Suffering for Doing Good –Part II
1 Peter 3:8-22
September 24, 2006


Today’s message is from 1 Peter 3:8-22. The NIV translators gave the passage the title Suffering for Doing Good. I talked about this passage two weeks ago—verses 8 through 12. Today I’m going to talk about verses 12 through 15a, but we will read the entire passage as we did two weeks ago. Today’s message is part 2.

Remember, as always, when we read the passage that we are reading the word of God. God gave his word to us through the prophets and the apostles so that we would be able to know him and to show us his way of salvation. It’s absolutely essential that we take everything he has given us very seriously. In fact, there is nothing more important and more serious than to hear, accept, believe and obey the word of God.

So also, as always, I exhort you to read your Bibles every day. Make every effort to understand what God is teaching you. Read the entire Bible and keep on reading it. Pray.

[Prayer]

Now let’s read the passage. 1 Peter 3:8-22:

8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9Do 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. 10For,

“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.
11He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
12For 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.”

13Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” 15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also— not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand— with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:8-22 –NIV)

Two weeks ago when I talked about this passage, I didn’t say much about verses 10 through 12, except that Peter used the Old Testament scriptures to back up his exhortation for us to live in harmony with one another. So I included verse 12 as part of today’s passage. Verse 12 says, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous...”  This is in contrast with the fact that, “...the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Who are the righteous? The righteous are, to use Peter’s words from the very beginning of his letter, “God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout the earth, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.”  The righteous are all of those who have been made righteous through sprinkling by the blood of Jesus Christ. We, who belong to Jesus, are the righteous. God’s ears are attentive to our prayers. On the other hand, “those who do evil” are all those who haven’t been chosen by God and haven’t been sprinkled by the blood of Jesus—that is, everyone else. There is a big distinction—a vast distinction—between the two groups.

The distinction between those who have been “sprinkled by the blood of Jesus” and those who haven’t is like night and day. Let me quote what the apostle Paul has to say about this. This is from 2 Corinthians 6:14 through 18:

14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

17 “Therefore come out from them and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
18 “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
(2 Cor. 6:14-18 –NIV)

To answer Paul’s questions that he asks, righteousness and wickedness have absolutely nothing in common. Light and darkness can have no fellowship whatsoever. There is no harmony between Christ and Belial and believers have nothing in common with unbelievers. We (the church) are the temple of the living God. (The church is the temple in which the Holy Spirit lives.) Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Their purpose is to lookout for themselves—really, to glorify themselves.

Paul quotes the Old Testament scriptures: “‘Therefore come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.” You might conclude that Christians are supposed to despise unbelievers and have nothing to do with them. Nothing could be further from the truth! We are not to be partners with them—be yoked together with them. But we must do what Jesus did! Listen to Romans 5:8: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even though the distinction between believers and unbelievers is so great, the distinction between sinners and God is immeasurably greater! God loved us while we were still sinners. His command to us is to love our neighbor as ourselves!

Okay. Let’s get back to today’s passage.  Look at verse 13: “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?” God is asking us through Peter, if anyone is going to harm us if we are eager to do good. The implied answer is, “No. No one is going to harm us.”  It’s not reasonable to expect to suffer for doing good. But we all know that God’s people do suffer for doing good. Jesus “went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil.” (Acts 10:38) He never did anything that was evil. He was without sin and yet they persecuted him to death. He told his disciples, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:20) Peter says, “But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.”

Why are we blessed if we suffer for what is right? First of all, what is right—doing what is right—means much more than simply doing good as opposed to doing evil. The text literally says suffer on account of righteousness, rather than suffer for what is right. We are blessed even if we suffer on account of righteousness. Jesus is righteous and he is our righteousness. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Jesus is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Not only that, we have received righteousness as a gift from God and Jesus is that gift. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) We are righteous because we belong to Jesus. If we suffer on account of righteousness, we are suffering because we belong to Jesus!

But why are we blessed if we suffer on account of righteousness? Why are we blessed if we suffer on account of Jesus? Well, we have much to look forward to. There will be no more tears, no more crying, mourning or death. There will be no more pain. God himself will wipe every tear from out eyes. (Rev.21:3,4) Also, Jesus says he is coming soon and his reward is with him (Rev. 22:12). His reward is a new body and an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade. (1 Peter 1:4). His reward is that we will be in his presence and see him as he is. (1 John 3:2) Peter says that we have a living hope which God has given us through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (1 Peter 1:3), and that, even though for now, we may have to suffer many trials so that our faith may be refined, we greatly rejoice and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy because we are receiving the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9)

Have you ever rejoiced to suffer, knowing that God is refining your faith and is pleased that you are willing for him to do so? Do you rejoice now? If you have a hard time rejoicing when trouble comes, Peter is going to give some hints (that is, commands).

Peter says, in the second part of verse 14, “Do not fear what they fear. Do not be frightened.”  (Some translators understand this sentence to say, “Do not fear their intimidation.”  But the NIV translation seems more literal, so I am going with it.) What is it that they fear? I’m not going to try to make an exhaustive list, but first of all, they fear death. I can remember when I was very young, being terrified of dying. I didn’t think about it all the time, but when I did, I thought that to know that I was about to die would be utterly terrifying. I had a materialistic view then and thought that I would simply go out of existence. I thought that if I believed I was about to die, I wouldn’t be able to deal with the knowledge that I was about to cease to exist, so I thought that it would be better for me to die in my sleep so that I would not know it was happening. But for them, it’s much worse. They not only have the first death to fear, they also have the second death: “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars— their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (Rev. 21:8)

They also have to worry about material security, health care, and many concerns of this life. But we have Jesus’s promise that if we seek God’s kingdom first, all these things will be given to us as well. (Matt. 6:33) (I forget this myself much of the time.) And finally, they have to worry about avenging themselves—getting even.  Remember1 Peter 3:9? “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.” They have to make sure that evil is repaid with evil and insult with insult. They think they have an obligation to do so. We don’t have to worry about it. And that’s a tremendous blessing. Do not fear what they fear.

Finally, if frequently you don’t feel blessed, here’s what to do. “In your heart, set apart Christ as Lord.”  Now, before I go on to talk about verse 15a, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.”  I’m going to propose an alternate, and I think equally valid, translation. Verse 14b, “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened,” is a quote from Isaiah 8:12, as indicated by the quotes in the NIV and by the footnote. The translators ended the quote at the end of verse 14, but I believe that Peter actually continued the quote into verse 15. The NIV and other translations don’t bring this out. Here’s my translation: “The Lord (Christ) regard (in your heart) as holy.”  The words Christ and in your heart were added by Peter to the quote from Isaiah. But now let me give the text from Isaiah. I will continue it a little past where Peter left off. This is from Isaiah chapter 8, verses 12b through 14a:

“Do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary;” (Isaiah 8:12b-14a –NIV)

One of the things that struck me about this quote is that it refers to God by name. The word Lord, (the Lord Almighty) is in all caps and is the way most of the translators render God’s name, Jehovah. In the New Testament, the writers never use God’s name when they quote the Old Testament. They always substitute the Lord for God’s name.  So, by saying, “The Lord (Christ),” Peter is telling us that when Isaiah says, “The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,” he is referring to Jesus. He is the one we are to regard as holy.

So in case you didn’t already know who Jesus is, he is Jehovah, the commander of the armies of heaven! The NIV translators use the word Almighty to translate the Hebrew for armies (Sabaoth). God the Father is also referred to by name as Jehovah, but what we really need to know is that Jesus is too.

And the Hebrew word for armies (Sabaoth) is not just used, in the Bible, to refer to armies of angels or armies of men, but also to all the stars of heaven!  So that the commander of armies might very well mean the commander of all creation! All things were made through him and for him (Jesus), and he will reign until all his enemies are submitted under his feet. Jesus is Lord! (And in case you didn’t follow all that, I will say it in just three words. Jesus is God!)

So, if you want to be blessed, even when you are being persecuted, if you want to be blessed especially when you are being persecuted, if you want to not fear what they fear, set apart Christ in your heart. Regard him as holy—as the one you are to fear—as the one you are to dread—and he will be a sanctuary. Isn’t it amazing that the one you are to fear and to dread—the one you are to tremble before—is also your Savior, the one in who you can take refuge, the one who loves you? It’s amazing! Praise the Lord!

Let’s pray to have it in our hearts and minds, more and more, who Jesus really is—and to know that he is our sanctuary in times of trouble and persecution—and our Savior all of the time!

Let’s pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.

[Prayer]