1 Peter 3:8-12 | The Good Life

Well, I encourage you to take your Bible this morning to the book of 1 Peter and open it to chapter 3.

If you are visiting with us, we've been working our way through the New Testament book of 1 Peter, and we are nearing the middle of the third chapter.

And this morning we're going to look together at verses 8 through 12.

Again, that is 1 Peter chapter 8, beginning.

I'm sorry, chapter 3, verse 8.

That's not bifocals, that's memory.

Again, another sign of growing older.

So Peter writes for us in 1 Peter 3 8, 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.

Our Lord Jesus, we come and bow before you as your people this morning, asking that by your Spirit you would open your word to us.

We have been humbled this morning by singing of you, singing of your greatness, hearing of your greatness, sensing the burden and the conviction of our sins, so that we must turn to you for forgiveness.

And being so incredibly thankful that you've paid the price for us.

So open our hearts now to be to be sanctified by your word, to be challenged to live in the way that you have called us to live.

For your glory and your praise alone.

Amen.

You may not know the name Kim Fuck, but it is likely that you have seen her picture.

In her own words, and I quote, it is a picture that made the world gasp, a picture that defined my life.

I am nine years old, running along a puddled roadway in front of an expressionless soldier, arms outstretched, naked, shrieking in pain and fear, with the dark contour of a napalm cloud billowing in the distance.

Kim had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The South Vietnamese had been bombing trade routes used by the Viet Cong and she happened to be in one of those locations.

Her body was so burned that she still receives treatments for the burns covering her arms, her back, and her neck some forty years later.

Raised in the Cao Dai religion of the Vietnamese, Kim sought everywhere for healing and for peace.

Again, listen to her words.

I continued to bear the crippling weight of anger, bitterness, and resentment toward those who cost my suffering, the searing fire that penetrated my body, the ensuing burn baths, the dry and itchy skin, the inability to sweat which turned my flesh into an oven in Vietnam's sweltering heat.

I craved a relief that would never come.

And yet, despite every last external circumstance that threatened to overtake me, mind, body, and soul, the most agonizing pain I suffered during the season of life dwelled in my heart.

I was as alone as a person can be.

I could not turn to a friend, for nobody wished to befriend me.

I was toxic, and everyone knew it.

To be near me was to be near hardship, and so wise people stayed far away.

I was alone atop a mountain of rage.

Kim began searching for hope in religious books in her local library.

And in that search, she happened to come across a copy of the New Testament.

And as Kim encountered Jesus in the New Testament, the Jesus who, in her words, is the way, the truth, and the life, who had suffered and bore the scars of suffering, she came to desire Christ.

On Christmas Eve in 1982, she attended a special service at a small church in Saigon.

And the pastor that night spoke of one gift, the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How desperately I needed peace, she wrote.

How ready I was for love and joy.

I had so much hatred in my heart, so much bitterness, I wanted to let go of all my pain.

I wanted to pursue life instead of holding fast to fantasies of death.

I wanted this Jesus.

That night Kim became a sister in Christ to every child of God.

And that faith in Jesus has changed her life.

She said, My faith in Jesus has enabled me to forgive those who have hurt and scarred me.

It has enabled me to pray for my enemies rather than curse them.

And it has enabled me not just to tolerate them, but to truly love.

That picture defined my life, but in the end it gave me a mission, a ministry, and a cause.

Today, Kim says, I thank God for that picture.

Today I thank God for everything, even for that road.

Especially for that road.

There is only one way to fully explain the healing, the peace, and the transformation of a person when they when they see the pain inflicted on themselves as an opportunity to forgive, to pray for, and ultimately bless their enemies.

The only way to explain that is through Jesus.

Jesus so changes the life of his people that they become and then begin to do the unexplainable.

And that is the only way to explain this passage in 1 Peter.

What God calls us to is not possible unless God Himself, by the work of His Spirit within us, changes us and empowers us to be like Jesus.

And when God's Spirit changes us to be like Jesus, we begin to make the good news of Christ beautiful even to our enemies.

We've been working our way through God's household codes, those patterns and actions that he expects from his children, no matter what station in life we are in.

We begin in chapter 2 with our relationships to our governments, and chapter 2, verse 13, to those structures in which God has placed us.

Then Peter moved to slaves and then to wives and husbands.

And now in verse 8, he says, finally, to all of us, to everyone within the Lord's church.

Speaking to each one of us, to everyone who's put their faith in Jesus, Peter says, make the gospel beautiful in your relationships.

Now there are two aspects here in the surrounding context that we need to remember.

The first is that the context is primarily about submission.

Now that's not about a person being superior and another being inferior.

It's about order and structure.

God has established appropriate structures in the world, and there are various authorities within those structures to whom we must submit.

We need to line up, he says, under the proper order, the proper structure established by God.

But the second aspect in the context pertains to the gospel.

We are the people of God.

And we have the incredible privilege of displaying the beauty of the gospel through our submission to God's structures.

Now these five verses are not overly difficult to interpret, but they are incredibly difficult to live out.

Verse 8 speaks primarily of our relationships to one another.

That is, it addresses the relationships that we have in the church.

When we move to verse 9, it begins to move outward, outside of the church.

Now, it could apply to some within the church, but the primary attention is to relationships outside the church, to those who persecute us.

And then beginning in verse 10, we see that little word for.

Verses 10, 11, and 12 are a quotation from Psalm 34 showing the reason why we should make the gospel beautiful in those relationships.

But let's look a little closer at verse 8.

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

To complete his household instructions, Peter addresses all of us together.

So we're in a family meeting today.

All five of these terms in verse 8 point toward our relationships with one another in the body of Christ, in the church, telling us that we need to make the gospel beautiful by considering others more significant than ourselves.

Now, if that if that statement sounds familiar to you, that's good and it's encouraging because it tells me that you've read Philippians.

Philippians chapter 2 tells us, do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

And have that kind of mindset, the Apostle Paul said, because that's how Christ lived.

And the Apostle Paul began to then tell us in Philippians chapter 2 of what that looked like in the life of the Lord Jesus.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

He considered us more significant than himself, so much so that he left the glories of heaven to take on the form of a slave to die.

When Jesus saves us, when we come to faith in Christ alone, everyone else in the family becomes more important than me.

We need to let that sort of settle into the depths of our being.

When we come to Christ, everyone else becomes more important.

Now that that doesn't mean that my interests don't matter.

That's not what we imply.

It's not that I become insignificant.

No, it's that when I relate to you, you become more significant than me.

Because now in Christ, my focus is not on me, but on Jesus first, and then on others.

In humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

Now just prior to that statement in Philippians chapter 2, verse 2, Paul encouraged unity in the church.

Philippians 2:2

He said, Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind, emphasizing, think the same way, be unified in how you approach things.

And what Peter says to us here is so similar that some think that Peter was borrowing from Paul.

Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

We make the gospel beautiful in our relationships within the church by having the right thinking, the proper feelings, and the right kind of love.

Having unity of mind and a humble mind are parallel, and they're sort of bookends to those five units.

Peter brackets these set of characteristics by pointing to the way we think.

We must think the same way.

Have the same way of thinking.

Now, how do we do that?

How is it possible to think the same way with so many different perspectives, so many vastly different opinions and different patterns of thinking?

How do we do that?

We need to understand first that Peter is not calling us to be robots.

He isn't suggesting that we have identical minds.

What he is saying is that we are to actively submit ourselves to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

And when we do that, their thinking becomes more significant than my thinking.

And when we do that, we begin to display a humble mind in the church.

So a humble mind is key to the church having the same thinking.

That same thinking is guided by God's word.

But he doesn't stop there.

He also says that we make the gospel beautiful in our relationships by having sympathy for one another that comes from a tender heart.

We have naturally an innate softness, a tenderness for our own family members, don't we?

Especially for those that are closest to us.

You know, there may be that distant cousin that just irritates us to no end, but the brother or the sister, the mom or dad, we have a softness, a place in our heart that's tender towards them.

That same softness, that same tenderness is to be present between each one of us in the body of Christ.

When that is present, then we can be sympathetic towards one another.

When we have the same thinking and we have a tender heart toward one another, we can also have the right kind of love.

A brotherly love.

This is the kind of love that looks at another Christian not as a stranger, not as someone of whom you should be suspicious or avoid, but someone who should be loved like a close sibling.

Now, all five of these characteristics are only possible if we consider others more significant than ourselves.

If I am thinking that I am more significant than you, there is no way that I will have a tender mind or tender heart toward you.

There's going to be a great hindrance to being sympathetic and an obstacle to brotherly love.

Only if we think and feel and love the way that Jesus loved can we fully display the beauty of the gospel to one another.

That's the only way.

Now, if we look down at verse 10, where Peter gives us the reason to act and feel and love this way, we see that there's actually a benefit to us.

Whoever desires to love life and see good days.

Do you want to truly love life?

I think most of us would say yes.

We really like to do that.

Do you want to experience the good life and the way that God intended for you to experience it?

Most of us would say, yeah, I'd like to enjoy the good life.

Now, we would sometimes add the good life that I define as the good life, but if we want to have the kind of life that God intends, the way to do that, God says, is by making the gospel beautiful in your relationships by having the right kind of thinking, the right feelings, and the proper love for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Not only should you do that, you need that.

Whether you realize it or not, you need every brother and sister in Christ that is here this morning.

You need a family, you need a community that does this for you.

Especially if you are in a position where the world hates you because of your faith.

Now we typically don't see the need for a church family the way Peter's first readers did, because we don't face the same kind of rejection today that they did.

But even if your life doesn't look the same as Peter's audience, you need this family in this community more than you realize.

You need this family of brothers and sisters in Christ, because if you refuse them, you will be an island all to yourself, and when difficult times come, you will be alone.

If you have not cultivated the sibling relationships that God has given, you will be lost and alone when you most need the support of everyone else.

Now there's a side to this that even affects our mission.

If we are not a community of siblings displaying the gospel to one another, we will end up driving people away from our church.

We will end up driving people away from the gospel.

One commentator says, a sure indicator of how community-oriented a church is, in my experience, is how one is greeted and incorporated into church as a first-time attender.

Both words are important, greeted and incorporated.

Some churches, he says, are gregarious at greeting new people, but seem unable to incorporate.

Other churches may be a little bashful at greeting, but work strenuously and sensitively at incorporating new people.

A church that sees itself as a community, as a family, welcomes new people and finds a place for them within its fellowship.

While it may be normal for a three-year-old to resent the new infant mommy brings home from the hospital, such an attitude among Christians when new people enter their community is repugnant.

Churches are to be a welcoming, expanding, and developing as they grow with the gifts of new members.

When it can reach out and include, because another person is a Christian, because another person is a brother or sister in Christ, then the church is operating as a family.

The problem is, our natural bent is to be suspicious, to be uncertain or cautious.

We see somebody that doesn't look like us, that doesn't sound like us, maybe doesn't smell like us, and our barriers go up.

Do you think that's what God calls us to?

No?

Are there differences?

Sure.

God created us uniquely, but those differences merely create the opportunity for us to work at thinking the same way, to work at having the same feelings and having the right kind of love.

John Stott once wrote, The problem we experience whenever we think about the church concerns the tensions between the ideal and the reality.

The ideal is beautiful.

The church is the chosen and beloved people of God, his own special treasure, the community to whom he has committed himself forever, engaged in continuous worship of God and in compassionate outreach to the world.

A haven of love and peace and pilgrim people headed for the eternal city, and we would say, Yes, that's the ideal.

But in reality, he says, We who claim to be the church are often a motley rabble of rather scruffy individuals, half educated and half saved, uninspired in our worship, constantly bickering with each other, concerned more.

For our maintenance than our mission, struggling and stumbling along the road, needing constant rebuke and exhortation.

That demands that we submit to one another by considering others more significant than ourselves.

But when we do that, when we step out in that uncomfortable place, we begin to display the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ within the family of God.

The family then becomes a place of safety and encouragement rather than bickering and fighting.

And we need that place of comfort and security because of the reality of verse nine.

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.

Verse eight is about brothers and sisters, verse nine is about those who do not think the way we think, who do not feel the way we feel, and who do not have a brotherly kind of love.

Those kinds of people will inherently create difficulties for us.

They will bring pain into our lives and suffering for us, but God calls us to make the gospel beautiful by loving our enemies.

There's nothing especially unusual about that, is there?

By this time in the New Testament we ought to be very familiar with that calling.

Listen to what Matthew wrote.

Jesus said, You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.

If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, and if any one would sit sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too.

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

What about Luke chapter six, verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine?

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

To the one who strikes you on the tree, on the cheek, turn the other also.

And from the one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 12, and we labor working with our own hands.

1 Corinthians 4:12

When reviled, we bless.

When persecuted, we endure.

First Thessalonians 5 15, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

And our greatest example, first Peter chapter 2, verse 23, the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:23

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.

One is the assumption that we are going to face situations or people who do not treat us well.

It's a fact of life.

We will face situations and people where we will come under pressure, we will suffer, we will have pain, we will have sorrow, we are not guaranteed a life free from those kinds of sorrows.

We are not guaranteed positive reactions to our faith.

We are not guaranteed positive responses to our biblical morals.

We are not guaranteed positive responses to our biblically guided convictions.

But if we do have hope for peace in this world as followers of Jesus, if we if we do have hope for long life and good days, it is much more likely that we will experience that if we respond to our enemies according to our calling.

God works on behalf of his people when instead of responding to evil with evil, we forgive.

God works on behalf of his people when instead of reviling, we bless them, asking that God would benefit them, that God would be good to them, kind to them, that he would show them his favor.

Now, to some that may sound as weakness.

You're just a bunch of weak people if you give in to all of that.

Well, in fact, it's the opposite.

It takes great strength of character to not react the way your flesh desires to react.

How many of us would like to smack a person who smacks us?

It takes great strength of character to not do that.

Think of the last time you really truly fought temptation.

It takes great strength to resist that, doesn't it?

It takes tremendous trust in the character and promise of God for Him to defend you.

That's a position of strength, not weakness.

Our culture is a me first culture.

But Jesus calls us to be a counter-cultural family.

We do that by speaking the truth.

We avoid evil at all costs, and we humble ourselves even before our enemies in order to show the beauty of the gospel.

And in doing that, God works to bring us peace.

We do all of that while being future-minded.

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.

Even if culture and society are not friendly and kind and welcoming and accepting to us, even if the political politics of our day turn against us, we can hope and trust that God cares for his children.

And one day he will make all things right.

Justice will come.

We just need to be patient.

We don't face the persecution Peter's first readers experienced.

But we do have difficulties in our relationships, don't we?

We've been working through some of those in the last few weeks.

Most of us experience spats with our siblings, fights with our parents, disagreements with our classmates, arguments with our roommates.

We get upset with our employers.

Our relationships with our coworkers, our employers, and our brothers and sisters in Christ are often on the hairy edge of going from discomfort to arguments.

Sometimes those relationships may cross over from simple spats to unhealthy fights or, God forbid, even destroyed relationships that lead to pain and suffering.

Sometimes it's generated because someone opposes our faith.

Whatever the cause, whatever the situation, are we working to make the gospel beautiful by humbly considering others more significant than ourselves and by responding to our enemies with love like Jesus did?

Can we be a community, a family that not only wants to survive in this world, but a family that loves life and desires to see good days?

Can we do that?

Can we be courageous enough together to be humble and strong enough to set aside our own personal interests in order to see others more important because of Christ?

Can we be a welcoming place that opens our arms with love to those who name the name of Christ and even to those who are searching and in need of Him?

Can we make the gospel beautiful?

As we leave this place this morning, as we live our lives throughout the week, can we proclaim and display the glory of the gospel when we are gathered together?

Yes, we can.

Because what God calls us to do, he also empowers us to do.

And by his grace, by his power, and with his help, we will be the people that he has called us to be.

Lord Jesus, we come together this morning confessing our sin.

Lord, we we have irritations with one another.

We may have disagreements with one another.

There may be even some in this room here this morning, sitting on opposite sides of the room who can't stand to stand next to one another or sit next to one another.

Lord, this is the terrible nature of our sinful sinful flesh.

Rebuke us where we have need of being rebuked.

Convict us to to see where our perspectives need to change.

Lord, cause us to know our brothers and sisters.

Cause us to put them first because we put you first.

Make us a community, a fellowship, a family that is a light on a hill, a beacon that says this is the beauty of Christ.

Come and see him.

Amen.