In the movie, Collateral Damage, the hero’s (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) family is killed before his eyes while terrorists are attempting to kill their nemesis who did not die in the bombing. While discussing another sort of similar situation with some friends, one of them said, “That’s just not fair!” In our lives things happen to us collaterally as well. Sometimes there is collateral damage; other times there are collateral blessings. In the movie, Arnold gets even; but, that’s really not the right thing to do, according to Romans 12: 14, 17-21. That’s also not the focus of this article, sort of.

As hard as it always is, Christians should view the damage as actually being collateral blessings because God works for our  good to accomplish his will (James 1:2-4; Romans 8: 28; Philippians 2: 13).

While it isn’t the focus of this article, even the revenge God does take turns out to be a collateral blessing to us as we’re rescued from the persecution. He rescued Noah and his family from a corrupt generation and he will rescue his faithful children from today’s generation, but we have to act toward that end ourselves as well (2 Peter 2: 4-10; Acts 2: 37-41; 1 Peter 3: 18-22, the Revised and American Standard Versions give the most accurate translation of this passage).

God protected Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and similarly to Noah, the oppression of the unrighteousness being practiced there (Genesis 19: 1-29 is an intriguing part of history, but a long account; at least read verse 29). The promise for us today in 2 Peter 2: 4-10 is that God also knows how to rescue us from any collateral damage we may experience and he may even occasionally protect us from experiencing some of it.

Even as sin increases today, God won’t let us be tempted beyond our ability to withstand the temptation nor will he allow the torment to become so great as to cause us to fall away if we’re not inclined to (1 Corinthians 10: 13; Matthew 24: 9-13, 21, 22; hmmm, you can’t turn away from a faith you never had, just like you can’t fall from a secure position you never held – 2 Peter 3: 17, 18).

We’ll still face tragedy in this life, even due to the collateral damage caused by the sins of other people although we have no associated guilt of our own (Ezekiel 18: 20-32). But, again, we’ll be rescued and it’s likely that, if we’ll just look around, we’ll also realize we’ve been blessed (Romans 7: 24, 25).

The ultimate example of collateral damage is the household of Job. All Job’s children died just because Satan wanted him to turn away from God (Job 1: 1-22). We must be careful to not hold God accountable for the actions of others, especially the devil. We also must be careful about judging others, thinking them guilty of some great sin because of the calamities they’ve experienced (Job 4: 7, 8). In the end, Job was blessed even more than he had been in the past (Job 42: 12-17).

In addition to collateral damage due to sin there are collateral blessings. God told Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him (Genesis 12: 1-4).  Christians should bring blessings throughout the communities in which we live – our fellow residents should be blessed by our presence. We’re to pray that God will prosper our communities and country because that’ll lead to continuing our religious freedoms and our own prosperity (1 Timothy 2: 1-5; Jeremiah 29: 4-11). Keep in mind that whatever we pray for, we also need to work toward. The verses just cited in Jeremiah told them (and us) to build and plant, among other things.

Paul said that people plant and water, but God causes the growth (1 Corinthians 3: 5-9). Actually, God does the watering and provides the sunshine and the soil and even the seed, all of which are necessary for growth (2 Corinthians 9: 8-15). In fact, the sunshine and rain are a collateral blessing to all of mankind so we can realize God’s great love for us (Matthew 5: 43-47; Job 25: 3; Acts 17: 24-28).

Finally, God blesses us directly when we obey out of faith as he blessed Abraham when he left his hometown and when he was prepared to offer his only son as a sacrifice to God (Genesis 22: 15-18)?

Have you come to God? He’s the only hope we have to be rescued from this life of calamity as a collateral blessing (Romans 5: 6-12; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-23; Romans 6: 3-5).

 

Leonard Lauriault, church of Christ