Standing Strong (6)
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“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
Keep, Turn, Do, Seek, Pursue
recap:
Big Idea: The World Works Better When Creation Submits to God’s Order
Big Idea: Marriage Works Better When Creation (or the creatures) Submits to God’s Order
Now Peter moves to the topic of suffering, particularly suffering for righteousness sake.
In 3:8 through the end of the chapter, Peter gives instructions on how to live. These are positive actions and attitudes to take for the believer. Towards the end of the chapter, he once again reminds us of the example of Jesus. Next week, Lord willing, we will get to that famous verse used in reminding believers to be ready to share their faith. 1Pet3.15
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, 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,
What we will find is that just like all of scripture, that vers also is in a context. The context is suffering. But we will discuss that next week. But just as a teaser, in the ESV translation, verse 15 that I just read is not even the complete sentence. The complete sentence is 1Pet3.14-16
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, 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.
In other words, the exhortation to be ready to share your beliefs is bookended by statements about suffering.
That said, I will read the passage from 8-22 and then we will discuss 8-12 this morning, and hope to get to the reast of the chapter next week.
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.
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.”
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. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, 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.
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
For now, we are going to focus on verses 8-12.
We have moved on from a section on submission to authority. Peter has addressed God’s will that human beings submit to the authorities in their lives.
We are submitted to human institutions, even the emperor of Peter’s day was to be honored. Servants were to submit to their masters. Jesus is the ultimate example of godly submission. Wives are to submit to their husbands. Those in authority are also to exercise that authority under God’s design. And the world works better when creation is submitted to God’s will. And now Peter tells the church how to endure in a world that will bring suffering.
This is not just normal expected suffering that Peter is talking about. Suffering happens to believers and non believers. What he is getting at is the suffering that happens when someone is genuinely trying to serve God well and is mistreated for it. This is on a spectrum. Some people might disassociate with you because of your faith.
You might be discriminated against because of your faith. You might be outright persecuted, and in many cases in our world, assaulted or even killed for your beliefs. So how does the believer get through this?
Well, we rely on the grace of God. He gives peace to his people when they are suffering. This peace comes through His Spirit, through His Word, and through His people. The Church is a group of people who are given to each other as a gift for the mutual edification, or building each other up, in the faith. And in verse 8 we see how we are to relate not only to each other in the church, but in the world as well.
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Unity of mind: Seeking agreement whenever possible. Not allowing unimportant things to divide us. (church arguments can be over silly things)
Sympathy: Being sympathetic. Having concern and feeling for those around you. Sometimes confused with empathy. Sympathy is feeling pity or sorrow for someone else's situation, while empathy is understanding and sharing their feelings by putting yourself in their position.
Empathy can be toxic. Toxic empathy is when someone becomes overly absorbed in another's emotions, often to the point of neglecting their own well-being or enabling harmful behaviors. It can lead to emotional burnout, loss of boundaries, or prioritizing others' feelings over rational judgment. For example, constantly rescuing someone from their own poor choices due to feeling their pain too intensely can perpetuate unhealthy dynamics.
This is something deep feeling people have to be careful of. Sympathy is biblical. Empathy that leads to taking on other’s emotions and living them out, is not what is required here. When we try to do that, we can be paralyzed and never deal with our own issues because we are so wrapped up in other people’s negative emotions. Peter says to have sympathy, which biblically means something more like understanding.
Brotherly love: The church is family. But even brothers sometimes need someone to remind them that they are supposed to love each other.
A Tender heart: Eph4.32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Some people have been wounded by others in this life, and they have determined that having a tender heart is too painful, so they have toughened it up. For some, they feel it is easier to be tough and never be heart than wo be tender and be vulnerable to hurts. But this is not the way for the believer. We will receive wounds. The most painful wounds are often people we put the most care into.
Our hearts can be hurt when someone leaves us or leaves our friend group or leaves our church. Sometimes that leads to the tendency to put guards up and not get too deep into relationships. A child had three close friends. They were as thick as thieves, as they say. Then, in a short period of time two friends moved away. The third got leukemia and was also moved away and eventually died of that disease. That boy was hurt, and it took a long time to get very close to any friends again.
When we are hurt by relationships, we may want to toughen our heart instead of being tender. But scripture tells us we are to have a tender heart.
Humble mind: Not needing to always be the strongest, or the smartest, or the best at something. Not holding on stubbornly to your ideas so that you cause division.
And this guidance goes from the church to the outside, and remember the context; suffering for righteousness sake, and for the blessing of God.
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.
This is one of those directives we just do not always want to follow. This goes against most people’s nature. When someone does evil to us, we want revenge. When someone reviles, or hates us, we want to hate back. But that is not the way we are called to do things. Instead, we are to bless.
Yes, we are to actually bless people who revile and do evil to us instead of retaliating. Maybe you are one of those who will find a way to dismiss a verse like this, maybe you want to say it can’t really mean what it seems to mean. Well, I have news for you. When scripture says something once, we should take note. When it says it repeatedly, we really must take it seriously:
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;
So Peter is not saying something unique. And he adds that we are called to this. Called to suffering? yes. Called to bless people mistreating and hating us? yes. Now Peter quotes from Psalm 34.12-16
What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Now, let’s have a little context about Psalm 34. It is an interesting Psalm. It starts out with a declaration that David makes that he will bless the lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Songs of worship are based on Psalm 34. His praise will ever be on my lips is directly from this.
But it may interest you that David wrote this Psalm, not when things were going wonderful and peachy for him, but when he was on the run from Saul. At the beginning of Psalm 34, it states:
English Standard Version Psalm 34
OF DAVID, WHEN HE CHANGED HIS BEHAVIOR BEFORE ABIMELECH, SO THAT HE DROVE HIM OUT, AND HE WENT AWAY.
What does that mean? David was on the run from Saul, sought refuge in an enemy country, they realized who David was, so he acted like a crazy man so that they wouldn’t kill him. I hope I never have to act like a crazy person to avoid being killed, but that is what David did. And in the midst of the very stressful situation of being hunted by Saul and threatened by enemies, David writes this Psalm, about praising God, and then the part that Peter quotes has even a stronger meaning.
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.”
Now, on the title screen for the sermon, you may have seen 5 words: keep, turn, do, seek, pursue.
I focused on these words because in this passage they are what are called active imperative verbs. In other words, these words are for the reader or listener to take and actively and positively obey them. They are active because they require ongoing action. They are imperative because they are being demanded on the reader or listener.
Keep: Keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceit. James writes about the tongue, and the difficulty of controlling it, and he says that the man who can control his tongue is a perfect man. Well, no one is perfect. Yet here we are being positively commanded to keep our tongue from evil.
Turn: turn away from evil (repentance)
Do: as opposed to turning away evil, we are to DO good.
Seek peace:
A Handbook on the First Letter from Peter 1 Peter 3:11
He must strive for peace with all his heart is literally “let him seek peace and pursue it.” “Seek” and “pursue” give the idea of diligent and persistent effort, not only to have something but to continue having it; the TEV has captured this intensity by its translation (compare Brc “the object of all his endeavor and his search”; GECL “seek peace with all his might”). Peace
This is like being a hunter. A hunter puts diligent effort into finding his prey. He is diligent. He is active. He is persistent. He does not give up. The believer is to 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.”
Expound on:
God sees his people
He hears their prayer
Including the prayer of complaint against the persecution (Imprecatory Psalms)
His face is against those who do evil.
Vengeance and justice belong to God.
Keep, turn, do, seek, pursue.
