Wanting justice versus wanting revenge

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If I understand correctly, wanting revenge is a sin. However, I don’t think that wanting justice is a sin. Am I correct in my thinking? If I am correct, then what is the difference between wanting revenge and wanting justice? Also, is wanting revenge a grave matter, or does it depend on the circumstance(s)?
 
If I understand correctly, wanting revenge is a sin. However, I don’t think that wanting justice is a sin. Am I correct in my thinking? If I am correct, then what is the difference between wanting revenge and wanting justice? Also, is wanting revenge a grave matter, or does it depend on the circumstance(s)?
I’m sure a lot of people want revenge for wrongs done to them or to loved ones, but the desire for revenge is different from actually carrying it out.

The difference between revenge and justice, is that vengeance is destructive. It seeks to right a wrong through violence. Justice, is concerned with righting a wrong sometimes through force and violence (war, death penalty), but with the intention of creating peace and stability after the fact. A war undertaken without the intention of creating peace after the fact, can hardly be considered a just war.

There is nothing wrong with wanting justice, but only if it comes from a true desire for peace after the punishment has been dealt. If your desire only centers around harm to the person involved, your desire is for vengeance, not justice.

I hope that makes sense.
 
how on earth does one overcome the strongest desire to seek revenge when one has been so badly hurt:banghead:
 
All justice has its source in God, the Just Judge. Revenge causes harm for harm, and is contrary to what our Lord teaches. Notice how, if you have ever gotten revenge against someone, your original animosity toward them still exists - even though to a lesser degree? Revenge adds only sin to sin. To take things a bit further, suppose that you never are able to get that revenge say, because the other person moves away. Now, you shall carry that evil desire within you for the rest of your life. So, in essence, that wrong done to you now lives on within you because of your own doing. You have just victimised yourself.

As difficult as it is, we simply must forgive and let go of the wrong done to us. Even more, we are commanded to pray for that person, because whether or not we can stand them, we do know that God loves them. We make ourselves their judge by harboring animosity toward them, when God stands ready to forgive them at the slightest notice. We already know that the other is not a happy person, and that this basic unhappiness affects those all round them. So, pray for their conversion of heart once you have converted your own. Perhaps even before then, since converting our own heart may take a lifetime!.
 
thank you po. sometimes the anger rears its ugly head, i know what u say bout victimising oneself. the only person effected by my yearn for revenge is me. the perpertrator isnt affected, just me. it is hard sometimes,
God bless you
love clare:thumbsup:
 
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