A Life of Blessing

Introduction:

Let’s Pray--

Read 1 Peter 3:8-12

Where We’ve Been

In our study in First Peter, we’ve been looking over the past few weeks at how our status as God’s people plays out in our relationships. As we work out our salvation—as God works out our salvation in us by his Spirit—we still live in a fallen and sinful world with believers and unbelievers alike.

We’ve seen that we are new creations in Christ.

We’ve seen that we are sojourners and exiles in this world and among her inhabitants.

We’ve seen how to live in righteous submission to governments, to bosses, how it is a gracious thing in the Lord’s eyes when we suffer for the sake of our savior, and that our singular focus is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus—who is altogether trustworthy, and who will make all things right, and who through his own suffering has made us his sheep.

We’ve seen how wives are to live in Godly submission to their husbands, and how husbands are to live, showing honor to their wives, who are co-heirs of the grace of Jesus Christ.

Our passage today is a closing summary of everything the Apostle Peter has covered with us so far.

The Christian life is a life of blessing...

Main Points

A life of blessing...

With the Brethren (1 Peter 3:8)

Among the Wicked (1 Peter 3:9)

From the Lord (1 Peter 3:10-12)

1. With the Brethren

1 Peter 3:8 ESV

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

I’ve already mentioned that our passage this morning is a summary of where we’ve been. The first word should clue us in to the fact that we’ve come to an end of something. “Finally.”

When you’re reading anything written by a Hebrew, it’s important to know that they don’t always structure things the way we do. They like to build little mountains in their text, where each point climbs higher and higher until the peak in the middle and then climbs back down again on the other side.

And that’s exactly what Peter has done in this list he gives us. Look at it with me, if you will.

Addressing the believers, he tells them to have five traits.

Unity of Mind, Sympathy, Brotherly Love, a Tender Heart, and a Humble Mind

Notice the first item in the list, and the last. Unity of Mind, and a Humble Mind. These are the foothills on either side of our little mountain. These both deal with our minds; they address how we are to THINK.

We are to be of ONE MIND.

As believers, our natural relationship to one another is to be united in our common devotion to Jesus Christ, and to consider others as more important than ourselves.

Let’s climb the mountain to the next ledge. Look at the second and the second-to-last traits in Peter’s list. Sympathy, and a tender heart. These both deal with our affections; they address how we are to FEEL.

We are to be of ONE HEART.

There’s only one item left in the list. We’ve reached the top of our mountain and can finally read the flag planted on its peak.

We are to be characterized by brotherly and sisterly love.

Folks, if you’re becoming more like Jesus, you’re going to love the people Jesus loves! And you’re going to love them the way he loves them.

And you’re going to do it together, with one mind and one heart.

Let’s look back at the foothills to our little mountain.

What is our unity and our humility grounded in? Why are we of one mind?

Peter’s already told us. He’s obsessed with making sure we get the point.

Our single-mindedness is grounded in the fact that we are inseparably joined to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He is the cornerstone, the foundation, upon which we are being built as living stones. Once we were not his people, but now we are his people. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We are united to one another THROUGH him, and we are humble because we are being made like our almighty and everlasting God who humbled himself, who took on flesh, and dwelt among us as one of us.

J.C. Ryle exhorts us,

“Let us daily strive to copy our Savior’s humility. Pride is the oldest and commonest of sins. Humility is the rarest and most beautiful of graces. For humility let us labor. For humility let us pray. Our knowledge may be scanty. Our faith may be weak. Our strength may be small. But if we are disciples of Him who “dwelt at Nazareth,” let us at any rate be humble.”

J. C. RYLE (1816–1900)*

Now let’s move up to that first ledge. What’s our sympathy and tenderness toward one another grounded in? Why are we to be of one heart?

Because the eternal son of God became man. Jesus our great High Priest is able to sympathize with our weakness! He was tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin.

If the Second Person of the Holy Trinity has lived cloaked in the frailty of human flesh, how much more should we who are born to it and born again in Christ be able to sympathize with one another’s weakness, and act with tenderness toward one another?

So what’s the point? How do we apply this? Brothers and sisters in Christ, our lives with one another as members of Christ’s church should reflect our love for one another and should reflect the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. What a joy it is to live among the our fellow saints. This is the blessed life we live with the brethren.

And now we come to our second point.

2. Among the Wicked:

1 Peter 3:9 ESV

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.

The admonition we see here IS applicable within the Church, and we would spare the body of Christ a great deal of heartache and grief if we took this point seriously. This is how Christians who have the heart and head posture of love for each other are going to treat one another when their indwelling sin tries to damage the fellowship of the saints. We will return blessing for evil to one another.

But Peter’s not primarily thinking about our interactions with fellow believers in this second verse, though.

Evil and reviling are two attributes he’s already given to the citizens of this world, as opposed to God’s people, who are citizens of the kingdom of grace.

In the same pattern he’s been following up to this point, he’s now mainly thinking about our interactions as Christians with the sinful, hostile world around us, and is once again exhorting us to respond righteously to the unrighteous men and women who oppose Christ Jesus, and by extension his people.

We are not to repay evil for evil.

Peter is repeating the point he’s been hammering home for the over and over again, and even then, he’s just repeating the teaching he heard straight from Jesus’s mouth.

Matthew 5:38–48 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus loved us while we were his enemies enough to die for us. He even PRAYED for the people who were directly responsible for his execution as he hung dying on the cross, that the Lord would not hold one of if not the greatest sin ever committed against the men who were carrying it out.

In loving his enemies, in laying down his life for his enemies, Jesus blessed them beyond their wildest imaginations and reconciled them to himself. He reconciled US to himself.

This is the way of life.

Brothers and sisters, the wages of repaying evil for evil or reviling for reviling is death.

Peter says we were called to BLESS.

God made us his people for a purpose. It magnifies his glory to lavish us with his love. And we magnify his glory by reflecting Christ to those who do evil to us and revile us. We, who have received a blessing from God that we did nothing to deserve, are to likewise give blessings to others who are undeserving.

Matthew 5:13. You are the salt of the earth.

Salt is a preservative. It isn’t a curative medicine. It slows and stops rot. It improves flavor. But it does not bring life.

What a blessing God’s people are to others though. David played the lyre before King Saul and gave him reprieve from his torment. King Saul never turned to the Lord, but the Lord blessed him through David’s actions. Things weren’t as bad for Saul as they would have been without faithful David. Things aren’t as bad in this life for unbelievers when Christians minister to them.

Matthew 5:14. You are the light of the world. Matthew 5:16, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Light reveals. It shows things for what they truly are. It helps us to see clearly. Returning good for evil and reviling magnifies God’s patience, his longsuffering, his steadfast lovingkindness, and those who see it will give glory to our Father who is in heaven.

In our passage, Peter doesn’t stop at being a blessing to unbelievers.

He says that through blessing we will obtain a blessing.

We need to understand this word in terms of inheritance. He’s saying to run the race, because there is a prize waiting at the end. Bless, because your your future inheritance, the fullness of your salvation, is a blessing. There’s also an element of present blessing from the Lord in this thought. Your calling now is to bless others, which reflects your inheritance.

Our last point is going to expand on this. Peter turns to Psalm 34:12-16 to continue developing his train of thought.

3. From the Lord (10-12)

1 Peter 3:10–12 ESV

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.”

We’ve looked at how our calling as Christians causes us to to be blessings to one another. We’ve seen how our calling causes us to be a blessing to the citizens of the world around us, even to those who persecute us.

Although there are promises of future blessing wrapped up in this verse, we are going to focus on what a blessing it is in this life that we will love life and see good days, and that that not only are the eyes of the Lord are upon his people but that his ears are also open to his people’s prayers.

A very real way that the Lord blesses us in this life is that when we follow him we love life and see good days.

This has nothing to do with temporal blessings—with money, cars, getting promotions, and so on. Paul in 1 Thess 5:16-18 sheds some more light on what Peter means here.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The life we love and the good days we see in this life are the rejoicing, the praying without ceasing, and the giving thanks in all circumstances. Doing God’s will in all circumstances—including in our suffering—causes us to love life and see good days. This is a blessing from the Lord to us.

Earnest Gordon was an officer in the Scottish Argyles who was captured by the Japanese when Singapore fell to them in February of 1942. He spent the remainder of the war forced to build the railway of death from Burma to Thailand. And he tells the story of a young private from Aberdeen named Jock who ran a Bible-lending library in the Chungkai prison camp.

Jock, you see, had heart disease, beriberi, malaria, dystentery, and other sicknesses. Gordon writes that through his faith and humor Jock not only kept himself going but infused life into others.

The wait list for Bibles was so long that he could only lend them out for an hour at a time. After the hour was up, Jock would collect the Bible and pass it on to the next person on his waiting list.

One day no Bibles were passed around. This was a big deal. Everyone wanted to know what had happened to Jock. He’d gotten much sicker, and lost the strength to walk. Gordon says that he, along with hundreds of other men, visited Jock every day on their way to and from their work on the railroad, and always came away from talking to Jock encouraged in their faith.

One morning Gordon asked Jock how he was doing, and Jock responded, “Oh, I’m not so bad, sir. I might be an awful lot worse. There’s always something to thank God for. I enjoy life and I’ve got good friends. And it won’t be so long before we’ll be going home.”

That night, when Earnest Gordon returned to the Chungkai prison camp after a hellish day building the railroad that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Allied prisoners, he found that the Lord had taken Jock home less than an hour after they had spoken.

This is what it means to love life and to see good days. It is to keep our eyes and hearts fixed on the Lord, to be thankful to him for what He has done for us in Christ, and to do his will by turning from evil and turning to imitate Christ in all circumstances, even on a deathbed in the Chungkai prison camp.

A second, and perhaps greater blessing from the Lord, is that God keeps his eyes fixed on those who do good and keeps his ears open to their prayers, because those who do good are His people.

God sees all things. God knows all things. God is sovereign over all things, and God works all things together for his purposes. Remember John Bunyan’s line about Christian’s deliverance from the wrath of the citizens of Vanity Fair: “God held the power of their wrath in his hand.” Christian, God preserves you in such a way that without the will of your heavenly father not a hair can fall from your head—all things must work together for your salvation.

On the contrary, God’s face is against those who do evil, because those who do evil are not his people. What a sobering thing it is to think about the Lord’s face being turned against you. The thought that God, who out of his goodness freely offers Jesus Christ as savior to all who come to him would have his face turned against the wicked should terrify anyone who does not have Jesus.

If you don’t know Christ this morning, I ask you, why not come to him? We all love talking about him, so ask afterward if you want to know more about this.

And for those of us who are God’s in Christ, let’s end this point with Paul’s words from Romans 8:38-39.

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What a blessing this is from the Lord, to know that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. Our Father is the God who sees us, and who hears us, and will bring us home to him safely.

Let’s Pray.