The Greek word rendered as "impute" above is the same word used related to our reckoned justification. It has a variety of applications, however, and one of them as related to evil is that surmising or reckoning evil motives of others. Thus, the Christian should endeavor to control his thoughts concerning various actions people may take so as to avoid surmising evil and attributing evil motives to the person. All us, in our flesh, do things that are evil in God's sight, although we may do such not with evil intent of the heart. (Romans 2:1; 5:12-19; 7:21) Every child of God needs to daily come before the throne of grace seeking mercy and help to overcome the sinful tendencies of our flesh. -- Hebrews 4:16; 1 John 2:1,12; 5:16,17.
However, the Greek word can also denote keeping an account of evils done, and many translations render it to reflect this meaning. This would signify that one is holding grudges and seeking to repay evil for evil, something that the Christian is not to do. (Romans 12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9) A Christian may seek to justify the idea of 'getting even' for many different reasons. The Christian may think it proper to seek to do harm for harm, for instance, to a neighbor who is not a Christian. Such would reason that the restriction applies only when a brother in Christ has committed some evil towards the Christian. However, there is no such limitation in the scriptures. Regardless of whom does some wrong against the Christian, the Christian should trust in the strength of God through Christ so as to not "strike back" in kind.
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