop the Gospel of Jesus Christ from spreading by finding Christians and having them arrested, imprisoned and also stoned to death by the ruling body of Jews in Jerusalem.  Saul did this because he thought this was serving God with the belief that the Christians were breaking God's Laws that had penalties of death in the Mosaic Laws.  Saul did not know that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law that pointed to Jesus Christ as the Messiah which Israel was awaiting.

The evidence in the scriptures shows that Saul deeply regretted his past actions against the Christians for the rest of his life.  The important point for us, when looking at Paul's example is how Paul changed his life.  As read in the Book of Acts, there were people who had good reason to distrust and possibly even hate Paul, such as Anaias who forgave Paul.  

As we know, the good news is Saul was personally witnessed to by Jesus Christ in a vision, and then became Paul the Apostle who wrote 14 of the New Testament Books (this assumes he wrote Hebrews, which the preponderance of information points to.)  Paul led his life, from that point forward, in a mission to witness to others about Jesus Christ, and Paul was profoundly cognizant of this mission to not be found unworthy of the calling and to maximize his rewards in heaven. 

When any of us act on revenge, there is the unknown consequences for the recipient of revenge that can temporarily or permanently stop the Work of God.  Revenge against someone has the potential to stopping someone from future great works for God.  

Conversely, if someone does not act on revenge, then they are not interfering with God handling judgment under Grace and Mercy.  Additionally, the person not acting on revenge can be part of the rewards from God because of the possible Godly accomplishments of someone that did will receive revenge.

The desire for all of us sometimes is have others feel and understand the pain they caused.  This is truly not possible in life even if someone says they actually can feel and understand.  The best that we can do is feel empathy for someone else's pain when we have shared a common painful experience at the hands of someone else. 

When we can emphasize with someone in pain, then we can try to help others that are experiencing pain.  If we are a victim, then God will often guide us to others to help us which have gone through the same types of suffering.  This author during times of being a victim has experienced help from others, who has gone through similar circumstances, many times when I needed it which was so amazing to recognize God was behind the help that could not have been coincidence. 

To often, many of us have used or heard the comment about someone seeking revenge: "I want them to feel the pain that I felt by doing to them what they did to me."  It is impossible to ever make anyone feel like we have felt or know if they feel any of the same pain.  As pointed out above in the section on Victims, this should never be attempted.

Our emotions in life often lead us into temptations and doing wrong.  One of the best examples of extreme emotions that may contain guilt, is to consider adultery in a marriage, from both sides. 

Wanting Righteous Judgment

The entirety of the scriptures, with parts discussed already in this topic, lets us know that we are to forgive always so that we can be forgiven.  Is there an acceptable circumstance to pray for Righteous Judgment against someone?  The answer requires a mature viewpoint where a prayer must be for:

• God's Glory,
• God's Holy Name, or
• To benefit other Christians.

otherwise, the requested prayer should not be done.

There are two scriptural examples of many when righteous indignation, a judgment was asked and God acted against those who have sinned against God and people.

The incident in 1 Timothy 1:20, is when Apostle Paul turned over Hymenaeus and Alexander to Lucifer.  This is a righteous judgment example for these two men because they were teaching that the Resurrection of the Saints had already occurred, and there would not be a bodily resurrection for those who remained, which was hurting the newly formed congregation of Believers. 

All Christians are protected by the Holy Spirit and also guarding angels, where if we didn't have this protection then the Satanic Forces in the world would do everything in their power to destroy us and our witness.  Paul was releasing them from this protection so that their actions would stop, they could hopefully have a correction in their thoughts and also stop sinning against God.

In the Tribulation Period, the people who accept Jesus Christ will have Salvation, but they will suffer and most of them will lose their life.  When they are in Heaven, they will ask God how long before they would be avenged by God as read in Revelation 6:9-10.  These people who had been slain have righteous indignation and a desire for God's Holy Name, that they accepted, to be avenged.  This is acceptable question for them to ask and desire.

Forgive Ourselves and Others

The Apostle Paul struggled with forgiving himself and that is a possibility for all of us when we do anything wrong.  We must forgive ourselves and others so that we will have peace within ourselves and righteousness with God.

God Judging of the Fallen Angels and Demons

What to read next?

What is Salvation?  Is it possible to lose Salvation?  We have eternal life.  Evolution is not real.  When a Christian suffers is there benefits from it.  Rewards in heaven.  Do we Tithe?  What does the 3rd Commandment tell us?  What is Grace and Mercy?  Is there an Age of Accountability?  Is there a place of unending punishment and exile form God?