Repay with blessing

Peter has spent a chapter and a half addressing specific groups: citizens, servants, wives, husbands. In 3:8 he turns to everyone. Finally, all of you. Then five words that describe a healthy church: like-minded, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, humble. It reads like a portrait of a community in which people are safe with one another.

Then verse 9. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing. And here is the surprising phrase: because to this you were called.

Called to what, exactly? Not merely to refrain from getting even. To bless. To actively wish and work for the good of the person who has just done you harm. Peter says this is what we were called to, as if it were the centre of the Christian vocation rather than an advanced elective.

He backs it with Psalm 34, the same psalm he drew from in chapter 2. Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil, turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer. In other words, the person who refuses to retaliate is not unprotected. They are watched over, and they are heard.

This is the logic that makes blessing possible. If no one is watching, then you must defend yourself, because no one else will. If the Lord's eyes are on you and his ears are open, then you can afford to let an insult go unanswered, or even answer it with kindness, because the account is being kept somewhere more reliable than your memory.

The turn toward life is concrete. Somewhere this week you will be insulted, probably in a small way. A comment, a tone, a message that lands wrong. The instinct will be to repay in kind, or at least to file it for later. Peter asks for something else. Bless. Say something true and kind, or say nothing and pray for the person. It will feel like losing. Peter says it is the thing you were called to do, and that you will inherit a blessing by doing it.

Start with one. One insult, this week, met with blessing. See what it does to the rest of the week.