DON'T REPAY EVIL FOR EVIL

1 Peter 3:9

Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate when people say unkind things about you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God wants you to do, and he will bless you for it.

There's an old, but still oft used adage that goes, "Me and my big mouth." In December of 1825, the Russian Czar Nicolas I sentenced Kondraty Ryleyev to be hung. Fortunately for Ryleyev, the rope was old and snapped as the sentenced man’s weight pulled him to the ground instead of leaving him dangling in the air alive, but struggling for air. An accident like this would usually result in a pardon, but as Ryleyev fell to the ground, the guards overheard him saying, "In Russia they do not know how to do anything properly, not even how to make a rope." Well, unfortunately for Ryleyev this got back to the Czar who then gave the order, "Let the contrary be proven." If Ryleyev had only applied what the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:9, he would have been pardoned and lived to see another day. Sadly for Ryleyev, the contrary was proven. Careful with your tongue, anything you say can and will be used against you.