1 Peter 3:9 - Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and He will grant you His blessing.
When people get mad at each other, how easy is it to lash out and hurl insults back and forth? Disagreements can quickly turn into a tennis match of insults going back and forth. It's human nature to fight fire with fire.
But instead of pouring gasoline on the flames of insults, we are called and held to a higher standard. We are called to smother those flames with love. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us about that higher standard. In Matthew 5:21-26, He tells us that being angry with someone is just as bad as murdering them. I believe that just as looking lustfully at a woman is committing adultery in our heart (Matthew 5:28), being angry with someone is like murdering them in your heart.
God never expects us to be perfect. He will handle the part of perfecting us day by day until He returns or we pass on from this world and go home to Him (Philippians 1:6). What he does expect us to do, is to conduct ourselves differently than the world conducts itself. Notice that in this passage, Jesus doesn't say "If you're angry with someone, you're just as guilty of murder, and it's over for you." The great thing about God's Word is that you NEVER hear that. The Bible is an instruction book for living. Repeatedly, God tells us what to do to make it right when we sin. Matthew 5:23-24 tell us how to be reconciled not just to the person you are angry with, but reconciled to God. Jesus tells us to stop what we are doing, and make it right with that other person before we present ourselves to God.
I love this passage, because I have been so guilty of slandering people with insults. Both to their face, and behind their back. Even though I believe that God has called me according to His purpose, I am still a human that sins, and will fail (often). I'm no better than anyone else, but I am called to be better than I used to be. Do I expect better of myself? I should. I'm a child of God, and Jesus Christ died so that I could be redeemed. Even though there is nothing I could do to earn my salvation, I owe it to everyone I encounter to smother them with love, because that's what Jesus did at the Cross and that's what God does every day when He wakes me up (sometimes a little too early...just sayin...).
Dear Abba Father, thank You. A thousand times thank You. I know that I have been known to hurl insults back and forth at others, and that I am guilty of not reconciling myself to my brothers and sisters before I come to You. I beg Your forgiveness for my transgressions, and I ask You to heal my heart as only You can do. I want Your blessings so that I may continue to be a servant to You and Your Kingdom. I pray for those that aren't being granted Your blessing because their heart is hardened towards a brother or sister. My prayer is that they will remember that You never harden Your heart towards us, no matter how much we may deserve it at times. I pray that they will remember how big Your love is, and that they will attempt to pay it forward to others, and smother Your love everywhere instead of fanning the flames of anger and hate. In Jesus' name, Amen!
God Bless!!!
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