1 Peter 3:9 NIV
[9] 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.
There is a lot of power in personal experience and encounter. There are lessons that may be difficult to internalise until you have had an encounter that makes that lesson invaluable and relevant. The writer of the piece from where the verse above is taken would know a little about the power of personal encounter. He did not start as Peter; in fact, from the account of the bible, he was known as Simon son of Jonah/John. The name Peter did not come up until Simon made that eternal confession about who Jesus is - the Son of the Living God. It did not stop there; Simon would go on to deny Jesus at some point, but also do mighty things for God after he was restored to faith. The story of his life makes for interesting reading too: opposition, fights, resistance and oppression became the common factor for him. At those times, he had a choice to make: fight or flight or faith.
Peter was beaten with whips, he was sent to jail for the healing of the blind man at the Beautiful gate, and he would have been killed by Herod if not for the divine intervention of God who opened the doors of the prison to let him out. In all of these experiences, we note that Peter was never on record saying anything derogatory about his accusers or oppressors. He would stand his ground on the Truth of Jesus as the Son of God that he was quite convinced about, and no matter what you did to him, he would not shift. Of course, to hold this position, you have to be quite convinced beyond all doubt that who and what you know is the Truth and nothing else. In fact, the letter of Peter here is addressed to people referred to as "God’s elect...who had been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood." You have to find yourself within that bracket if the verse above will apply to you.
God will not make such a demand from people who have not first submitted their lives to Him. How can He command or ask for allegiance from someone who is not His loyal subject? The recommendations of Peter is to respond to evil with what you have, which is of God. This tells me that I have to spend time filling my heart with the right things so that when the squeeze comes, what comes out will look like Christ. I am charged to repay evil with blessing, because that is all I have. Each gives what he has. As the verse above also says, I was called out of whatever I was, or wherever I was headed, and made a blessing. It will then be an error for me to produce anything contrary to what I have been called or made. The end must also be kept in focus, because there is no way I can inherit anything that I am not entitled to by virtue of birth. To lay hold of eternal life, I have to be related to the Son who has secured that life for me. Are you related to Christ? Am I? God's time of favour is here.
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