1 Peter 3:11
Avoid evil,
Do good

This verse is an exact quote from Psalm 34:14. Peter uses it to encourage his readers to do what is right, even in difficult circumstances, knowing that God sees everything. The full quote is this:

1 Peter 3:10-12 / Psalm 34:12-16

10 For “He who would love life and see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit. 11 Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

The gist is pretty straightforward. If you want to enjoy life, do what is good, and eschew what is bad. God sees everything and will respond in kind to us.

The Greek words in our verse today are all well translated; they pretty much mean what the English sentence above reads.  So instead of looking at the definition of each word, let’s look more at the verse and its content, to see what applicable gems we may find.

Peter and David encourage us to turn away from evil and do good instead. These are purposeful and deliberate actions. In every situation, we have the choice to do good or evil. Jesus said that a good tree bears good fruit (the same Greek word for good was used to translate Jesus’ words). So the outcomes of our lives reflect the choices we have made. God sees our good works and will reward them. The problem is that the reward does not always happen right away. In fact, often it does not come soon at all. Our good deeds contribute to our treasure in heaven and God is keeping an account of all our good (and evil) deeds. They are written down in the books of works, see Revelation 20:11-13.

In addition, Peter and David encourage us to seek peace. And not just to seek it, but to pursue it. The word for pursue is interesting, it is the same word used for persecution. The same zeal that drove Paul to persecute Christians is the zeal we should have to pursue peace.  There are multiple aspects of peace and we should pursue them all. Peace with God, peace with other Christians, inner peace, peace with non-Christians (as much as possible) and peace as a reward from God for doing what is right. There is a great series of sermons on peace, you can find them here: http://truthbase.net/sermons/title/fruit-of-the-Spirit-peace-part-1/

Now the most interesting thing in these verses is that God tells us to respond differently to evil than how He himself is responding to it. As Peter describes in verse 9, we should not return evil for evil, but instead, we should return blessing for evil. Paul says the same thing in Romans 12:14-17. And Jesus instructs us likewise, in Matthew 5:38-44. Isn’t that interesting? We don’t teach others what is good by punishing their bad behavior. We teach others what is good by doing good to them, no matter what they do to us. But wait a minute, does this not create a horrible situation, in which bad people abuse us and keep doing bad things to us, because we are letting them get away with it?

That is the thing; they are not getting away with it. God sees it and will resist them. They often receive a part of their punishment already in this life, and we can rest assured that justice will be done once they have to face their Creator. God will punish and He will pay back evil for evil. It is not our task to punish others; God is perfectly capable of doing that Himself. And He will reward us for our good response.

So next time you see someone doing something evil, try to respond with good. It will not be easy, so just remember that God will pay back good for good and evil for evil.

Godspeed!