Scripture: 1 Peter 3:9 – “Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing.” (NRSVue)
Christianity has a fighting problem. There is a lot of violent imagery in the Bible, where God is punishing the wicked, especially in the Old Testament. There are psalms where the singer delights in the destruction of their enemies. There is a sense in the gospels that the world is out to get Christians. And the letters use military imagery like “Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3) or “put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:11). Now, this military language is always couched in metaphor. For example, Ephesians continues: “for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against … the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
But people usually miss the point. They let a solider-like zeal for God turn into soldier-like tactics to defeat flesh and blood enemies. We saw this in the Crusades and still see it today in the conflation of Bible and gun culture, which occasionally leads to slaughter justified on religious grounds.
Jesus was a pretty big pacifist, famously calling to “turn the other cheek” and letting his enemies nail him to a cross. But he also recognized the potential good in his enemies, saying, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Many Christians have treated these kinds of commandments as an afterthought, something you should do, but is not an essential part of being a Christian.
But praying for your enemies and resisting evil through pacificism is not just a minor feature of faith. One might argue it is the whole point. The First Letter of Peter, which is primarily about enduring suffering, says, “Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing.” This echoes what Jesus says. But the letter goes a step further. “It is for this that you were called.”
We are called not to win our salvation or get into heaven or even to eradicate sin. We are called to repay evil with blessings. We are called to model behavior that denies evil its power by not using its own weapons against it.
One of the reasons why many people turn away from Christianity is its hypocrisy. If Jesus is about love and forgiveness, why are so many Christians filled with hatred and rejection? Our call is to bless the world not just through prayers, but through showing love and mercy to those who want to scream in our faces or push us down.
Take a moment today to think about an enemy. It might be a specific person or an ideology or an amorphous “they” that media has taught you to fear. How can you repay evil with a blessing? What kind of blessing will you be today?
Prayer: God, grant me the patience to endure an imperfect world and help me to spread kindness, especially when it is difficult.
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