I am blessed to meet with a beautiful group of
ladies weekly. I love how we can be
vulnerable with each other. I love how we can encourage and pray for each
other. I especially love how God moves us to apply our faith to our life
situations.
Finally,
all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate
and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary,
repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may
inherit a blessing. I Peter 3: 8-9
My
friends and I were studying I & II Peter and spent a fair amount of time on
these two verses. It was easy to apply them to work and family situations. When
we are in the middle of a sympathetic, like-minded relationship, we feel not
only joy but comfort, safety, and security.
Likewise,
when confronted with evil or insult, we quickly realize that our sense of
security has dissipated; we instantly feel alone. For me, this kind of
situation brings on a sense of panic. I don’t necessarily panic because I
experience with evil. I panic because I don’t know how to respond with
effective emotions. I don’t know what to do. I default to the horribly
misguided notion that this is a problem for me to fix.
I
panic because when I face evil actions, I lose trust in God.
The
casual reading of these verses leads me to think of evil in more abstract
terms. We see evidence of evil every day in hungry children, parents struggling
to raise a family under dangerous conditions, people needlessly sick because of
lack of access to healthcare, political goals that reduce entire populations to
something less than human. We see evidence of unnatural death, violence,
oppression, and we thank God that it is not a part of our story.
As
long as these things aren’t happening to me, I can trust in God.
We
identify evil when people we love suffer, and that makes evil a little bit less
abstract. We see evil when loved ones suffer from illness, when marriages fall
apart, or when children walk away from their faith. Hopefully, these examples
of evil draw us to God in prayer and to our loved ones with the offer of care.
But,
how do we respond when evil attacks us personally? What if evil actions hurt? What
if we are stunned when a situation blows up when assumptions lead to gossip,
and gossip leads to retaliation with no recourse or defense? What about when
evil causes a relationship to shatter – even when you were trying hard to
develop and protect that relationship? When
this kind of evil happens, comfort and security are replaced with panic. Can
God really protect me when someone hurts me?
It
sounds kinda silly when I put it that way.
I
suppose it is the difference between being protected from hurt
and being protected from the impact of hurt. We don’t want pain in our life, and
God’s answer to the request of a pain-free life is to produce character and
growth instead. It’s a great response to evil, but not what we want.
In
all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to
suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven
genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even
though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ
is revealed. I Peter 1:6-7
Really
God? Seriously?
Wouldn’t it be easier to give me genuine faith
without all of the refining? Given that evil impacts relationships and
ministry, wouldn’t it be a better plan to prevent it? I mean, aren’t
relationships and ministry of primary importance here?
The
simple answer is “no.” Indeed, God blesses our relationships, and He is pleased
to allow us to do ministry, but every inch of the Bible tells us that the
primary importance is Salvation. The most important relationship is His
relationship with us. The most important ministry is what Jesus did for each of
us. Salvation is the relationship that makes everything else have importance.
Genuine, refined faith is a part of what is essential because it connects us to
Salvation.
I
have some serious problems with this line of thinking when evil happens to me
personally when evil causes me to hurt. And, when evil destroys a relationship
and negatively impacts my ability to do ministry. The world tells me to be
assertive and to stand up for myself. The world says we invite more abuse
unless we respond with strength.
But
we can’t fix it. Furthermore, we know it will happen again. This is the nature
of evil, is it not? This nature is the veritable description of being sinners
in a sinful world. Some of the evil we fear originates with us. What response
would make a difference to you? If people engage in the reciprocal slinging of
evil what stops the momentum?
Do
not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil
with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a
blessing. I Peter 3:9
Grace
is behind any real change. For us, grace begins by repaying evil with blessing.
Above
all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
I Peter4:8
This
past week my lovely group of ladies discussed this verse. How do we love
someone who impacts our relationship with evil? How do we cover sin with love?
Is love enough to forgive sins?
The
answer, again, is grace, beautiful, undeserved, hard-to-believe grace.
We
cannot fight evil, especially when we are standing in the middle of it and participating
in the process. Sometimes it is tough to forgive when we experience hurt when
relationships fall apart, and when ministry stumbles as a result. It is oh so
very hard.
But,
God asks us to bless. He asks us to love in a way that covers sin. He asks us
to trust Him that He knows what is important and what good can come out of pain
and brokenness.
May it be true that when God helps us to respond to evil with blessing the blessing that results will belong to us, too.
Weary Joy: The Caregiver's Journey
available at Concordia Publishing House
and Amazon 