1 Peter 3 - Suffering to Bless
Tom Shrader explores 1 Peter 3:8-17, examining five key Christian virtues: being harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit. He teaches that believers are called to bless others rather than returning evil for evil, especially when suffering for righteousness' sake. The teaching emphasizes that our response to persecution should make others curious about the hope within us, creating opportunities to share the Gospel with gentleness and reverence.
“We ought to be the world's greatest forgivers because we understand how much has been forgiven in our life.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Peter
Recorded: 2012
Duration: 50 min
Themes: suffering, blessing, persecution, humility, kindness, hope, witness, gentleness, facing persecution, workplace hostility, new believer, suffering christian, witnessing opportunity, hostile environment, young adult, struggling believer
Scripture: 1 Peter 3:8-17, Psalm 34, 1 Peter 2:11-12, 1 Peter 2:13, 1 Peter 2:18, 1 Peter 3:1-6, Matthew 27:33-38, Romans 12:14-21, Ephesians 4:32, James 3:1-12, Acts 20:36, Matthew 18, John 9, Isaiah 8
Theological Themes: sanctification, apologetics, christian witness, spiritual maturity, biblical ethics, persecution theology, gospel testimony, righteous suffering
Full Transcript
1st Peter chapter 3. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and we'll bring you one. If you have a Bible but you do not have a Bible at home, take this with you. Otherwise just leave it so we can use it again. It's 1st Peter, page 657. Today we look at verses 8 through 17 in 1st Peter chapter 3.
Verse 8 begins with the phrase "to sum up." Some of your translations will say "finally." Now as somebody who's teaching, that can cut a couple of different ways. But when I read it and put the lesson together and work through the lesson, those are words you cringe at because what He's told you is we're 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'd 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 lessons, pulling them together, and then the next three or four.
Peter's Approach to Suffering
If you have your study guides or if you looked at the study guides, the suffering becomes the discussion topic for this week, next week, and the following week. Teaching that's sometimes hard. I feel and felt like as I was preparing that this is very familiar territory. So hopefully I feel like - I'm fearful you will - it's on suffering. I said Peter may have you people in mind when He wrote this based on the fact you have to listen to me unpack all of this. But it's really helpful, it's really good, and it's really practical.
He's not ending a section, but He's ending the letter. He's tying the end of this thought process. So it began back in, as I said, chapter 2 verse 13 when He's talking about submit yourself to government. Chapter 2 verse 18, He was talking about slaves submit to your masters. So it's our government, workplace, and then what we looked at last week, chapter 3 verse 1 through 6, dealing with wives, verse 7 with husbands. So He's talking about family.
Let's read it, come back and we'll put it together. I'll tell you up front, I'll try to do application along the way. That's what my passion is - getting this, understanding it, and then going "so what." But I'll tell you that again, if this were a TV show, when we get to roughly 11:30, what would be on the screen would be "to be continued." This really does tie in.
Tim and I were talking about it this morning. When you teach Paul, it feels like generally Paul flows, makes a point, maybe a sub-point. Peter just feels like He's popping around in some of this. It's not, but it feels that way. So we were just talking about how difficult it is - I'm playing the sympathy card maybe - how difficult it is to try to pull all this together. So hang in there with us as we do this.
The Text: Five Qualities and Their Contrast
Verse 8: "To sum up, all of you be" - and then He lists five things - "harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit." Now He paints the contrast: "not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead." So we got a contrast. We see words like "but." "For you were called for this purpose, that you might inherit a blessing."
And then He quotes from Psalm 34: "For" - so the "for" there is tying together verse 8 and 9 - "for the one who desires life and to love and to see good days" - that's His way of describing a Christian - "must" - and in four things 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."
"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, 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're slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame." It seems to be a thought that we've seen along the way.
Verse 17: "For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than doing what is wrong."
Five Key Observations
So in my little feeble way, with my first blush through, I made five observations that tie this together and that are in, I think, this passage, but certainly tie together these last three or four weeks.
Number one: our belief affects how we will live. That's what Peter wrote back in chapter 2 verse 11: "I urge you as aliens and strangers." Verse 12: "Keep your behavior excellent." And here's the reason: "so that in everything 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." So He's saying because you believe this, live this way.
You need to understand the second thing, my observation, that life brings with it a certain component of suffering. So this is a general discussion on suffering, but His focus, I think, really here is suffering for Christ's sake. There's general suffering just in life. I was talking to somebody this morning, and we were trying - I just read an article by a cardiologist, and He was this guy who's supposed to be some sort of an expert, and He was talking about having - He was having a heart attack and He didn't realize it. And He was talking, as He talked, it's like "this is the stuff I have every day." And He was saying "I had this and I kind of - I'm only 48." And that's - I was talking to somebody this morning and just the wear and tear of life. My knee hurts. Is it related to something else? So there's suffering.
Just the wear and tear of life. The third one is that faith may bring suffering to you. He writes in a way that seems to acknowledge that there were people that Peter's writing to who are already suffering. They're already suffering for the faith. Some of their family friends perhaps have been martyred.
You may or you may not suffer. You may suffer. They estimate about 250,000 people—so a quarter of a million people a year—are killed for their faith. So in 2012 still. So in all likelihood it's not going to be you. You may suffer, and it may be as simple as you have some friends who won't hang with you because of your faith or something in between.
My fourth observation is this: people are watching. So he's saying here comes the persecution, but even they are watching how you respond to it. The minute you walk around with one of these Bibles and the minute you tell the guys in the office or the people at the gym or the guys at school and they go "What'd you do yesterday?" and you say "I was in church"—the minute you say that, they're watching you. And I'll give you a secret: here's a secret, and they're going to hold you to a standard, and it's going to be a standard that's higher than the standard you have for yourself. The one thing I know about you is you'll give yourself the benefit of the doubt. I'm pretty confident of that. They aren't going to do that.
People Watch How We Respond
But Peter's whole idea is they're going to watch you and see God at work in you. And then the fifth thing is your response may or may not be used by God to attract people to Himself, to attract the people to Christ. It's 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 wives."
So you need to understand that that's a general kind of sense in which Peter's coming back to again and again and again. It's something we try to keep in front of you all the time: that our privilege is to make the invisible God visible and speak the truth boldly. There should be a steady flow—make this point today two or three times—there should be a steady flow of people. I don't know what that means by the way, but there should be a constant flow of people in your life—I don't know what that means in terms of frequency—who are coming to you and saying "There's just something different about you." Not odd, but different.
Our Response to Suffering
And so what we'll talk about especially in light of suffering. So he's going to talk about our attitude in this, how we respond to it. Look at verse 8: "To sum it up, all of you..." And he's talked to us five things, five characteristics.
Number one: be harmonious. It's unity of spirit. Some of your translations might say it means literally "same think." Our mind should be the same. It's not that Christianity is one size fits all. It's not that we're all going to react and all be the same in terms of life, but there is, in its core, unity around the gospel. That what draws us together and causes us to be, as Paul writes in Philippians 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've had the cards in front of you. Tim taught from this two weeks ago. I was telling you last week, they were around. We had people by the doors. If you don't have these yet, maybe you just have one of them. If you have one, you need more, so you can have one in your Bible and one that you can keep in the refrigerator. And on the one side is just what we're going to do in terms of the building. That's not as important. It's important, but it's not as important as the essential elements for a strong church. That's this side.
Unity Around Essential Elements
There's six of them. We're going to devote a whole series to this right after the first of the year. And these are the unity we have around God's word and prayer and evangelism and a biblical community and serving the church and generosity. There should be a harmony, a same-thoughtness, a unity in Christ.
The second word that he gives us is there should be sympathetic. It's the idea here of sharing the same feeling. So we had a president not too long ago who said "I feel your pain," and I always contended he could feel the pain because he caused most of it in my life, it felt like anyway. But that's what it means. It means to feel your pain.
And people are longing for... there was a survey there. A lot of the exit poll stuff was really interesting, and not trying to get into politics at all, just what are people looking for. But something like, we're talking about president, that something like 25% of them wanted a president that could understand them. 19% wanted a president that was a leader. I don't know what that means, but it tells me more than... My dad, again, talking about my dad, I don't remember my dad ever thinking "Boy, I wish the president understood how I felt." I don't think he ever... it never... it would never even have occurred to him to say "You're not meeting my needs." Now, we might have been a better family if he would have, I don't know.
Showing Sympathy to Others
But what word is, this idea of sympathy. And he's saying, here's what I want you to see: I want you to be sympathetic to those around you. And one of the authors makes a point, even those who don't know you.
I remember sitting with Larry Wright at First Watch, so we're at about Fifth, Fourth Avenue in Thomas. And he said "What are you going to do today or yesterday?" And I told him about a meeting I'd had the day before, meeting that day with two couples whose marriage was falling apart. And I just started talking about it. And he just began to cry. That's how tender his heart was, especially in this area: that we can't be insensitive, we can't be indifferent. There's a world of hurt around us.
I think of this, and again, I don't... and people seem to be very gracious when I talk about it, but I think of it particularly of those that are weakest in the culture. So when I think of weakest...
In the culture, part of me goes to immigration, but the big part of me goes to abortion. There's no one weaker in the culture than the unborn. They have no voice. And we're equal opportunity killers in that area. We don't spend a lot of time whether it's male or female. We take about 1.234 million babies a year and kill them.
But the argument also is, "You're worried about the unborn, but you're not that worried about those that are born." Immigration is one of those issues. It's a difficult issue, you know that. It's made more complex by the government's failure to deal with it. The Republicans want cheap labor and the Democrats want votes. There's a little cynicism there, but it's pretty close to being true. So they haven't dealt with it.
And then you all, understandably, get all stirred up and say, "What part of illegal don't you understand?" To which I can come back and say, "That's fine, but what part of love your neighbor don't you understand?" Are you really going to take somebody that's legitimately hurting, and especially as God... Guys, I'll give you a tip. If you've got a wife or a girlfriend that you want to get her interested in sports, then what you do is hook her up biographically with these guys. Let them understand who the players are, their story, their family.
The Human Face of Complex Issues
What's real easy when you don't know anything but what Joe tells you about immigrants is to go, "What part of illegal?" But then you meet a couple of these kids. You meet the kid that's the honors student at one of the charter schools, and you realize he's illegal. He didn't have anything to do with it. His mom and dad came up when he was two. He doesn't know any country but this. He doesn't even speak Spanish. What are you going to do with that kid?
And it's not enough, I don't think, to just say, "What part of illegal don't you understand?" What part of hurting don't you understand? Are you going to take that kid that comes into the food bank and find out if he's got papers before you give him food, seriously? It's not simple. It's a complex issue. I get it. But we need to guard our hearts and not just be persuaded by some, perhaps superficially simple solution.
Brotherly Affection
Third, brotherly. It's affection toward people who are closely related. There's a wonderful example of a life of a guy that you don't typically think is this soft, gentle, mushy guy. His name is Paul. It's in Acts chapter 20. He's saying goodbye to the elders at Ephesus. Now, my argument would be that was his favorite church. He'd spent three years there. He's saying goodbye to them.
Luke writes this in Acts 20, verse 36: "When he said these things, he knelt down and he prayed with them. 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." I get in my mind, there's this idea of them at the ship and how hard it is to say goodbye.
Personal Reflections on Goodbyes
I never had... both of my daughters lived geographically here in town, so when we say goodbye, it's goodbye. But even then, with the kids, I mean, Susan was awesome, in that saying goodbye was often a difficult thing for the kids. They didn't want to go home. So she would turn it into a game. She would stand in front of the car and she'd wave like this and they'd wave back.
But I don't have those moments where you're giving them a kiss goodbye and saying, "I'm not going to see you again for a year." The closest I can think of is my grandpa. And he was kind of a cratchety old dude anyway. But you know, Grandpa was coming. "They'll be here about one." We'd be out in the front yard at 12:30 waiting for him, and you know, he's driving 37 miles an hour and they get there about five at night for dinner.
And then he'd stay. And I would hang with him and he'd take me out... there was one bar in town that sold the tobacco that he chewed. So we'd go down there and he'd get a beer and I'd get... Probably wasn't the best way to raise a kid. You don't need to email me on this. I'm 12, I'm not driving the engine here. Then I'd get a Coke and he'd get a beer and he'd get his little key. Key chew is what he used to be, the little blue can.
And I just remember when he'd leave, we'd be standing out front, he's just kind of waving. And it didn't occur... I know this is stupid. It didn't occur to me that this was my mom's mom and dad that she was saying goodbye to and how tough that was. And we'd wave. That's what I see here in Acts 20. I'd see him all the way down to the boat and finally I'd go, "Listen Paul, you've got to go." "I don't want to go, you've got to go." And then he'd get on that boat and then he'd pop right up and wave. There's that love, there's that familial side.
Tender-Hearted Compassion
And then the word is kind-hearted. It refers to internal organs. Sometimes it's translated, this idea, this root word in the Greek, translated bowels or intestines. To the Greeks, those intestines, those inside parts, were a sign of courage. To the Christian, it was a sign of great affection. My daughter was in here first hour and she wrote me a note and said, "I love you with my intestines," with a smiley face. It's that kind of tender-heartedness. It's an understanding. It's a powerful feeling. It's affections and emotions that have a visceral, strong language.
Humble in Spirit
And then the last one is humble in spirit. MacArthur writes this sentence. This is something that I've been working on in my mind, just kind of mulling through. It all started, the only time I've been in the hospital in my life. It all started when I was in the hospital in March. And I had a little bit of time that night to think about some stuff.
And it's the first time ever, I'd seen Susan go through it, but it's the first time I ever had that stupid kind of little gown on. And it wasn't so much humbling as humiliating. But it had me thinking about this word. Now listen to this sentence because you're...
I'm gonna own it again. I think three or four weeks from now, we get to chapter five. I'm teaching that day and I plan to spend a whole bunch of time on this idea. Here's what MacArthur writes: "Humility is arguably the most essential all-encompassing virtue of the Christian life." That sentence really resonates with me because that's a conclusion I've drawn. I just don't know if I have the courage or the ability or the scholarship to make that sort of all-encompassing, sweeping, definitive statement, but I'll let MacArthur do it. Let me read it again: "Humility is arguably the most essential all-encompassing virtue in the Christian life."
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's going to correspond with this is humility, which I would argue is very closely related to love and is probably at the key part of love. That's what I'm going to try to talk about in three or four weeks. But it's humble in spirit. It's an attitude. It's an attitude of submission. It's all the things we've been talking about.
The Unified Christian Life
One author closes the section this way: "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 love, loving service to all, compassionate instead of harsh, and above all, humble like their savior." That's what Peter offers us in chapter three, verse eight.
He said, here's what I don't want you to do: don't return evil for evil or insult for insult. There may be those times where, and I would argue that's just normal life. That's just normal life. We're going to have people who are going to say things that have nothing to do with your faith. It may be because you're this odd little kid and everybody else is cool. It may be that you have whatever it is, your background, could be the way you look or what you wear. But He's saying in the midst of this, there's going to be some mistreatment. He's not quite to suffering for your faith yet, though it could be part of that for sure.
But there's going to be times when we're trusting God and trusting Him for the care that He has for us and His provision for us. In the midst of this, when those difficult times come, again, whether they're for Christ's sake or not, I don't want you to respond. If they're evil against you, don't be evil. If they speak against you and revile you and insult you, don't respond that way.
The Example of Christ's Response to Mockery
Here's the illustration I always think of. It's in Matthew's Gospel when we come to this point or come to the definition of meekness. It's Matthew's Gospel, chapter 27 and verse 33. They have arrived at the place of crucifixion. Jesus is nailed to the cross. His garments are divided. Verse 37, they put the charge over Him: "This is Jesus, king of the Jews." Then starts this scene. This scene has always been gripping to me.
"At that time, two robbers," Matthew 27:38, "were crucified with Him. One on the right, one on the left. And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads. And they're saying, 'You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you're the son of God, come down from the cross.' In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes and the elders, were mocking Him, saying, 'He saved others, but He can't save Himself. He's the king of Israel. Let Him now come down from the cross and we will believe in Him.'"
There's no reason for what I'm about to say, but for whatever reason, when I go through and I read that, that's like that moment where if I was Jesus, it feels to me like it would be the tipping point. It feels to me like at that point I'd go, "Come here." Let me loosen these nails. It'd be, there's something in me that seems it would be like over there. If ever, here you are, beaten, battered, physically, mentally. He doesn't revile. His conclusion is, "Father, forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing."
Our tendency is to say, "Here's what I'm, somehow we're going to get even here." Isn't that the way the world says it? They always say, "I don't get mad, I get even."
Paul's Teaching on Response to Persecution
You're in Matthew's gospel. Just go to the right a letter, a little to the book of Romans. In Romans chapter 12, there's actually a section here that ties together almost everything we've looked at in the last three or four weeks and this lesson as well. Paul is past that pivot point in Romans 12:1, so lots of application. He says this, chapter 12, verse 14: "Bless those who persecute you and do not curse." I didn't go that far in 1 Peter, but that's the very next thing. He says, "Do not return evil for evil or insult for evil, but give a blessing instead."
Verse 15: "Rejoice for those who rejoice and weep for those who weep." There's that whole idea of sympathetic understanding and love, and I think the order's significant. It's far easier to weep for those who weep than rejoice for those who rejoice.
A Story of Compassion
As people in your life begin to tell you some of these gut-wrenching stories, Sandy and I are watching that show on Arlington Cemetery last night and it's just very hard to sit there and not have your eyes tear up and your heart be broken. There was a little lady and she was there and it was her only son who died. I can't remember, I think it was 24 or 25. She would say, "He always told me, 'Mom, you should have had more kids.'"
As she's there, she happened to be an African American lady. As she's there, up comes, there's a bunch of pledges from Annapolis and they do different projects and part of it was this was their day to come to Arlington.
And here comes this young guy and all of a sudden, she recognizes him. It was really cool in terms of just a color issue. He was white and she embraces him and it ends up totally random. It was his, it was her son's best friend. It was just this amazing time and it was that moment, and I kept saying to Sandy, this is killing me. This is so sad, encouraging and sad.
It's very easy to weep with them. But it's not so easy to rejoice with those who are rejoicing. It's pretty easy if the guy in the next cube comes in and says, my seven year old has cancer. Pretty easy to weep with him. Not so easy to rejoice when he says, give me five, I'm the new manager. It's not so easy there.
Living in Harmony with Others
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Don't be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Don't 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.
Now, it's not going to be possible. Some people, it's impossible to get along with. But He's saying, to the best of your ability, you remove your contribution to the dispute.
And then here's the part I like. Never take your revenge, beloved. Leave room for the wrath of God. I'm going, wow, this is the greatest payback of all. I can sleep at night because I'm not harboring bitterness, and God's going to get him. Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord. Well, that's the sentiment, minus, I guess, the fleshly, godly revenge that I want. That's the sentiment that Peter's expressing.
Called to Bless Through Suffering
Chapter three, back to 1 Peter, verse nine. You were called for this very purpose, that you might inherit a blessing. You were called to suffer. You were called to bless, and you blessed them in a variety of ways. You prayed for people. You prayed for your enemies. You share the faith with them. You love them the best that you can, unconditionally, and you forgive them.
There was that incident recorded in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 18, where Peter comes to Jesus and basically says, how often should I forgive my brother's sin? Seven times? Remember, Jesus' response is, no, it's 70 times seven. Well, is Jesus saying 490? No, He's giving a picture. He goes, you just forgive.
Charles Spurgeon says, the gospel that we believe, the gospel is a gospel of giving and forgiving. Paul's writing in Ephesians chapter four, and again, it's that pivot point of that epistle where He's now applying, applying, applying. And He says, in essence, put off the old, put on the new, and He gets to the end and He says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger, rage, clamor, slander, let them be gone for you.
Be kind. Same idea here, same idea of kind-hearted, tender-hearted toward one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God has forgiven you. We ought to be the world's greatest forgivers because we understand how much has been forgiven in our life.
The Power of Forgiveness
I struggle with lots of different things, but forgiveness is not one of them. I remember when I read Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32, I said, wow, now that makes sense. If I stop and I go, listen, here's who I was and God saved me anyway, how am I then going to hold a grudge against somebody else? We should be the world's greatest forgivers. It's a blessing, He says.
And then He quotes from Psalm 34, the one who desires life and to love and to see good days, He's talking to those of us who are Christians, He says, if that's us, and He begins that verse with the word for, so He's connecting verses 8 and 9, so if all that's true, we must keep our tongue free from evil and our lips free from speaking deceit.
Controlling the Tongue
We're in 1st Peter, the book to the left, the book of James, has within it the longest contiguous passage in all of Scripture dealing with the topic of the tongue. Begins in chapter 3 verse 1 and, depending on how you divide it, at least till verse 12 and maybe all of chapter 3. And in the middle of this, James tells us, James 3:6, 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. And He talks about it's schizophrenic. On one hand we bless and on the other hand we curse.
Now, here's what Peter has in mind as He quotes from Psalm 34, is if we're truly going to be the men and women, students that God's called us to be, we have to get control of our tongue. And we have to not speak deceit, that's to lie, and then to turn away.
Pursuing Peace with Intensity
Turn away and with it, and this becomes an operative word for the next 20 minutes, 10 minutes. The idea of turn away connotes the idea of intensely, strongly rejecting what is sinful. Intensity becomes a passion in here. And to be driven toward that that is good.
And He says, I want you to seek and pursue peace. Again, as one author describes, it conveys an intensity, an aggressiveness of action. Implicit in the phrase is the analogy of a hunter vigorously tracking down its prey. I need to hunt down, pursue, grab peace.
MacArthur writes, Christians are to seek peace and hunt for it aggressively, even peace with their persecutors and those who don't 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 that in the world are just going to divide you when you take a stand. The gospel is incredibly divisive. When you begin to say to the friends around you that this is the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father but through me, that's potentially very divisive. That's what I'm saying. He's saying, you want to live at peace as much as you can. I had a long discussion with a restaurant
He asked me what I thought about homosexuality. I said, "Why don't you just pick something that would just rip us apart?" So 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 know you don't approve of that." And I said, "Well, you're celibate, right?" He said, "Well, no." And I said, "Oh, okay. Well, no, we wouldn't approve of that."
As you can see, we went down this list. There were three, four, five topics like this. When we were all done, he said, "You know what I love is I can have these conversations and you never get argumentative with me." I thought, "Gosh, I wonder if I've soft-sold it. I wonder if I haven't been clear."
Seeking Peace in a Divisive Culture
There's this whole idea of peace and seeking peace that ought to be a cornerstone of our life, not being divisive. We're in politics that are amazingly divisive. Things are so polemic, and I argue it's baked into the culture now. You turn on ESPN in the morning and you get First Take, and you have two guys—Stephen A. Smith and somebody else—yelling at each other about something in basketball. That's like the way we communicate now. You feel passionate, then you argue about it.
At the end of the day, that is not winsome. So those of you that are upset about the election and you want to win this thing, you better act in a winsome way. Our goal here, and this is why there's great freedom for us, is as we represent Christ and talk about Christ, we don't have to win anybody to Christ. That's the Holy Spirit's job. Our job is simply to present the truth in a way that's loving and understanding.
You ought to be able to look around and just sense, take the pulse of your relationships. If you're at war with the people around you and every time you talk about this stuff, it becomes volatile and explosive—okay, I get it—but is it you?
God's Watchful Care
Verse 12 says, "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayers." It's an Old Testament picture that speaks of God's special caring watchfulness over His people. He said, "On the other hand, the face of the Lord is against those who are doing evil." It's an Old Testament picture again of judgment.
Here's what He's saying: God's watching everybody. God understands everything. But to those of us who are Christians, He sees everything that you 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.
Yeah, there's part of it, but if I don't have my correct thinking, that's a very scary proposition. He sees everything. Now, I find great comfort in that.
God Sees Everything
I'm a Direct TV guy now. I've been converted—it's my second biggest conversion of my life. So now I have the Red Zone. Well, this is not a good thing for me. There are four or five games going on. The Broncos are ready to score. Let's make it something as rare as the virgin birth—okay, let's make it something rare. Let's make it something that happens every day: the Cardinals are ready to score. You're flipping over.
Sometimes I'm afraid we get the idea that God's in heaven with the Red Zone, and He missed that little thing that happened in your life. That cancer snuck in while God was looking away. That job got away just in time—oh man, the Panthers are ready to score, right? God's carried away. No, He sees everything. He understands everything. He has absolute control. R.C. Sproul said there's no maverick molecule loose in the universe that can usurp His plan.
There's nothing that comes into your life that God doesn't cause or allow. That's what makes Him God. And so I don't have to worry about it.
God's Perfect Love and Purpose
This is an unbelievable thought to me, an amazing 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, "You know what? 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? What's the big answer? My good, His glory. Grow me, develop me.
It's important to realize that Peter, who's writing about this—he's writing about suffering, he's writing about reviling—this is the Peter who said, "I never knew Him, I never knew Him, I never knew Him." This is the Peter that wants to slash ears and revile: "Can we get him, God?" But he grows closer to Him, and all of a sudden, he understands this, that there's great comfort in this. We know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Transitioning to Suffering
My mind just shifted to verse 13, because there's a train there, there's a change there. He moves to a new section, and it becomes really the central part of the rest of this letter. He's going to talk about suffering. And again, it's against the backdrop of a society that Francis Schaeffer points out was filled with degradation and depravity and insults and assaults on the church.
Suffering often comes to those who zealously pursue what is good. Peter asks rhetorically, "Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?" The idea of "prove" here is to become. Zealous carries the idea of intensity - you're pursuing, becoming what is good with passionate commitment.
Is there going to be opposition to that? There may be, but even then, we can deal with it. Peter says in verse 14, "Even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed." God is going to do great things in your life, even in the midst of this suffering. So don't fear their intimidation and don't be troubled.
When Suffering Comes Unexpectedly
The phrase "even if you" carries the idea of "perchance" or "contrary to what's expected" - you didn't anticipate that suffering would come. Even in the midst of unexpected hardship, you need to understand that there's a blessing there.
What's the practical outgrowth? I don't need to be afraid. There should be nothing that we're afraid of. Let me qualify this a little bit. If you're walking down the street and somebody jumps out and goes "boogie, boogie, boogie," you're going to jump. I'm not talking about that kind of fear. What Peter is saying is when something comes into your life and you have the opportunity to take inventory of it, there's a peace that passes all understanding.
I was reading some cardiology material this week, and someone was talking about heart attacks. I thought, "Do I worry about having a heart attack?" It's funny - I don't, but I worry about having something where for ten years I'm completely incapacitated. But even then, when I take inventory and contemplate, I think, "Well, God put Sandy in my life, my kids in my life, and the family around me. Even if I'm in a state of total vegetation, God uses that for my good and His glory." There's no reason to be afraid. Don't fear fears, as Peter is saying.
Sanctifying Christ as Lord
Instead of fearing, we should "sanctify Christ as Lord." That's somewhat of a strange word. We think of us being sanctified, which carries the idea of being set apart. Peter is saying to sanctify the Lord is to set Him apart as the only holy one - have no other god before Him. This idea is picked up from Isaiah chapter eight. But sanctify the Lord in your heart.
Always Ready to Give a Defense
Peter closes this section with the idea of "always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that's in you. And yet do it with gentleness and reverence." The phrase "give an account" is the Greek word apologia, from which we get the English word "apology" or "apologetics." It means in this case a formal judicial courtroom defense.
Here's what Peter is saying: When you begin to submit to government and submit to masters and submit to your husband and love your wife in a way that's contrary to the culture, people are going to look at you and say, "Can you explain yourself to me?" That should be happening on a frequent basis. They may not say it that way - they're going to say, "I don't know how you do it."
Recognizing Divine Opportunities
If you have somebody who starts sentences with "I don't know how you do it" - "Your response blows me away. I could never handle that the way you do" - when you hear that, the little hairs on your neck should stand up. Your whole heart ought to begin to beat and you ought to be thinking, "This is it. This is the opportunity."
Because what they're asking is: What makes me tick? How can you handle that? How do you stay so calm? How do you love her when...? How do you submit to him when...? How do you handle that with your kids? How do you handle that at work? They're calling all ten of us in to lay us off - that's a scary proposition. Yet not in a "whistling through the graveyard" mentality, but somehow in you - and it's not that it doesn't hurt, but you handle it differently, noticeably different - so they come to you and say, "I want you to give an account of the hope that's in you. I want you to give me a word, a message."
The True Source of Hope
The hope within you is Jesus. Somebody sent me some long Abraham Lincoln quote the other day about the United States of America being the only hope for the world. I love this country - put me down for yes, I'm a big America guy - but the only hope for this world is not the United States of America, it's Jesus. I'm not trying to be self-righteous, and that doesn't dismiss the importance of politics and all that goes with it, because that's really important. But the hope that we have is Christ.
The hope that I have is this: if I lose this job, God has a provision for me. I don't know what it is - it's called faith and trust. If you had every answer to every question, you wouldn't need faith and you wouldn't need to trust.
Display Cases for God's Work
I love John chapter nine. Jesus is walking into town with the disciples, and there's a blind man. The disciples say, "Well, who sinned - this man or his parents - that he was born blind?" Jesus responds, "Boys, neither one of them. But he might be a display case for the work of God."
That's what you and I are - that's what all of us are. We're all spiritually blind who can now see. We're all display cases for the work of God.
The story continues with the blind man. The leaders want to inquire about what happened. They ask, "Wait a minute, what happened?" He said, "I don't know." "Well, He made you see - how did He make you see?" "He put this in my eye and rubbed it, and I can see. Here's what I know: I was blind, now I see. That's all I know. I may know more a little bit later, but that's all I know right now."
They come back to him and stay on him. Finally he says, "Wait a minute, do you want to believe in Him too?" "Well no, that's not what we're looking for." Don't be intimidated.
When God puts you in that place, the very fact that I can say God put you in that place should give you comfort, where somebody around you is saying, "Man, I'm spitting, it's like Gallagher concert in the front row here. Spitting all over." When God puts you in this place where people are asking you, make a defense, what's going on? He'll give you the words. You 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. You don't have to answer every question he 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, now I'm on my way to heaven, based on belief in Jesus and the cross." "Well, what about..." "I don't know, I'll have to get back to you some other day on that one."
Be Ready and Keep Your Conscience Clear
But the fact that He says be ready, be ready, and the idea there is in a tense that implies a continued preparedness. Be ready to make a defense, keep your conscience clear, so that in the thing in which you're slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. Keep your conscience clear, behave in a way, conscious about the sense of right or wrong. It's not perfect, but it's something you have.
We see it all the time. Somebody will come and they'll say, "You know, I'd like some advice on something," and I'll say, "Well, what do you think you should do?" And almost always, their gut tells them the right thing. A lot of times, I'll stop and say, "Why are you asking about this?" "Well, something doesn't feel right." Well, do what's right, so that you're not guilty, you're not accused.
Better to Suffer for Doing Right
You'll see that happen, for it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what's right than doing what's wrong. It's better not to be caught doing something wrong and suffer discipline, but to do what's right and suffer under God's hand of perhaps chastisement of those around you for your edification. When they slander you, hurt you, they suffer, but it's to suffer for doing the right thing.
As I said, if you remember back, 45 minutes ago, maybe a little longer now, I said we'd reach the end and it would say on the bottom, to be continued. So this is exactly where we'll pick up with really the same thought of suffering, not next week only, but next week and the next two weeks.
So Jake's going to come, lead us in our time of communion, close this time and then our time of worship. So let's pray together. Father, thank you for this awesome truth. Thank you that we can know you, love you, worship you, serve you. God, knowing you does not mean that there isn't 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.