The Witness of Suffering - 1 Peter 3:13-17

Introduction

Peter has been dealing with the Christian’s excellent conduct before the Gentiles, encouraging his readers and us to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called as we trod the path from suffering to glory with our eyes fixed on our heavenly hope. We’ve seen that he deals in categories of ungodly rulers, ungodly masters, ungodly spouses, and last week, ungodly people in general. We saw last week that the warm fire of love that must exist inside the church, as it is exhibited through unity and humility, sympathy and tenderness, will serve as a compelling witness to the ungodly world that our gospel and our Christ are legitimate, and are indeed the only way to have happiness in this life and the next.

Tonight Peter will continue his train of thought, focusing in specifically on the idea of suffering.

Peter’s central point tonight is this: suffering well as a Christian through boldness, honoring Christ, being ready to give a defense, and maintaining a clean conscience will result in two things: God’s blessing upon you and shame upon those who hate and oppose you.

Peter’s goal, as it is throughout this epistle, is to encourage the hearts of these churches as they press on through suffering toward the goal of glory.

With those matters in mind, let’s examine the text.

In a perfect world… vs 13

Peter begins this section with an interesting phrase in verse 13. It’s a rhetorical question, and if answered, the answer would be: no, there is no one to harm you if you are zealous for good works. In other words, a faithful and obedient Christian should be able to live a life of peace and harmony and even success in the world simply because they are a person of moral and ethical integrity on account of Christ’s righteousness and the sanctifying spirit that dwells within them.

Paul tells Titus that zeal for good works is the purpose for which God saves people:

Titus 2:11–14 LSB

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.

Paul speaks in complete unison with Peter here: our calling as Christians is to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, while looking forward to the hope of glory, and our purpose then while we still have breath is, among other things, to be Christ’s posession, as Paul says elsewhere to be found in Him, and then also to be zealous for good works.

Peter takes that notion further in 3:13 by saying that if you’ve been saved, if you’re zealous for good works by being sensible, righteous, and godly, you have no reason to be harmed or even fear harm.

This idea is supported elsewhere in Scripture:

Proverbs 16:7 LSB

When a man’s ways are pleasing to Yahweh, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

And also Romans 13:3

Romans 13:3 LSB

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of that authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same;

So Peter’s point here is this: in a perfect world, those who live sensibly, righteously, and Godly should have no reason to fear oppression from their peers, from the authorities, and even from their enemies, but rather their good conduct should have peacemaking power.

And this has rung true for many of us at times in our lives, I think. I know I have been blessed beyond my years and stature by simply making every effort to walk with integrity in my public affairs and duties. My own experience demonstrates to me that a strong moral and ethical compass pays great dividends in the secular workplace.

I know many Christian businessmen who have committed themselves to sensible, upright, Godly operating procedures in their businesses and they have found a tremendous amount of success both in terms of finances and in terms of positive influence on their employees and on their communities. That type of success through sensible, upright, Godly excellence in the workplace is what I strive for every day at my “day job,” and at risk of making myself the hero of my own story, I think that we all ought to pursue that same type of behavior wherever we go, and expect that God can and will bless us with success in those endeavors.

Our commitment must be, as we saw with Peter last week, and as we see with Paul and Solomon both, to excellent behavior, to please God in our ways, to walk sensibly, uprightly, and Godly, and to seek to love others and give a blessing to those around us.

However, Peter’s conception of this perfect world is not necessarily always how the world actually works. Ideally, Christians would live in a kind of Godly utopia in which all institutions are expressly and explicitly subservient to the Lordship of Christ and obey Him at all costs. This is the vision of post-millennial Christian Nationalism.

But as far as I can see, and apparently as far also as Peter could see, such a vision could not be squared with the reality of life in a world where many and even most people are not Christians in any way, shape, or form. While we may be blessed from time to time in this life with the privilege of success as a result of our excellent conduct and behavior, that, I think, ought to be reckoned as the exception rather than the rule.

Which is why Peter moves on to address those situations in which Christians are actually oppressed and subjected to suffering for the sake of their Godly behavior, as we move into verse 14.

Blessed are those who are persecuted - vs 14a

Again, as he so often does, Peter leans into the teaching of Christ Himself to make his point here in verse 14. This is really the central point of this section. The rest of the paragraph is connected to this phrase.

The picture Peter is painting here is one of irony - suffering is an indicator of blessing.

This is what Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 5:10-12

Matthew 5:10–12 LSB

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Now we want to be clear here. Peter’s message, and the message of the Bible is not that suffering causes a blessing or results in a blessing. We need to be careful that we understand the flow of causation here. Rather, what Peter is saying here and what Jesus said in the sermon on the Mount and what other Biblical authors attest to as well is that blessing is a state of being, while suffering is simply an external indicator or sign of that reality.

So let’s break this down a little bit closer so that we can understand what’s in view here. First we want to make sure we’re clear on what blessing actually means. This is a word that permeates the Scriptures, and many of the most well-known portions of God’s Word contain the language of blessing.

We think of Abraham - I will bless you and multiply you and make your name great.

We think of the Psalms, where 16 different times the phrase “blessed is he, blessed is the man, etc.” is used.

Of course we think of the sermon on the Mount, where Jesus follows the pattern of the blessing psalms.

So what is blessing? What does it mean to receive blessing? I think the best way to describe it for us, is simply as a gift of grace. To be blessed to receive a gift of grace, to receive something more than what we deserve.

Now theologically we must remember that for us, blessings and grace come to us in two forms. The first is what we might call common grace. These are gifts and blessings that God gives to all people, from the simplest things like life, food and shelter, work and family, health and happiness. The second category is what we would call special grace. Paul might call it spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. And that special grace is almost always what’s in view when the Bible talks about grace or blessings.

We also have to remember that the reason grace is grace, and God’s gifts and blessings can come to us, is because we are in Christ. He, by virtue of his own inherent merit and righteousness, earned the blessing of God. If we are in Him by faith, we received all of Christ’s earned blessings as a gift from God through Him.

So when we discuss these markers of grace, these markers of blessing, we need to understand that they are markers and indicators of our place with Christ, as part of His church and His body.

So then, understanding the concept of blessing and grace, Peter tells us that suffering is actually a marker that we are blessed, that we are recipients of grace. This seems counterintuitive. How could something so difficult, such as trials and tribulations, persecutions and hardships, be conceived to be connected at all to grace and blessing?

Peter’s idea, and Jesus’ idea, and Paul’s idea is this: your suffering earmarks you as a true child of God. Your trials for the sake of His name set you apart and label you, as it were, as one of His sheep. Suffering is the white hot brand with which Christ visibly and publicly marks you as His own.

So what does this mean for us?

I think we look at this statement and as we comprehend the reality of suffering, I believe there is a great encouragement here for us in the midst of suffering.

Suffering is hard. Suffering will bend us often to the point of breaking. The temptation to tone down the message or fall away from the truth in the midst of implicit and explicit pressures, whether on the small scale with unbelieving friend or family or coworkers, or on a large scale with corporations and civil authorities that actively oppose Christ, His gospel, and a Christian ethics framework, is great, and it is ever increasing. But Peter’s message to us is a simple reminder: when you suffer, do not forget who you are. When you are beaten and battered by the world, the flesh, and the devil, do not forget Whose you are. When hardship and trials come, our hope is in heaven, with Christ.

Now I also want to offer a word of caution here. It’s easy to look at a passage like this, and then assume that all hardships and all trials are coming to you as a result of suffering for the sake of righteousness. I knew many guys in the dorms during my time as an RA who believed this. One particular example comes to mind. A guy was upset that he had failed an important test, and he comes to my room ranting about how he’s being persecuted and he’s suffering and all this, and I said “Listen dude, maybe you wouldn’t have failed the test if you weren’t in Malibu at 2am the night before the test. Maybe you wouldn’t have failed the test if you actually attended class regularly. You aren’t suffering because someone hates you for the sake of righteousness, you’re suffering because you’re a fool!” And of course he didn’t like that. But the moral of the story is this: don’t conflate the hardships you deserve with the hardships you don’t. As Peter said, upright behavior among the Gentiles ought to yield a peaceful and quiet life. If you live well, life goes well. But if you play the part of the fool in Proverbs, don’t be surprised when you suffer hardship not because you’re righteous, but just because you’re being a fool.

Do not fear - vs 14b

Now operating under the assumption that righteous behavior may and even indeed most likely will yield suffering at the hands of those who hate Christ, His gospel, and His truth, and by extension his church, Peter now implores his readers: do not fear.

I think the NIV captures the thrust of the text best: do not fear their threats.

This is one of the most common commands in the Bible. Indeed, depending on how you count, it may the most-given command throughout the entire Bible.

In the Old Testament, we see dozens of examples of this phrase being used, either by God or by a prophet, and the thread that ties these instances together through the Old Testament is that every time we hear the command “do not fear,” it is accompanied with a statement of God’s presence and power and blessing.

For example, when God formalizes His covenant of grace with Abraham, we hear Him say this:

Genesis 15:1 LSB

After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”

and when God restates the covenant to Isaac in Genesis 26:24

Genesis 26:24 LSB

And Yahweh appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your seed, For the sake of My servant Abraham.”

In both instances we see God declaring that His people need not fear, and the reason they need not fear is because God is a shield, God is present, and God intends to give a blessing.

So when we get to Isaiah, which is where Peter seems to be getting the reference here in verse 14, we already have established a pattern of the command to not fear being immediately validated by the presence and power of God with a person or in a situation.

In Isaiah 8 then, Israel is commanded to not fear man, but to find their refuge in God as their sanctuary.

This reality is what Peter now proclaims into the lives of his readers.

They are not to fear, but rather they are to rest and find refuge in God.

Peter’s intent then, as it so often is, is to encourage his readers. When the suffering comes. When the persecution comes. When men mock and belittle and beat and murder your for the sake of Christ and for the sake of righteousness, remember that the command to not fear is always associated with a promise of presence and power. God is with you. God will protect you. And even if you lose this life, His steady hand will guide you safely over the stormy river and through the gates of glory into the next life.

When Peter tells us to not fear then, we must never disassociate that fearlessness from the promise of God’s presence and power.

Additionally then we are not to be troubled. This also comes loosely from Isaiah 8, but perhaps more famously it comes from John 14:27-31

John 14:27–31 LSB

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. “And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.

Now we hear it from Christ’s mouth: do not fear. Do not be troubled.

This statement kicks off a section of this sermon from Jesus that culminates in John 16:1-15

John 16:1–15 LSB

“These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. “They will put you out of the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. “These things they will do because they did not know the Father or Me. “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. “I still have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

Here’s the great encouragement from Peter as he appropriates both Isaiah and Jesus: in the midst of suffering, we need not fear, nor be troubled, because of the promise of the presence and power of God with us specifically in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

For the Christian, this becomes a major part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us: He is the spirit of calm and comfort in the midst of trial and tribulation. We can therefore take heart, because in trials and tribulations God is with us in His Spirit, protecting and providing in all things. We therefore have no reason to fear, neither should we be troubled.

Sanctify Christ - vs 15a

Peter now enters into this three-pronged contrast. If we are to not fear and not be troubled, what are we do to when we suffer for righteousness’ sake?

3 things: sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts, always be ready to make a defense for the hope that is within us, and have a good coscience.

Let’s start with sanctifying Christ. To sanctify Christ simply means to honor Him or ascribe Him holiness or set Him apart. But Peter is specific. We are to sanctify Him as Lord in our hearts. What does this mean? Specifically that we are to honor and glorify Christ by our submission and obedience to Him.

So when we suffer as Christians, our response is not fear, but worshipful obedience. Paul and Silas in Acts 16 are a great example of this. They had cast a demon out of a girl, and this demon was a source of great profit to the local slumlords, so they got angry. Let’s pick up Luke’s account in Acts 16:22-25

Acts 16:22–25 LSB

And the crowd joined together to attack them, and the chief magistrates, tearing their garments off of them, proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. And when they had inflicted them with many wounds, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely, who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

The response of Paul and Silas in prison was not anxiety or worry or fear, but was worshipful obedience to God.

For us then, if we are to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts, we are to do so by humbly and willingly obeying and worshiping Him. Our response to suffering should not be worry and anxiety, knowing first the promise of God’s power and presence that is always with us when we are told to not fear, and secondly that Christ is Lord, not only over us but over our circumstances. We can worship in suffering because we trust that God, in Christ, rules and reigns with power from His throne, and will not let anything befall us except what we are able to bear, and will cause all things to work together for good to those that love Him. Christ is sovereign in suffering and that is worth singing about, for Paul and Silas, and for Peter’s dispersed churches and for you and me.

Always be ready - vs 15b

The second prong of Peter’s contrast comes right after sanctify Christ. This is one of the most famous passages in 1 Peter and indeed in the whole Bible.

This word defense is the Greek word apologia, which is where we get our word for the Christian science of defending the faith, known as apologetics. Now this isn’t an apologetics class, and we don’t have time to go deep into the art and science of the defense of Christianity, but I do want to make a few comments by way of encouragement and exhortation to you tonight.

First, apologetics is for everyone. Peter makes no distinctions here. We all are called to stand at the ready and make a defense for the hope that is within us, to make a case for what we believe. There is as pressing a need here among Christians as there has ever been. Let me give you a brief history of apologetics to help paint the picture of it’s importance. Apologetics as a Christian discipline the way we know it today did not exist before the 1930s. Why? It simply didn’t need to. While we see men like Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, and Stephen Charnock making compelling apologetic arguments in the late medieval and early modern periods, in the West, for nearly 2000 years, people sort of intrinsically took the Bible as authoritative. It was woven into the fabric of Western thought and culture. But as the Enlightenment took hold in the 1700s, and Western thought began to become fundamentally empirical in it’s methods, “religion” began to fall by the wayside. Fast-forward 100 years and you have the advent of German higher critical theory, which basically took the Bible and said “instead of sitting under this book as authoritative, we stand over it and determine what’s true and what’s not.” This method took over Princeton Theological Seminary in the early 1900s, a place once known for being the beacon of sound doctrine in the Western world under the guidance of men like Archibald Alexander, BB Warfield, Charles Hodge, his son AA Hodge, and the Dutch transplant Geerhardus Vos. In the early 1900s it became so bad that J. Gresham Machen, one of the great figures of American church history, took the professors from Princeton who still “sanctified Christ as Lord in their hearts,” and had not bowed the knee to the liberal higher critical approach of their peers, and founded a new seminary in 1929, which still exists today: Westminster Theological Seminary. Some of the most well-known scholars and theologians of our day were educated there, and they remain committed to Dr. Machen’s original vision: To create men of the Book, who hold to Christ despite all.

There you have one person to know, in J. Gresham Machen. But another person to know is a professor who came with him from Princeton and was part of the founding faculty of Westminster: Cornelius Van Til. Many consider him to be the father of modern apologetics, and rightfully so. He was a brilliant man who was committed to the Scriptures. Because of his status as an immigrant and his exposure to the liberal theology of German higher education, he had a keen sense of the need for all Christians to be ready to make a defense for the hope that is within them. His reason for his passion was the impending wave of liberal theology that removed God and His Word from the place of authority and placed man and his wisdom there. What Machen and Van Til and John Murray and the rest of the founders of Westminster saw in the academy, we see in popular culture today.

Therefore, their vision for a robustly Biblical system of thought and practice is only more necessary today, not less.

We live in a world full of gross immorality, foolish thinking, and opposition to Christ and His gospel. It is critical for Christians today to understand how they can defend what they believe. To grasp how they can bring an answer to those who question what they believe. So my question tonight is: are we equipped with the tools necessary from God’s Word and from natural revelation to defend what we believe?

If someone says to you: God doesn’t exist, can you prove to them that He does? If someone says “The Bible is full of contradictions,” are you able to explain to them that it is a cohesive and unified book? If someone says “the worldwide flood of Noah is a myth,” do you have the tools in your toolbelt to demonstrate to them that it is not a myth, but it is historical fact?

If we would be powerful evangelists, we must also be powerful apologists. The world we live in will not take “blind faith” for an answer. They will not take “you just have to believe” as good enough. Our world craves depth, coherence, and integrity, and God and His Word offer all of that in ample portion. We just have to be willing to learn it and share it. Evangelism and apologetics in today’s world are not for the faint of heart and mind. This means that we must do as Peter tells us here: always be ready.

Always be ready by knowing your Bible as well as you can.

Always be ready by knowing the common arguments against Christianity and the truth of the Bible.

Always be ready by knowing how we can, like the apostle Paul, leverage philosophy and natural theology to prove the existence of God and the truth of His Word to unbelievers.

Now we know that only God saves by His Spirit. Even the most bulletproof apologetic argument will fall short if God’s Spirit is not moving. So our apologetics and defense must not only be intellectual but spiritual. We must not only prepare our minds with study for our defense, but prepare our hearts with prayer.

The question for us tonight can be summed up like this: are we ready? Are we ready for the questions? Are we ready for the ridicule? Are we ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us?

And with that, Peter gives two additional modifiers: we must defend the faith with gentleness toward our opponents and fear toward God.

Many times those who would defend the faith are hard and difficult people who love a good argument. Apologetics tends to attract argumentative Christians because they believe it’s a sanctified outlet for their combative tendencies. That couldn’t be further from Peter’s vision. The Christian apologist ought to be gentle toward his opponent, not only being won over by the coherence of the arguments but also by the sweetness of his or her character.

Likewise, we are to fear God. Our apologetics are to be reverential, they are to be worshipful. We are not to be flippant or trite when we come to the defense of our faith and hope and many times of God Himself.

Are we ready? Are we committed to gentleness? Do we fear God? We must.

Have a good conscience - vs 16

Peter’s third prong of contrast to fear, along with sanctifying Christ and always being ready, is having a good conscience. A thorough study of the Biblical concept of the conscience would yield rich results, but it is beyond the scope of our time tonight. Suffice to say this: our conscience is the tool of the Spirit to encourage our sanctification. Our conscience is that inner sense of right and wrong that becomes sharpened over time with more exposure to God’s holiness through His Word. Our conscience is what guides us through the matters that the Bible doesn’t speak about explicitly.

It is a powerful tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit.

So what does it mean to have a good conscience? We use a similar phrase in our day to day vernacular: “I can’t in good conscience...” Keeping your conscience “good” means keeping yourself above reproach. In other words, not doing anything that would even spark a hint of accusation of unethical or ungodly behavior.

In the face of opposition, hatred, and suffering for what we believe, a good conscience is a powerful tool not only for us but for our Christian witness.

Our behavior in the midst of suffering ought to be so upright, so full of integrity, that no accusation can be made against us.

In this way we follow in the footsteps of Christ, who when brought before Pilate could not be rightly accused of anything.

This is what it means to keep a good conscience.

And what is the outcome? Those who disparage you will be put to shame. Ethical conduct and a good conscience will win out in the end. Eventually the righteous will be vindicated and the evil will be put to shame.

The question we need to answer for ourselves is this: do we keep our conscience clear in our conduct? This is a critical measuring stick for Peter’s conception of excellent conduct before the Gentiles. Are our hearts and minds soft to the Spirit’s leading, so that our consciences become a tool in His hands to guide and correct us in our ethical and moral behavior as Christians? I would encourage all of us here tonight: pray for a tender conscience. Pray for a soft heart toward issues of discernment. Pray that God would be honored in our lives as we walk through the gray areas before a watching world. Pray that we would be wise and discerning and always err on the high road, in order that, in the midst of slander, we would be found blameless before men, and even more importantly before God.

A better way - vs 17

Peter closes this section with a reminder: if God should will that you suffer, it is better to suffer for doing good rather than doing wrong.

It seems obvious but it’s worth mentioning for Peter so it’s worth mentioning for us.

The way of suffering for righteousness’ sake is the better way.

To suffer well for doing good is the way of Christ. It is the road he was called to travel, and if we would follow Him it must also be our road.

So while we don’t look for suffering or seek it out, when it comes, if we have acted in righteousness, if we have pressed on in boldness, without fear, not letting our heart be troubled, if we have set Christ apart as Lord and Master of our life, if we are ready, willing, and able to make a defense for our hope, if we have walked in gentleness toward others and fear toward God, if we have walked ethically with a good and clear conscience, we can have confidence that this is the better way. We can have confidence that this is the will of God for our sanctification. We can have confidence that in the midst of suffering, God is working and whether in this life or the next, will bring us safely home.

So may we suffer well as Christians. May we bear witness by our suffering to the wonderful, merciful savior who first suffered well for us, so that we might suffer well for Him. As we live courageously in this world, may our excellent conduct force our family and friends, our neighbors and coworkers, our enemies and opposers to take notice not first of us, but of the God who saved us, and may, by our lives, they at last worship and glorify God their maker.