1 Peter 3:9, commentary and pictures

It forbids paying back hurt with hurt or insult with insult, and instead requires giving blessing, because those who live this way are called to it in order to receive blessing themselves. It was given as part of a call to unity of mind shown in compassion, brotherly love, pity and courtesy, together with a meek and quiet heart, a guarded tongue, turning from wrong, doing good and pursuing peace. Christ Himself lived this out by meeting opposition not with retaliation but with blessing, showing love, upholding right, and bringing deliverance, and following Him in patient kindness never requires giving up truth. Keeping it rules out envy, harmful speech and strife, and calls for Spirit-guided words, pity, courtesy, cheerful and kindly thinking, and a firm yet gentle Christlike character. In the home, among fellow workers, and under ridicule, false accusation and persecution, it means staying calm and patient, refusing revengeful words while still faithfully reproving wrong, and using word and life to uplift others and heal division.

Meaning and Context

Injury is not to be repaid with injury, nor insulting speech with insult, but evil and insult are to be answered with blessing. This answering of wrongdoing with blessing rather than retaliation belongs to the calling of believers. They are to know they are called to this conduct and way of life so that they may inherit a blessing.

The instruction was addressed to the churches scattered abroad. It requires oneness of mind shown in compassion for one another, love as brethren, pity, and courtesy, never returning evil for evil or railing for railing but giving blessing instead. Gracious, compassionate conduct toward one another is part of the unity believers are to practice, and truth put into everyday practice belongs with this life of unity.

The command stands within 1 Peter 3:7-13, to be read with 1 Peter 3:3-6 concerning the hidden person of the heart and the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. It guides the use of words, for words are precious talents, requiring vain talk about outward adorning of dress to be changed. Happiness in the future life depends on serving God in this life by refraining the tongue from evil and deceit, eschewing evil and doing good, and seeking peace.

Character and Inner Life

Not returning harm for harm or insult for insult means refusing envy, evil speaking, and the stirring up of strife. It requires the control of speech so that words are shaped by the Spirit rather than by evil. The calling to answer with blessing in order to inherit a blessing is therefore a calling to a governed tongue and an uncontentious life.

Blessing instead of retaliating requires pity and courtesy, and this courtesy is essential to success because it gains access to hearts and gives finish and perfection to character. It means representing the meekness and gentleness of Christ while being firm as a rock to principle, and being kind as well as faithful in Christian politeness as a grace of heaven. It means giving attention to the weightier matters of the law while preserving and exercising the little proprieties of life, so that life and character are fragrant, refreshing, and a blessing that makes the truth attractive. It means cherishing whatever is amiable in temper together with whatever is firm in principle, being just, true, and honest and yet kind, forbearing, pitiful, and courteous. It refuses to be like a prickly burr and cultivates everything lovely and attractive in manners and disposition as the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy, and peace.

Obedience means looking on the bright side, thinking no evil and imagining no evil, and not letting unpleasant feelings supposed in others awaken unpleasant feelings in return. It is learned by keeping looking unto Jesus and following in His steps, by having the mind of Christ, and by learning meekness in His school alone through laying hold of Him by faith and practicing the lessons of His life, which reaps most blessed results. It describes putting on the new person created in righteousness and true holiness, in which the Holy Spirit fashions the person after Christ's likeness and uses the person, with salvation worked out in fear and trembling while God works in the heart to will and do His good pleasure. This forbids a pompous, overbearing, and dictatorial spirit toward brethren and fellow workers and requires love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance instead of vainglory, provoking, and envying. It is a call to reach the heights of love for God and for those Christ died for, and to put truth into everyday practice.

Christ's Example Followed

Christ answered those who opposed Him not with evil or abuse but with blessing, and in this He exemplified the command to love enemies. His response gave His opponents evidence of His love for humanity, His respect for God's law, and His power to deliver from sin and death. When others do evil, the right response is not to repay evil with evil but to answer with good, and patience, kindness, and forbearance in doing so follow Jesus' example. Mischief and malice are to be answered with kindness rather than retaliation, and pursuing peace in this way does not require sacrificing any principle of truth.

The verse means staying calm and undisturbed, patient and forbearing in every difficulty, returning good for evil instead of evil for evil. Being jostled, misapprehended, misstated, and misrepresented while doing the Master's work is evidence of faithful service and a reason to cling more closely to Jesus and not lose hold on Him even when judgment errs. Holding to Jesus gives wisdom, light, power, and rest, shelter like a great Rock and shadow in a weary land, and strength to go forward firmly, valiantly, and courageously without unbelief. Keeping sight of the top of the ladder where God is, with Jesus Himself as the ladder, leads upward by Him into His everlasting kingdom where glory shines on every soul ascending heavenward.

Practical Life Applications

In home life the command not to repay harm with harm or insult with insult but to give blessing instead belongs to teaching of the greatest consequence, calling believers to an ambition that turns away from meeting the world's standard and seeking the world's applause toward doing the will of the heavenly Father. Words are precious talents to be used in that higher and holier experience of being a blessing to all who are met, in order to inherit a blessing as those called to this course. When reviled, a mother answers with kind speech and continues her work for her children, and by this she serves as a light in her home. Among fellow workers this same calling requires compassionate, courteous, Christlike conduct instead of returning harm for harm or insult for insult. Harmful words weaken God's workers, so fellow laborers with God are to be respected, with brotherly love, compassion, courtesy, and truthful speech answering evil and hurtful speech with blessing rather than retaliation.

Physicians, ministers, teachers, and all workers for God are to meet perishing souls and all classes of minds with patience, gentleness, long-suffering, pity, and courtesy, following Christ who suffered much to save souls, loving as brethren and refusing to return evil for evil or insult for insult but giving blessing instead, with assurance that those called to bless will inherit blessing. When falsely spoken of, false words are answered not by retaliation but by an honest life and good works. In trials and annoyances, when the heart may rebel and the tongue may speak hurtfully, harm is not repaid with harm nor insult with insult, but blessing is given in return, for believers are called to this way of treating one another and to inherit a blessing. Those who stand for the truth amid ridicule, reviling, and persecution do not answer railing with railing but respond with blessing. When others speak or act evilly, even under false accusation, there is no retaliation and no word spoken in revenge, but patience, forbearance, gentleness, and peace are chosen, since this conduct is the call to inherit a blessing and answering unwisely forfeits a victory in overcoming wrong. Patient, gentle, and longsuffering dealing still leaves room for faithful reproof of wrongdoing while blessing is returned for evil and insults.

The chapter brings a message of great importance to ministers of the gospel and to ministers' wives and families, calling every minister to search deep and make clean work for eternity for his own soul. The same zeal needed in the churches is to be spent in labor for unsanctified, unconverted companions, because dangers follow ministers and often come through unsanctified, unconverted wives, and unless the convicting, converting power of the gospel searches the hearts of ministers and their families, an irreligious element will remain in their homes. Those laboring in church capacity, when a mistake is made, must have the error confessed, changed, and repented of rather than holding a once-taken position as never to be given up, and are encouraged in that work of securing souls from sin to righteousness. Working in Christ's way, those called to inherit a blessing answer evil with blessing and not retaliation, using their abilities to make others wiser and better, to uplift them, to strengthen the weak, and to keep them from stumbling. In this great day of atonement God's people come into line and unify by ceasing to accuse and find fault, by loving as brethren in being gentle, courteous and kind and speaking no evil and not rendering evil for evil, by coming before Him in meekness and humility confessing only their own sins, by repenting and being converted that sins may be blotted out and wounds healed, and by becoming pure unselfish workers cleansed from jealousy and evil surmising and given the quietude and simplicity of a little child, so they can help and bless others and inherit a blessing.