07 Who is There to Harm You? (1 Peter 3:8-17)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta. We're continuing our series on the book of First Peter. Today we'll be looking at 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 8 through 17. And you can find handouts and notes related to this series on our website, which is wednesdayintheword.com. Thanks for joining us. Just to set the stage of where we are in the book, remember that Peter is writing to give his readers the right perspective on life. So this is not primarily a letter about how to be good or how to live your life well in terms of behavioral principles. Rather, Peter's writing to inspire his readers and us, by extension, of the big picture. This is the perspective you should take on your life. So he began in one in chapter 1, verses 1 through 12, giving us that big picture, the gospel, the good news about the work of Jesus Christ. So all mankind is guilty and sinful. We need to be reconciled to God, and in his great mercy, God provided a way for that to happen. So coming to faith in Jesus is such a profound change that Peter calls it being born again. He says, We've been born again to a living hope. We've been rescued from God's wrath and from our guilt. And we have a hope because there's more that we need to be rescued from. So we have a place in the kingdom of God. We have an inheritance, as he said, that is guarded for us. But it's in the future. It is something that we are looking forward to. So we have been rescued from guilt and rescued from God's wrath, but we still need to be rescued from the presence of sin and all the penalties of sin. So that is something we're looking forward to. And in the meantime, we are aliens and strangers in the world. We live in a world that looks at things differently than we do, and they may even hate us. And that's going to present us with choices. We will be faced with choices about how to act, how to live, and how to respond. And Peter is saying, make those decisions on the basis of this gospel perspective of who Jesus was, what he did for us in the past, and what he's going to do for us in the future. And then at the end of chapter 1, in 13 through 25, he talks about the perspective. He begins that discussion of the perspective that the gospel gives us. So this living hope we have changes every aspect of our lives and how we go out throughout our day. And he explored three main ways that it changes us. So in 14 through 16, he said, be holy. So basically, a holy God has rescued us, and following him means we're going to live differently, want different things, value different things. In 17 through 21, essentially, love the Lord your God with all your heart and fear him. So his opinion is the one that should carry the most weight with you. It should be the one you value most. So he ended that chapter with love your neighbor as yourself. Part of loving God is loving the things that God loves, which includes his people, and we belong to each other in a unique way because we are all saved by the blood of Christ and we are called to love each other. In chapter 2, then, 1 through 10, he encourages us to long for the word the way a newborn longs for milk. So the more I understand the word of God, the more my life reflects it. And I should continue to long for the wisdom and the understanding that will nourish my faith the way milk nourishes a baby and causes growth. And he ended that section with several quotes from Isaiah and the Psalms. I think primarily to inspire his readers that we are, as God's people, we are part of the sweep of redemptive history. We're being built into this living temple with Christ as the cornerstone. It's a plan that God put into place thousands of years ago, and we're part of it if we have faith in Christ. So Christ is at the center of everything that God intended to do, and by believing in him, we become part of God's people, part of that plan, and we have a place, a living stone, as he says, in the wall that and the or the temple that God is building. Then in 2.11 he began a new section of the book, what I call the middle section, where he's finished laying the groundwork of this is our hope, this is our inheritance, this is our status as God's people, and he begins applying, and this is how you need to live your life in light of that. So he gave us the principle in 2, 11, and 12, and then he gave us three examples of applying that principle. So remember the principle was keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitations. That was 2.12. When you're in situations where you're being slandered, where you're being persecuted, here's how you should respond. And he picked three examples of believers in socially binding situations. A place where believers can find themselves where they're being mistreated. So the first one was citizens under a pagan government that is persecuting them. The second one was slaves with unjust masters, and the third one's wives with unbelieving husbands. Each of those were situations a first century believer could find themselves in where they can't easily escape that situation. They're being mistreated. What should they do? And his advice in each case is the same. Essentially, he says, live out your faith. Communicate with your behavior that you love God and respect the person who's treating you unjustly. He tells us that our suffering may have a redemptive purpose in that person's life and may bring them to faith, and we should trust that there are more important issues at stake than getting our fair share, and we should strive to turn the other cheek so that we might win them to the gospel. And the section we're looking at today, which starts in three eight, is the close of this section of the book. So he's given us these three examples, this principle in 211, and now he says in three eight and nine, 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 might that you may obtain a blessing. So finally, so he gave us the principle, he gave us the examples. Now to sum up, here's what you should do, and he gives us this list of virtues. And as good Bible students, when we come across a list of virtues like we find in 3.8, you want to try to understand the rationale behind them. So you can't just read through them, kind of glaze over them, because they all sound like, all right, go out and be good. Just be holy, do the right thing, go out there, yay, team, do the right thing. And in there is a sense in which that's what he's saying. And most everyone agree, yes, we should all be good people. You don't have to be a Christian to think that it's a good idea to be nice and to be good. But the more interesting question is why put this list at this spot in the letter? And why pick these virtues? What's the rationale behind the things that he lists in 3.8? So, how do they relate to the immediate context? Why pick these and not others? So, in a book talking about our faith being tested and living out the implications of our faith, what's the significance of the particular things he picks? Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. So just remember, he's been exploring what it means to be God's people in the world. We have this living hope, and in the meantime, our faith was going to be tested by trials. God is calling the people for himself. He's has given his people great promises that should be the focus of our hope and our living hope, as he said in 113. Set your hope completely on the grace that is to be revealed to you. Meanwhile, as aliens and strangers, you have to live in this world. And there are three things he said are true about our situation. We have this great hope as God's people, so we belong to him, we're called to learn about him, to love and follow him. We are a people, we're a living temple, as he said in chapter two. We're called to belong to each other as a family might belong to each other. We have this bond that's greater than other human relationships because our bond in Christ is eternal. And so we're called to love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. And then three, we're aliens in this world. We we are different because of our calling. We are different because the way God is changing us. And we are called to live out our faith among people who are hostile to us, and we are called to care for them and respect them even if they don't respect us. So then he gives us this list of virtues as summaries, and you'll notice that all of them are relational. They're not the only types of ethical issues Christians could face, but in the context of what he's been saying about how we should get along with other people, they're important. I mean, you could still be a disciple of Christ if you found yourself alone on a deserted island, but for most of us, much of our life and much of our faith gets tested and worked out and matured by mixing it up with other people, by trying to get along with our friends and our family and our neighbors and people who like us and people who don't like us. So how we treat each other has been a big theme that Peter has been focusing on. And we're tested and matured in the context of how we react with each other. So as aliens and strangers in this world, we believers are in this together, and there is an us and a them division to the world. We and we have to learn to live in light of that. So there are right ways to approach that division and there are wrong ways, and Peter's been trying to teach us the difference. So, in other contexts, this list of virtues could include warnings about not loving money or not pursuing immorality or staying sober and so forth. But in this context of how do we get along with each other, Peter picks relational virtues. Now remember all the relationships he's talked about so far. In 122, how we get along with other believers. And 213, how we get along with a pagan government, and 218, how to treat an unfair boss or an unjust boss. 3.1, how to live with a non-believing spouse, and then 3-7, how to treat a believing spouse. And now he says, finally, or in conclusion, I think he's saying, here's how to relate to other believers and the unbelieving world. So 3-8, I think, focuses primarily on believers. All of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. So if the gospel is true, then it means that you and I, believers, belong to each other as part of the family of God, and we need to make room for each other in our lives. And these virtues are the kinds of things that would follow from that perspective. So be like-minded or harmonious. The idea is we find unity around our common faith. It's not unity at all costs, but we have a unity around the gospel. As we embrace the truth of the gospel, we are like-minded because we are seeking after the things of God, the same things of God. And because we believe and count on the same Lord, the same grace, the same spirit, the same mercy, we can find a unity around that faith. Then sympathetic or mutually compassionate. The idea is we're called to care about each other's problems because we belong to each other. We're part of a family. We're being built into this living temple as the body of Christ. So we're called to understand each other and show each other grace and compassion and empathy. And then brotherly love or loving your brothers, we are to truly accept each other as brothers and sisters who share a common faith and a common destiny. And that ought to inspire us to seek each other's best, to encourage each other to do right, to follow God, to cling to the faith, to stand firm and be strong, so that we help each other through trials and struggles and doubts and so on. Then tenderhearted or kind hearted, that is, treat each other graciously, mercifully, kindly as God treated us, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, not being quick to judge or condemn. And then humble in spirit, recognize we're no more important than anyone else. There's no hierarchy in the body of Christ. We are equals in the family of God, we are fellow heirs of the grace of life, as he just said in 3.7, and that ought to give us a certain humility of we're all in this together, and I'm no better off or I'm not superior to anyone else. I think he gives us this list, not because it's he's saying, these are the ways I want you to be nice and good to each other, but because these are implications of the gospel we believe. As he said earlier, how we treat each other reflects what we believe to be true. As we embrace the gospel, these are the kinds of attitudes that should follow from a faith that is maturing and growing. So as we are we go through trials and are tested and are strengthened and matured through the test, these are the kinds of attitudes that we learn and acquire. So we cannot accept Christ and reject his people. And as we learn to love Christ, we learn to love his people, and it will manifest itself in the attitudes that he lists in 3.8. Then I think he shifts a little bit in 3.9 and focuses on how we we would treat non-believers. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you are called, that you may obtain a blessing. Well, unfortunately, that admonition may also be relevant to believers, but hopefully it's typically more of a problem that we would face with the unbelieving world. So, how do we respond to those who reject us or dismiss us? Well, we're not to strike back, we're not to return evil or insults in kind, instead, we're to give a blessing. And then he gives this very interesting rationale. For you were called for that very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. Well, let's think about that. What does he mean by blessing? Well, we're all seeking that thing which makes life worthwhile. So we're all looking for and striving after that which brings blessings and good things of life and not the curses and tragedies of life. So all of us recognize that life has challenges, unhappiness, tragedy, disaster, and fulfillment is like this elusive creature that's always just out of reach. So no matter how good life is, there's always something wrong. There's always a shadow or a flaw or that or a problem that taints even the best things in life. And I think, consciously or not, all of us realize things in this world are not what they ought to be. This is not as good as it gets. It ought to be better. The things of this world are flawed and defiled and less than stellar. And you've all probably had that experience of finally getting that very thing you long for, only to find out it's not so great after all. Well, that thing that will solve the problem, that thing that will finally make life good and fulfilling and perfect and bring true contentment, that's blessing. That's the blessing that will finally fulfill us. Now, Peter started by reminding us that we have this great blessing in Christ, as he said in 1, 3 through 5. God showed us mercy, caused us to be born again to a living hope and a secure inheritance, and the blessing we long for is coming. So the promise of eternal life is not that we will breathe forever, but that we will finally have that kind of life that is truly good. A life that is blessed and fulfilling. Jesus had proclaimed victory over them at the cross, and there is a day coming when that victory will be fully realized. And in that victory, we will finally find a life that is satisfying or fulfilling and everything God intended it to be. That's part of our great hope and our inheritance. That's the blessing we stand to inherit through faith in Christ, and that is blessing indeed. Because if we could find that, we would find life with a capital L, life that has become what God always intended it to be. So Christ died for us to secure that blessing for us. We've been promised by God that blessing of real life, and it will be ours because of the blood of Jesus Christ. If I'm truly looking to God for blessing, as opposed to the things of this world, my own performance, my achievements, career success, fame, beauty, whatever, if I'm looking to God for blessing, and I believe He will keep His promises, that changes how I see others now. Because God has dealt kindly with me and my place in His kingdom, my inheritance is secure, that gives me the freedom to let go of the things of this world. I am free to give up demanding my fair share because I know I have this blessing, true blessing that is coming. I'm free to give up promoting myself or blowing my own horn or putting myself first because I know that God has promised me that thing that will truly fulfill me. I'm free to let go of vengeance and forgo retribution because I know my inheritance is coming, guaranteed. I can show others the same blessing I have received because I'm secure in the inheritance that is coming. So I know that I'm called to receive the greatest blessing there is, and that gives me the security to stand on that hope and to resist returning evil for evil and insult for insult. So I can bless instead. It's a natural implication of a mature faith. He then goes on to quote from Psalm 34. This is first Peter three, ten through twelve. 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. So the Psalm asks the question, What do you need to live life well? And we see a man who wants his life to go well, he wants a blessing. What does he need to do that? And the Psalm tells us it that you will find that in fearing the Lord. This is Psalm 34. I'm going to start in verse five. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord do no good thing. And then notice how you fear the Lord. This is Psalm 34 11. Come, O children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 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. And that's the section Peter was quoting. Now Peter and the Psalmist know that we are sinners and we are incapable of making ourselves good. So I don't think either Peter or the Psalm is it is giving us an admonition something like Get your act together, fix your evil tongue, guard your lips, and then God might bless you. That's not the point of the Psalm, and I don't think that's what Peter's saying either. The psalmist saying, trust the Lord, fear him, and these are the kinds of changes you will see in your life. Trust him, and you will have no lack. You will have the blessing that will truly fulfill you. And as your faith grows and matures, as we embrace the gospel, as we learn just this kind of behavior, we become people who keep our tongue from speaking evil and from deceit, who flee evil and pursue good, who seek peace and not vengeance, which were the qualities Peter was just talking about in his letter. And by righteous person, I don't think he means the person without sin. The righteous person is the one who is justified, the one who is right with God. He is right before God, no longer under wrath, because he trusts in the work of Jesus Christ. So the one who finds life and blessing is the one who is right with God. Why? Because God is at work at our lives. Look at the Psalm. Again, this is 34 17 through 22. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Again, the same themes we've been seeing in 1 Peter. Trusting in God when you're afflicted, trusting in him, don't speak evil and flee from deceit. Turn the other cheek, all those things he's been saying. Now back in 1 Peter, he says in 313, now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Well, it's not hard to make a list. I mean, this is the time of Nero. Christians were being rounded up and fed to the lions, and you can imagine his readers saying, Well, Peter, let me count the ways, how much time you have. And Peter himself is nearing the end of his life when he will be martyred for his faith. It's not long after he writes this letter that he was executed. So what's going on? Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? I don't think he's wandered very far from the theme that he started in 212. He's concerned with how we conduct ourselves among people who are slandering the faith we have embraced. And he's not suggesting that if you do good, then folks will just kind of magically stop seeking you harm. Rather, I think the idea is who can really harm you? Who can ultimately harm you? If you're following God and you have this living hope and you have this inheritance that will not fade away, that's reserved in heaven for you, that's pure, undefiled, and guaranteed, who is there to harm you? If you've got that, what are you worried about? If God has granted that to you, no one in creation can do anything really terrible to you. So they may take my life, but in the grand scheme of things, life in this world is not the big deal that it's made out to be. There is something more important at stake. There is eternity at stake, and your eternity is secure. So no one can keep God from blessing his children. And again, I think he's echoing the words of Jesus here that we find in Matthew 10, 28. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both the soul and the body in hell. So don't fear mankind because all mankind can do is kill you. Now, getting killed is not such a great deal. Uh doesn't sound fun, doesn't sound like something we want to rush headlong into, but he's saying there's a sense in which if I realize I'm a stranger and alien in this world, that my true place is held held in the kingdom of God, it's waiting for me, then being killed is not as big a deal as it first seems. What I'm counting on is not if I just make other folks happy and be nice and they'll leave me alone and stop persecuting me, that's not where life is to be found. That's not where you're going to find security. So I won't find security in capitulation or conforming to the alien world. I won't find security in reviling and fighting back in the alien world. I won't even find security and blessing in solving world hunger or curing cancer or finally achieving racial reconciliation. Security and blessing comes from following God, from fearing the Lord. That's the ultimate source of security is knowing that I am on God's side and he is on mine. So as Paul says in Romans, if God is for us, who can be against us? Ultimately, though they kill you, they can't really harm you if you have put your trust in God. Now they may make you suffer, which is what Peter goes on to say, 3.14, but even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear nor be troubled. Think again, the idea is your eternal destiny is secure, but for now you might have to suffer. In this world, people are going to hate you because you trust in God. And if they do, you're blessed because your faith has been tested and shown to be the real deal. So if people seek to harm you and ultimately may even kill you because they see Christ in you, that's a blessing because it indicates you are part of God's people. You are on God's side. That inheritance, that living hope, is yours. So it's not that suffering is good and we ought to pursue it or something. The idea is there's just no escaping it. Suffering is part and parcel of living as aliens and strangers in a fallen world. The blessing God has in store for his people comes at the cost of suffering. But the Bible repeatedly tells us it's worth it. So Peter concludes, this is three, fifteen through seventeen, 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. So the proper response starts in our hearts. It starts with honoring Christ as Lord in our hearts. We're declaring that Jesus is Lord of all, the bringer of life, the Messiah who died for our sins, and that true life is to be found with Him, and I choose to follow Him. That's the alternative to fear. We need not fear our enemies because Christ is our Lord and Savior and protector. And the more we embrace the truth of who Jesus is and what he did for us, then the less we have to fear. So the more we know where life and hope and blessing are to be found, the freer we are to let go of this world and to be the kind of people that Peter has been describing. The more we let go of the things of this world, the more we can respond to others with love and humility, diffusing any slander, ready to give an account of our faith. Not that we should be ready to win all the debates and master all the arguments so that you know we're ready for every apologetic challenge that comes our way. I mean, that's a good thing to do. Legitimate questions deserve legitimate answers, and there are legitimate answers out there. So it is a good thing to take the objections to faith seriously and know why they fail to persuade and how to answer them. That's but I don't think that's his focus here. That's a good thing to do, but not really what he's talking about. I think his focus here is on relationships. He wants humility and love to characterize our lives, not returning evil for evil, so that people will be interested in how we can act this way. Their slander will be shown false, and they'll have to ask, well, how can you treat me like this when I don't deserve it? And then you have an answer. So you don't need to study apologetics, you just need to know how to explain your hope. You need to know how to explain the gospel and what a gospel perspective on life is. So the idea here, I think, is love your neighbor. And when he asks, how can you be nice to me when I'm not being nice to you, or how can you treat me kindly when I've been so unfair to you, you should be able to explain the hope that gives you the ability to do that. So when you're not hostile back and that gives you an opportunity, explain why. Explain the gospel. So his main concern in this section is how we treat others, both inside and outside the family of God. But he's saying more than be nice. I think he's giving us a fuller, richer picture. It's these are the implications of faith. If you embrace the gospel, these are the kinds of attitudes you should begin to hold, the values, the way, the way of living that you should begin to follow. And I think this is a passage we ought to take seriously because Christians today are being slandered all over everywhere. We're slandered in the media, we're slandered in public opinion. It seems like it's politically correct to mock Christians. And we seem to be the only group. You can't mock uh protected classes or ethnic groups or any other religions, but Christians seem to be fair game. It's the one group that everybody finds socially acceptable to ridicule. And we're constantly told in the media that religious Christians who take their faith seriously are bigots, they're haters, they're no different than terrorists who are murdering schoolchildren and so on. And that is becoming that kind of attitude is becoming more and more common. So, how do we respond to that kind of slander? And what are we to say if that slander becomes more common, more acceptable, and maybe even more vicious? Well, Peter is speaking exactly to that situation, and his advice is fix your hope completely on the grace that's coming to you. And if you do that, then you'll be humble, soft-spoken, and able to seek the welfare of the person who is who is slandering you. Don't give evil for evil, don't give in to that temptation. There's a bigger perspective to take, there's a gospel perspective to cling to. This world is not my home, and how I'm being treated today is nothing in comparison to my living hope and the inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let's pray. Father, we confess that this world is not our home, and this is a hard way for us to live. That apart from your grace and your mercy and your spirit at work in our lives, we are not the kind of people who can turn the other cheek, who can not revile when we're being reviled or flee from deceit and slander. I just pray that you would take these truths and make them real in us, that they would not be theology or abstract concepts, but that you would be maturing and strengthening our faith such that we become the kind of people who increasingly have a gospel perspective on the world and can increasingly be this kind of person that Peter is describing.