2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
I mentioned yesterday that the first part of today’s passage, 1 PET 3: 7-12, begins speaking about the attitude husbands should take, but then its language become more inclusive applying to all of us. Beginning with (8), Peter directs his remarks to suffering for doing what is right. Now, meditate on today’s passage: “In the same way you husbands must live with your wives with the proper understanding that they are the weaker sex. Treat them with respect, because they also receive, together with you, God’s gift of life. Do this so that nothing will interfere with your prayers. (8) To conclude: you must all have the same attitude and the same feelings; love one another as brothers, and be kind and humble with one another. Do not pay back evil with evil or cursing with cursing; instead, pay back with a blessing, because a blessing is what God promised to give you when He called you. As the Scripture [PS 34: 12-16] says, ‘Whoever wants to enjoy life and wishes to see good times, must keep from speaking evil and stop telling lies. He must turn away from evil and do good; he must strive for peace with all his heart. For the Lord watches over the righteous and listens to their prayers; but He opposes those who do evil.’“
When (7) begins with the words, “In the same way,” this is referring to what was said yesterday about one’s beauty coming from a gentle, quiet spirit which is in God’s sight of greatest value [1 PET 3: 4]. There is a passage in EPH 5: 21-33, which I hope you will read, which takes up God’s desire for conduct between wives and husbands. When Peter talks about wives being the “weaker sex,” this is not a call to begin fighting the battle of the sexes. Nor is it a statement that women are inferior to men. Sadly, the world takes it as such and uses this language to de-emphasize the importance of Scripture. What is really being spoken here is the obvious fact that women are not physically built as strong as men, which is one of a good many reasons not to physically abuse them. It is also said that both men and women are given the God’s gift of life. While a woman’s role is different than her husband’s, she is just as precious to God as He is and just as entitled to the guidance and blessings God gives as he is. EPH 5: 21-25, “Submit yourselves to one another because of your reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband has authority over his wife just as Christ has authority over the church; and Christ is Himself the Savior of the church, His body. And so wives must submit themselves completely to their husbands just as the church submits itself to Christ. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave His life for it.” EPH 5: 32-33, “There is a deep secret truth revealed in this Scripture [GN 2: 24], which I understand as applying to Christ and the church. But it also applies to you: every husband must love his wife as himself, and every wife must respect her husband.”
As Peter’s passage moves on, it takes up a subject that bears repeating, because of the number of times people violate God’s will about it. That is returning evil for evil and cursing with cursing. Our society doesn’t think it’s too serious a gaff that one of the presidential candidates cursed in response to a negative editorial writer’s comments about him into a microphone the candidate didn’t realize was on. Yet, this same candidate, like his competitor, professes to have accepted the Lord into his life. Before I appear to be self-righteous here, let me say that I am very aware that not swearing in today’s society is a learned behavior difficult to acquire. I have most certainly been guilty of letting some ripe words escape my own mouth, although I’m not proud of that. James, our parent-apostle, brings this problem to our attention in JAS 3: 9-10, “We use it [the tongue] to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse our fellow-man, who is created in the likeness of God. Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My brothers, this should not happen!”
The holding of grudges and paying back evil with evil flies in the face of Christ’s very own teaching. MT 5: 44-45, “But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become sons of your Father in heaven…” Like refraining from cursing, learning to practice love for one’s enemies is hard to do. But, Christ Himself makes it plain that we must do that. We never know that God might be using us as His agent to stop evil and bring a perceived enemy to faith. If we exact retribution against that person, we can actually delay or even stop God’s will from becoming a reality here. Now, that’s a different way of looking at the situation than blind, impulsive acts of anger would be. It’s the very reason that we as parents feel it necessary to stop a child who bites another from continuing to engage in this obviously unacceptable behavior.
As far back as LV 19: 17-18 and DT 32: 34-36, God made His will known plainly in cases where evil has been done. LV 19: 17-18, “Do not bear a grudge against anyone, but settle your differences with him, so that you will not commit a sin because of him. Do not take revenge on anyone or continue to hate him, but love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am the Lord.” DT 32: 34-36, “The Lord remembers what their enemies have done; He waits for the right time to punish them. The Lord will take revenge and punish them; the time will come when they will fall; the day of their doom is near. The Lord will rescue His people when He sees that their strength is gone. He will have mercy on those who serve Him, when He sees how helpless they are.” It is on this last citation that Paul in RO 12: 19 reiterates this same principle, “Never take revenge, my friends, but instead let God’s wrath do it. For the Scripture [DT 32: 35] says, ‘I will take revenge, I will pay back,’ says the Lord. “ Our Lord is not only consistent, but He is our Protector as well. One need only peruse the Psalms to see how King David understood that and conveys it to us through his songs. Those of us who are willing and attempting to put these teachings into practice in our lives need never worry when we consider that God, Who is omniscient, knows the contents of our hearts. We need never feel the necessity to tell a lie, to curse either God or another person, or to hold a grudge. Our God is a just God; we should mirror the love He has for us in our relationships with each other.
PRAYER: O Lord, we humbly appeal to You, through the Holy Spirit, to give us Your understanding of the message Peter writes in today’s passage, not that of the world. There are times when controversies within marriages or between people outside of marriage lead to conflict. Our flesh induces us to react with physical violence, emotional cruelty, cursing, retribution, lies, and grudge holding. These are not Your ways, nor do they ever serve Your purpose. That is why You loved us enough to give us a Spirit-led inner self with the strength to overcome these evil impulses. We know that we need Your guidance and the courage of our faith to win in the conflict between spirit and flesh. You made this choice available to us through the death of Your Son on the cross. That is the greatest demonstration of Your love ever given us, but it is not the only one. Dearest Lord, it is Your will that we should make forward progress in becoming sanctified. To that end You gave us the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, prayer, our congregations, and the lessons of our individual circumstances. For that, we pledge You our thanks, honor, worship, adoration, trust, obedience, and loyalty eternally. We offer our lives to Your glory. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue to look at the issue of suffering for doing right as discussed in 1 PET 3: 13-17. In the meanwhile, we need to examine our lives to see how we stand individually on the issues of Peter’s message in today’s passage. Know that our Father in heaven is the greatest cheerleader for our success in overcoming evil in our lives and coming into the light of His peace which getting rid of evil brings to us. My husband, Peter, and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn