Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."
Far too often, when someone is wronged, the first word that comes to mind is, "revenge!" However with this idea of revenge, also comes the mindset of having to "one-up" the other person. The flaw in this is that it can become an endless cycle and the problem never really gets solved.
Where did this idea of, "an eye for an eye," come from anyway? It came from the Old Testament Law. Leviticus 24:20 states, "fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him." The idea here did not mean just because person A poked person B in the eye, that person B had to go and poke person A in the eye for payback. The idea was to place a limit so that person B could not do more than poke person A in the eye.
Besides, when talking about revenge, Paul states in Romans 12:19, "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord."
It is not our job to "get even." It is our job to love one another as Christ loves us. Consider the third verse of the song, "Did you think to Pray."
When your heart was filled with anger,
Did you think to pray?
Did you plead for grace, my brother,
That you might forgive another
Who had crossed your way?
