Pastor Leon’s SOAP: Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer

December 16: 1Peter 1-5

Scripture: 1Peter (NIV) 3:9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

Observation: Recently I read the following quote that stuck in my mind. It could have been a sermon on this verse: “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Application: I am a child of the light. I am called to live as a child of the light. I am not to respond to the evil that the world brings against me with more evil, but with good. I am not to respond to the world with the nature of the world, but with the nature of the God who lives in me. The evil I experience comes from the nature of the world. The blessing with which I am to respond comes from God!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I could never do this by myself. You knew that long before I did! And that is why you sent your Holy Spirit to live in me! Thank you! Amen

Pastor Leon

Making friends for time and eternity!