Family: A blessed place mediating blessings

Family: A blessed place mediating blessings

1 Peter 3: 1-12 July 30 Saturday

v.9: Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called that you might inherit a blessing.

Marriage is not an accident, but a definite unfolding of divine will (Gen. 2:18). The purpose of the Christian marriage is to inherit a blessing as a couple and to become a blessing for the world (Gen. 12:3). But very many times marriage is found derailed from this God-ordained purpose. St. Peter urges the families of the churches, to which his epistle is addressed, to keep off from making marriages a battle of words, as words cannot bring love and acceptance in relationships (v. 1). The apostle asks them to concentrate more on the way they conduct themselves in marital relationships. The beauty of a couple is not to be based on the external adornments, but the purity and reverence that the inner core of that relationship radiates (vv. 2-3). The advice of the apostle to conduct properly in marriage should not be taken as directed to any particular sex, especially the female, but it bothers both the sexes equally. The qualities like purity, reverence and obedience mentioned in this text are to be consciously developed and maintained by both the partners. The apostle foresees the possibilities of frictions in this relationship as it happens between two individuals brought up in different worlds. The way to surpass the heat of such frictions is to maintain a spirit of unity, sympathy and love for each other and humility that emerge from one’s perennial openness to the love, mercy and forgiveness of Almighty God. For a family to be a blessing it should inculcate the habit of reciprocating goodness rather than abuses in any situation of life (vv.10-12).

Prayer

God of all families, help us to be a blessing and a place mediating blessings. Amen