10. Christian Living in the Church

8 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.”

Peter rounds out this section of his letter that began in chapter 2, verse 13. He has been addressing selected groups within the congregation – citizens, slaves, wives and husbands – Peter now addresses the entire congregation.

He begins with their life together as a community, calling them to brotherly love. He addresses what ought to be their attitude toward one another, the way they should speak to one another and treat one another.

From there he will proceed to discuss the way they should treat unbelievers. But the Christian life begins in the family of God and it is there that believers are to gain and then practice gentleness, humility, and a loving spirit toward others.

The spirit he is after is characterized by five adjectives, all single words in Peter’s Greek (the ESV renders them as nouns): “unity of mind”; “sympathy”; “brotherly-love”; “a tender heart”; and “a humble mind.” That is the spirit that forms the basis of Christian community and shapes Christian charity toward the world. That should lead to the distinctively Christian conduct he describes in v. 9: Christians not repaying evil for evil, but loving and being kind and generous and tender and sympathetic even toward those who treat them unfairly, poorly, or inconsiderately.

I. Towards those who are our church family

A. Be of one mind/unity of mind

Philippians 2:1–8 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

B. Have compassion for one another/sympathy

C. Show brotherly love

D. Be tenderhearted toward each other

E. Think (and act) with humility

Application

1. Strive to be of the same mind and have common understanding of God’s Word

2. We must love one another in the body of Christ as family

This is where Christians fail repeatedly and egregiously. This failure to be forgiving, to be gentle, to be kind; to be sympathetic; this tendency to rush to judgment, this suspicion of one another, this failure to treat others as Christ has treated us is the bane of the church and the cause of much of its weakness.

So often it is in this way especially that the people of God seem very like the people of this world, not that different after all! So, let us take this to heart, no matter how many times we have heard or read this message. Put the question to yourselves. Are you living the Christian life in truth? How do you behave toward those you disagree with, toward those who disappoint you, toward those who have been unkind to you, or have ignored you? How do you think about them in the secret place of your mind; how do you speak about them behind their backs, how do you treat them in your interactions?

Don’t tell me that your critical attitude or your sharp tongue or your high-minded criticism is simply a case of your upholding the truth, or that you are standing up for righteousness sake. You can do that and still be someone who blesses when he or she is cursed, as the Lord Jesus did. You can still be kind, gentle, and tender-hearted. How do we, how do you and I excuse our so many failures at just this point: a total want of sympathy or tenderness of heart toward others we find at fault in some way? What should we have done instead?

Well it begins as Peter makes clear here in an attitude, a state of mind. If someone behaves proudly or arrogantly, a faithful Christian thinks, “Well, he isn’t as proud as I am!” If he has blundered in some way, the faithful Christian thinks, “This reminds me of some of the impossibly stupid things I have said and done! I bet he’s feeling or soon will, as terrible as I felt when I realized what I had done!” And if you observe someone committing real evil, the faithful Christian will not, will never look down on that person, but say to himself or herself, his heart, her heart is too much like mine!”

3. A “gut check”

A tender heart, a sympathetic soul does not rush to judgment. We wait to see if there is another side to the story, hoping for the best. We are careful not to say things to or about others that might indict us at the same time since we have certainly committed similar offenses, or at least what we take to be offenses. Sympathetic, tender-hearted, loving people treat others as we would like to be treated; we understand others as we would like to be understood ourselves; and we forgive others with the selfless abandon with which we know God has forgiven us.

II. Towards those who persecute us

Everyone thinks we ought to be nice to people. There is nothing particularly Christian about that. You can find that in the ethics of every one of the great religions and in many philosophies of life. And no one has any difficulty being nice to people who are nice to them or who agree with them or who do what we want them to do. But to be kind, generous, thoughtful to those who mistreat you or who disagree with you or who do something you don’t like; to return kindness for unkindness, blessing for cursing, that is more than most people think they have to do. (Rayburn) And yet, here we are. This is the Word of the Lord, inspired by God the Holy Spirit.

It is no small thing to practice what Peter preaches here! And to practice it regularly and to practice it when the events occur out of the blue without any preparation for them on our part is harder still.

A. Return blessing for cursing Matthew 5:44

Matthew 5:44 ESV

44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

While in Christ we have coming to us in God’s grace such blessings without number, this privilege also caries with it great responsibilities here and now in His service as faithful witnesses. God’s Word, the life we have now in Christ, makes extravagant demands upon a man or woman. Someone who lives it faithfully will do all manner of things almost no one else in this world would ever think to do, including the vast majority of professing Christians. We must not so water down Peter’s commandments here or those same commandments when our Savior utters them or the Apostle Paul. If we hold them up to our lives we will see how horribly we fall short! I know I am exposed by these commandments as hardly a Christian. But I also know this is the life for me – and for you – if we would be followers of Christ! We must flee to Christ for forgiveness, and empowering grace, daily, hourly, every minute: “I need thee every hour!”

We as Christians must behave towards unbelievers in the way Peter mentions because that was what the Lord did for us. To return evil for evil would be a practical repudiation of the gospel, a demonstration that we as professing Christians clearly do not intend to follow the Lord’s example.

It we behave in this way, it shows that we are not impressed by the Lord’s gracious behavior towards us, (toward me!) in defiance of bad behavior of every kind. We offended God, we took his gifts and abused them, and we ignored his loving interests in our lives – we are rarely truly grateful – and all that though he was our Creator, the one who had given us our lives. We lived in ways that grieved him, we showed ourselves indifferent to his kindness toward us, and yet when we were God’s enemies he loved us, redeemed us at great cost to himself, and has continued to put up with us even when, once we came to know his grace and once we had been forgiven our terrible sins, we continue to grieve him!

How can we, who have cursed God but were blessed so mightily in return, how can we then return a curse for a curse in our own behaviour toward others? Could any of us say that we understand, could we even say that we really believe the gospel, if at the critical point, at the point where we might most clearly demonstrate our faith in a loving, self-sacrificing, patient God, such faith seemed not to leave its mark on our thoughts, words, and deeds? Are we not taught in the Word of God to forgive as we have been forgiven? Didn’t Jesus himself say that if we are unwilling to forgive those who sin against us God will not forgive our sins against him? And how have we been forgiven? Freely, repeatedly, and ungrudgingly. That is real forgiveness; nothing less. And that is the open heart we are to have toward others. We’re to be the forgiveness brigade! And not just forgiveness, but sympathy, tenderness of heart, humility of mind; people who rejoice in expressing the kindness the Lord has shown us to others, a kindness that defies our stupidity, cruelty, thoughtlessness, and bad behavior of every kind.

It is exactly when we are insulted and treated with malicious intent that we are most tempted to respond in kind by gossip, exaggerating the extent of the fault, or with outright slander. Those who are able not simply to clench their teeth and remain silent but to maintain an inner attitude that allows one to pray sincerely for the well-being of one’s adversaries, are truly a witness to the life-changing power of a new identity in Christ.

When I asked students in class one day to come up with specific, practical examples of how someone might bless an adversary, the story was shared of a Christian soldier living in a barracks with his unit. Each evening, when he would read his Bible and pray before retiring, he was reviled and insulted by the soldier across the aisle. One night a pair of muddy combat boots came flying at the Christian. The next morning, the hostile soldier found his boots at the foot of his bed, cleaned and polished and ready for inspection. Several soldiers in this company eventually became Christians as a result of the inner strength of one who could return blessing for insult. (Jobes)

B. Do what is right

Psalm 34:12–14 ESV

12 What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

This presents the best witness for our Lord Jesus in this world.

A Christian should cherish opportunities to show compassion and mercy like Christ showed him, in the same way that misers cherish gold.

If you cannot have a thousand gallons of blood to spill for Christ’s sake, you have thousand people to love in his name. And the more undeserving, the better!

if we understand the gospel aright, we ought to fall on our knees in the deepest gratitude when we find that we have an enemy – even if he or she is an enemy only in our own minds – because that enemy gives us an opportunity to do the greatest thing a Christian can conceivably do – viz. love our enemy, just as Christ loved us when we were his enemies. Our whole lives, our entire existence is compressed into such opportunities to exalt and honor by imitation the great love with which Christ loved us.(Rayburn)

C. Entrust yourselves to the Lord

1 Peter 3:12 ESV

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.”

The Lord will take care of his children who suffer at the hands of others in some way. You can return blessing for a curse without risk to your welfare! As so often in the Bible, he adds the warning to the promise, citing the first half of Psalm 34:16 “the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,” but he tempers it by omitting the second half of the verse, “to cut off the memory of them from the earth.” The accent here falls on the encouragement and the exhortation, understandably in a letter addressed to Christians who happen to be enduring persecution of some kind. (Rayburn)

God sees and knows, and takes all things into account. He will sort it. You think the unbelieving world is our enemy? God is more an enemy to wicked persecutors than men are (Henry).

His ears are open to our prayer

1 Jn. 5:14; Heb. 4:16.

1 John 5:14 ESV

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

Hebrews 4:16 ESV

16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So, when the world cruelly treats us, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who as our great High Priests ministers before the Throne of Grace. We may and must entrust ourselves to Him. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? The question to each of us in Christ is this: do you trust Him to do so?

Works cited or consulted

Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

Barnett, Paul. Living Hope: Reading 1 Peter Today. Sydney South, NSW: Aquila Press, 2006.

Fraas, Riley. 1 Peter: Instruction Manual for Pilgrims in a Foreign Land. Valley Center, California: Thaddeus Publications, 2019

Green, Joel B. 1 Peter. The Two Horizons New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007.

Haroutunian, Joseph, and Louise Pettibone Smith. Calvin: Commentaries. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958.

Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994.

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The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

Jobes, Karen H. 1 Peter. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005.

Kistemaker, Simon J. Peter and Jude. Welwyn (UK): Evangelical Press, 1987.

MacLeay, Angus. Teaching 1 Peter: Unlocking 1 Peter for the Bible Teacher. Edited by David Jackman and Robin Sydserff. Teach the Bible. London, England; Ross-shire, Scotland: PT Media; Christian Focus, 2008.

Marshall, I. Howard. 1 Peter. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1991.

Mounce, Robert H. A Living Hope: A Commentary on 1 and 2 Peter. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005.

Nisbet, Alexander. An Exposition of 1 & 2 Peter. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1982.

Rayburn, Robert. The Christian Spirit Toward Others, 1 Peter 3:8-12. http://www.faithtacoma.org/peter-2/the-christian-spirit-toward-others-1-peter-38-12. Accessed 23 October 2019.

Sanchez, Juan R. 1 Peter for You. New Malden, UK: The Good Book Company, 2016.

Schreiner, Thomas R. 1, 2 Peter, Jude. Vol. 37. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003.

Stibbs, Alan M. The First Epistle General of Peter: A Commentary. Leicester: Inter-Varsity, 1983.

Watson, Duane F. “First Peter.” In First and Second Peter, edited by Mikeal C. Parsons and Charles H. Talbert, 80–81. Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012.

Willson, Mary. “Following Jesus Far from Home (1 Peter 2:11–3:12).” In Resurrection Life in a World of Suffering: 1 Peter, edited by D. A. Carson and Kathleen B. Nielson, 115. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.

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