Reason for Hope

1 Peter 3:13–17 ESV

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 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, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

Where is your hope found?

I read an article recently in the New York Times by an atheistic, naturalist philosopher named Stephen Asma entitles “Does the Pandemic Have a Purpose”. He started by saying:

“Nature doesn’t care about you. That may seem harsh, but strictly speaking, nature doesn’t care about anyone or anything, except passing genes into the next generation. We know this if we’ve studied evolution. It was Darwin’s great achievement to explain the adaptation of organisms without appeal to God’s design or mystical idealism. Darwinian evolution is true (corroborated by mountains of evidence), but it’s also a cold metaphysics. The biologist Stephen Jay Gould described it as a “cold bath view” of nature — not warm and fuzzy in the way religion characterizes nature.

Quite a beginning huh.

But he is right, nature doesn’t care about us. Nature is amoral, meaning it does not have a sense of what is right or wrong.

So right and wrong must be something outside of nature then. Something supernatural.

But what if nature is the only thing you have, the only thing you believe in, the only place you are looking for hope?

What if the question of why is only attempted to be answered with scientific hypothesis, experiments, and human reason?

We might be able to explain where a virus comes from, how we can prevent it, and the effects it will have on the economy.

But what about the purpose, like the big, existential purpose? How this whole thing relates to our existence.

Asma has a suggestion:

Against the frightening neutrality of nature, we humans marshal the powerful imagination. Imagining that we are in a species-wide war with a biblical-style evil enemy may be factually absurd, but I recommend we embrace this powerful fiction anyway. Imagining our lives as a dramatic struggle with occasional enemies (microscopic and macroscopic) can help us change hearts and minds, embolden convictions, inspire sacrifice, and thereby change the actual outcome of epidemics and other trials and tribulations.

This is revealing. Though it may be “factually absurd” to believe in what he would call “mythological tales”, he recommends that we embrace them as a way to “embolden” us and help us through this trial.

As a naturalist, I resist the theological version of human exceptionalism, but as a philosopher, I’m inclined to recognize that nothing has intrinsic value until we humans imagine it so. Since we cannot find our species’ value objectively by looking at the neutral laws of nature, then we must just assert it. And simply affirm that the universe is more remarkable with us in it.

The conclusion he draws, in a gist: there is really no morally-grounded purpose at all for any of these trials we face, but we can make some up and that should really help us through this.

I don’t share this mockingly. The reality is we are all looking for some kind of answer to the “why?” behind all of this.

It is how we make it through, right? It gives us something to set our eyes to, to know there is something to look beyond the present trial.

That is Peter reason for writing this letter 2000 years ago. To help those reading it to “Stand Firm” in the middle of the trial and troubles of life.

Everyone is asking the same question “where can I place my hope?”

The answer isn’t going to be found in a science experiment or a medical journal.

We have to look to something that has stood the test of time, that has the power to speak truth and awaken hope even in the middle of hard time.

And the hope that is awakened in the hearts of believers and lived out in our everyday lives, shines brightly in a dark world, leading others to ask the question “Where does your hope come from?”

What an opportunity we have.

To answer the question: Where does your hope from from?

Hope-filled Lives: 3 Shifts

The central theme of Peter’s letter has been HOPE.

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

In the middle of hard times, hope really is the most important thing because it allows us to see beyond the suffering.

If we are to lived Hope-filled lives we need to make 3 shifts...

Verse 13 serves as a connecting verse.

Peter has instructed the believers to live good lives among the unbelieving people and situations they live in.

His logical conclusion to that instruction is: If you really try to be a good citizen, hard worker, respectable member of society, and a submissive, sacrificial husband or wife, then you ought to avoid some of the trouble that might come your way.

He is in no way promising that you will have a good life if you get all those things right.

That makes no sense when we understand that the way of Christ goes against the grain of the world.

Jesus tells us multiple times that we will experience trials and persecution because we are following Him

He transition in vs 14. “If you should suffer...” maybe should read “when you suffer or face trials in life...”

It is no surprise that we do a great deal to try and avoid suffering. (Avoid snakes and other scary animals. Do not lick door knobs. Try not to do stupid things that make others really mad at me for no reason.)

But we cannot avoid it. We live in a broken world where trails, pain, and suffering are unavoidable.

If we can’t avoid it then we must not fear trials and struggles when they come our way.

The biggest obstacle to our hope in life is fear.

Peter understood it as he was instructing these Christians not to fear those who are persecuting them because of their faith.

He directs their attention away from there circumstances to the realities they live under as believers in Jesus.

“Even if you suffer…you will be blessed” Your suffering now will not last forever. The day will come when your struggles will turn into blessings. Be patient.

And then he says “don’t be gripped by fear or troubled by what you are in the middle of, but turn your gaze to Jesus instead.

A shift from fear to faith is necessary.

If we can’t see beyond our circumstances, then our circumstances will become bigger than we can deal with.

Faith allows us to cast our cares on the Lord so that we do not have to bear the wait of them.

Faith allows us to see beyond and find hope.

We must shift to see TRIALS and TROUBLES as OPPORTUNITIES.

The way we shift away from fear and pursue hope is to shift our perspective.

We must see that trials and troubles do have purpose if we choose to shift our perspective.

They are not stealing something from us, rather...

They give us the opportunities to...

1) To practice ACTIVE FAITH in Jesus.

“In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as Holy”

When things are going well it is often easy for us to say things like “God is watching over me.” and “thank you God for all the ways you bless us.”

But when things are hard and suffering is a part of our story, we may often be tempted to ask “why would you allow this God?” or “what have I done to deserve this?”

We have a problematic tendency to measure God’s favor (how happy or pleased He is with us) based on how easy life is going for us.

That is a deeply faulty measure.

Struggle in life is reality not only because of our mess ups, but because we live in a fallen and broken world.

That is why Jesus warned us and why so much time is spent throughout the bible guiding us one how we are to suffer well as believers.

James 1:2–3 ESV

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Trails give us opportunity to put our faith into practice.

It is when what we believe becomes what we do.

A LIVED FAITH.

2) To speak BOLDLY and COMPASSIONATELY about Jesus.

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

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,

When we hear the word “defense” we automatically assume we must be ready to fight, but that is not Peter’s agenda here, actually it is quite the opposite.

Trials give us the opportunity first to live in light of the good and glorious promises of God, and, in turn, shine light on the goodness of Jesus.

Yes he is calling us to speak, to defend, and to call people to faith, but not argue and fight.

There is a place for apologetics and defending the faith against those who would malign our faith.

But Peter more concerned (as we ought to also be) with us giving a reason for the way we live by boldly proclaiming the good news of Jesus as the reason for the way we live and the hope that we live with.

Our world is looking for hope and we Christians have received greatest source of hope that could ever exist, the only hope one can have in the midst of this broken world we live in.

So yes, we must speak boldly, knowing that our hope is transformative, but we must do so with gentleness and respect.

Our goal should never be to win an argument or win someone over to our side.

The motivation for proclamation is compassion.

Do you hurt for those far from Jesus?

When we do, we will speak the gospel boldly out of compassion and love for the one we are sharing with.

As we face trials and troubles in our lives, may we be a people to are able to stand out, stand up, and speak out in such a way that other’s may see the goodness of Jesus in a clear and powerful way.

3) To display the GOODNESS of Jesus by the PURITY of our CHARACTER.

1 Peter 3:16 ESV

16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

There is an underlying assumption in this passages that has been explicit in the previous verse.

The assumption is that our lives would be lived in such a way that they would prompt questions.

“Why are your not yelling and cursing when things don’t go your way?”

“Why are you so forgiving and gracious when people are so mean and selfish”

“Why are you so generous when others are so stingy?”

“Why do you talk the way you do? What do you act the way you do? Where does your joy and peace and, yes, HOPE come from?”

There are so many examples of people who preach a really good word, but there character speaks another word entirely.

St. Francis Assissi said this:

“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”

And if your character is not being shaped by Christ, we are missing the opportunity to put the goodness of Jesus on display.

Trails give us the opportunity to show off the steadfast faithfulness and grace-filled goodness of Jesus to those who do not know Him.

We must shift our focus to God’s BETTER STORY.

1 Peter 3:17 ESV

17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

Jesus teaches us to pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

We are asking God to shift our thinking and our perspective into alignment with His.

“It is better” God’s will and His story for our lives is better than ANY story we could ever dream up.

EVEN IF WE ARE SUFFERING or STRUGGLING!!

God’s will and God’s way is better EVEN IF it means we will suffer or face trials along the way.

That is an immensely difficult truth to swallow when we are so accustomed to avoid pain and trials with as mush vigor as we can muster.

We tend to look at struggle as an indication that something is wrong, but here Peter has been telling us that struggle is often a good sign you are RIGHT WHERE YOU SHOULD BE.

The hope Peter directs our attention to is not an earthly victory or earthly reward, but a heavenly home and a heavenly inheritance.

If we spend our time and give our attention to building a safe, comfortable, and worry free life for now, then when times of struggle come our way we will not be prepared to remain faithful.

We must embrace every stage of life, every part of this journey as a piece of the bigger story God has for us.

And regardless of how challenging it may get, we must keep our eyes on Jesus and ground our hope in Him.