If you or I get really, really mad at our neighbor, the Bible says we are not allowed to kill him.
| Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. |
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(Lev. 19:18) |
"The children of thy people" meant Israel, but Jesus made it clear that everyone in the world is our "neighbor."
If someone does something wrong to you, you are not allowed to do something bad to him to "get even." Vengeance belongs to God.
If you hire a "contract killer," you are still guilty of violating these commandments, even though technically someone else did the dirty work. Entire books have been written on how to "get even." They are creative, but if you follow their advice, you will be guilty of violating these commands.
Probably the most creative way to "get even" with someone is called "the State." People who support "the State" think their hands remain clean. "I didn't take vengeance," they think to themselves; "I just "voted" for a politician to take vengeance."
Not only has this method of vengeance been responsible for an average of 10,000 murders per day during the 20th century, but these contract killings have been financed (or just accompanied by) the theft of literally trillions of dollars.
Surprisingly, this engine of systematic murder and theft is supported by nearly all who profess to follow Moses and Jesus and Paul, despite their clear teachings against vengeance and violence.
If things continue along the present path, vastly more than 10,000 people per day will be murdered in the 21st century by "the State," yet those who do the killings will not even notice feelings of revenge or hatred. They will think they're doing their patriotic duty. They may not even know their victim. America was born when Britain attempted to levy taxes that came close to 5% of the average colonist's income. Today we pay ten times as much, and substantially more than half of our children's income will be taken by "the State" in the next century.
The amount of evil perpetrated by "the State" is staggering. And yet most people have given hardly a thought about how to end the global violence and theft.
Probably the first step is to come to grips with the requirements of God's Law. Next, we must visualize a world which is committed to faithful obedience to God. The Prophet Micah gave us a picture of such a world. The ideal of a vengeance-free world permeates Scripture, and God promises that it will be a reality in this age. It's something we should be working for today, step-by-step.
For lack of a better name, we can call a vengeance-free world under God's Law "Anarcho-Theocracy."