The Attractiveness of the Church

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Opening Prayer

Introductory Thoughts

The only way to have the joy of Christ is to behave like Christ.

The reason He could obey to the point of death, even death on a cross...

Was because of His obedience to His Father.

It was because every second, every breath...His hope was in His Father not the circumstances.

Every second His joy was grounded in obedience.

Peter now brings the example of Christ back to the entire Church...

1 Peter 3:8-12 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.”

Christian Attitude & Behavior

Now, Peter is addressing the attitude of the entire Christian community...

He addresses Christian conduct to insiders and outsiders.

How are we to behave towards one another and unbelievers, as well?

What is our mindset to be towards one another and unbelievers, as well?

8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Peter gives us, here, a detailed list of the mindset and behavior for the Christian to maintain...

It is a pattern for Christian conduct.

Peter has previously told wives how to adorn themselves with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit...

Now, he is informing the Church of the traits that make each of us attractive.

I want to define these traits and think through how we can stir ourselves to express them.

#1 Unity of mind

What does Peter mean by unity of mind?

Biblically defined as having similar thoughts, being like-minded, having the same attitude.

Peter is not calling for uniformity.

He’s not calling for Christians to not differ in anything.

He’s not calling for us to be mindless robots, or to never have differing opinions.

He’s certainly not saying that there are no areas of liberty within the Christian life.

However, Peter is saying that there should be a common belief...

The unity that Peter has in mind begins with an agreement on the Word of God.

This unity that Peter speaks of here takes a fundamental and foundational belief in the inerrancy of Scripture.

A belief that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant Word of God is the starting point of Christianity...

And, it is the starting point for any desire for unity of mind.

When there are disagreements within the body of Christ...

We can go to the Word of God and allow it to settle the dispute.

When there is persecution on the church from outside the church...

We can go to the Word of God and allow it to direct our response.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

When you believe this truth it allows us to have unity of mind...

Without uniformity of mind.

And, I believe the specific unity that Peter is speaking of here...

Is the common belief that Christ is our example and we are to follow it in how we live each day.

How can you do this?

How can you have such unity of mind?

Being born again.

Trusting God’s omniscience, benevolence, goodness, and sovereignty.

And, having a mindset of discipleship.

Not only discipling others, but being discipled by others, as well.

To going into fellowship scenarios with the mindset of learning.

There is a great road block to unity within the church...

And it is the arrogance of thinking you have it all figured out...

And now your role is to help everyone else in on your great wisdom.

What unifies us is Christ? What our focus should be is Christ?

When that happens in a church...it unites.

Oh, how the church needs unity.

Oh, how the world needs to see a united church.

#2 Sympathy

Sympathy is biblically defined as suffering or feeling the like with another.

This is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes…

To imagine yourself in their position...

And that to stir compassion in your for them.

To see someone go through something...

And, to be willing to go through it with them…physically or emotionally.

This is what Paul would call bearing one another’s burdens.

You are grieved when they grieve.

You hurt when they hurt.

This is what it means to have sympathy.

How can you do this?

It is being in unity with this person, as we just looked at...

But it is very much based on the next trait, as well...

#3 Brotherly love

This is a command to love your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Brotherly love is an inner quality expressed outwardly as a commitment to seek the well-being of the other through concrete acts of service.

Love is never just words.

Love expresses itself in action.

Love is grounded in covenant keeping.

Love is exemplified in the relationship between Christ and His bride, the church.

Brotherly love is expressed by acting towards others in a manner that has their best interest in mind...

And someone’s best interest must always be defined by God’s Word.

How can you do this?

By remembering your elder brother, Jesus Christ...

Remembering what He was willing to go through...

And went through so that your best interest would be served...

Remembering that He humbled Himself and was obedient for you to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So, we imitate this willingness to suffer for the eternal good of others...

That is brotherly love.

#4 Tender heart

This is very similar to sympathy.

It means to have a heart that takes pity on others.

Believers must be tenderhearted and have pity for others/one another.

The word pity means to be sensitive and affectionate toward the needs of others; to be moved with tender feelings over the pain and sufferings of others.

We live in a world that desperately needs pity, a world of extreme suffering.

I think the difference between this trait and the trait of sympathy...

Is this gives the sense of not only someone who is willing to help others...

But someone who is consciously looking for people in need of help...

And looking to meet the needs of those who need pity, as well.

How can you do this?

By remembering your state and condition before you were born again.

Remembering your great need of pity, mercy and grace.

Remembering what Christ did to meet your need.

Ephesians 2:1-5 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved–

Knowing how helpless we were towards reconciling our self to God...

And knowing what Christ gave and went through to meet our need...

Will help us be tenderhearted.

#5 Humble mind

This is a mindset of humility.

Humility is not self-loathing.

Humility is not speaking ill of your self.

It’s not walking around telling people are bad you are, how worthless you are, how you’re not good at anything, etc.

Humility is not thinking less of your self.

Humility is thinking of your self, less often.

It’s an absence of thinking you should be in the spotlight.

It is a presence of mind that Christ should be the center of your attention.

How can you do this?

By thinking of yourself in the light of Christ.

By thinking of yourself in the light of the second greatest command...

to love your neighbor as your self.

By keeping others interests in mind...

And being willing to put aside your own preferences for the sake of the Lord & His people.

These are the traits of Christian conduct...

This is how we behave to insiders and outsiders...

What about when we’re being treated in a hostile fashion?

1 Peter 3:9 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.

Let’s just think about the first half of this verse.

This is a hard saying...who can keep it?

I mean someone is purposefully trying to do evil to you...

They are purposefully slandering you...

Making false accusations against you in order to discredit you in the eyes of others.

What do you do?

Do you retaliate? Do you teach them a lesson on who not to mess with?

Do you “one up them” in the evil and slander and discrediting?

IOW, do you seek vengeance or reconciliation?

We all know what our natural response is.

But, our calling is not a natural response.

Our calling is a super-natural response.

Our calling is one in which we respond in a way that is inexplicable to the unbelieving mind.

Here’s the point...

Believers are to be a blessing to all people at all times whether in response to evil or not.

How can we do this? How is any of this possible?

Peter tells us by quoting Psalm 34:12-16...

1 Peter 3:10-12 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.”

Entrusting Ourself to God

How do these traits work together to train us to follow the example of Christ?

When working together, what do these traits enable us to do?

Follow Christ’s example…v.9 takes us back to...

1 Peter 2:21-23 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.

The key is at the end of v.23…this truth...

but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

The only way to obey the command in v.9...

1 Peter 3:9 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.

...is by putting your hope in God and entrusting yourself to God in every circumstance.

If we conduct ourselves as instructed here...

We will adorn ourselves with an attractiveness to the world.

And, to those who are being saved, it will be a sweet smelling aroma.

May God have mercy on us and empower us to live according to His Word.

Next week...

I want us to look at Psalm 34 that Peter quotes...

And see how Peter is using it to teach us how to live for the glory of God.

Closing Prayer