Peace Production

1 Peter 3:8-12

1 Peter 3:8–12 “8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 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. 10 For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 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.””

Summary of Conduct. Submission

How many of you would rather just get a summary of anything? Just read the jacket and the end and I’m good? This passage is a summary, he says Finally or “in summary.” He is pointing back to the outward conduct in chapter 2. It has been a wholesale call to submission and how our conduct out in the world should look compared to the norm. We have walked through our domestic conduct at work, home, and in public life. And the overwhelming call is to submission.

But Here we can feel the focus shift from how we act out there to more of how we act in here. These things still absolutely apply for us in the world but doubly so in here. You can tell that focus shift mainly because of v8. He says “all of you” and tells us to have “unity of mind.” We are not called to have a unity of mind with the world but with each-other. This rolls perfectly out of submission because it relies on the same attitude.

Submission recap.

To define submission let’s say what it is not then what it is.

Submission is NOT, being in control, being the decision maker, the boss or chief. My will is placed beneath another’s.

What is Submission? Humble, Willing, Trusting, Confident, Faithful.

That means that submission IS first of all, to be humble. My position is reduced to that of the obedient, not the commanding. If I’m not telling then I’m doing. Then you must be willing. Regardless of my control over the situation, I must be willing to comply with the decision or circumstance I’ve been handed. Submission shows up as action not idea. I can’t just agree and say I’ve submitted, I have to be willing to obey.

Next, in order for me to have the strength to take the step of obedience, I must trust. If I am to humbly submit with willingness then I must trust the one who is in control. I must have confidence in his ability to do whatever it is He has set out to accomplish, and I must trust the outcome of it regardless of the circumstances it puts me in. And since this submission will place me in odd circumstances that I won’t understand then my next call in submission is to be faithful. Peter has held Jesus up as an example for us throughout and as he summarizes our conduct and attitude it is no different. Look back at V 23 1 Peter 2:23 “23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

In Humility we trust the Judgement of the one we are ultimately submitting to. Because in submitting in the realms of government, work, marriage. We are ultimately submitting to whatever God is doing. That means that we have a belief that claims “God is in control, and is working out a plan and a glory i cannot understand or measure by my circumstances.” That means that I know that I cannot judge justly, but I’ll trust the one who does. Our submission is the external evidence of this trust. By submitting to God I prove my faith and trust in him.

What he has talked about so far has been external conduct. “Act like this out there”. But in his summary here he turns internal. Not just into the body of believers but into our hearts our emotions. What he tells us next is how we should feel. We’ve been told how to act... and we can toughen up and shut our mind off maybe and suppress our true feelings and act right. But in order to effectively submit, we have to be internally different. Otherwise we will only fake it so far before our fallen sinful internal man looks around at our circumstances and says, “That’s enough of this, I’m taking charge again.” If there is no internal change the external will go back to the old.

So as he summarizes our conduct he moves to the internal. He goes into our emotions, our feelings. We don’t like feelings, they are flighty and easy to manipulate and often times illogical, at least that is our feeling towards feelings. We still have an actual inward reality. But you can’t break away from your old inward emotional reality without building a new inward emotional reality that empowers you to do that. So if I am to submit in such a wholesale way like Christ did, my internal functions have to have changed as well.

He tells us 5 Christian characteristics that are all inward. To sum up our conduct, make sure these things are in place.

Unity, Sympathy, Brotherly love, compassion and humility.

Unity and Humility, Of Mind.

I’m putting those together because they have a common designation, “of mind” the way you think of about yourself and the way you think about each other. If you do not have humility of mind you will not have unity of mind. We just worked through submission and what it is and isn’t. If you can grasp submission and all that it entails. Then humility is a foregone conclusion. Because it is decided, I am not the decision maker, I am not in control, I am obedient and I have already decided to trust God as the better judge. If you are struggling with submission then you are most likely struggling with humility first. If you struggle with humility then submission is hard for you. And to be united, there has to be a common humility.

The force and power that binds us together is this. I need Jesus and you do too. I am just as lost as you apart from him. I am just as saved as you in him. My confidence and hope is now placed in him. My value as a person is now based on what the Bible tells me about him. That perspective, that way of thinking is our commonality. That gives us a “unity of mind”. What the Holy Spirit has led us to believe and think about ourselves and God is what led us to a common salvation. That means that our conclusions about each-other should reflect that. Based on the fruit and conduct we have seen in the previous passages we can say “they have experienced Christ also.” They have also tasted and seen that God is good. They are in this with me. Our common experience of lostness and our common experience of salvation gives us common thinking. And that defines our unity.

Then we come to feelings. Real emotional feelings that we are told to have. Being told to feel a certain way is insulting to us. 1 We assume that we have limited control over how we feel anyway, Can I even help it? 2 Our true feelings are where we keep our deepest sense of self and autonomy. “I’ll act however I need to but I’ll feel however I want to. I won’t submit that, you can’t have that” Here specifically we would think, I’ll submit but I don’t have to like it. Which, by the way, is not biblical submission. So in our feelings, that inward emotion. Is where our true heart is revealed.

What should develop?

Brotherly Love, Compassion, Sympathy.

We call ourselves brothers and sisters in christ. That in itself is a reference to a unity isn’t it? As part of a family, with the same spiritual DNA, same father, same culture. We know things about each other. There is no hiding yourself from your siblings. They know all the good and bad. They know where and how you are vulnerable, You’ve seen each other grow. You’ve fought. You’ve seen the victories, failures, defeats, losses, heartbreaks, embarrassments. They will have discovered your true self and your true feelings about things. So this implies a vulnerability, a closeness, You’re supposed to know these people, as well as a safety. A trust that these people love me when I show my truest self. A confidence in the unconditional nature of brotherly love. Have you ever done something and then told your sibling or parent or family member, “you still have to love me, we’re family.” We should be FOR each other. That means I’m on your team no matter what. Even in disagreement. Like a loving family.

Having brotherly love is to be emotionally invested in each-other. What hurts you should hurt me and what excites you should bring me joy. In this emotional investment is where the compassion and sympathy come from. Knowing and caring. Personal investment. Commonality. For someone that you authentically care about and love, there is no problem feeling these things. And when we see these feelings as absent, we can tell our care and love for that person is lacking. And what is worse, the work of the gospel that produces this, is lacking in us.

There needs to be a call to repentance in our churches for the lack of these characteristics towards each other. EVERYONE knows when something goes wrong in a church. The whole town hears about it. You rarely hear when things go well but you always hear when things go south. Few people are surprised because in modern american Christendom it is common for churches to have trouble. A lot of trouble. Well, one conclusion that you can immediately draw is that we are lacking these basic Christian characteristics. There is little or no Submission or unity or humility of mind. Therefore there is no brotherly love, and precious little compassion or sympathy. We see the opposite instead. Actually the opposite is how the lost function daily. And what we see here is that it produces evil instead of peace.

Look at the parallel he has laid out here. We’ve got what we should be, what we have been called to. Then we have the contrast that works against that. What should I look out for that works against my calling as a producer of peace? 9 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. 10 For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.

My mouth, My pride. One runs the other and the other makes the one run. He assumes heavily that our fallen nature will drive us to do two things. Defend your pride, and say harmful things. And he points to that as evil. He knows that when speaking about unity he is speaking to our pride. THAT is what fundamentally causes disunity. And where there is pride present there is talk, where there is idle talk there is a desperate defence of ourselves. And what happens is, How I REALLY feel comes out of my mouth. Just like the boss I submit to but I’ll badmouth him. Or the church member I’ll serve alongside but man I’ll tell you all about her later. This can be in the church or out in the world. If my pride gets hurt then the gloves are off. I’ll try to hurt you back, I’ll try to discredit you. If you pose a threat to the overblown image I have of myself then buddy I’ll step up and dish it right back out. “I won’t abide being disrespected.” Even though a clear understanding of the gospel shows us that respect is the last thing we deserve. He tells us here that we are perpetrating EVIL. Peter says don’t fall for that!

He says do the opposite, bless. And when he says, “for to this you were called.” he’s pointing back again to Jesus in 1 Peter 2:19–25 “19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

We see here that a Christian should expect to be stepped on. Our pride will be run over by other people’s pride. But we stay out of that fight. If we jump in we are perpetrating evil. Instead we respond like Jesus did. Because when Jesus was confronted by evil he endured and bore it and in doing so he produced the greatest blessing the world will ever see. Peace with God for those who believe. You could say here that we have been called to be mistreated so that we can bless in return. That means that we shut our mouths and kill our pride. It means that we MUST trust what God is doing. And the goal of that? Blessing and peace.

Blessing, Peace.

Based on everything we have read we know that he is not saying “do these things for an easy life.” That is not what he means by peace. He is talking about peace with God. He is not describing a life that we would call peaceful. If people are reviling you and talking about you in such a way that makes you want to give it right back to them. We wouldn’t say that’s peaceful. He is talking about a peace that someone who is in good standing with God has. V12. (that’s peace) Living with confidence in God. (His eyes are towards the righteous) How was my righteousness accomplished? Through the suffering of Christ when he was maligned and beaten. He endured that because of his peace and trust in God and I can endure the similar treatment because of the peace I have with God BECAUSE of what Jesus endured.

No one truly gets peace from their material circumstances, even people in great situations struggle. So when we suffer but endure we are proving that our peace comes from our faith in a just God. Only suffering can do that to you. Only suffering has the power to throw you onto the only thing you should have been resting in in the first place, God and his glory. And having your hope, and peace and your emotional seat in the proper place is a blessing that will produce peace for you for the rest of your life. Because you are free from circumstantial happiness.

Therefore my actions in the world should be peace producing actions. I have been given life, I have been given good days in spite of my circumstances.

There are people who walk into a situation and make it better and people who do not. By your response to the difficult things in your life and in the lives of those around you, you can either produce peace or evil. If you’re not producing peace you’re probably producing evil. It is easier and more dangerous than you think, and it is a reflection of your peace with God.

Jesus has made peace with God for us by his endurance. We now can have peace and life. Therefore we do not engage in the same folly as the world. Reputation and pride defence. We have been saved from that. We should instead produce the blessing of peace in the world BY our endurance. It takes 2 idiots to have a fight. When you don’t engage at the same level as the lost, you produce peace, when you live like Christ you produce a blessing. In your work, in your marriage, in your community. When your conduct leads others to Christ then you produce both of those things for others.

Hebrews 10:34–39 “34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”