To Encourage You

1 Peter 3:9 “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”  

In Warren Wierbe’s commentary on 1 Peter entitled “Be Hopeful,” he makes the following statement: “As Christians, we can live on one of three levels. We can return evil for good, which is the satanic level. We can return good for good and evil for evil, which is the human level. Or, we can return good for evil, which is the divine level.” Of course, it is this third level that God has called us to. It’s a personal call that we can attach our name to, for it’s the will of God for each and every believer.  

Jesus reiterated this in His Sermon on the Mount when He said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is 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. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48).  And that’s exactly the same message that Peter writes above as he simply relays to us what Jesus personally taught him.  

It is important to note that Peter is writing this to persecuted Christians.  He has just told them that they were to “have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” toward other Christians (1 Peter 3:8).  It should be their natural bent as believers, i.e., to love those who love them. But then he turns to those who DON’T love them. In fact, he addresses the issue of what they should do in the face of the vitriol being poured out on them simply because they were followers of Christ.  And he tells them that they were to have a Christlike response. As such, it was supernatural.  It was anything but human. It was something that only the power of Christ could produce in them, i.e., a love for their enemies.  It was the love that Jesus had poured out on each and every one of them, as Peter had earlier explained to them in this same letter with the following words: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:21-24).  It was a love that Peter was well aware of, for in response to Peter’s denial of this Savior who had lived with him, protected him, taught him, and loved him, Jesus loved him to an even greater extent as He gave His life on the cross so that Peter and everyone else who would ever place their faith in Him would live for all eternity.  And so we are to love because Christ first loved us (1 John 4:19).  

May God help us to demonstrate this supernatural love to others, for as Peter tells us in the passage above, it is this kind of love that will be rewarded with God’s supernatural blessings in eternity someday soon.  For, again, Peter was just relaying to us what Jesus had taught him, i.e., “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). 

May God help us to heed His call.