Beautiful Conduct

Intro.

Today, we begin a new section in the Epistle of 1 Peter. This one, we call “Graceful Citizens”! And we will cover 1 Pet. 2.11-17

1 Peter 2:11–17 CSB

11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. 12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits. 13 Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority 14 or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. 15 For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. 16 Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Today, we focus on verses 11-12.

A man goes to the jeweler and he’s looking for a good engagement ring to buy his beloved. On one part of the store he finds this beautiful, pure gold and diamond ring that shimmers in the light. On another part of the store, he finds a dirty, unclean, very obviously fake metal ring though it claims to be also be pure gold.

Which ring would the man buy if he had sense?

The real thing — because it is pure, beautiful, and good. The other is full of pollutants, right?

There’s a parallel here between these two rings, and the way that the people of God are called to live. We are called to have good conduct among Gentiles even as they slander us in all kinds of ways!

1 Peter 2:11–12 CSB

11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. 12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

Avoid Pollutants

Firstly, Peter reminds his readers again of their status as sojourners and foreigners in this world.

We cannot forget that we do not belong here!

Peter says as such, we are to avoid all sinful desires — other translations could say “fleshly lusts” and could also be said as what our flesh covets.

“Abstain!” Says the Apostle — but what does he mean? Does he mean to simply not do them these things? No, I don’t think so. The word means to completely separate from it — create distance between you and the sinful desires of the flesh!

Why? You don’t belong to this world! You and I should not be appropriating the culture of the world that is full of sin. We reflect our homeland of heaven, and our King Who is Christ!

Therefore, we distance ourselves — we abstain — from everything in this world which our Lord and Master hates.

We also abstain from fleshly lusts as they wage war on our souls!

Remember what Paul said in Ephesians 6? We do not wrestle against flesh and blood! Our enemies are not human beings, our enemies are not tangible — the things which wage war on our souls are the things which our flesh desires but God hates! Temptations will no stay away on their own.

If an alcoholic wants to be sober, the whole world will not cease to drink — he must cease from being around drunken environments! Avoid the bars and clubs and people who create those spaces.

See, the onslaught of temptation and lusts of the flesh are like an army pressing in on a city. They press it, they push, they fight it; they kill inside of it and take control of it. Unless, that is, the city properly fights against it. Abstaining is not the only way that we are called to fight temptations, but here in Peter it is what we are commanded to do — Avoid the those sinful desires which would break you down, kill you from the inside, and take control of you.

Beautiful Behavior

Peter contrasts the sinful desires of the flesh with 1 Pet 2.12

1 Peter 2:12 CSB

12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

As we avoid the fleshly desires, rather than doing nothing at all we are to be intentional about behaving in honorable ways among the world!

“Conduct yourselves” or “Having your behavior” means this is the way your entire way of life should be: HONORABLE.

Honorable, or in the ASV “seemly” is the Greek word kalos. This word has many different connotations to it. But there’s one which I want to point out — the word means “morally excellent, pure of heart, beautiful.”

The lifestyle, the way we live and treat people, is to be beautiful!

In what sense do I mean? That we are unstained by the pollutants of this world. Like the two rings at the start of our lesson, one was wholly true gold while the other was dirty and fake — our lives can reflect either of these two rings. Either we are beautiful and living lives that are pure of heart and virtuous, or we call ourselves Christians while being mixed with things that don’t match that claim.

It’s like someone claiming to be a Christian and yet they go out every weekend and they party, get drunk, and sleep around with no shame. That person is ruled by the fleshly desires and is not living honorably, and it is obvious!

When They Slander

Peter provides the reason we live this way — and it is to bring glory to God!

When we live this way — treating people right and living holy lives — even as they slander us and make things up about us, in the “day of visitation” they will bring glory to God the Father because of the good labor of the Church!

Now, without dedicating too much time to it, I’ll say this about the “day of visitation”. It is either the day in which the people of the world repent and are brought to Christ by witnessing and observing the good deeds of the Church, or it is the day of final judgment on the world and they proclaim His glory there. Either way, when Christians are hard at work to do good things (and again, Peter says kalos here: beautiful and honorable works) it will result in the praise of our God!

But, you may say, we are saved by grace through faith! Why the emphasis on works here? I thought we couldn’t be saved by works!

You would be right! But faith is not true or complete apart from obedience. Love is not complete without service. Purpose is not attained to without work. We exercise our faith in Christ through our good works; we love Christ in our good works; and we attain to His purpose for our lives through good works!

Even Paul, in the same letter as he says “saved by grace through faith” says this: Eph. 2.10

Ephesians 2:10 CSB

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

We were created in Christ, at the time of our salvation, FOR good works!

Why? Well, in part, just as Peter says in today’s text, so that the Gentiles will observe it and glorify God!

Inventory

We were created in Christ for these good works and God prepared them for us to do beforehand — are we doing them?

Are we living lives that are morally excellent and beautiful and pure? Or are we at best stuck in our own bubbles waiting to be taken away and completely disengaged from the world around us? Or are we appropriating the sins of the wold?

Remember, to abstain we must intentionally distance ourselves from the sinful desires of our flesh. But then, we need to be active at living excellent and beautiful lives of faith and love. The world notices when we do, and God is glorified. Yes, it’s hard and often thankless. Our reward is from our Father in Christ Jesus — we don’t need the thanks of the world.

Be merciful to the downtrodden and sick and needy, be kind to the sinner and the outcast, be generous and hospitable and gentle. Love people from a pure heart which simply wants them to know the glory and love of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.