For the good of everyone

See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. — 1 Thessalonians 5:15

It is so easy when someone does you wrong to want to get back at them. How many times in your life has something happened and it made you so mad that you just wanted to get even? After all, that’s human nature.

When we interact with others, there are times that we will always disagree and find areas that we do not get along. But how we respond to those situations says a lot about our character and the God that we follow.

In the scripture above, Paul is writing to the church and says that just because someone does evil to you, you should not respond with evil. Retaliation is a sign of a weak and cruel disposition. Yes, it is a sign of weakness of the person to respond to evil with evil!

Instead, we are told that we should respond with good. That’s the difficult part. It is so easy to respond with evil. It seems we can devise a plan so quickly to react and respond when we are retaliating. But there’s something to be said about responding with good.

Rather than responding so quickly out of anger and frustration, perhaps it is taking a step back and to be generous to the person. To show them mercy and goodness, rather than anger and frustration.

It’s interesting though that Paul did not stop there. He felt the need to continue and say “both among yourselves, and to all men.” We should respond to good not just to those in our family and in our church, but to everyone we interact with.

It does not matter their name, age, race, gender, or anything else. When we face an evil situation, we should not retaliate with evil, but with good.