8 Finally, all of you be of one mind, sympathetic, lovers of your fellow believers, compassionate, and modest in your opinion of yourselves. 9 Don’t pay back evil for evil or insult for insult. Instead, give blessing in return. You were called to do this so that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For
those who want to love life
and see good days
should keep their tongue from evil speaking
and their lips from speaking lies.
11 They should shun evil and do good;
seek peace and chase after it.
12 The Lord’s eyes are on the righteous
and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the Lord cannot tolerate those who do evil.
Reflection
Wow! There it is in a nutshell, right? So obvious! God wants us to shun evil and do good, keep our tongues from evil speaking and our lips from lying. Of course – isn’t this the kind of thing that non-believers and believers alike should and can get behind!? Isn’t this really how we should live in community with others? The end of this passage is actually a reflection from Psalm 34:12-16 which basically says if you love life and want to enjoy good things then keep your tongue from evil, don’t lie, turn away from evil, and do good and seek peace.
Now all of this makes perfect sense to us in theory, but in practice it is incredibly difficult. We are faced with deciding who is lying to us and who is trying to help others every single day. We are constantly getting calls, texts, and emails from scammers, political groups, and others who say they want to help us or someone else in some way, but the only way to do that is to shell out a bunch of money immediately. We are constantly seeing and hearing stories about how some Christian organization caused someone harm or backed a legislation to cause a group of people harm. How can we combat such things without speaking evil about those who are doing these types of things? Sometimes we get so angry with people that we can’t help but lash out. We call people names and sometimes embellish the wrongs to get our point across. Sometimes we are just stating facts and people will not believe what we are saying because it doesn’t fit their narrative. It is very frustrating sometimes to try to have a discussion with people or to try and help other people because people can put obstacles in our way.
The last agency I worked for hired a new executive director, and she and I could never seem to meet in the middle. I was sure from day one that she did not have our best interest at heart and seemed to only care about her agenda and the staff that agreed with the things she said. I did stay on for a few years, but after a time, I felt the Lord was leading me away from that job. My exit interview ended up becoming a screaming match. I regret how I handled it to this day. I feel my points were valid but not presented in the right way at all. She just made me so angry! Again – I did not fulfill any of the rules that God wants us to follow from above. I don’t think I lied, although, who knows, I probably embellished a point of contention at some turn in the argument. It is hard to deal with difficult people, but God calls us to not do evil. It is certainly ok to let people know you are angry, but I think the difference is between assertiveness and aggression. We can be forthright and get our point across without personal attacks against people, even when their beliefs seem to be so contradictory to ours.
by Janet Waryck
For Pondering and Prayer
Think of a time when you lost your temper about an injustice and it did not help the cause. What would you have done differently? What are you practicing now to help you do things differently?
Prayer: God of righteousness, you call us to defend those who need defending. Help us to do so in a manner that is honest and not cruel. Give us wisdom to stop and think before we speak, to take a breath to calm ourselves and the situation. Help us to be what you would want us to be. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.
