Seeds for 05/15/2024 - 1 Peter 3:10-12
Scripture:
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. For,
“Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep their tongue from evil
and their lips from deceitful speech.
They must turn from evil and do good;
they must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Observation:
Today we see an example of how the NT writers mined the riches of the Hebrew Scriptures for wisdom that paired up with the ethics of the Christian community. The passage is from Psalm 34:12-16.
The rationale for building up this community with a common mind and heart for one another, evidenced in love, compassion, and humility is expressed well in the wisdom found in the psalm.
This passage from Psalm 34 is in the “two ways” tradition. (Other examples include Psalm 1, Deuteronomy 30, and The Didache, an early Christian writing shortly after the NT period that was regarded highly in the early church.) There is a way of goodness and righteousness and a way of evil.
Loving life goes hand in glove with minding how one speaks to others. Is this ever true! James famously has much to say about this. As difficult as it is often times, the psalm warns against returning “insult for insult” because this to do so is not to love life itself. Peace, the psalm tells us, is something that requires great intentionality. “Seek peace and pursue it.” It doesn’t just happen. It takes deliberate effort. Peter’s command to “repay evil with blessing” fits exactly with the sentiment of the psalmist here. No one blesses someone who is insulting them by accident. It must be pursued on purpose.
The accompanying promise is that the Lord’s senses are attuned to those who are pursuing goodness and righteousness, which is to say… Him!
“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.” What more reason do we need?
Application:
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, give me a heart of love, compassion, and humility like Jesus, so that peace and blessing may overflow. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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