Psalm 103:17-18
"But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them."
Born-again believers do not practice a lifestyle of sin blatantly defending their sin.
1 John 3:8-10 "…8 The one who practices sin is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.…" Anyone who tells you it doesn't matter if a believer sins because they are "under the blood" is not understanding God's Word. When Christ changes us through our born-again experience we are no longer the same person, we hate sin as God hates it and love righteousness. A born-again believer would never defend sin, they would be ashamed of their sin and confess it to be cleansed.
1 John 1:9 … "8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us."
Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy."
When a believer sins they are tormented by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If they ignore the Spirit and continue then He will stop speaking to them and allow them to experience the consequences of their sin and if they die without confessing it they will lose rewards in heaven.
1 Corinthians 3:15 "If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as fire."
Psalm 66:18 -
18 "If I regard wickedness in my heart,
The Lord will not hear;"
When we are born-again and fall into sin we eventually will confess to be cleansed of that sin.
1 John 2:1 "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
Many Christians count themselves as not sinning because they do not do the big sins that have terrible consequences. The problem with this is that many people who are not born-again live good lives without big sins but are going to hell for not trusting in Christ.
God looks at the heart, the most law-abiding person can have sinful desires in their heart that they don't carry out because of the consequences, not because they are convicted of sin. Those who have not trusted Christ but rely on their good actions to carry the day will find out that they will not make it to heaven because their actions looked good. Their heart remained sinful and that is what takes them to hell.
This is why it is not good to judge a person as "good" when all you know about them is their good deeds.
Matthew 7:21-23 "21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
No one can have bad deeds and a good heart. If our deeds are evil then our heart is evil too. Many people count on being able to deny their sinful subtle attitude, they are comfortable as long as they can deny their sinful attitude and others cannot prove it. It's called "plausible deniability", when they have a desire to harm someone but do it so covertly that no one can prove it.
As believers we need not prove the attitudes and actions of others, we can leave the punishment to God. We can often see with God's discernment in us what they are doing but we need not correct it when we know they will deny what they do, we can allow God to correct them.
When we see ourselves tempted to respond to them in a rude manner we can ignore the feelings and pray that God will give us peace.
We must not do revenge and we must not respond in kind. When we bless everyone all the time we will have a clear conscience, walking in joy and peace no matter what others are doing.
Romans 12:19
"19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord."
By the way; The phrase "give him a taste of his own medicine" is ungodly and a form of revenge.
We must not allow rude and mean people to entice us to do as they do, we are to be Christlike no matter what others do.
