Suffering to Bless
Tom Shrader works through 1 Peter 3:8-17, tying together several weeks of teaching on submission in government, work, and family by presenting five Christian virtues: harmony, sympathy, brotherly love, tenderness, and humility. He shows that when believers face suffering or opposition, their response — refusing to return evil for evil and instead blessing others — becomes a visible witness that draws people toward Christ. The teaching closes with a call to be always prepared to give a gentle, reverent account of the hope that is in them, confident that God sees and sovereignly governs every circumstance of their lives.
“Humility is arguably the most essential, all-encompassing virtue of the Christian life.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Peter
Recorded: 2012 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 50 min
Themes: suffering, humility, blessing others, witness, hope, harmony, sympathy, forgiveness, facing opposition, navigating conflict, feeling persecuted, new believer, husband, wife, struggling with bitterness, young adult
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:11-12, 1 Peter 2:13, 1 Peter 2:18, 1 Peter 3:1-6, 1 Peter 3:8-17, Psalm 34, Matthew 18, Matthew 27:33-44, Romans 12:14-21, Philippians 1:27, Ephesians 4:32, Acts 20:36, James 3:1-12, Isaiah 8, John 9
Theological Themes: sanctification, soteriology, apologetics, christian witness, divine sovereignty, brotherly love, submission, spiritual virtues
Full Transcript
Introduction and Context
If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and we'll bring you one. If you have a Bible but do not have one at home, take this with you. Otherwise, leave it so we can use it again. It is 1st Peter, page 657 in our Bibles. Today we look at 1st Peter chapter 3, verses 8 through 17.
Verse 8 begins with the phrase "to sum up." Some of your translations will say "finally." As somebody who is teaching, that phrase can cut a couple of different ways. When I read it and then put the lesson together and work through it, those are words you cringe at, because what Peter is telling you is we are going to talk about all the stuff we just talked about. We take everything here and try to tie it together.
In this case, what Peter is doing is taking a section that probably technically begins at chapter 2, verse 13 — I would expand it to verse 12 — and runs arguably at least through this section, verses 15, 16, and 17. This lesson today is tucked in between four prior lessons, pulling them together. If you have your study guides, or if you looked at the study guides, suffering becomes the discussion topic for this week, next week, and the following week.
Teaching this is sometimes hard. As I was preparing it, I felt like this is very familiar territory, and I am fearful you will feel the same. It is on suffering. Peter may have had you people in mind when he wrote this, based on the fact that you have to listen to me unpack all of it. But it is really helpful, really good, and really practical.
The Section Peter Is Tying Together
Peter is not ending the letter here, but he is tying together the end of this particular line of thought. It began back in chapter 2, verse 13, when he was talking about submitting to government. Chapter 2, verse 18, he was talking about slaves submitting to their masters. So it is government, then the workplace, and then what we looked at last week — chapter 3, verses 1 through 6 — dealing with wives, and verse 7 with husbands. So he is talking about family.
Tim and I were talking about it this morning. When you teach Paul, it feels like generally Paul flows, makes a point, and maybe a sub-point. Peter feels like he is popping around in some of this — not that he is, but it feels that way. So hang in there with us as we work through this.
I will tell you up front that my passion is understanding the text and then asking, "So what?" I will try to do application along the way. I will also tell you that if this were a TV show, what would be on the screen at roughly 11:30 would be "to be continued."
Reading the Passage
Let's read it, and then we will come back and put it together.
Verse 8: "To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit." Then he paints the contrast: "not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you were called for this purpose so that you might inherit a blessing."
Then he quotes from Psalm 34: "For the one who desires life and to love and to see good days must keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears attend to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
Verse 13: "Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? And even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. Keep a good conscience, so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame."
Verse 17: "For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong."
Five Observations from the Passage
In working through this passage, I made five observations that tie it together and connect these last three or four weeks.
The first observation is that our belief affects how we will live. That is what Peter wrote back in chapter 2, verse 11: "I urge you as aliens and strangers," and verse 12: "Keep your behavior excellent" — and here is the reason — "so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." He is saying: because you believe this, live this way.
The second observation is that life brings with it a certain component of suffering. This is a general discussion on suffering, but his focus here is really on suffering for Christ's sake. There is general suffering that simply comes with life. I was talking to somebody this morning, and I had just read an article by a cardiologist who was describing having a heart attack without realizing it at the time. As he talked through it, it sounded like the ordinary wear and tear I hear about every day — someone's knee hurting, wondering if it is connected to something else. There is that kind of suffering, just the weight of life pressing down on us.
The Reality of Suffering
Just the wear and tear of life. The third observation is that faith may bring suffering to you. Peter writes in a way that seems to acknowledge that the people he is writing to were already suffering. They were already suffering for the faith, and some of their family and friends had perhaps been martyred. You may or may not suffer. They estimate about 250,000 people — a quarter of a million people a year — are killed for their faith, and that is still true as of 2012. In all likelihood, it is not going to be you. You may suffer, and it may be as simple as having some friends who will not hang with you because of your faith, or something in between.
My fourth observation is that people are watching. Peter is saying, here comes the persecution, but even the persecutors are watching how you respond to it. The minute you walk around with one of these Bibles, the minute you tell the guys in the office, or the people at the gym, or the guys at school what you did yesterday and you say you were in church — the minute you say that, they are watching you. Here is a secret: they are going to hold you to a standard, and it is going to be a standard higher than the standard you have for yourself. The one thing I know about you is that you will give yourself the benefit of the doubt. They are not going to do that. But Peter's whole idea is that they are going to watch you and see God at work in you.
The fifth observation is that your response may or may not be used by God to attract people to Himself, to attract people to Christ. This is what we saw last week in chapter 3, verse 1: "In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of your wife." You need to understand that this is a general kind of sense to which Peter comes back again and again. It is something we try to keep in front of you all the time — that our privilege is to make the invisible God visible and to speak the truth boldly.
There should be a steady flow — and I will make this point two or three times today — there should be a constant flow of people in your life, I do not know what that means in terms of frequency, who are coming to you and saying there is just something different about you. Not odd, but different. So Peter is going to talk about our attitude in this, and how we respond to suffering.
Five Characteristics Peter Calls Us To
Look at verse 8: "To sum it up, all of you..." Peter has talked to us about five things, five characteristics. Number one: be harmonious. It is unity of spirit. Some of your translations might say it means literally "same-think" — our minds should be the same. It is not that Christianity is one size fits all. It is not that we are all going to react and all be the same in terms of life, but there is a core unity around the gospel. That is what draws us together and causes us to be, as Paul writes in Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, "to be one in spirit and one in mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel."
This is the third week that I have had the cards in front of you. Tim taught from this two weeks ago, and I was telling you last week they were available. We have people by the doors. If you do not have these yet, or if you only have one, you need more so you can keep one in your Bible and one on the refrigerator. On one side is what we are going to do in terms of the building — that is important, but not as important as the essential elements for a strong church on the other side. There are six of them, and we are going to devote a whole series to this right after the first of the year. These are the unity we have around God's Word, prayer, evangelism, biblical community, serving the church, and generosity. There should be a harmony, a same-mindedness, a unity in Christ.
The second characteristic Peter gives us is that we should be sympathetic. It is the idea of sharing the same feeling. We had a president not too long ago who said, "I feel your pain." I always contended he could feel the pain because he caused most of it in my life — or at least it felt that way. But that is what sympathy means: to feel your pain. And people are longing for it.
There was a survey — a lot of the exit poll material was really interesting, and I am not trying to get into politics at all, just looking at what people are looking for — and something like 25% of respondents wanted a president who could understand them, while only 19% wanted a president who was a leader. I do not know exactly what that means, but it tells me we are in a new era. My dad — talking about my dad again — I do not remember him ever thinking, "Boy, I wish the president understood how I felt." It would never have even occurred to him to say, "You are not meeting my needs." Now, we might have been a better family if he had thought that way. I do not know.
But this idea of sympathy — Peter is saying he wants us to be sympathetic to those around us. One of the authors makes the point that this includes even those who do not know you. I remember sitting with Larry Wright at First Watch, around 4th or 5th Avenue and Thomas. He asked what I was going to do that day, and I told him about meetings I had had with two couples whose marriages were falling apart. I just started talking about it, and he just began to cry. That is how tender his heart was, especially in that area. We cannot be insensitive. We cannot be indifferent. There is a world of hurt around us. I think of this particularly in relation to those who are weakest in the culture.
Caring for the Vulnerable
When I think of the weakest in the culture, part of me goes to immigration, but the larger part of me goes to abortion. There is no one weaker in the culture than the unborn. They have no voice. We are equal opportunity killers in that area — we do not spend much time distinguishing whether it is male or female. We take about 1.234 million babies a year and kill them.
The argument is also raised: if you are worried about the unborn, you are not that worried about those who are already born. Immigration is one of those issues. It is a difficult issue, and it is made more complex by the government's failure to deal with it. Republicans want cheaper labor and Democrats want votes — there is a little cynicism in that, but it is pretty close to being true. So they have not dealt with it.
Then, understandably, people get stirred up and say, "What part of illegal don't you understand?" To which I can come back and say, that is fine, but what part of "love your neighbor" don't you understand? Are you really going to turn away someone who is legitimately hurting?
I will give you a tip about how this works in anything. If you want to get a wife or girlfriend interested in sports, you hook her up biographically with the players — let her understand their story, their family. It is easy, when you do not know anything beyond what someone tells you about immigrants, to say, "What part of illegal?" But then you meet a couple of these kids. You meet the kid who is the honor student at one of the charter schools and you find out he is undocumented. He did not have anything to do with it — his mom and dad came up when he was two, he does not know any country but this one, and he does not even speak Spanish. What are you going to do with that kid?
It is not enough, I do not think, to simply say, "What part of illegal don't you understand?" What part of hurting don't you understand? Are you going to take that kid who comes into the food bank and check whether he has papers before you give him food? Seriously? It is not simple. It is a complex issue. But we need to guard our hearts and not be persuaded by a superficially simple solution.
Brotherly Affection
Third is brotherly affection — affection toward people who are closely related. There is a wonderful example of this in the life of a man you do not typically think of as a soft, gentle, mushy person. His name is Paul. It is in Acts chapter 20, where he is saying goodbye to the elders at Ephesus. My argument would be that Ephesus was his favorite church — he had spent three years there.
Luke writes this in Acts 20, verse 36: "When he said these things, he knelt down and he prayed with them. And he began to weep aloud and embraced Paul and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they were accompanying him to the ship."
In my mind, I picture them at the ship and how hard it is to say goodbye. Both of my daughters live here in town, so when we say goodbye it is just goodbye. But even then, saying goodbye was often a difficult thing for the kids — they did not want to go home. Susan was wonderful at that moment. She would turn it into a game, standing in front of the car and waving, and they would wave back. But I have never had the moment of giving a kiss goodbye and saying, "I am not going to see you again for a year."
The closest I can come to that is my grandpa. He was a cantankerous old fellow, but when word came that grandpa was arriving, we would be out in the front yard at 12:30 waiting for him. He would be driving 37 miles an hour and arrive about five in the evening for dinner. He would stay a while, and I would hang around with him. There was one bar in town that sold the tobacco he chewed, so we would go down there — he would get a beer and I would get a Coke, and he would pick up his little can of tobacco. Then when he would leave, we would all stand out front and he would wave as he drove away.
What I know now that did not occur to me then is that this was my mom's mother and father she was saying goodbye to, and how tough that was. That is what I see in Acts 20. I picture them walking all the way down to the boat, Paul finally having to be told, "You have to go." He gets on that boat, then pops back up to wave one last time. There is that love. There is that familial side.
Kindhearted and Humble
The next word is kindhearted. It refers to internal organs — sometimes this root word in the Greek is translated as "bowels" or "intestines." To the Greeks, those inner organs were a sign of courage. To the Christian, it was a sign of great affection. My daughter was here in the first hour and she wrote me a note that said, "I love you with my intestines." It is that kind of tender-heartedness — a powerful feeling, an affection and emotion expressed in visceral, strong language.
The last quality is humble in spirit. MacArthur writes a sentence on this that I have been working through in my mind, mulling over. It all started the only time I have been in the hospital in my life — back in March, when I had a little bit of
he was 25. And she's there at the grave, and she's weeping. And it's easy to weep for those who weep. But rejoice for those who rejoice — that requires a settled soul. That requires you to be free from envy, free from comparison, free from jealousy. And I think Paul puts them in that order intentionally.
Humility as the Foundation of Christian Virtue
John MacArthur writes: humility is arguably the most essential, all-encompassing virtue of the Christian life. That sentence really resonates with me because it is a conclusion I have drawn. I just don't know if I have the courage, the ability, or the scholarship to make that sort of all-encompassing, sweeping, definitive statement — so I will let MacArthur do it. The way I landed there is probably different than how John got there, but how I landed there is simply thinking about what C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, when he says pride is the utmost evil. So if pride is the utmost evil, then the virtue that corresponds with it is humility, which I would argue is very closely related to love and is probably at the very heart of love.
Humility is an attitude. It is an attitude of submission. It is all the things we have been talking about. One author closes this section of Peter by saying: the joys of their life in Christ are maximized when believers are united in truth and life with one another — peaceful in disposition, gracious toward each other who need the gospel, sensitive to the pains of fallen sinners, and sacrificial in their loving service to all, compassionate instead of harsh, and above all, humble like their Savior. That is what Peter offers us in chapter three, verse eight.
Do Not Return Evil for Evil
Peter then tells us what he does not want us to do: do not return evil for evil or insult for insult. There will be times of mistreatment, and I would argue that is just normal life. It may have nothing to do with your faith — it may be because you are an outsider, or because of your background, or the way you look, or what you wear. Peter is saying that in the midst of this, there is going to be some mistreatment, and when those difficult times come, whether they are for Christ's sake or not, he does not want us to respond in kind. If someone is evil against you, do not be evil. If they revile and insult you, do not respond that way.
The Example of Christ on the Cross
The illustration I always think of at this point is in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 27. They have arrived at the place of crucifixion. Jesus is nailed to the cross. His garments are divided. Verse 37 tells us they put the charge over Him: "This is Jesus, King of the Jews." And then this scene begins — a scene that has always been gripping to me.
"Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, 'You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.' In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him, saying, 'He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.'" That is Matthew 27:38–42.
For whatever reason, when I read through that scene, it feels like the tipping point. If I were Jesus, beaten and battered physically and mentally, that moment would be the moment. There is something in me that says that would be it — enough. But He does not revile. His response is not retaliation. His conclusion is: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Our tendency, by contrast, is to find a way to get even. That is what the world says, isn't it? "I don't get mad, I get even."
Paul's Teaching in Romans 12
From Matthew's Gospel, move just a little to the right on your shelf to the book of Romans. In Romans chapter 12, there is a section that ties together nearly everything we have looked at over the last three or four weeks, and this lesson as well. Paul is past the pivot point of Romans 12:1, so he is deep into application, and he says this in verse 14: "Bless those who persecute you and do not curse." That is the very next thing Peter says as well — do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but give a blessing instead.
Verse 15 continues: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep." There is the whole idea of sympathetic understanding and love. I think the order Paul uses is significant. It is far easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. Sandy and I were watching that documentary on Arlington Cemetery last night, and it was very hard to sit there without your eyes tearing up and your heart breaking. There was a little woman at a grave — her only son had died, I believe he was 25 — and she was weeping. It is easy to weep with those who weep. But to rejoice with those who rejoice requires a settled soul. It requires you to be free from envy, free from comparison, free from jealousy. I think Paul puts them in that order intentionally.
Blessing Through Forgiveness
It was a really moving moment. She happened to be an African-American lady, and up came a group of pledges from Annapolis — they do different projects, and part of it was their day to come to Arlington. This young man walked up, and all of a sudden she recognized him. He was white, and she embraced him, and it turned out, completely at random, that he was her son's best friend. It was just an amazing moment.
I kept saying to Sandy, this is killing me — it is so sad and encouraging at the same time. It is very easy to weep with those who weep, but it is not so easy to rejoice with those who are rejoicing. It is pretty easy if the guy in the next cubicle comes in and says his seven-year-old has cancer — pretty easy to weep with him. Not so easy to rejoice when he comes in and says, "Give me five, I'm the new manager." That is not so easy.
"Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men."
It is not always going to be possible — some people are simply impossible to get along with — but Paul is saying that to the best of your ability, you remove your own contribution to the dispute. And then here is the part that stands out: "Never take your own revenge, beloved. Leave room for the wrath of God." That is the greatest payback of all. You can sleep at night because you are not harboring bitterness, and God is going to deal with it. "Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay, says the Lord." That is the sentiment — minus, I suppose, the fleshly desire for revenge — that Peter is expressing.
Called to Suffer, Called to Bless
Back to 1 Peter, chapter three, verse nine: you were called for this very purpose, that you might inherit a blessing. You were called to suffer, and you were called to bless. You bless people in a variety of ways — you pray for them, you pray for your enemies, you share the faith with them, you love them unconditionally, and you forgive them.
There is that incident recorded in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 18, where Peter comes to Jesus and essentially asks, "How often should I forgive my brother's sin? Seven times?" Jesus' response is, "No, seventy times seven." Is Jesus saying 490? No, He is giving a picture. He is saying you simply keep on forgiving.
Charles Spurgeon said that the gospel we believe is the gospel of giving and forgiving. Paul, writing in Ephesians chapter four at that pivot point of the epistle where he is applying everything, gets to the end of the passage and says, in essence, put off the old and put on the new. He says, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger, rage, clamor, slander — let them be gone from you. Be kind, tender-hearted toward one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God has forgiven you." It is the same idea Peter has in mind here.
We ought to be the world's greatest forgivers because we understand how much has been forgiven in our own lives. I struggle with many different things, but forgiveness is not one of them. When I read Ephesians 4:32, I said, "Now that makes sense." If I stop and recognize who I was and that God saved me anyway, how can I then hold a grudge against someone else? We should be the world's greatest forgivers. It is a blessing, Peter says.
Guarding the Tongue
Peter then quotes from Psalm 34. He speaks to those of us who are Christians — those who desire life, who love and want to see good days — and he connects verses eight and nine with the word "for." If all of that is true, then we must keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking deceit.
The book to the left of 1 Peter, the book of James, contains the longest contiguous passage in all of Scripture dealing with the topic of the tongue. It begins in chapter three, verse one, and depending on how you divide it, runs at least to verse twelve and perhaps through all of chapter three. In the middle of this passage, James tells us: "The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. Every species of beasts and birds and reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race, but no one can tame the tongue." James also describes it as almost schizophrenic — on one hand we bless, and on the other hand we curse.
What Peter has in mind as he quotes from Psalm 34 is this: if we are truly going to be the men, women, and students God has called us to be, we have to get control of our tongues. We must not speak deceit — that is, we must not lie — and then we must turn away from evil.
Pursuing Peace with Intensity
That phrase "turn away" becomes an operative idea here. It conveys the sense of intensely and strongly rejecting what is sinful, being driven with passion away from sin and toward what is good. Peter says he wants us to seek and pursue peace. As one author describes it, this conveys an intensity and aggressiveness of action — the analogy is of a hunter vigorously tracking down prey. We are to hunt down peace, pursue it, and grab hold of it.
John MacArthur writes that Christians are to seek peace and hunt for it aggressively, even peace with their persecutors and those who do not know Christ. We are to be known as the peacemakers — those who strive for harmony with others as much as possible, and again, without compromising the truth. And there are certain things in the world that are simply going to divide you when you take a stand.
Seeking Peace in a Divisive World
The gospel is incredibly divisive. When you begin to say to the friends around you, "This is the way, the truth, the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me," that is potentially very divisive. Peter is saying that you want to live at peace as much as you can.
I had a long discussion with a restaurant owner one night — a wonderful guy. I stop in that place for maybe an hour or two once in a while, and I was just coming home from Braden's birthday party when I popped in. He said, "Gosh, I never see you in here this time of night," and I said, "Normally I'm a five-to-seven guy, more of a happy hour guy than a retail guy." We got talking about faith, and he said, "Let me ask you something." What do you think he asked? He said, "What would you say about homosexuality?" I said, "Why don't you just pick something that would rip us apart?"
I said, "First of all, it doesn't matter what I say — does the Bible speak to the issue?" And I took him through it. He said, "Okay. You know, I've been living with this girl now for six, seven, eight years. I know we're not married." I said, "Well, you're celibate, right?" He said, "Well, no." I said, "Oh, okay — we wouldn't approve of that." We went down a list of three, four, five topics like this, and when we were all done, he said, "You know what I love? I can have these conversations and you never get argumentative with me."
I thought, "I wonder if I've soft-sold it. I wonder if I haven't been clear." But what Peter is outlining is this whole idea of peace — that seeking peace ought to be a cornerstone of our lives, not divisiveness. We are living in a culture that is amazingly polemic and I would argue that divisiveness is baked into the culture now. You turn on ESPN in the morning, you get two guys yelling at each other about basketball, and that has become the way we communicate. Feeling passionate and arguing loudly is simply not winsome.
For those who are upset about the election and want to win people over, you had better act in a winsome way. Our goal, and this is where there is great freedom for us, is that as we represent Christ and talk about Christ, we do not have to win anybody to Christ — that is the Holy Spirit's job. Our job is simply to present the truth in a way that is loving and understanding. Take the pulse of your relationships. If every time you talk about these things it becomes volatile and explosive, ask yourself whether it is you.
God's Watchfulness Over His People
Verse 12 says, "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. The ears attend to their prayers." This is an Old Testament picture that speaks of God's special, caring watchfulness over His people. On the other hand, "the face of the Lord is against those who are doing evil" — again, an Old Testament picture of judgment. What Peter is saying is that God is watching everybody and God understands everything, but to those of us who are Christians, He sees everything that we do.
One author writes, "God is always fully aware of everything in the lives of His children. It ought to be a great incentive for believers to live as Peter has outlined, knowing that they can have confidence that the Lord is always watching and waiting and ready to hear and answer their prayer." That is a wonderful truth, but without correct thinking, it can feel like a scary proposition — He sees everything. Personally, I find great comfort in that.
I am a DirecTV guy now — that is my second biggest conversion of my life. So now I have the Red Zone, and there are four or five games going at once: the Broncos are ready to score, the Cardinals are ready to score, and the channel is jumping everywhere. Sometimes I am afraid we get the idea that God is in heaven watching the Red Zone and He missed that little thing that happened in your life — that the cancer snuck in while God was looking away, or that the job got away while He was distracted. No. He sees everything. He understands everything. He has absolute control.
As R.C. Sproul said, there is no maverick molecule loose in the universe that can usurp His plan. There is nothing that comes into your life that God does not cause or allow. That is what makes Him God, and so I do not have to worry. This is an unbelievable thought to me: God loves me more than I love myself. And I will tell you, I love myself a lot — God loves me even more, with a perfect love. And He says, "Right now, you don't need that to go the way you want it to. You need a little suffering. You need a little pain." Why? For my good and His glory — to grow me and develop me.
Peter's Own Journey Through Suffering
It is important to realize that Peter, who is writing about suffering and reviling, is the very Peter who said, "I never knew Him, I never knew Him, I never knew Him." He is the Peter who wanted to slash ears and call down judgment — "Can we get him, God?" But Peter grew closer to Christ, and all of a sudden he understood that there is great comfort in this. We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
My mind shifts now to verse 13, because there is a change there. Peter moves to a new section, and it becomes really the central part of the passage.
Suffering and Blessing
Peter is going to talk about suffering for the rest of this letter. The backdrop is a society that Francis Schaeffer points out was filled with degradation, depravity, insults, and assaults on the church. The climate was not unlike the one we are in today, though opposition may have been even more frequent then.
Peter asks rhetorically, "Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?" The word "prove" carries the idea of becoming — you are pursuing, with intensity, the becoming of what is good. There may be opposition to that, but even then, we can deal with it.
In verse 14, he says, "Even if you should suffer" — suffering here being for the sake of righteousness — "you are blessed." The phrase "even if" carries the sense of "perchance," or contrary to what is expected. You did not anticipate this suffering, yet even in the midst of it, there is a blessing. God is going to do great things in and through your life, even there.
Do Not Be Afraid
The practical outgrowth of that truth is this: we do not need to be afraid. Peter says, "Don't fear their intimidation, and don't be troubled." Now, to qualify that a little — if you are walking down the street and someone jumps out and startles you, you are going to jump. That is not what he is talking about. What he means is that when something comes into your life and you have the opportunity to take inventory of it, there is a peace that passes all understanding.
Consider something like a health scare. When you stop and take inventory, you can reason: God put people in my life, family around me, and even in the worst circumstances, God uses that for my good and His glory. There is no reason to be afraid. Do not fear fear — that is what Peter is saying.
Sanctifying Christ as Lord
Peter then says to sanctify Christ as Lord, which is somewhat of a striking phrase. We usually think of ourselves being sanctified — set apart. But here, to sanctify the Lord is to set Him apart as the only holy one, to have no other God before Him. The idea is drawn from Isaiah 8. Set apart the Lord in your heart.
Always Ready to Give a Defense
Peter continues: "Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence." The word translated "give an account" is the Greek word *apologia*, from which we get the English words "apology" and "apologetics." In this context it refers to a formal, judicial courtroom defense.
Here is what Peter is getting at. When you begin to submit to government, submit to masters, submit to your husband, or love your wife in ways that are contrary to the culture, people are going to look at you and ask you to explain yourself. That should be happening on a frequent basis. They may not phrase it that way. They are going to say things like, "I don't know how you do it," or "The way you respond blows me away," or "I could never handle that the way you do."
When you hear those words, the little hairs on your neck should not stand up in dread — your whole heart ought to begin to beat with anticipation, because this is it. This is the opportunity. What they are really asking is: what makes you tick? How can you handle that? How do you stay so calm? How do you love her in that situation? How do you submit to him in that situation? How do you handle that with your kids, at work, being called in with nine others to be laid off — a frightening proposition — and yet carry yourself differently, noticeably different?
The Hope Within You Is Jesus
So they come to you and say, "Give an account of the hope that is in you." They want a word, a message. And the hope within you is Jesus. Someone sent along a long Abraham Lincoln quote recently — something about the United States of America being the only hope for the world. To be clear: America is worth loving, but the only hope for this world is not the United States of America. It is Jesus. That does not dismiss the importance of politics or any of that — those things matter. But the hope we have is Christ.
The hope is this: if I lose this job, God has a provision for me, even if I do not know what it is. That is called faith and trust. If you had every answer to every question, you would not need faith and you would not need to trust.
The Blind Man's Testimony
To illustrate what it looks like to give that kind of hope, consider John 9. Jesus walks into town with His disciples, and they encounter a man who was born blind. The disciples ask, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answers, "Neither one of them — but he may be a display case for the work of God." And that is what each of us is. We were all spiritually blind, and now we can see. We are all display cases for the work of God.
The story continues: the religious leaders come to inquire about what happened. They press the man — what happened, how did He make you see? And the man's answer is simple. He explains what was done, and then he says essentially: here is what I know. I was blind. Now I see. That is all I know.
Defending Your Faith with a Clear Conscience
Don't be intimidated when God puts you in that place. The very fact that you can say God put you in that place should give you comfort — when somebody around you is asking you to make a defense, to explain what is going on. He will give you the words. Pray: "Father, give me the words. You said You would give me the words."
You don't have to come up with some fancy answer, and you don't have to answer every question someone has. What does a witness do? A witness simply tells what happened to them, what they saw. You can say, "I don't know — here's what I do know: I was lost on my way to hell, and now I'm on my way to heaven based on belief in Jesus and the cross." For anything beyond that, you can say, "I don't know, I'll have to get back to you on that one."
Peter says to be ready — be ready to make a defense. The tense there implies a continued preparedness. Keep your conscience clear so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
Keep your conscience clear. Behave in a way that is conscious of the sense of right and wrong. It is not perfect, but it is something you have. We see it all the time — somebody will come and say they would like advice on something, and when asked what they think they should do, almost always their gut tells them the right thing. A lot of times they will say, "Something doesn't feel right." Do what is right so that you are not guilty, so that you are not accused.
For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right than for doing what is wrong. It is better not to be caught doing something wrong and suffer discipline, but to do what is right and suffer under God's hand — perhaps the chastisement of those around you for your edification. When they slander you and hurt you, they suffer, but it is you who suffer for doing the right thing.
To Be Continued
As I said at the beginning, we would reach the end and it would say at the bottom, "To be continued." This is exactly where we will pick up — with the same thought of suffering — not next week only, but next week and the two weeks following.
Let's pray together. Father, thank You for this awesome truth. Thank You that we can know You, love You, worship You, and serve You. God, knowing You does not mean that there is no hardship in our life — in fact, it guarantees it. God, we don't say it in an arrogant way, but allow it to happen so that You can be glorified and we can draw closer to You. God, use us. We pray that in Christ's name, amen.