Harmony in Action: Living the Christian Life
Notes
Transcript
You can tell Peter was a preacher by the opening of this passage; “To sum up” indicates he is close to an ending but he still has a couple chapters to go.
What Peter means by “to sum up” is that he is bringing all of his teaching on submission together and is closing out this topic before moving on.
Living the Christian life means to live a life shows others what it means to live in harmony, what it is like to live in a community of like minded believers.
If you have your Bibles, open them to our passage in 1 Peter. Follow along as I read it.
8 To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble;
9 not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing.
10 For, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
11 “He must turn away from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it.
12 “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against evildoers.”
1. Cultivate Christian Community
Does anyone leave their house unlocked when you leave?
Or even if you are home?
If you have ever watched the tv show “Leave It To Beaver” then you might have noticed differences in the show and how we are today. I don’t remember seeing them use a key to get into their house. If you watch movies or shows showing the 50’s then you probably have seen them leave their houses unlocked and the keys to their car in the car.
I doubt any of that happens today in the US. If anything we have more locks keeping us locked in or locked out.
We can chat with our neighbors without even leaving our house. We can know what is happening in the neighborhood without talking to anyone.
The other day, a neighbor sent us a text about a bear cub being spotted in the area. She was letting us know because of our dogs. She got this information off of a neighborhood app you can join. She learned about the bear and then we learned about the bear without leaving our houses or even actually talking to each other.
While these things do have a use, they can easily break down a community. Peter has told us that we must actively build our Christian community. And that must be done face to face and maybe assisted by the other ways we stay connected. You might say, well I know this but knowing it and doing it are different.
In summarizing his teachings, Peter lists five exhortations about our relationships with other believers, especially our church family.
a. Be Harmonious
Many translations read “be like-minded). Live in harmony, live in your community without quarreling.
Have you ever heard someone say not to fight with your brothers or sisters because some day you might need them? I won’t say I argued a lot with my sisters but I will say I heard that a lot from my parents. But it is true, we must spend our effort putting our family first instead of seeking for ourselves first.
b. Be Sympathetic
Sympathy is an attitude which produces an action. It isn’t clucking our tongues and saying, well isn’t that a shame for them. Being sympathetic means you share in the experience of another person. If they are joyous then be joyful with them. If they are experiencing pain the share that pain. And the only ways to do these things are to enter into that experience with them.
c. Be Loving
The Greek word is often translated as “brother love”. It carries the concept that we will love our brothers and sisters in our Christian family. But this is radically different than what the world means by the word love. It is radically different because we can only love when we have been cleansed by the blood of Christ.
Peter wrote in 1:22:
22 Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart,
We must love each other even when we don’t feel loving or lovable.
d. Be Compassionate
I have heard someone described as being compassionate or being filled with compassion when describing their demeanor, how they act. Peter tells us that as a Christian, we must be compassionate people toward our brothers and sisters.
It is easy to be so wrapped up in your own problems that we barely hear the other person. Or maybe you have been wounded and you are so busy nursing your own wounds that you don’t even notice the other person’s wounds.
You have a broken leg. Too bad, look at me, my whole foot has been blown off.
e. Be Humble
One trait I can tell you about me is I am very humble. Yep, look at me and you will see one of the most humble people you will ever meet.
Being humble really means you don’t boast but you rejoice about the success of others. It means that you have the mind that lets you help others move forward.
All of these actions are something we all must do. Not one or not a couple but every one.
If you need more instruction about how we should live read Philippians 2. Most Bibles that use subheadings typically title this section as “Be like Christ”. You may not be familiar with the who chapter but I am sure you have heard the part that says to have the same attitude which Christ Jesus had.
2. Bless Instead of Retaliate
I believe we are all familiar with the idea stated in verse 9.
Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult. I am sure no one in here has ever spoken back to someone else in an argument. The idea many get is that when someone starts to do something wrong against us, or starts to say bad things about us, the meek Christian will just stand there and take it if they can’t walk away.
I mean we tend to teach our kids that when someone says something, don’t say anything back and walk away, if they continue then tell a teacher and let the teacher take care of it.
But God expects more out of Christians; much more, so much more that we are unable to even do this by ourselves. The rest of the sentence tells us instead of doing evil against evil, we are to do good in the face of evil.
Have you ever wondered why you were called to be in God’s family? Have you ever wondered what purpose there was for you as a member of a Christian family?
We spend time talking about serving, working, doing things around the church or doing for the church. We tend to talk like the reason we were called was so we could work. Now there is a part of your calling that you are to minister to others but Peter adds something to this we often miss.
We are called so that we can do good and be a blessing to others, even if those others are persecuting you. This isn’t a new concept. When we look at the life of Abraham, we read about the Abrahamic Covenant which includes a blessing. But the blessing to Abraham is for him to be a blessing to others. This is the same, we have been blessed with God’s grace and should then be a blessing to others; with God’s grace and as a result God will show us more grace, or as Peter puts it, we shall inherit a blessing.
3. Pursue Peace Persistently
Something that is interesting about living a life in a Christian community, seeking to be a blessing to others regardless of how they act, in the midst of the days that are good and the days that are not good, what you find in the midst of all that is peace.
You may not be seeking peace or even considering peace but you will find peace with God. I don’t mean the peace that the world talks about which in the world typically means no fighting, things get done the way you want and how you want and you feel comfortable. That is not the peace God offers us.
Jesus is quoted in John 14:
27 Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful.
The world offers you an incomplete peace. A peace that is temporary at best. A peace which is self centered.
The peace which is offered by Jesus is peace beyond measure, peace even in the midst of strife and suffering. It is a peace which surpasses our understanding.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Some of the most peaceful times in my life have come during the most stressful times in my life, when I have allowed God to carry me. I know that doesn’t sound completely true but it is.
When our youngest was in the hospital and all we had was God, in the midst of being scared she was going to die, I felt at peace.
On my deployments, when I was walking around or riding around Iraq, those times that violence was happening around me, I felt peace. That doesn’t mean I didn’t know the danger and it doesn’t mean something couldn’t have happened to me but even so I felt peace.
The reason I felt peace was because I relied upon God instead of self. I turned to God and let Him be God and didn’t try to be my own little god. It was His peace that He put in me. And it was a peace that didn’t make sense to the world.
There is something else special about this peace. It is a peace that can be shared. When tensions rise, a person with God’s peace can settle the tensions just by being a person of peace. It is a peace that not only fills you but a peace that spreads through you.
As Peter wrote in the last couple of verses in our passage.
11 “He must turn away from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it.
12 “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against evildoers.”
We must seek peace and then pursue it.
Have you ever watched a video of one of those cop chases. They can be exciting to watch. As the cop follows the person fleeing, that officer is tenacious in the pursuit. That officer isn’t going to stop the pursuit until they have caught the person.
That is how we should be with peace. Pursue peace and the way to do this is to turn from evil and do good. Pursuing peace means that you are pursuing Christ or as Paul wrote:
Have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus who is the Prince of Peace.
Let’s pray.
