1Peter 3:8-15
Responding to Suffering
\\#8\\ "Finally" - Peter is not wrapping up. He is less than half way
finished with the book, but he has finished his rather long
discussion \\#2:13-3:6\\ of submission is about to move to the next
topic.
Remember Peter’s major topic is suffering. The word is mentioned 15
times in this book in just 5 chapters. He has mentioned it 5 times
already and will speak of 10 more times in the remainder of the book.
But I think even more, the topic is "How do Christians respond to
suffering."
I went back through the book to take note at the commands Peter had
given:
1. \\#1:13\\ Gird up the loins of your mind.
2. Be sober.
3. Be hopeful.
4. \\#1:14\\ Be obedient.
5. \\#15\\ Be holy.
6. \\#17\\ Be fearful.
7. \\#2:1\\ Put off malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and evil
speaking.
8. \\#2:2\\ Desire the Word of God.
9. \\#2:11\\ Abstain from worldly lust.
10. \\#1Peter 2:13-3:7\\ Submit to authority.
All of these commands apply to every Christian whether they are
being persecuted, suffering through some other means, or experiencing
no suffering at all; but they take on a special significance when
you realize how some of these Christians were suffering.
The verses we will look at tonight continue these exhortations,
having three more commands.
I. How are we to respond?
A. \\#8\\ We are to face suffering together.
1Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind,
having compassion one of another, love as
brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
1. Isn’t it amazing how many different groups God attempts to
make us a part of?
a. God creates us in a family.
b. In the Old Testament, He created a nation out of
Abraham.
c. In the New Testament, John and Jesus came preaching
that the Kingdom of God was at hand.
d. But after Jesus’ resurrection, we have been placed
into the family of God.
2. I think the message is that God created us to face life’s
problems with other people.
3. In this verse, Peter encouraged oneness among the
believers with five different statements.
a. Be of one mind - Think alike, and like when Paul said
it, He meant that they should all be thinking like
Jesus as they faced persecution.
b. Peter then lists four actions that we should do for
one another as we suffer.
(1) These four actions are to bring us together in
our suffering.
(a) People suffering the same fate should not be
using one another for stepping stones, but
should be reaching out to create a wall of
unity.
(b) Most will say if it is a choice of one
between you and me, it is going to be ME.
A Christian should say if its a choice
between you and me, its going to be US.
(2) Each of them is different.
(a) They are different words with different
meaning.
(b) The four actions are to have compassion,
love, pity and be courteous.
i. Love and compassion is what we give
all the time. I may be hurting, you
may be hurting, but we are going to
love, care, and help everyone.
ii. Pity is what we give when they are on
a lower playing field. You are
hurting worse, let me give you a
little more.
iii. Courteously is just treating people
with respect.
(c) All of these create unity, but even if they
don’t, they give compassion.
4. But the point that Peter was making was that we must help
and care about one another no matter what kind of
suffering people are going through.
a. Jesus told us how the world would become in the last
times, and it has certainly come to pass.
Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold.
b. Peter was reminding the believers that even if it
meant us joining our brethren in suffering or even
death, we should not let them suffer alone.
B. \\#9\\ We are to face suffering without evil.
1Peter 3:9 Not rendering evil for evil, or
railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing;
knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye
should inherit a blessing.
11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him
seek peace, and ensue it.
1. Again, the suffering Peter was referring to was
persecution.
2. It is easy to want to retaliate in kind to deliberate
evil, but Peter tells us not to do so.
3. Another of the many paradoxes of Christ is that when
someone wrongs to us, we are to respond with forgiveness,
with kindness, and with grace.
4. Peter added two extra incentives in this verse.
a. He tells us that this is the ministry to which we were
called.
(1) To be called means God personally sent a message
to us telling us what we were to do.
(2) Preachers, evangelists, missionaries - all need
to be God-called.
(3) They need to have personally heard from God that
they were to publically handle the Word of God.
(4) The difference in a preaching ministry and a
suffering ministry is not every Christian is
called to preach, but we are all called to
suffer and to show grace while we are doing it.
b. He tells us that in doing this, we will receive a
blessing.
(1) The implication is that as we suffer the way God
has commanded, God will take note and respond
with some favor.
(2) Maybe it will be strength, maybe deliverance,
maybe some heavenly reward; but I believe God
will bless on a scale that exceeds what we had
to endure.
5. \\#11\ To "eschew" means to shun or to flee from.
a. We are not to deal with persecution in an evil
fashion, rather the extreme opposite.
b. We are to seek peace and pursue it.
C. \\#15\\ We are to face suffering with answers.
1Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts: and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
1. While everything that Peter said is important, I think
perhaps these words are some of the most important for
our generation.
2. 21st Century Christians need to engage and discuss the
Bible with the ignorant, the doubters, and the
unbelievers of our day.
a. Too many claim to be ignorant and fearful when they
need to be teaching the Word to the world.
Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to
be teachers, ye have need that one teach you
again which be the first principles of the
oracles of God; and are become such as have need
of milk, and not of strong meat.
b. I know not every unchurched person wants to talk about
the Bible and God and especially not with a stranger
who knocks on his front door.
(1) That is the wrong place for such a conversation
and a stranger is the wrong person.
(2) The place to talk about such things is on break
at work, at the ball park, over dinner, while
fishing or shopping together.
(3) And the person to talk with them is a friend whom
they respect.
c. But the lack of discussion about God between the lost
and the saved is not only causing the rift between
sinners and God to enlarge, it is causing the rift
between believers and unbelievers to enlarge.
e. The unbelievers know only what the world tells them
about God, the Bible, and Christianity—and that is
usually vile and wrong.
f. If something doesn’t happen soon, the persecution that
Jesus told us would exist will come to America’s
shores just like it is on so many others.
3. This text clearly tells us to be ready to answer everyone
that asks us a question. Let’s at least determine to
engage someone in conversation about Jesus.
II. Why? Why should we respond to evil well?
1Peter 3:10 For he that will love life, and see
good days….
A. We need to react to evil as God commanded because it is in
our best interests.
1. It may be sad but it also true that the best motivators in
life are often selfish ones.
2. God knows that and so He uses it to help us to do right.
B. Peter gives us three things God that uses to self-motivate us.
1. God never wants us to lose our love for life.
a. We are uniquely created beings granted a special and
supernatural power, life.
b. God doesn’t want us to ever lose the awe of the miracle
of life and to replace with bitterness or emptiness.
c. Consider what God made when He made us.
(1) You and I are a clump of clay held together
by invisible glue, operating on wireless
impulses, and fed by a network of hoses called
arteries and veins.
(2) Yet we see, hear, heal, and are capable of
sustaining ourselves for decades.
(3) The whole universe is amazing and impossible to
explain.
(4) To be quite frank, nothing like this or us should
be here, but it is and we are.
(5) This is the reason Paul declared creation to be
one of the best arguments for the existence of
God:
Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are
without excuse:
(6) But, friend, we do not have to look into the
cosmos to be impressed with God.
(7) You and I are just living soot walking about with
abilities that should baffle us all.
(a) Scientist may be able to figure out how
God creates a body in the womb, but they
will never figure out what produces a soul
inside a human body.
(b) You and I are not just a by-product of the
physical union of a man and a woman.
(c) We are unique and eternal creations of God
with self-awareness, intellect, and a
craving to be like the God who created us
and you cannot get that out of an egg and
a seed.
d. When suffering gets bad, it is so easy to forget just
how blessed we are and how wonderful this thing
called life and existence really is.
(1) I know that heaven is going to be good.
(2) But this is the only time you are going to have
this body and be on this plane of existence.
(3) Enjoy it.
2. God always wants us to have good days.
a. Peter was talking to people who were going to be
hunted and killed, but he still spoke of the good
life.
b. Why? Was Peter oblivious to what was happening to the
Christians. No. He was one of them.
c. He spoke that way:
(1) Because you never know what God is going to do.
(a) Peter had walked with God before.
(b) Peter had seen the dead rise before.
(c) Peter had been escorted out of prison by an
angel before.
(d) You think Peter was going to give up on God?
(e) He was not and He was not going to let the
people give up on Him either!
(2) For most people, no matter how bad life gets,
there is still going to be some good to rejoice
in if you are willing.
d. Do right, even when wrong is being done to you so that
as God provides, you can see some good days—even in
the midst of some very bad ones.
3. \\12\\ God always wants to answer our prayers.
1Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous, and his ears are open unto their
prayers: but the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil.
a. If God is going to be angry with someone for doing
evil, let’s make sure it is the evil people—not the
Christians.
b. We want to hear from God always, but especially when
we are suffering.
c. Let’s don’t build a house that we don’t want to live
in.
Does it matter how we respond to suffering? Yes, it does. May God
help us to do it right so that we can get the best God has for us no
matter we are.
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