Thursday, August 25,
2016
Finally, all of you should be of one
mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters.
Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. 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. For the
Scriptures say,
“If you want to enjoy life and see
many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling
lies. Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it. The eyes of the Lord watch over
those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against
those who do evil.”
1 Peter 3:8-12(NLT)
I’ve never gotten much enjoyment out
of watching a boxing match. Now there’s
a big surprise; I despise confrontation, and, frankly don’t have a thing
for getting my lights punched out! Some
people enjoy the sport; I don’t. I don’t judge those who do, but I would point out that professional boxing,
as professional football, basketball, and just about every other professional
industry is about blood, not sport. And remembering
the word professional, money is one of the roots of all that evil.
The fisherman-turned-apostle, Peter
said Christians ought not to be counter-punchers, returning
evil for evil. Rather, we are to keep a
humble attitude and even take it a step farther than the counter-punching of handing
someone back their head…but repaying the evil some would do to you with the
kindness of blessing. Peter didn’t dream
this up; his idea of conversation was to cut off someone’s ear (John 18:10). Jesus had to set Peter straight; living
by the counter-punch was to die by it as well.
So Peter learned to turn
the other cheek, and he encourages us to do the same. Keep your tongue in check from counter-punching
those who annoy you, and keep your actions in the light of Jesus’ example. He never returned evil for evil, but
found a way to take the other person’s attempt at a knockout punch and turned
it back on them as a blessing.
Not easy, right?
Who said it would be?
Christianity is not the Kindergarten
of human relationships. Learning to live
like Jesus means moving towards a Master’s degree of wisdom, higher purpose and
incredible restraint. The weapons are
prayer, Word and a learned lifestyle of humility.
There’s your target…not finding the
other person’s weak spot with your hostile counter-punch!
For You Today
There is a distance that is roughly the same as how
far the East is from the West which separates evil from good. The world will admire you if you are a
scrappy, don’t-take-anything sort of counter-punching “winner”.
But heaven approves the one who offers kindness in
return. That’s what Jesus did when He
came to offer peace, joy and forgiveness…and we hung Him on a cross.
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NOTES
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