The first part of this passage summarizes what God has spoken to us through the apostle Peter, starting back in 1 Peter 2:11, where he says, “Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul.” I talked about it three weeks ago. We are fighting a war. There is a war against our souls. The goal of our enemy is to destroy what God has created—us. The war is between “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable and everything that is praiseworthy (Philip. 4:8)” and everything that is evil and ugly. The war is between beauty and ugliness.
Leading up to today’s passage, Peter talks about submission to various people that God has placed over us in authority—the governing authorities, the submission of slaves to masters (or employees to employers) and the submission of wives to husbands. And in talking about these thing, he is really talking about submission to God, with Jesus Christ as our example, when he suffered in our behalf. And, ultimately, Peter is talking about our trusting God, just as Jesus did. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23)
Today’s passage starts out, “Finally.” The New American Standard translators said, “To sum up.” Peter is going to summarize how we should live as strangers in the world. Peter says, “Finally, all of you…” He is writing to all believers—all of us who are strangers in the world. This is universal. He is going to tell us what we have to do and what we should never, ever do.
The first thing we must do is to live in harmony with one another. The King James version says, “Be ye all of one mind.” Second, we must be sympathetic toward one another. Third, we must love each other as brothers, that is, with brotherly love. Fourth, we must be compassionate. The Greek lexicons also give the definition for the word translated compassionate as tender-hearted. We must be tender-hearted. Then, fifth, we must be humble. Do you want to be beautiful? Do you want people to think you are beautiful? Do you want God to think you are beautiful? These things are beautiful and they make you beautiful!
So, first, we must live in harmony with one another—we must be of one mind. When you think about this, it sounds like it’s not something you can practically do. Does it mean that we are supposed to agree with each other on every issue? There are believers on the other side of the earth, or maybe even next door, that you don’t know personally. Or maybe you don’t even know that they exist. And you certainly don’t know what they think about any given issue. How can you be of one mind with them? Well, here’s where you can start.
Do you suppose that those believers believe that God’s salvation of their soul through Jesus Christ is the most important thing that they have? Do you think that their highest goal is to know Jesus, to love him and, ultimately, to become like him. If you can agree on these issues, you ought to be able to come to agreement on lesser issues. For us to live in harmony means to not have any significant part of our time taken up by disputes. Is it more beautiful to live in harmony, or to always be involved in some kind of argument? It’s more beautiful to live in harmony.
Be sympathetic. Peter says, “Be sympathetic.” Literally, share in the emotions and feelings of your brother. When I first wrote this message on this passage five years ago, I had just received a prayer request message from Christian Aid, an organization that supports local ministries mostly in third world countries. This is what the message said:
As of Saturday night, Indonesia time, the District of Poso in central Sulawesi Island in Indonesia was under attack by Islamic Jihad forces and the situation is very critical. Over 50,000 Christians are in terrible peril. Unless there is a miracle many lives will be lost.
Our contact in northern Sulawesi Island has just talked with Christian leaders in Tentena, a city in central Sulawesi, and they are crying out for help. They are desperate for food, medicine and PROTECTION. They are completely surrounded and request our prayer support. If the jihad terrorists break through local defenses there will be great massacres. The jihad forces are well organized and well equipped—sometimes better equipped than the army.
This is of utmost urgency and we must pray that the hand of the Lord will stop these disciples of bin Laden from doing their evil deeds.
“Unless there is a miracle, many lives will be lost.” That’s what the message said. How do you suppose these people felt? On hearing about a situation like this, would you feel the same emotions that you think they might have been feeling? I have to confess that I would feel differently if I had a friend or relative in a situation like that. What if your family was in such a situation? That particular situation was half way around the world. But we do have brothers and sisters in Christ close by us that we know personally. If any of them are in distress or need, if any of them has lost his job or maybe has a relative with cancer, do you feel the same emotions they do? Or do you think, “I’m glad it’s not me.” Be sympathetic. (Incidentally, we did pray for those Christians in Indonesia and as far as I can remember, there was no massacre.)
“Love as brothers” is the next thing Peter says. This is how sympathy expresses itself in action. To use the words that Jesus used, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” However you would respond if you were in your neighbor’s situation, respond the same way on behalf of your neighbor. You say that you know too many people that are in need and you just can’t practically do that? Well, Jesus said that “Love your neighbor as yourself” was the second of the two greatest commands. So if you try to respond to your neighbor’s need, I think God will uphold his word and enable you to do what he commanded. God does not command us to do things which are impossible to do. He will provide a way for you to love your neighbor as yourself. Why don’t you try it in one case and see what God provides? If you think, “If I was in my brother’s situation, I couldn’t do anything but pray,” then pray just as fervently for your brother as you would for yourself.
“Be compassionate (tenderhearted).” We think that it is impossible to love all of our brothers in all of their needs, so instead of trying, we harden our hearts. Don’t harden your heart! If God wants you to help everyone that you know of that is need, he will surely provide the means. If he wants you to help just one person, he will also provide the means for that. Only, don’t harden your heart. Be tenderhearted.
Finally, be humble. Literally, have lowliness of mind. The word translated “humble” has the same root as the word the apostle Paul used when he said, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;” (Philip. 2:3 - NASB) God says that each of us should consider everyone else to be more important—greater—than himself. How can you do that? Wouldn’t there be only one least important person in the world who could regard everyone else as more important than himself? But Paul said, “regard.” This is how God wants us to think of others—to regard them—to consider them to be more important than ourselves. Who do you think is most important? Have lowliness of mind. Be humble.
Peter has first told us what we have to do. Then he tells us what we must not do: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.” The Old Testament law said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” (Exodus 21:24, Lev. 24:20) I don’t think that God meant this to be a mandatory sentence, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but rather, as a limit on the degree of vengeance that could be taken. It was not a command to make sure the one who caused the injury was punished adequately, but to limit the amount of punishment that could be inflicted. This is what Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:38 - 45a) And Peter says, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
We have believed the lie that it is somehow right for us to avenge ourselves—that, somehow, we are upholding justice if we take vengeance. It’s our duty to take vengeance. But if someone murders a member of our family, we don’t go out and kill the murderer. Our civil law says that it would be murder to kill the murderer, so we don’t do it. We let the courts and the civil government take care of that. God establishes kings and governors “to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” (1 Peter 2:13,14; Romans 13:1) But, still somehow, we think that it is necessary to take revenge. But God says, “It is mine to avenge. I will repay.” (Romans 12:19; Deut. 32:35) The fact is we don’t know what’s in anyone else’s heart or what their motives might be. We don’t even know are own hearts, but God knows. It is his to avenge.
Let me get closer to home. If your wife, or husband, or maybe a close friend, gets mad at you, do you ever feel that it’s your duty to get mad back? (If your answer is, “No,” you can skip the rest of this message and expect to be translated directly to heaven like Enoch and Elijah! Otherwise, continue to listen.) “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” We are called to repay evil with blessing because that’s exactly what Jesus did. And we can expect a blessing.
In verses 10 through 12, Peter quotes the Old Testament to support what he has been saying: “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” It’s a quote from Psalm 34. Who are the righteous that the Lords eys are on? The righteous are those who trust in Jesus. Those who trust in Jesus are the ones who earnstly desire to live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and be humble. They are the ones who earnestly desire these things. The ones who do evil are the ones who simply don’t care.
Did you notice that the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears attentive to their prayer. Do you want to know that the Lord is watching over you and listens to your prayers? Live in harmony with your brothers and sisters. Love them. Be sympathetic and tender-hearted. That’s what’s proper for those who trust in Jesus. (If you don’t trust in Jesus, come to him now! Those who come to him he will never turn away. That’s what he says. (John 6:37) And he confirmed it by giving his life to save us.
Now I want to make a side point. Maybe you’ve noticed that there is quite a bit of quoting of the Old Testament in the New Testament. (Peter just quoted from Psalm 34.) We now understand that the New Testament was inspired by God through the Holy Spirit, just as the Old Testament was. But when the New Testament writers wrote, there was no established New Testament. They were writing it! They used the word of God from the Old Testament to establish what they were saying. We now have both the Old and the New Testaments. We should do what the writers of the New Testament did. We should use both the Old and the New Testaments to establish everything. Everything, every idea and thought should be tested by the Scriptures. Think about how much more confidence you can have in what someone is saying (and what you are saying yourself) if it is supported by scripture.
Now, to get back to the main point, I said earlier that there is a war between what is beautiful and what is ugly. To live in harmony, to be sympathetic, to love as brothers, to be compassionate and humble—these things are beautiful. To repay evil with evil and insult with insult is ugly. But to repay evil and insult with blessing is very beautiful! It’s very beautiful! This is what Jesus did. He repaid our sin and rebellion against him—our insult and our evil—by suffering and giving his life for us. Jesus is tenderhearted and compassionate. Jesus is very beautiful! Praise Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. (Heb. 12:2)
You know, when I wrote about this five years ago, I used my neat little Franklin electronic concordance, that my son John bought me quit a few years ago, to find the Hebrews 12:2 verse, “For the joy set before him…” I had it search for joy, set and before. To my surprise, it came up with two verses. The other one is Acts 16:34. It says, “The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God— he and his whole family.”
Here’s the context: Paul and Silas were in chains in prison. They were singing hymns. (Would you be sining hymns?) Around midnight, there was a violent earthquake and all the prison doors came open and everyone’s chains came off. The jailor was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t do it. We are all here.” When the jailor found that that was true, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved.” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” After he and his household had heard the word of the Lord he washed the wounds of Paul and Silas. Then he and his family were baptized and he brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God— he and his whole family. The jailor served the prisoners with joy. Wouldn’t you be filled with joy?
Pray for us to do the things that made Jesus beautiful—the things that will make us beautiful, also—and to never do what makes us ugly.
These messages that I have been giving from 1 Peter are all taken from prayer meeting invitations that I wrote five or six years ago. I finished all of them the same way. I’m going to finish this message the same way, too:
Come and let’s pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Come and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.
[Prayer]