Spite certainly is not loving one’s neighbor as oneself, as the Bible instructs. (Mark 12:31) Spite does not make allowances. Spite pays back in kind, and frequently with interest. Spite is hating one’s enemies, whereas Jesus Christ tells us to love our enemies. We should want to help people do better, not goad them on to do worse. So guard against spite, because it is destructive to oneself and to others too.​—Matt. 5:44, 45; Luke 6:31.

Empathy, the ability to put oneself in the shoes of another, will also help you to guard against spite. Try to see matters from the other person’s viewpoint. This may help you not to take so seriously his offenses against you, but rather to make allowances for him. Here, too, empathy is a quality possessed by mature people, those big in an emotional and spiritual sense.

But most of all, love will help you to avoid resorting to spite, should you be the object of pettiness on the part of others. Love “does not keep account of the injury.” Love ‘bears all things, hopes and endures all things.’ Love truly is a measure of how big one is in spiritual matters.​—1 Cor. 13:4-7.