Living together in peace and harmony is one of the greatest challenges of life. Whether it is in the home, the neighborhood, or the office where you work, good personal relationships are vital to a happy, productive life. The apostle Peter gives us five principles that will help us to live together happily in any of these places (1 Peter 3:8-9).
1. We should be of the same mind. This means that we should strive for unity and harmony with one another. We should learn the secret of blending our differences together with other people so that we pursue the same goals and ideals.
2. We should have compassion for one another. This means that we should be sympathetic and ready to enter into and share feelings with others. We should rejoice over their successes and we should mourn over their failures with them.
3. We should love others. The word love here suggests a warm, friendly, brotherly feeling toward other people. We should act like fellow members of the family of God.
4. We should be sympathetic. Be tenderhearted, sensitive, quick to feel for the other person and show affection to him. There is no place for hardness, callousness, or coldness in the Christian’s life.
5. We should not return evil for evil, nor name calling for name calling, but rather good for evil. Even when we receive evil treatment from another, we should not retaliate. Jesus taught us this in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-42). An old Spanish proverb says, “To return evil for good is devilish; to return evil for evil is human; to return good for evil is Godlike.”
Happiness and holiness both depend upon harmony in human relationships. Follow these guidelines and you will find it.