Reading
“Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
on those who do evil things.”
1 Peter 3:8-12 (The Message)
Reflection
On this day in 1789, William Wilberforce gave his first speech to British Parliament advocating for the abolition of the slave trade. It would be the beginning of years of tireless work that would not end until just three days before his death in 1833, when slavery was finally abolished across all British colonies.
Something that stands out in that first speech is how Wilberforce viewed those involved in the slave trade. He didn’t claim that they were all inherently evil people. Instead, he suggested another unsettling answer: they had become desensitized. They were participating in real harm, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not, because they had stopped seeing enslaved people as individuals. They had become a category instead of human beings.
That same problem still exists today. We live in an incredibly polarized time, and a large part of that comes from how easily we reduce people to groups we’ve already decided we don’t like. Even this past week, it’s been easy to see – comments, posts, conversations that reduce people into one issue, one label, or one moment. Things become overly simplified, black and white, when there is very little in life actually is that simple.
And while social media tends to amplify the loudest and most extreme voices, it can still shape us more than we realize. 1 Peter pushes directly against this: “Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless. That’s your job—to bless.” That kind of life is hard to live if we’ve allowed ourselves to become numb to others.
Wilberforce later said after he presented many speeches on the topic of abolition, “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know.” There are many times we participate in the world’s brokenness, not because we’re intentionally causing harm, but because we choose not to see it. Or we see it and decide not to engage with it.
Over the past year, I’ve noticed a hesitation in myself to engage with people or ideas I don’t agree with. Avoiding books, conversations, perspectives – almost as if disagreement itself was something to fear. Recently, I felt convicted to push against that. I picked up a book by someone I expected to disagree with and went in honestly assuming I’d hate it. And while I still don’t agree with everything, I found that I have more in common with the author than I would have thought. It’s been a good reminder that disagreement doesn’t have to mean division. In fact, sometimes it helps us better understand what we believe and why.
There’s real danger that comes when we only listen to voices that confirm what we already think, or when we surround ourselves with agreement and call it truth. When we stop listening, stop engaging with others, and slowly stop seeing people clearly.
Peter calls us to something better: to turn from evil, to cultivate good, and to run after peace with everything we have.
That might mean choosing not to respond with sarcasm. It might mean having a conversation you’d normally avoid. It might mean listening longer than feels comfortable. And it definitely means remembering that people are more than the labels we place on them.
So today, I invite you to pay attention to where you might be tempted to look away, or to write someone off too quickly. Instead, take a step toward blessing.
Because that’s the calling. For all of us. No exceptions.
Prayer
Holy God, soften our hearts where we’ve grown numb. Help us to see people the way you do; not as labels or categories, but as individuals made in your image. Teach us to be compassionate, humble, and quick to bless. Give us the courage to listen well and to pursue peace even when it’s uncomfortable. Shape us into people who reflect your love. Amen.
