An eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth are statements which signifies the law of retaliation.
According to wikipedia,
an eye for an eye is the principle that a person who has injured another person is to be penalized to a similar degree, and the person inflicting such punishment should be the injured party.
In the Philippines, we have a statement that means more severe than an eye for an eye. The statement is walay sukod sa balos. If the statement an eye for an eye means that if someone injures you, you can retaliate in the same degree to the person who injures you. However, in walay sukod sa balos if you injure someone, don't expect less as revenge, but more.
Now, for me, an eye for an eye way of life is a very bad idea. It will not do you any good. As a matter of fact, it will bring you more harm. For example, if you killed someone, that someone's family will retaliate. If you will be killed by any of that someone's family, your family will no retaliate. There is no end to this. This will only advocate hate between the two families and can even affect the next generations.
To counter this principle, the best thing that man should do is to learn how to forgive. Before, when someone do something bad to me, my next step is to plan out a way to retaliate. But on the other hand, I am imagining the consequences of my actions. Until my hatred slowly disappears. Heard of the statement forgive and forget? Learn to forgive and you will forget what that man has done to you.
It is not hard to forgive. Let us just ask God for guidance and the grace of forgiveness. If God can forgive, why can't we men?
