What to Do When Someone Hurts You

How do we respond when we suffer unjustly? We should learn from Jesus. He was a Man of Sorrows. No one has suffered more than Him. His close friend Peter denied Him.

Based on the example of Jesus we should take these seven actions.

1. When someone hurts us we should include them (Mark 16:7)
2. When someone hurts us we should speak well of them. Jesus still referred to him by his positive nickname, Peter the rock (Mark 16:7, Matt. 16:17-18).
3. When someone hurts us we should pursue them. We cannot wait for them to come to us, we must go to them (Luke 24:34, Matt. 5:23-24, 18:15).
4. When someone hurts us we should honor them (Luke 24:34, 1 Cor. 15:5).
5. When someone hurts us we should serve them (In John 21 Jesus helped Peter with fishing and served him breakfast).
6. When someone hurts us we should restore them (John 21).
7. When someone hurts us we should forgive them. To fail to forgive is to minimize the blood of Jesus and maximize the work of Satan. The devil is an accuser (Rev. 12:10). When we refuse to forgive others we participate in Satan's darkness and open ourselves up to his evil (Eph. 4:26-27, Matt. 18:34).