I was reading out of 1 Peter 3:7-9 NIV
[7] "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. [8] Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. [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."
There were two things that I saw that made me stop and think.
1) At the end of verse 7, Peter says that our prayers can be hindered by our relationship with our spouses. The word Greek word here translated hindered,means cut in on, as in time or effectiveness. In other words, if we are not treating our wives (or husbands) with respect or kind consideration, our prayers could be ineffective. At the very least this could cause us to have less time to pray. Either way, its an interesting principle, and one we should be aware of, as we need to be aware that our personal relationships do affect our spiritual relationships.
2) According to Peter, there is a blessing we were meant to inherit that is related to how we treat those who are evil towards us. We are called to "repay evil with blessing". That sure doesn't sit well with my normal sense of pride or self-protectiveness, but there is a spiritual component to everything we do, and Peter is showing us one of them.
So in summary, treating our spouses with kindness and respect and consideration makes our prayers more effective, and repaying evil with blessing, opens the way for us to inherit a blessing. We are called in all situations to love, and this affects the spiritual reality, and opens the way for the Lord to bless us. So our natural actions bring about spiritual reactions.
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