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Respond to Evil With Good

“Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:27-28 (NIV)

The Bible says in Luke 6:27-28, “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (NIV). Notice these three verbs: “do good to those,” “bless those,” and “pray for those.” A big part of forgiveness is responding to evil with good.

How do you know when you’ve genuinely forgiven somebody? You can pray for God to bless that person. When you learn to forgive, you not only see your own hurt, but you see their hurt, too. Then you start to understand why they acted in such evil, selfish, hurtful, or abusive ways. The truth is, hurt people hurt people.

You say, “But you don’t know how they’ve hurt me.” No, I don’t. And I’m sorry for every hurt you’ve experienced. But I do know this: You’re never going to get on with your life unless you forgive and let it go. That doesn’t mean you have to forget. It means you relinquish your right to get even and respond to evil with good.

How can you do that? There’s only one possible way: You have to be filled with the love of Jesus.

Keeping a record of wrong is not what Jesus modeled. But if you can let it go and bless those who’ve hurt you, then you’ll be ready to let God’s love work through you.