“Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9 NET).
Our text from 1 Peter 3:9 echoes a portion of Jesus’ teaching from the Beatitudes…
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father 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 have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” (Matthew 5:43-47).
That brings us to the characteristics of love as described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8…
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”
So Jesus encouraged us to “love your enemies.” This, of course, assumes that we will encounter enemies in our lives, or at least those who fail to get along with us. Jesus taught us to respond to those individuals in love, but why? Why should we avoid returning evil for evil or insult for insult? Well, the answer is hiding in plain sight within our text from Matthew 5:45: “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
1 John 4:7-11 summarizes that counsel for us in the following manner…
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (NIV).