Blessing and Cursing

Reading recently in Genesis 12, I thought of a connection between God’s covenant with Abraham and Peter’s letter we’ve been studying in our Sunday morning preaching. Vv.1-3 is an early expression of the good news of salvation, the blessing of “all the peoples on earth” through Abraham – more specifically, of course, through his descendant, Jesus Christ. But the blessing is conditional, and there is also a promise of cursing, which too is conditional. The condition given for God’s blessing or cursing is how one treats God’s people, because that is an expression of how they respond to God Himself. Jesus clarified this to say that all people will be judged in how they respond to Himself, which again is revealed by how they treat those who belong to Him (cf. Mt 25:31-46). He turned an ancient Jewish culture on its head when he told his followers, “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Mt 5:44). The point is clear, and it is consistent with the Abrahamic Covenant: God is the one who does the blessing and cursing, not us! When Peter addresses our treatment from non-believers, he affirms that in persecution we are blessed (1 Pt 3:13), while our persecutors will be shamed (v.16). Out of our own blessing we offer a blessing to our persecutors (v.9), leaving their judgment up to God (4:5). We are blessed in suffering unashamedly for Christ (vv.14,16), but judgment of the sinner is up to God (v.17). So, I wonder, what opportunities might we have in a frantic holiday season – with competitive shopping and awkward family get-togethers and such – to bless and pray for those that curse and abuse us?