Suffering for the Cause of Righteousness (Part 1)

Introduction

The things that we love will become most evident when we experience suffering and persecution.

Trials ultimately do not make us who we are but reveal who we truly are and what we truly love…what is most important to us....what we ultimately value.

So who do you turn to when you are backed into a corner?

Who do you trust in when one of your family members is sick, or has just passed away?

How do you respond when you are slandered, ridiculed, mocked, and made fun of by others?

In these situations, do you fear people…what they could do to you, and seek to please them…or do you fear God and cling to the heavenly hope you have in Christ?

These are some of the questions Peter has been raising to the church in Asia Minor as they were facing persecution as exiles.

He has told them that they are the chosen people of God in the introduction and because they are God’s chosen people, he reminds them in chapters 1 and 2 of the hope they have as exiles…having a new future, a new family, and a new calling.

For the past three weeks we have seen how Peter instructed the church to live out their exile identity through submission in various spheres…to government, authority, and in the household

He now instructs the church in the second way they are to live out their identity as God’s chosen people: To suffer well for Jesus Christ.

Just as Christ is the church’s example to submit to authority, Christ is our example in suffering for the cause of righteousness.

Tonight, Peter will show us that to suffer well for Jesus WE MUST:

Honor Christ in our hearts by Holding onto our Heavenly Hope.

1 Peter 3:8-9 “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”

Peter closes the section on the household codes and submission by calling the church to live in unity with one another and harmony with those outside the church.

Peter lists four marks of unity (unity of purpose):

Sympathy, brotherly love, compassion, and humility.

Brotherly love is the key command that all the others hinge on, for each of these four words focus on loving the other person, which promotes unity and togetherness.

How can we grow in our love for one another?

Love for God fosters love for others, and knowing God’s love for us produces a greater love for God.

Consider....

How God has been sympathetic to you: Hebrews 4:15.

Humble: Philippians 2:5-13.

Compassionate: Psalm 103:13.

Loving: Romans 5:8

How can you grow in your love and knowledge for God so that you can better love others?

In what ways do you need to grow in these four areas?

In the concluding remarks of calling believers to live lives of submission before an unbelieving world to be a witness for Jesus, one of the greatest marks of the gospel is the unity and harmony believers have with one another.

John 17:20-23.

In verse 9, Peter calls the church to follow the example of Christ once more with their persecutors and even those in the church...to not seek revenge or revile in return when they are wrongly mistreated...but instead bless those who persecute them and mistreat them.

The question of… “what is God’s will for my life?” or“What is God calling me to?” may often arise for a lot of you today.

I know for me when I was your age, I thought about this questions constantly…especially when I got into college.

But Peter seems to make abundantly clear what our general calling is as Christians who are living as exiles…we are to follow Christ’s example by enduring suffering (from chapter 2, verse 21)....and blessing others…especially those who persecute us.

To bless someone means to ask God to show his favor and grace upon those who have harmed them.

Romans 12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15.

The church is called to bless one another, and even those that are their enemies, so that they will be blessed by God.

Matthew 5:10-12, 43-45.

This blessing from God refers to our eternal hope and salvation that we will receive when Christ returns.

This verse is not teaching that people can earn their salvation through blessing others. Peter has made clear in chapter 1 that salvation comes through God’s sovereign choice and grace. Rather, since believers have been blessed by God through their salvation, they must now live it out in being a blessing to others.

Peter, along with the rest of the Bible are filled with this logic that a righteous life is necessary to obtain salvation. Good works are evidence that someone is truly redeemed (James 2:14-24).

John Piper says, “The evidence that we are born of God and will inherit a future blessing is that our lives become a foretaste of the future we cherish.”

Because the church has the blessing of eternal hope awaiting them, they should demonstrate the grace that has transformed their heart through living righteously before others.

1 Peter 3:10-12 “For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””

In these verses, Peter quotes Psalm 34, which addresses God’s people who are suffering and facing persecution, so Peter specifically chose this Psalm as it would apply to his readers who were also facing suffering and persecution.

These verses demonstrate that believers do not live passively as they await the return of Christ but have an active faith that practices right speech and right action. This type of behavior will lead to life.

Listen to these action verbs:

Keep your tongue and speech from evil and deceit.

Turn away from evil and do good.

Seek peace and pursue it.

Once more, those that live in this way demonstrate they have been saved by God’s grace and will receive his blessing, favor, and an answer for their prayers for vindication when Christ returns.

But...all those who do evil will face the righteous wrath of God on that day.

Once more, this would be an encouragement to Peter’s readers that their persecutors will be righteously judged and they will eventually blessed even though they suffer now in this life.

Our God is righteous and will always do what is right…therefore, we can trust him as well when we face persecution and continue to live a life of righteousness that is pleasing to him.

1 Peter 3:13-14 “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.

Peter now begins a new section to address the topic of the church being mistreated by unbelievers once more.

He begins by asking a rhetorical question…and what he is saying to the church is…if you are eagerly seeking to live righteous lives that demonstrate your salvation and will be eternally blessed by God when Christ returns, who can harm you?

This idea connects with Paul’s Question to the Romans…if the judge has already deemed you not guilty, then who can judge you?

In other words…Peter is saying that “The promise of the heavenly inheritance (from verse 10) guarantees that the distresses of this life do not constitute the last word.”

Tom Schreiner says “The point of the rhetorical question, then, is that no one will harm believers ultimately on the day of judgement, for God will reward them for their faithfulness.”

Even though the persecution believers face will not affect their eternal inheritance…Peter acknowledges that they will still face real suffering that is difficult.

“Even if” signifies that suffering will certainly occur for believers but what is of utmost concern for the believer is that suffering is provoked by righteous living and not by one’s own sin.

The church cannot control if others will harm or persecute them, but they can control how they conduct their lives before them and how they respond to harm and being treated harshly.

The blessing of God is not dictated on how others respond to our lives (which we cannot control), but rather how we conduct our lives and respond to others (which we can control).

Again, as we saw in the last section, our ability to bless others comes from the blessing of God’s grace that has been given to us in Christ. We have the power to show grace to others, because we have been shown grace by God.

Regardless of the way people respond and treat us, we will be blessed with eternal rewards if we honor the Lord with our lives and our responses to others.

Matthew 5:10.

1 Peter 3:14-15a “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,

Peter gives two commands

Negative: Do not fear or be troubled by your enemies.

Positive: instead, honor Christ the Lord as holy.

In calling the church to not fear or be troubled by their oppressors, Peter is referring back to Isaiah 8:11-15, when the Lord called Ahaz, King of Judah, not to fear the Assyrians but instead to fear and honor the Lord as holy.

If Ahaz and Judah did this, the Lord would become a sanctuary for them but a stumbling block for the Lord’s enemies...which refers back to Peter speaking of Jesus as a stumbling block and referring to this passage in 1 Peter 2:8.

Once more, the church should not fear man but fear God and honor Christ as holy in their hearts.

“Since no one can ultimately harm believers and since their suffering is a sign of blessing, then it follows that they should not fear what others can do to them.”

Honor means to sanctify, to set apart, to hallow.

This is the first thing Jesus calls believers to do in prayer “hallowed be your name.”

Hallowing the Lord’s name means prizing his name above all things. His name is in a category all by itself in one’s life.

Peter is calling the church to know and believe that Christ alone is Lord and that their enemies are not...no matter how much authority or power they yield.

Christ alone must be cherished in the hearts of the church. All things must be considered as dung compared to him (Philippians 3:7-10).

We must ask ourselves who we are cherishing in our hearts? who or what have we set apart in our lives, who are we honoring as holy besides Jesus?

The main way we can hallow Christ’s name is our hearts is through having an unshakable hope in our eternal inheritance…because this hope is built upon Christ.

John Piper says, “Fearlessness sanctifies Christ as Lord. Why? Because fearlessness shows that our hope is unshakable. Fearlessness is a clear testimony that our hope is real. And since Christ is the ground and the goal of our hope, fearlessness honors him-sanctifies him, shows his unique worth and strength in our lives.”

So, If the church hallows Christ’s name in their hearts and fears him, they will not be afraid to make a defense to those who ask them why they believe what they believe.

vs 15b-16: “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”

The church must “always be prepared” to give a defense for the hope that is in them.

Hope should be seen synonymously with faith.

Defense is where we get our word apologetics from (apologia in the Greek).

Peter is saying that all believers are called to be apologists to be able to give a defense daily for the hope that is in us when confronted by others.

This means that every believer should grasp the essentials of the faith and should have the ability to explain to others why the Christian faith is true.

Are you prepared to do this?

Would you be able to give a defense for why you believe Christianity is true if asked?

What about the...

Bible, faith in Christ alone, the gospel, who God is, why Jesus had to die for our sins, etc.?

The Bible makes clear that our inward hope and faith will always translate into outward actions.

The hope that is in us should be manifested in such a way that the outward transformation of our lives, speech, and actions will become so evident that unbelievers will ask us for an explanation.

Is this the case for you?

Everything seems to be connected and building off of the command to honor Christ the Lord as holy in the heart.

If the church does this..

they will seek to do what is good.

They will endure mistreatment and suffer for righteousness sake.

They will bless their persecutors.

They will not fear them but fear the Lord.

They will be prepared to make a defense of their faith.

They will do it with gentleness and respect in a good conscience.

The church must give their defense in gentleness and respect.

One must be meek, humble, and even tempered when sharing the gospel and defending the faith with others. They must not be quarrelsome but respect the other person.

2 Timothy 2:24-26.

Respect is the word “fear” again, referring back to being gentle to others out of a fear of the Lord.

If we conduct ourselves with gentleness towards others and a fear of God when defending our faith... our persecutors will be put to shame when we are mistreated.

This verse demonstrates once more God’s justice. Even though his people are maligned and suffer persecution now, he will vindicate them on the last day and shame the wicked who persecuted and mistreated them.

As we suffer, we can “entrust ourselves to the one who will judge justly” and know all will be made right when Christ returns.

1 Peter 3:17 “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”

Peter reminds the church why they should seek to do good rather than evil...because it is better, it pleases God, and will incur a blessing from him.

But notice that even if suffering is God’s will for our lives, we must be sure that such suffering not be for sins we have committed.

Response

Hallow Christ’s name as Holy in Your Life and remember the blessed and living hope you have in Him!

There are four ways we can hallow Christ’s name in our hearts…by having a:

Fearless hope.

Well-defended hope.

Meek hope.

Zealous hope.