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1 Peter 3:8-12
Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tender hearted, be courteous; 9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. 11 Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”
After talking to husbands and wives, and encouraging them to live out their faith with one another in love, Peter then gives his readers some practical tips as to how to relate with one another. The first thing he asks is that we all be of one mind. He is talking about unity, not uniformity. He does not mean that we all think the same things in the same way. He means that we all remain united in our thinking pertaining to our faith in Christ, and to the way we live out our faith, demonstrating love with one another.
He then suggests that we be compassionate to one another. When we look around us, we see so many people who go through so many difficulties, and love demands that we don’t just ignore the pain that they go through, but that we have compassion towards them, and do all we can to help them, thereby demonstrating true love in action.
He goes on to encourage them to love one another as we would our own brothers and sisters, because in the family of God, that’s what we really are – brothers and sisters. All those of us who have put our faith in Jesus, are part of God’s own family, and this family is an eternal family.
He then reminds us to be tender hearted towards one another, as opposed to being hard hearted. Seeing someone in need should stimulate a response to help, and not an attitude of indifference, criticism or judgment.
Peter further adds that we need to be courteous towards one another. We all like people being courteous with us, and so we need to first decide to be courteous to people. When we are courteous to people, we let them know that we respect them, and that they are valuable.
He then addresses another important aspect that we find so easy to forget. When people are evil to us, or revile us in some way, we tend to want to respond to them the same way they did to us. But Peter reminds us that we should not respond to evil with evil, or to reviling with reviling, but we should rather respond to such behaviour with blessing. In fact, he seems to echo the very words of Jesus in Matthew 5:38-41 where Jesus said, 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. 41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Peter goes on to give two reasons why we should respond to evil and reviling, in love and not retaliate the same way. The first reason is because we were called by the Lord Jesus to live this new life, which is the kind of life He Himself lived. He loved all people, and never returned evil with evil, and reviling with reviling, but rather with blessing. In fact, He gave His life for sinful people like us humans, even while we were still sinners.
The second reason, is that we will be rewarded by the Lord if we respond this way. Sometimes it’s tempting to take things into our own hands and recompense evil for evil, but let’s remember when we do that, we are not reflecting the character of our Lord Jesus in our lives. When we respond in love and kindness, we can be sure that we will inherit a blessing. We don’t respond in love to inherit a blessing, but when we respond in love, we will inherit a blessing. This blessing is from the Lord, who sees our loving responses to the evil done to us.
Peter then quotes from Psalm 34:12-16, where King David says, “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. 11 Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”
From the above passage in the Psalm, it’s quite obvious that God’s expectations of man’s way of life was nothing new – God was loving all along, and God expected us to be loving towards Him and towards one another all along. We hear of so many so-called solutions to living long and happy lives here on the earth today, but these verses give us the perfect solution to long and happy living here on earth. Since our life here on earth revolves around our relationship with God and one another, it’s wise to pay heed to these reminders by King David.
The first thing the Psalmist tells us to do is to refrain our tongues from evil, and our lips from speaking deceit. As tempting as it is for us to run people down, speak evil of them and to be deceitful with our words, we are cautioned against that way of speech because it does not reflect the character of Christ.
The second thing we need to do is to turn away from evil and do good. While the first thing pertained to our words, the second tip pertains to our way of life. We are not to do evil, but rather do good. Though it’s not always easy to do good, especially when evil is done to us, we are being encouraged to do good, because we would be thereby reflecting the nature of Christ in our lives.
The third thing he encourages us to do is to seek peace and pursue it. I like the way he refers to peace as something to be sought after and pursued, because it is such a difficult thing to find and maintain. It’s so easy to find evil, as it’s so prevalent all around us, but to find peace, we need to take that extra, intentional effort to search for it, and when we set our sights on it, to pursue it with all our hearts and minds. This means that we need to do all we can to be at peace with one another, even when everything around us suggests we be at loggerheads with one another.
He then reminds us that when we train ourselves to speak in love and live in love, we can be sure that the Lord who sees all things takes note, and will reward us accordingly. He says that the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and that His ears are attentive to their cries, meaning that the Lord who sees us live in love, will then answer our prayers.
He immediately adds a caution to all of us, reminding us that if we choose to live like the wicked, retaliating evil with evil and reviling for reviling, then we can be sure that the face of the Lord will be against us, meaning that we cannot expect God’s favour in our lives. So often we find ourselves living in stark contrast to God’s expectations of us, and yet expecting God to answer our prayers and show His favour on us.
Let’s remember that we are not gods, and we don’t dictate terms to God either. He is God and it’s His desire that we reflect His character in our lives, and when we do that, He is willing to do anything for us, knowing that we will use whatever He does for us to continue to glorify His Name.
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