The theme of Peter’s epistle is our sanctification.  He stated his thesis in chapter one, quoting the Lord who said, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  Sanctification is being set apart in salvation for holiness.  By justification we are reckoned as holy by what Christ did for us on the cross.  In sanctification we live out that holiness as Christ lives in us.  It’s living holy, because He is holy, and He is Lord of our lives and lives in us and through us.  Sanctification is submitting first of all to the Lord in doing His will.  It’s being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ who is holy and blameless. 

Now this is the  goal of our sanctification.  Now that we are justified by the blood of Jesus Christ shed on our behalf, we are set apart for holy living, to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. And as we live sanctified lives under the authority and leading of the Holy Spirit, even as Christ lived during His time upon the earth, then we are going to experience suffering that comes from this world in response to our life, even as Christ suffered for righteousness sake.

So in that regard, Peter continues in his letter to the church writing to prepare them in regards to the suffering that will be a  part of the process of sanctification.  He wants them to know what the reaction of the world will be in regards to living a sanctified life. 

First of all, he says we should expect suffering.  Vs.12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”   The irony should be obvious to all.  Living righteously, living holy lives, ends up bringing on trials.  You would think that living as Christians, living as Christ lived when He was on the earth, would cause people to love us.  After all, we should be prime examples of good citizens.  We should be pillars of the community, doing good to the poor, compassionate to and helping those who are misfortunate.  We should be paying our taxes, submitting to the governing authorities.  We should be the kind of neighbors that every one would wish for.  The kind of employees that every company looks for.  We should be loved by the world.  

But Peter, as well as many of the other gospel writers, tells us that is not going to be their response.  Instead they are going to hate us.  Jesus Himself said in John 15:18-19  “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before [it hated] you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”

So don’t be surprised.  Expect it.  The world loves those who love sin, who love pride, who love  sexual immorality, who love money, who love fame.  They love the Bonnie’s and Clydes of this world.  And they despise those who live holy lives. 

That’s the problem with the “relevant church” strategy prevalent today with which we are trying to get the world endeared with Christianity.  We try to lower our standards and mimic the world’s practices hoping that the world will like us and want to become Christians like us.  That doesn’t work.  You just end up with a worldly church. 

And that’s the problem with trying to soften the offense of the gospel message.  Take out sin and don’t speak of hell or judgment, and just tell the unsaved how much God loves them just the way they are.  That is the strategy of many churches today in hopes of getting the lost to like us and want to become a Christian.  But it’s not going to work, because they are not going to be saved unless they first realize that they are sinners and hopelessly lost and condemned to die in their sins.  And that’s an unpopular, offensive message.

So when we are living out our Christianity as Christ lived in the world, then we can expect that the world will treat us the way Christ was treated.  Notice also that Peter calls this suffering a “fiery ordeal.” Some commentators have said that this was a veiled reference to the burning of Rome which may have happened shortly before Peter wrote this letter.  You will recall that Nero intentionally set Rome ablaze, and then blamed it on the Christians and began a time of severe persecution.  That may or not be what Peter had in mind.

Personally, I think it harkens back to chapter one vs 7 in which Peter talks about the proof of our faith, even tested by fire.  It’s a refiner’s fire that Peter has in mind, I believe.  It’s a trial by fire in which that which is unholy is burned up, so that which is left is pure.  Fire in the Bible is associated first of all with the holiness of God.  Moses saw a burning bush in which God spoke from telling him to take off his shoes for it was holy ground.  Fire was on Mt. Sinai, so that the mountain was enveloped with fire and smoke and the people trembled at the sight and from which God spoke.  Fire is associated with the burnt offerings which were offered for sin.  The law is full of references to the requirements for an offering by fire.  And so just in those references to fire, we can assume that the trials and ordeals which the Lord leads us through are meant to cleanse us, to refine us, to purify us so that we might be sanctified for holy purposes.

There are a number of references in scripture regarding a refiner’s fire being used of God.  Let me share a few. Job 23:10  “But He knows the way I take; [When] He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Pro 17:3 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests hearts.

Isa 48:10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Zec 13:9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.'”

Mal 3:3  “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness.

As I have said repeatedly, suffering is not the goal, but it’s the process by which the goal is reached.  And the goal is sanctification, without which, Hebrews 4 tells us, no one will see the Lord.  

Notice also Peter says these fiery trials come upon you for your testing.  Again, that testing correlates to the proof of your faith mentioned by in chapter one.  Let me read that for you again, in chapter 1:6-7  “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,  so that the proof of your faith, [being] more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

So it’s obviously not just a situation in which the world or the devil persecutes a Christian and God is helplessly standing by saying “just hold on till it’s over.”  But what this indicates is that God is using even the ungodly who persecute you, He is using the various trials which come upon you that make take all sorts of forms such as poverty or hunger, or imprisonment, or bad health, whatever form it takes, God is using it and superintending over it, to use it for good.  

Now that’s hard to fathom, especially when you are suffering in a major way and you don’t think you deserve it or you don’t understand why God would allow you to suffer in this way.  Our prayers are usually “Lord get me out of this situation quick!” But what we have to remember and even find the means of rejoicing in, is that God uses the suffering which we experience to form us into the character and image of Jesus Christ and as such His will is often to let us go through it that it might conform us to Christ.  A good illustration of that is when Joseph was unjustly incarcerated and mistreated in prison for 13 years.  When he finally was released, and he saw his brothers who had sold him into slavery many years before, he said, “you meant it for evil, but God used it for good.”  

And that’s what Peter is saying here.  God will use the trial by fire to conform you into the image of His Son.  And don’t forget, that it pleased the Father to crush Jesus, putting Him to grief. God chose suffering as the path for His beloved Son.  And He often choses suffering for us as well that we  might be like Him.  So, Peter says, don’t think it’s strange when suffering happens to you.  It’s to be expected.  Unfortunately, a lot of Christians fall because they don’t expect suffering to be a part of their Christian experience.  They were expecting to live their best life now.  Instead, they got suffering.  Peter says, don’t be surprised.  Don’t think it strange.  It’s par for the course.

So rather we are to rejoice, Peter says.  Funny thing, James said to rejoice in suffering as well. James 1:2-3 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”  The question though is how can we rejoice in suffering?  It’s painful.  It’s stressful.  It’s not an experience that we want to go through.  How can we rejoice in it?  

The answer is that we rejoice by looking beyond the suffering. That’s how.  It is said of Jesus in Heb. 12:2  “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  We don’t fix our eyes on our circumstances, on how bad we have it, on how bad we are being treated or how bad we feel, but like Jesus we fix our eyes on the joy set before us.  The joy that is ultimately our reward when Christ returns. 

2Cor. 4:17-18 says,  “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  Paul says compared to the glory in eternity that will be ours, the present suffering is temporary, momentary and light in comparison.

So as Jesus looked beyond the suffering of the cross, He considered the joy set before Him.  In the same way, we look beyond the suffering we experience in trials, and consider that glory which is far beyond all comparison. 

The next point that Peter makes is that there are two types of suffering.  There is the suffering for righteousness, and the suffering for unrighteousness.  First the righteous suffering  is stated this way; vs 14, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”   This is the type of suffering that will come upon a person who is living righteously, who is walking in the way that Jesus walked, who is conformed to the image of Christ.  Such a person even though they are reviled for the sake of Christ, they will have a blessing, because they are living a Spirit filled life.  They are filled with the Spirit, and thus they will enjoy the blessings of such a life.

But then Peter contrasts that with the person who is suffering as the wages of unrighteousness. He says in vs 15, “Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler.”  In other words, there are consequences to sin not only in eternal judgment, but in this world as well. God has appointed government to wield the sword of justice, and there are punishments that will be exacted by those governments for such offenses.  We have been studying the ten commandments on Wednesday nights for the last couple of weeks and we commented that all civilizations legislate much of the second table of laws.  Murder and stealing are pretty much illegal in every society and every civilization and the punishments for such are quite severe.  

An evildoer I suppose just covers everything else not covered by murder and stealing. It means a lawbreaker.  One who does evil. And there are laws and punishments for evildoers.  There is one other word though that bears mentioning, and that is translated as “troublesome meddler.” That’s an unusual term.  It has in mind an overseer, but not in a good way.  It’s someone who gets involved in things that they shouldn’t be involved in.  Someone who is stirring up trouble, looking for trouble. Trouble is one thing that if you look for it you will find.  I’m always looking for things I have misplaced somewhere.  Usually I’m looking for things because my wife has decided to straighten up my desk or something. I know where all my junk is and I can’t find it when my wife cleans up.  But you know,  if you look for trouble, you will usually find it. If you’re trying to find fault, you will find it.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11  “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we commanded you.”  In other words you’re not to be a troublesome meddler.  You’re not to look for faults in others. As much as it is possible with you be at peace with all men.  You’re not to stir up your society.  You’re to lead a quiet life.  You are to attend to your own business and to work with your own hands.  Stay out of other people’s business.  In 2 Thessalonians 3:11 he says to the Thessalonians, “For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all but acting like busybodies.”  Don’t stir up trouble by being a busybody.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 7:3-5  “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”  So there you go.  Don’t be a troublesome meddler.  It will cause suffering not only for others, but it will also cause suffering for you as well.

There are inherent consequences to sin.  Ultimately, there is an eternal consequence to all sin, but even in the world there are consequences for sin. And as Christians, there is no exemption from temptation to sin, no barrier to keep you from sin.  Though Christ will forgive you from sin, you may still have to pay the consequences of your sin here in this world.  And that is a shameful and tragic consequence for a Christian to have to face.

However, Peter assures us that as a Christian who suffers for righteousness there is no shame in that.  Vs. 16, “but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.”

I am told that in the beginning when they were first called Christians, it was intended as a slur.  But in time the early church began to glory in that name.  And what Peter is saying there is that they are not to be ashamed of being called Christians, but to glorify God in the name of Christians.  That means that they have to act like Christ, since they take the name of Christ.  And that is precisely what being sanctified indicates; that we are like Christ, thus Christians.

The next point that Peter makes is that this is the appointed time for suffering.  We should expect it, we should not be surprised by it, we should not be ashamed of it, and it is the appointed time for it. Vs. 17, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?”

We notice first of all that suffering is a measure of God’s judgment.  As Christians, we sometimes think that we are not going to deal with any sort of judgment.  But in actuality, Peter is saying that judgment begins with the house of God.   A faithful Father disciplines His children, does He not?  Heb 12:6-11 says “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom [his] father does not discipline?  But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He [disciplines us] for [our] good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”  

There’s so much in that passage, but notice that the results of the Father’s discipline it says is holiness and the fruit of righteousness.  That’s our sanctification.  That’s what the Father is doing in our lives by allowing suffering.  As I keep saying, the goal is not suffering, but sanctification.  Suffering is the means, not the goal.  The goal is that you have all the dross, all the sin, all the world, all the pride, all the ego burned away, that Christ might shine in you.

And this is the time for such suffering to begin.  It is necessary to begin with us, that we might share His holiness and be His ambassadors to the world.  But woe to the world.  The man of the world thinks his sin is unseen, he thinks he has gotten away with it.  He thinks that he can live any way he wants and there are not going to be consequences.  But the fact is that God sees, and has appointed a time for all men to die and after that the judgment.  And at the judgment, there will be a terrible price to pay, an eternal price to pay.

It is with difficulty that the righteous are saved.  We have been saved by the suffering of Christ on our behalf. Those that reject Christ must pay their own penalty.  And what a terrible penalty it is.

The blessing that the righteous has though is that they belong to a faithful Creator.  We are as Peter says, the house of God.  We are children of God.  And even if we die in this body, yet we live in the Spirit.  Peter uses the title “faithful Creator” I believe in order to emphasize the faithfulness of God to keep His promise to us of eternal life, and to remind us that as Creator God made life, and all life has it’s being through Him.  And so we can entrust our eternal soul to a faithful Creator who will raise us up on the last day, and change this corruptible body into an incorruptible body, so that we may share in His glory for eternity.

There is a reward for those that belong to Christ.  In this world we will have tribulation.  But Peter encourages us to rejoice in it, knowing that God will use it to refine us so that we might share in HIs holiness.  I encourage you to look beyond the present circumstances to the glory set before us and keep on keeping on, having as your commitment to be found pleasing to God.  May the grace of our Lord enable you to do so and may you be found faithful when He comes.  


I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the term “preppers.” Preppers are people that are waiting, planning, and preparing for the apocalypse or something like the end of civilization as we know it. These folks are convinced that the world cannot keep going like it is without imploding or exploding, and what life is left will be forced to make do without all the luxuries and amusements and technology that we are now using. And so they are prepping for this coming time by storing up weapons, ammunition, food, water and things like that. These people are pretty serious about it. Some have built underground bunkers out of storage containers in which they have stored a year or two of supplies. And they have weapons because they want to make sure that their neighbors who didn’t prepare, who perhaps made fun of their preparations, do not end up banging on their doorstep after the proverbial dung hits the fan trying to get their food.

Oddly enough, a fair number of Christians seem to embrace this world view and have become preppers as well. I say it’s odd because I find it incongruous that those of us who claim to want to go to heaven, sometimes live like that’s the last place we want to go. There is a popular view among evangelicals especially that we need to do everything we can to hold on to this body, to this life, for as long as possible. That’s quite a contrast to Christians of the first century. They were practically volunteering for martyrdom in the belief that it not only hastened their communication to God, but that it ensured a greater reward.

I don’t know if you recognize this or not, but Peter might be characterized as a prepper as well. He talked quite a bit about the last days and what our attitude should be as we approach the end of the age. In fact, in our text today, Peter says that “the end of all things is near.” He is saying that they were living in the last days, or the last age. In chapter 1 vs 20 he said something else about it; “For He [that is Christ] was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.” A more literal translation reads, “But has appeared at the end of the times for the sake of you. So it’s a parallel statement to our text. The end of all things, or the end of the times is near.

If that was true in Peter’s day, and that sentiment is echoed by the words of other gospel writers such as Paul and the Apostle John, then how much more so is it true for us today? And how can it be true then and still be true today?

The explanation is that the end of the times, or the last times, is speaking of the end of the age, particularly the age or period of time which commenced at the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and will be consummated at the second coming of Christ. Some have referred to this as the church age, or the age of grace, or the age of the new covenant. I’m not sure that those are the best titles, nor if there is a single title that best describes this age. Perhaps it should be referenced in view of the kingdom of God. It being the age of invitation, of salvation, in the greater realm of the kingdom of God. It’s the age between His first coming and His second coming. And the first coming resulted in salvation, in a universal invitation to repent, to believe in Jesus Christ, to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And Peter is saying that this present age is coming to it’s conclusion, to it’s consummation, when Christ shall come again and claim His bride which is the church.

That consummation of the kingdom results in the fulfillment of vs 11 in our text, which says, “that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Everything in history has been heading to this future glory, when Christ shall reappear in the clouds, this time not with an invitation, but in judgment, to rule and reign not just spiritually but visibly and physically in a glorified kingdom with His church in a new heaven and new earth.

Since then we are living in the last days, perhaps metaphorically in the last hours, how should we live? What should be our focus? The early church definitely lived as if the Lord could return at any second. And the fact that it’s been 2000 years since then should not dull our sense of expectation. Peter says in 2 Peter 3:3 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with [their] mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For [ever] since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God [the] heavens existed long ago and [the] earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one [fact] escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

Now I am going to save the exegesis of that passage for a few weeks from now when we come to it, but it’s pretty self explanatory, I think, indicating that what seems like a thousand years to us is but a day in God’s reckoning. So it is proper for Peter to say it is the last days, and for us to be still living in the last days. Also, when you consider that the people who lived before the flood lived almost to the age of 1000 years, then it is entirely appropriate to think of the present age in terms of the last days. But the conclusion of Peter’s argument is what I want to focus on at the moment. Since all these things are coming at the end of the age, and we are living in the end of the age, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Peter is urging us to make the most of our time because the end of time is near. All that we know of this world is temporary and will be destroyed by fire. So how should we live then in light of this?

Paul makes a very similar point in Romans 13:12-14 saying, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to [its] lusts.”

It’s interesting that Peter has just given a similar list of behavior that we should put away in these last days. In vs 3 Peter said, “For the time already past is sufficient [for you] to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.” This is the lifestyle of those who don’t know the Lord, who have the mantra “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.” But Peter now gives the characteristics of those who are sanctified, who are holy, who are living in expectation of the immanent return of Christ and looking forward to it eagerly.

Peter gives us four things, four characteristics which should mark our lives as we live in these last days. He says, be sober, show love, show hospitality, and serve one another. Let’s look at each of these briefly. We who are saved, who are living sanctified lives with Christ already reigning in our hearts will exhibit these four characteristics in the last days.

First we are to be sober. Someone has well said, “The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the Christian controls his temperament, whereas the non-Christian is controlled by it.” The Christian should live in control of his passions, exhibiting self control and sound judgment in his life and dealings with others. Thus Peter says in vs7, “be of sound judgment and sober spirit.” To be sober is not only to be not drunk or involved in drinking parties and carousing like the unbelievers mentioned in vs 3, but it also refers to being serious minded. Clear headed. We are to have our wits about us at all times. We are to be of sound judgment.

The present age has a unhealthy interest in entertainment and escapism. Much of our modern inventions like television or the internet, or sports or even music serve to be a distraction from reality. And it’s difficult in light of the variety of such things to be immune to such things. I’m not suggesting that we cannot be entertained, or see a movie or listen to music. But I am suggesting that it’s a dangerous thing to be consumed with, to have your head constantly filled with frivolous things, which can keep you from thinking about more serious and important things.

Attached to this exhortation to be sober minded, Peter says it is for the sake of your prayers. Our sober mindedness is for the sake of our prayers. Now what kind of prayers specifically is Peter referring to? Is it prayers for other’s salvation? I’m sure that is something we are supposed to be praying for, especially in light of the last days. Is it prayers for health, or blessings or things that might help us or make us more comfortable? Well, the Bible tells us to pray at all times, so those things are certainly included, though not all things are necessarily promised nor profitable. However, I suggest that there is a more probable cause for prayer which Peter has in mind here. And for that we might look back at another event in which Peter was with the Lord, of which it was said that the hour was at hand.

In Matthew 26 we read the account of Peter and the disciples who were supposed to have gone with Christ further into the Garden of Gethsemane in order to pray with Him. And they ended up falling asleep while Jesus went on further to pray alone. And in vs 40 it says Jesus came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you [men] could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

I think that Peter sees the similarities of those last days with Jesus, when they thought things would just continue along as they had been, when they did not discern the signs of the times, and unbeknownst to them it was the last days of Jesus’ time on earth. And the hour of tribulation came and they were sleeping, they were taking their rest. Jesus rebuked them saying, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

I think that event in many respects parallels these last days of which Peter is referring. We do not know the day or the hour when Jesus is returning. And there is a real danger that we become complacent, that we become tired, weary in well doing, and we let our vigilance wane. We need some rest, we think. Church is too early. We are too tired to pray. We are too concerned with the present reality of our comforts to be much concerned about the things of the kingdom, or the time of the end. And so we don’t watch for His coming. We don’t pray that God would deliver us from temptation. We don’t keep a serious outlook and a prayerful attitude and as such we risk being found unfaithful when He returns. Or even worse, we find ourselves having fallen into temptation to sin, thinking that it will be a long time before the Master returns. There will be plenty of time to get serious about the things of God later, down the road. I think that’s the kind of attitude that Peter said we are to be careful about as we see the day fast approaching. Stay sober minded, for the sake of your prayers, that you do not fall into temptation in these last days. Don’t lose sight of the eternal for the sake of the temporal.

The second characteristic we should exhibit as we are in the last days Peter says is show love for one another. Vs 8, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another.” Fervency in love is a love that is not complacent. It’s a love that is reaching out, seeking the well being of others. If you love Christ, then it’s presumed that you will love His body. You will love the church, love one other. But what does that mean? Does that speak of warm, fuzzy feelings? Of some sort of emotional attachment, of some sort of sentimentality that occurs when we are together?

Well, the word love there is agape. And that word should need little explanation. Suffice it to say that agape love is a sacrificial love for another. It’s love that is orientated towards others, and not self orientated. Agape love is the antithesis of sinning against your neighbor. Love is the opposite of selfishness. Love is the opposite of pride. Jesus said this attribute was the premier attribute of his disciples: you will be known as My disciples by your love for one another.

Paul speaks of this in Colossians 3, saying in vs 12, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things [put on] love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” In other words, love is what binds together all these attributes Paul lists there. Sacrificial love is what holds the church together.

And there is an additional benefit which Peter mentions there in vs 8, we should love one another, “because love covers a multitude of sins.” Peter isn’t saying that you can do a loving deed and have your sins wiped out. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can atone for sins. But what he is referring to is that love forgives injuries against us. Love forgives sins against us. That’s what Christ’s love is like, forgiving us when we sinned against Him, even if it meant suffering death to accomplish that forgiveness, for our sakes. Love is other’s orientated. Love is wanting to see other’s benefitted, to see others helped, to see others have enough. Agape love is not a reciprocal arrangement, and by the way, neither is your marriage. Love one another fervently, and forgive one another from the heart.

The third characteristic of sanctified saints living in the last days is they are showing hospitality. Vs.9, “Be hospitable to one another without complaint.” Hospitality was a very necessary trait in the early church as there were not many Holiday Inn’s around in those days. And so travelers were dependent upon the kindness of others in order to find a place to rest or to find safety on the road.

But I think that hospitality has a much broader context in Peter’s mind, and especially in our culture today. I think hospitality is simply love in action. I believe hospitality is sharing what you have with those who are in need. God has given you resources to use not just for selfish reasons, but for building up the body of Christ.

We share a meal with the church on Wednesday nights in order to illustrate this principle in a practical way. It’s obviously not to show off our house, or even our culinary skills, or to try to get people to respond in some way. We share because we have the opportunity to do something for others that expresses the love of Christ for the church. You might say that hospitality is the cost of love. In other words, it’s not just a sentiment, but an action, an action that sometimes costs you something, even to the point of sacrifice, in order to bless someone else.

The final characteristic Peter gives as a principle to live by in the last days, is serving one another. Vs 10, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” It’s interesting that Peter doesn’t give us some long list of spiritual gifts which we can take a test for to see which we might qualify for. I believe there are a variety of spiritual gifts, taking on a variety of forms. But as Paul said when speaking of spiritual gifts, he said if they aren’t accompanied by love then they are a clanging gong. They are just a loud noise to draw attention to yourself.

Please understand this. Spiritual gifts are not given for your edification but for the edification of the church. Paul says in 1Cor. 14:12 “So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual [gifts,] seek to abound for the edification of the church.” Edification by the way, means to build up, not to break down. You haven’t been given a spiritual gift to bust people’s chops. You haven’t been given spiritual gifts to show off your superior spirituality. Whatever gift you have been given is to be used to build up others, not to tear down.

I’ll never forget one fellow that came to our church a few times, and I suppose he fancied himself someone that the Lord had blessed with an abundant sense of discernment. And so one day he invited me to breakfast because he said he had some things he said he wanted to share with me. I supposed that he needed some counsel and so I agreed and met him in a nearby diner. In fact, he had something else in mind. He pulled out a yellow legal pad, and proceeded to read about 10 pages of notes that he had made concerning the style and substance and mannerisms and so forth in my preaching. At first I tried to humbly accept his criticisms about the way I stood, or how I looked or sounded, but after a while I have to admit I had enough. He managed to completely demoralize me and discourage me in about 30 minutes. And all the time he kept assuring me that the Lord had shown him all my faults and he was just trying to do the will of the Lord in setting me straight. Listen, that’s not building up the body, folks. That’s just a critical spirit. The devil does more disservice to the church using so called Christians than he does with unbelievers and atheists. Seek to abound for the edification of the church. That’s what we should be about.

That’s what Peter is saying, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Another point that should be made, is Peter says that you have received at least one spiritual gift; “As each one has received a special gift.” Probably many gifts. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you don’t have a spiritual gift. The only way that happens is if you aren’t saved. But if you’re saved, God has given you a special gift that you are to use. Peter says, put it to use in serving one another as a good steward of the grace of God.

Many years ago I used to be a fine dining restaurant manager. And I had a couple of wine stewards who worked for us. They were in charge of storing, and caring for and dispensing the wine from the wine cellar. They did not own the wine, they were just to care for the dispensing of it in the proper way. And in like manner, we do not own our gifts, they are given to us to use, to dispense, to serve others.

Now Peter breaks down this characteristic into two divisions. First are those who serve the church by speaking or teaching. Peter says that they are to speak as one who is speaking the oracles of God. The description of a steward is very apt when it comes to preachers and teachers in the church. It’s important that we speak what God has spoken. It’s important that we carefully and properly dispense the word of God. That is our job. Not to entertain, not to tell sentimental stories, not to tickle your ears, but to faithfully transmit the word of God and exhort you to listen and obey it.

Paul used this same terminology to describe his own ministry in 1Cor. 4:1-2 saying, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.” Our trustworthiness comes from accurately and carefully studying the word of God, and then serving it to our congregations without contrivance or addition.

The second division Peter relates to those who serve. Vs 11, “whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies.” This illustrates an important aspect in regards to spiritual gifts. Its not talking about talents. A lot of people confuse natural talents with spiritual gifts. They are not necessarily the same. God gives you a spiritual gift to give you the ability or strength to do something that you could not do in the flesh. People hear someone sing who has a beautiful voice for instance, and they say what a tremendous gift God has given them. That’s not a spiritual gift, that’s a talent. It’s possible to give your talent to the Lord to serve Him. And that’s appropriate. But it’s difficult when it’s a talent to not have pride get involved.

The key is, according to Peter, to serve by the strength which God supplies, so that He might get the glory. Serve “by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” The same thought is expressed in Heb. 13:20-21 “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, [even] Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom [be] the glory forever and ever. Amen.” 

So our gifts, and our strength and our sufficiency comes from God, that we might do His will, and be pleasing in His sight. What a contrast to the way of the world Peter has put forth in these few verses. As we see the end drawing near, let us show self control and soberness, praying at all times lest we fall into temptation. And let us show sincere love for one another, even as Christ loved the church and laid down His life for her. And let us show hospitality, sharing with one another, acting out love in practical ways for the sake of others even when it costs us. And let us serve one another, either by sharing God’s word, or by serving one another through the gifts which God has given us for the building up of the body of Christ. And may we be found holy and blameless when He comes. He is coming soon. The time is at hand.

You know, the trees are finally starting to bud as we enter Spring. Jesus said in Luke 21, ”Behold the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they put forth [leaves,] you see it and know for yourselves that summer is now near. “So you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. “But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The recurring theme of Peter’s epistle is sanctification.  Sanctification means to be set apart unto God.  To be holy. To live holy lives.  And the point that has emerged again and again in this letter is that sanctification is a life that is characterized by living in the spirit and not in the flesh.  It is a life of holiness, as opposed to a life of wanton pleasure.

In chapter 1 vs 2, Peter says we have been saved “by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ.” The Spirit sets us apart to be obedient to Christ.  He says in vs2 that we have been born again.  Just as Jesus said to Nicodemus, that the natural man cannot inherit the kingdom of God, so you must be born again by the Spirit, so that you are spiritual.  So that you are reborn holy, righteous. Because the natural man is fleshly, self centered, and sinful.

And now that you are born again into a new life, reborn in holiness, we are to live holy. Your behavior is to be holy.  In ch.1 vs15 Peter says “But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” This change of behavior is sanctification. It begins by a sovereign act of God in salvation, and progressively continues as we are obedient to His commandments, resulting in righteous living.

To that end Peter says in ch 1 vs 22 that you are to purify your souls in obedience to the truth.  That’s how we are to live holy, by obedience to the truth, which is God’s word.  So that our soul, which is our mind and intellect and emotions, are purified.  Having a purified mind is a tough thing to do when you are living in a corrupt world. Peter said about Lot in his second epistle that he was a righteous man who had his soul vexed because of the lawless deeds he saw while living in Sodom and Gomorrah.  We are living in Sodom and Gomorrah today, ladies and gentlemen, no doubt about it.  And as such we are in a battle for the purity of our souls as we observe the world around us.  But we do so by obedience to the truth, through the renewing of our mind in the truth.  That we might be holy, sanctified, a chosen people of God, and priests to our God in the midst of a perverse generation.

Peter establishes the source of our purification in ch 1 vs 23 saying that we are born again from the seed which is the word of God.  That is the source of purification;  our obedience to the word of God. 

So having established the method of sanctification Peter goes on to present the goal of our sanctification in ch 2, saying that we are the chosen people of God, designed to be holy, royal priests unto God, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.  

But then in ch 2 vs 11 Peter makes it clear that sanctification is not a position which we ascend to and then that’s it, but he says that there is a continual battle that the world forces of darkness is waging against your soul. He says, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”  Let me be clear, the purpose of war is to destroy the enemy.  And if you are a child of God then the devil is your enemy and he is determined to destroy you.  Peter says he will attempt to destroy your soul through the lusts of the flesh.  Though your spirit is preserved, yet in your flesh you can still be destroyed both in your effectiveness as a light to the world, and in terms of your reward, or your usefulness.  

Peter goes on to warn in ch 5 vs 8, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”   He wants to destroy your soul. And if you give into the flesh, he will succeed.

Now the key to being victorious in this battle is found in ch 2 vs 24, when he says, “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”  When we think of the cross, we often simply think of it as Christ died for our sins so that we might be saved and have eternal life.  But notice what it says, it says, “so that we might die to sin.” That’s the key.  Just as Jesus died for sin, so we also must die to sin. 

And so Peter equates our  sanctification to the principle of submission, to doing what is right, being “harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.”  These behaviors, this attitude is a safeguard against fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.  They are the perspectives of our behavior, of our attitude of obedience, by which we can live sanctified lives unto God.  Lives that are characterized by seeking the good for others, rather than for seeking self gratification.  That’s the nature of the new life we have in the Spirit which is directly contrary to the me centered theology which is so dominant in evangelical circles today. God is worthy only because He loves me, He accepts me, He blesses me, He does what I want Him to do.  That’s a me centered theology.  But the Biblical view is that I am the problem, I am a sinner, I am fleshly, I am corrupt, and I need to die to myself so that He might live in me. 

So then Peter doubles back to that earlier principle of Christ dying for sin, so that we might also die to sin.  He says in ch 3 vs 18, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”  This is the way to victory in this spiritual battle that we are engaged in.  Christ was victorious over sin and death and the devil, and that came about by His death on the cross in His flesh, but He was alive in His Spirit and proclaimed victory even in the halls of death, that is Hades. 

But as Christ suffered death so that He might reign victorious in His Spirit, so we do the same, dying to self, dying to our fleshly passions, in order that we might live in the Spirit.  “Therefore,” Peter says in chapter 4 vs1, since Christ has suffered death in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered death in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”

Notice the language Peter uses.  This is a war.  He says “arm yourselves.”  Take up arms.  It’s a call to the battle.  The life of a Christian is a life of self sacrifice.  It’s a life of service.  It’s a life of warfare.  The current view of some in the evangelical church that the Christian life is a life of pleasure, of living your best life now, of having fat wallets and good health, is a testimony to the schemes of the devil which wage war against the soul.  It’s a strategy to get Christians to focus on living in the flesh instead of in the Spirit.  But Paul tells us that such a self centered life results in putrefaction rather than purity. Gal. 6:8 “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

So as counter intuitive as it may seem, the way to life is through death.The way to spiritual life is through physical death.  Jesus said in Matt. 10:38-39  “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

So then the secret to being victorious in this war we are engaged in, is to die to the flesh, particularly the lusts of the flesh.  As Peter said, since Christ has suffered death in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered death in the flesh has ceased from sin.  Peter isn’t saying that the only escape we have from the flesh is to commit suicide, or to be terminated in some fashion, but to die to the sinful passions of the flesh.  Crucify the flesh.  Paul said in Gal. 2:20  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  We die to the flesh so that we might live by the Spirit.

Now Peter says we must arm ourselves in three ways for this conflict.  Number one, which I have already alluded to, we arm ourselves in our attitude. We need to have the same mind as Christ, the same way of thinking that He had.  We need to have the attitude which Christ had regarding the flesh, purposefully willing to die to sin.

Paul tells us in Phil. 2:5-8 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  The point is not suffering for sufferings sake, but dying to the flesh.  Christ was willing to die in the flesh.  He did not try to avoid it, but welcomed it.

This attitude is a result of the battle for the mind.  Rom 7:23 “but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.”  Putting to death the lusts of the flesh sets us free to be alive in the Spirit.  So the first way to arm ourselves is in our attitude, considering ourselves dead to the passions of the flesh.

The second way we arm ourselves is to live for the will of God. Vs 2, “so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”  No longer enslaved to the passions of the flesh.  Peter talked about this back in chapter 1 vs 14, saying, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.”  Don’t give in to the former lusts, don’t be conformed to the lusts of the world.  But instead be obedient to the will of God.

Now what is the will of God?  He’s not talking necessarily about a career path for your life, or who you should marry or that sort of thing, but he’s talking about holiness in ch 1 vs 14.  He’s talking about sanctification. We should be holy because He is holy according to chapter 1vs18. 

That’s the will of God. Paul said in 1Thess. 4:3-7 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification;  that you abstain from sexual immorality;  that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,  not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.”  So in this new life, we should live for the will of God which is holiness.  

The third way we arm ourselves is to leave fleshly passions behind. In vs 3, it says “For the time already past is sufficient for you…”  Literally Peter is saying, “Enough!”  The time you spent chasing after the lusts of the flesh is more than enough.  It’s more than sufficient.  Let’s get on to living now for the Lord.”  

Now what are the passions that he’s speaking of? “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.”  All of these things promise self gratification, but end up in dissolution. Sensuality are things that appeal to the flesh, appeals through the senses; touch, feel, smell, taste and sight. Eve sinned because it looked good to the eyes.  Faith though doesn’t rely on the senses.  2 Cor. 5:7 says “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

In speaking of lusts, I believe Peter is speaking of self gratification through sexual immoralities, fornication, adultery, sexual impurity. In regards to drunkeness, carousing, and drinking parties-  I think they are self explanatory. Though I would say that would include anything that undermines sobriety such as drugs.  And idolatries include anything that you put on a pedestal, anything that you worship, anything that you serve. We aren’t so unsophisticated today as to worship an idol on a shelf, but we worship the idols of money, of fame, of possessions.  Peter says the past life was more than enough time to spend on such things.  Leave them behind now in this new life.  Every day put the passions of the past further and further in your rear view mirror.

Paul gives us a parallel to this passage in Romans 13:12-14 “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

Now as you arm yourselves in these three ways, know that it will cost you to do so.  And there are two costs involved.  They are found in vs 4, “In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with [them] into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you.”

The first cost is that your family and friends from the past life are surprised that you are no longer engaged in the things that they are. They don’t understand you anymore. They can’t relate.  I think it’s a telling testimony of a Christian that he or she no longer has the same friends they had prior to being saved.  Not because we are no longer interested in them, or because we are not friendly, but because they no longer understand you, and they no longer feel like hanging out with you.  You’re no fun anymore. They can’t relate to you anymore.  And to that extent, I would be suspicious of a Christian who seems to have a number of unsaved friends.  As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.  And if you’re a Christian, and you still have the same old friends you used to have, hanging out in the same old places, then chances are you’ve never crucified the flesh and are still living in sin.

It’s kind of like a man and woman when they are married. A guy that would rather hang out with his old buddies rather than be with his new wife is a man that really doesn’t love his wife the way he should. And so it is with the Lord.  If you are married to Him, as the bride of Christ, then it stands to reason that you will forsake all others and cling only to Him.  You will prefer to be with other Christians, or prefer to be in church, than to be in the world.

The other cost is that they malign you.  That initial confusion of your old friends soon turns to ridicule.  That hate your holiness because it makes them uncomfortable, even convicted.  I believe that there are a lot of times when just our testimony of being a Christian makes some people hate you.  They might try to pretend acceptance of who you are on the surface, but then something happens and it’s like a trigger and they go off on you.  And it’s very disconcerting when that happens because you don’t know what you did to deserve their outrage.  A lot of times it’s not what you did, but who you are.  They hate you without cause, except that they hate Christ. 

Jesus said in John 15:18-19  “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”

In vs six, Peter presents one final accounting.  He gives us a reminder of a final day of judgment.  This war between the flesh and the spirit will one day come to an end by the appearing of Jesus Christ.  And at that time there will be a judgment.  I think Peter is especially thinking of those that maligned us in this life, those that persecuted the church to any degree. He says in vs 5, “but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

I like the KJV rendering of that verse, it says “Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.”  I believe Sam Elliot was in a movie called the Quick and the Dead. It was from a book written by my wife’s favorite author, Louis L’Amour.  She loves those westerns. I worry that  I’ll never measure up to those cowboys she reads about.  But anyway, there is a final day of judgment for those who are considered in this verse as dead.  That speaks of being spiritually dead.  By rejecting the life through Jesus Christ they have remained spiritual dead, and they will be condemned to eternal death in the Lake of Fire.

So because of this final accounting, our position in this life as Christians is to leave judgment to God.  There is no need to retaliate when they malign you.  In fact, our goal is to win them to the Lord at all costs, even if it means we suffer their hatred. But know that the Lord will settle the books in the end.

The good news of the gospel for us who are saved is  that Christ was judged in our place, and He took the punishment that was due to us, so that we might have spiritual life.  We have been quickened.  We have been given life in the spirit which will continue on after this flesh has fallen away. Peter referencing that says in vs 6, “For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.”

Now I don’t want you to confuse vs 6 with what was spoken of in chapter 3 vs 18 and 19.  There are two different events being talked about.  The first in ch 3 vs18 is when Christ died on the cross and in His Spirit He proclaimed victory to the demons in Hades.  This second passage speaks of those who have heard the gospel preached while here on earth, they were saved as a result, and are now living in the spirit awaiting the resurrection.

The idea that Peter references that they are judged in the flesh as men does not speak to eternal judgment, but it speaks to the principle that it is appointed unto men once to die.  All men are going to die in the flesh as a result of the fall.  But those who believe in the Lord Jesus are made alive in the spirit, and thus they will never die but they live according to the will of God.  There will come a day when Christ shall come again, and we will be raised in our spirits to meet Christ, and then receive a new a glorified body which will be incorruptible, and without sin. And that is the ultimate goal of our sanctification, that is glorification.

The question that I would leave with you today is which camp are you?  Are you of the living or the dead?  Are you living in the flesh, enslaved to the lusts of the flesh, at enmity with God and thus spiritually dead?  Rom. 8:5-8 says, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,  because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,  and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Or are you one who has been made alive in the spirit?  That same passage goes on to say in Rom. 8:12-17 “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh–  for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.  For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

I trust that you have been justified by faith in what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf through the cross, and that you have committed to live for Christ, trusting Him as your Savior and Lord, being sanctified and conformed to the image of Christ, so that you may do the will of God, that at His appearing you might receive the inheritance of glory which has been promised to those who are the children of God. 

If sanctification is becoming conformed to the image of Christ, then it stands to reason that we must suffer the same kind of things that Christ suffered.  Hebrews 5:8 says, Christ learned obedience from the things which He suffered. At the beginning of Peter’s epistle, in chapter 1 vs 2, he makes the correlation between obedience and sanctification. Peter writes to those “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.”  Notice the sanctifying work of the Spirit is to teach us obedience. So then, if we would learn obedience, if we would follow in Christ’s footsteps, then that will include suffering. 

Suffering, as I said in previous messages, is not the goal of our sanctification.  Suffering is a means God uses to bring about sanctification. As the hymn we sing often says, “the flames shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy soul to refine.”  Suffering comes in many varieties of forms.  Suffering meaning not just bearing reproach or physical wounds, but suffering as the mortification of the flesh, in which we die to sin, we buffet our body and make it our slave so that we do not lose our reward.

Paul said in Philippians, that all the things which had been gain to him,  he suffered as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus as Lord. Phl. 3:8 “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”  And so we see that suffering may be considered losing things, perhaps losing respect, losing standing in the community, losing friends, or losing a job or your stance for Christ even costing you financial loss.

Suffering, on some level at least, is something that all true followers of Christ will endure.  2Timothy 3:12 says, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  Perhaps the reason that many Christians are not suffering persecution is because they are not living godly lives.  They are not living holy lives.  Peter will go on to say in the next chapter that your old friends from the previous days of your ungodly life will not be cheering you on in the new life of holiness.   1Peter 4:4 “In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you.”

If you are not being maligned, if you are not being ostracized by family, by coworkers, by old friends because you no longer participate in the unfruitful works of darkness as Peter describes at the beginning of chapter 4, things like “a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries,” then perhaps it’s because they haven’t yet seen much difference between the old man and the new life you have in Christ.   

That’s why Peter says in vs 15, that we are to sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.  That means that we set apart our lives to serve Christ as Lord.  Jesus is the Lord of our hearts.  He is to rule our emotions, He is to rule our will, He is to be Lord of all we do and say.  We are no longer our own person, living just to do whatever we want, or to live wantonly according to our passions, but we are bought with a price, with the precious blood of Jesus and our life belongs to Christ.  When our passions and desires are ruled by Christ the Lord, then we will no longer run to the same kind of things that the world runs to, and as they see this, they won’t encourage us towards godliness, but they will malign us.  They will speak evil about us, they will see us as their enemy, because our righteousness serves as a goad to their conscience.  It makes them feel guilty and they will hate you for it.

There is also though the possibility, indicated by Peter in the same verse, that we are not maligned, we are not suffering because we are not much of a testimony.  If we are not seeking to evangelize the lost, especially our lost friends or family members, then we are probably not suffering much.  But if we are seeking to make disciples, if we are acting as ambassadors for the gospel, proclaiming the gospel to our friends, our coworkers, our neighbors, our communities, even to the ends of the earth, then we can expect suffering to be a part of our testimony.

Let me encourage you, no let me challenge you, to fulfill your ministry, and be ambassadors for the gospel.  This is your commission given to you by our Lord in Matthew 28.  If He truly is your Lord, then you will seek to do that which He asks of you. If you love Him you will keep His commandments.  2Cor. 5:10-11 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.  Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.”  Your deeds are manifest to God.  Your faithfulness is manifest by your witness to the world, by your faithfulness to be Christ’s ambassador to the world.  When Christ appears, He will reward what you have done for His kingdom while here on earth in your body.  

Having then a holy reverence for God and for His will, let us persuade men.  Let us be ambassadors for the gospel.  The responsibility  to be a witness for Christ is not just the pastor’s job, but it is the job of the church.  The growth of the body of Christ is not just the responsibility of the clergy, but it’s the responsibility of the people of the church to do the work of the ministry.  Ephesians 4:11-12 says “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,  for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”  You are the saints, being equipped for the work of service, to build up the church, to be His ministers, His ambassadors to the world.  I urge you to be about the work of the kingdom.  You cannot say you love the Lord, and not tend to His sheep.  You cannot say you love the Lord, and not love those for whom He died.  You cannot say Lord, Lord, and not do what He says we are to do.

Now then, if you suffer while doing good, if you suffer as a result of your witness, Peter asks, who can really hurt you?  What can they really do to you?  They may take your things, they may take your freedom, they may take even your physical life, but they cannot hurt you, because your life is in Christ.  Your life is in the spirit, not just in the body.  And through our spirit we have eternal life.  Though we die in the flesh, yet we are alive in the spirit. Though the body should die, we will still live.  Jesus said, Whosoever believes in Me shall never die.”

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, a passage which correlates closely with 1 Peter 3, he says in vs 1, “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  This tent which is our body is temporary, but the house made by God is the eternal dwelling of the Spirit in which we have true life.  And though this tent may be torn down, our house stands forever.  Paul continues, saying in vs 6, “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord–  for we walk by faith, not by sight–  we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”  So do not be afraid of them that can only harm the body, but not the spirit.

Now to illustrate this point, Peter gives us an example once again of Christ, saying in vs 18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”  The main point Peter is making is that Christ suffered and died for the sake of the gospel, and  though His body was in the tomb, yet He was alive in the Spirit and still accomplishing the plan of God. And if we have life in Christ, then we have been made alive in the spirit, and though this flesh should pass away, yet we will live on in the spirit, even as Christ lived in the spirit and fulfilled the purposes of God.  Christ fulfilled the plan of the gospel even though He suffered unto death, because He was alive in the Spirit and was obedient to the Father. Death did not stop Him, but He triumphed over death because He was alive in Spirit.

Now in this statement, Peter is also alluding to a mystery that has confounded many Christians  for generations as they looked at this verse.  And though it can be somewhat of a departure from the main point to look too deeply into this passage, it is helpful to understand what he is talking about, both so that we may fully understand this verse and also because it has a great influence on our understanding of eschatology. 

Peter is making the point which should be evident to all that when Christ died on the cross He was not dead in a tomb for three days waiting the resurrection.  Though His body lay in the tomb, He was alive in the Spirit.  That is in keeping with what Paul said earlier in 2 Cor. 5; to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.   And Peter says that while alive in the Spirit He made proclamation to the spirits in prison.  Peter identifies further these spirits by saying that they were kept in prison because of a prior disobedience.  So these are  fallen angels, who are called spirits, who he says, were disobedient during the days of Noah during the construction of the ark.

In Genesis 6 we have a description of this angelic disobedience. It says that the sons of God, a phrase used in this case to indicate angels, looked upon the daughters of men and lusted after them, and took on flesh so that they could cohabit with them and they had children, called the Nephalim, who were powerful creatures.  And Moses said that their wickedness was so great, that evil filled the earth, and God determined to destroy the earth and creation as a result.  God said “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”  God was not simply talking about limiting the life span there of humans, but He is talking about the patience of God that waited 120 years while Noah built the ark, giving time for man to repent at the preaching of Noah.  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent the flood, and the door to the Ark was closed and all life was killed in the flood except that which was in the Ark.

These disobedient angelic beings however, God punished by holding them in chains in the deepest pit of Hades until the last judgment.  Jude speaks of this  in Jude vs 6 “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”  The strange flesh those disobedient angels went after was human flesh, aka the daughters of men.  And God has exacted a particular punishment upon them for this crime as an example to the other angels, keeping them in chains until the day of judgment.

Peter says then that while Jesus’s body was in the tomb, in His Spirit He went to the prison to make proclamation to those same spirits.  Not for the purpose of salvation, but for the purpose of proclamation; that He had overcome Satan and death and sin, all of which are the enemy of mankind and which threatened to overthrow the creation of God.  Christ went there during those three days to declare victory over death and sin and the devil, and to announce He would now take captivity captive to the kingdom of God.  By the way, though the Apostle’s Creed is not inspired by the Holy Spirit, it does state that the early church’s belief that Christ descended into Hades, or the lower parts of the earth as Paul mentioned in Ephesians 4:9.  The traditional view of the Jews is that Sheol, or Hades, is in the center of the earth.  Thus 1Thess. 4:16 says, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”

There is a lot more that could be said on this subject, but suffice it to say that God’s purposes for salvation are not hindered by suffering or even by death, but God is accomplishing HIs plan on earth.  And we are to act as an essential part in this plan.  Part of the way God’s plan is accomplished is through suffering, even as Jesus suffered to fulfill the will of God in bringing salvation to men.  And we suffer, to the extent that God requires, without fear, knowing that God has given us life, and He will raise us up on the last day, even as He raised Christ from the dead.  But even as we await the resurrection, death has not triumphed over us, because we live in the spirit, even as Christ lived in the Spirit.

I will add one further explanation, which corresponds to what Jesus spoke of concerning Lazarus and the rich man who died.  There are two compartments to Hades, known as Sheol in the Hebrew or in Greek as Hades, which has an upper and lower compartment, with a great chasm in between which no one can cross. And those who go to sleep in Jesus will be comforted in Paradise, where Jesus said to the thief on the cross they both would be later that day.  That is the resting place of the Christian until the resurrection.  The unsaved, pictured by the rich man, is a place of torment, in the lower region of Hades, awaiting the day of the final judgment.

Now this preaching that Jesus made to the disobedient angels in His Spirit, was not a message of salvation, but a message of judgment.  Angels cannot be saved, and the scripture says they are kept in chains until the day of judgment.  But that message of judgment to man is an essential part of the message of the gospel.  Noah preached a message of the coming judgment.  John the Baptist preached judgment which was coming, and that they should repent.  Jesus preached of the coming judgment. Peter preached judgment on the day of Pentecost.  Judgment is a vital part of the message that we are to preach.  Hebrews 9:27 says  “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”  

Because of God’s judgment against sin, Jesus was crucified, so that we might receive life.  Vs 18 says, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.”  Judgment is a necessary part of the gospel message.  The problem with modern evangelism today is that we don’t want to emphasize judgment.  We don’t want to talk about hell.  So we try to seduce the unbeliever to the kingdom through just emphasizing the fact that God loves you.  Yes, God loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die in your place, taking the judgment that was due us.  But the fact that God’s wrath is poured out against sin is the reason Jesus had to die.  We are unjust.  We were sinners.  We are all under the condemnation of sin and are destined for God’s wrath.   Judgment is coming. Jesus is coming back a second time in judgment.  Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.  But reject Him to your eternal peril.  You will surely die eternally for your sins, unless by substitution you claim Christ’s death on your behalf.  The just died for the unjust to reconcile us to God that we might escape judgement. 

Oh, Christian, do you see your loved one who has rejected Christ?  Do you understand that they are going into everlasting torment?  Do you believe that?  Aren’t you concerned about that? Do you believe that your neighbor, that really nice older man or woman, who are not saved, they are under the condemnation of God’s judgment against sin?  Do you really expect to see them one day look at you with horror  in their eyes as God declares, “Depart from Me I never knew you,”  and He casts them into eternal hell?  And yet you claim to love your neighbor?  Are you not concerned?  Will you not implore them, beg them, constrain them to accept Christ?  Or do you not believe in God’s judgement?  Do you not really believe in Hell?  Then, I am afraid you do not really believe in Christ, for He died on the cross and descended into Hell, so that we might escape it.

If you will now commit to speak to that one you know is not a true believer, who is not born again, then Peter gives us some guidelines on how we should do that.  First he says in vs 13 be zealous for what is good.  Jesus said “Zeal for thy house has consumed Me.”  If we truly understand the nature of judgment and salvation then we will be zealous.  Be zealous to speak to them today, before it’s too late.  We need a zeal for evangelism, an enthusiasml for the gospel, and a passion to see people saved.

Secondly, Peter says in vs 14, don’t fear their intimidation or be afraid.  Don’t be intimidated by thinking that they will reject you or revile you. Don’t be intimidated that they may not  be interested and are going to think you are a weirdo.  Be bold in the Lord.  Realize that you are merely the mouthpiece, God’s is speaking to their heart and convicting them in ways you cannot see or understand.  Trust God, don’t be afraid of man.  What can they do to you? If they are saved, they will thank you.  And if they reject the gospel and are damned, then at least they cannot blame you for not telling them the truth.

Third, Peter says in vs 15, be prepared to make an explanation of the gospel.  Study to show yourself approved unto God a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  That’s one of the reasons you should come to church and come to Bible study.  So that you are equipped to be able to make an explanation of the gospel.  That doesn’t mean that you have to have a PHD in theology, just know the gospel.  It’s as simple as it says in vs 18; “Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.” That’s the gospel in a nutshell, and that’s something I teach every week.  But study it for yourself and learn to be able to explain the gospel to whoever is willing to hear.

Fourth, Peter says in vs 15, do so with gentleness and reverence.  There are ways of effective communication.  Standing on a street corner yelling at people and telling them they are going to hell is probably not the most effective means of getting the gospel out there.   I think Peter is saying speak the gospel in reverence for God, “knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men.”  But also have a reverence for the hearer.  Show the proper respect.  Don’t be antagonistic.  The gospel is offensive enough without you adding an abrasive, confrontational attitude to it. Ephesians 4:15 says speak the truth in love.

And fifth, if you’re going to get rejected, or if you’re going to suffer because of your witness in some way or another, be sure it’s because you are doing right and not wrong. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about speaking to someone about the gospel.  You don’t ridicule them, you don’t unnecessarily offend them or embarrass them.  Again and again while I was at this pastor’s conference last week I kept having this verse come up.  I think God was trying to give me a message.  The verse is from Isaiah, which Jesus quoted in Matthew12:20  “A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF, AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OUT, UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY.”  What that means is that there may be some people God puts in your path in whom there is but a smoldering wick of flame.  Jesus said nurture that flame, encourage that flame, be gentle with that flame that it is not extinguished.  A bruised reed means roughly the same thing, someone in whom there is hardly any life left, don’t be the means by which they are finally broken.  

2Cor. 5:18 says “Now all [these] things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”  Reconciliation is a great word, it means the restoration of friendly relations.  It speaks of making peace.  Jesus has made peace with God on our behalf, that we might become friends of God.  Let that be the principle by which we engage in evangelism, and imploring others to be reconciled to God.

Starting in vs 20 Peter gives us one final illustration of the gospel.  And it’s the account of the flood.  As I said, the flood came as a result of God’s judgment against sin.  The whole earth was under the condemnation of death.  But God gave Noah a message of salvation which he patiently preached for 120 years.  When the fullness of God’s patience was finished, God closed the door to the ark and eight people were kept inside safe from the destruction.  We all know that story.  

But what we probably didn’t all recognize is that it is a picture of salvation.  And Peter says in that regard, baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a clean conscience.  Peter is speaking metaphorically  of baptism as being like Noah and his family being delivered from the destruction of the water. Baptism is symbolic of salvation. Not the actual water washing us is the means of salvation, but it represents the washing away of our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ.  The ark is a picture of Christ’s work on the cross.  Through Him we are passed from death unto life.  Through Him we are delivered from the condemnation of death into a new life, and ultimately to a new heaven and new earth. Jesus said, “behold, I make all things new.”  And so Peter likens baptism to an appeal for a clean conscience, or a new beginning, by repentance of our sin and faith in the work of Christ.

Back in 2 Cor. 5:17 it says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” In baptism, we are symbolically raised to new life when we come up out of the water.  There is new life in Christ, life that overcomes death and continues when the corruptness of this body is finally done away with.  

And our salvation is guaranteed by the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead, vs.22, who is now at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”  All power on earth and in heaven has been subjected to Jesus.  He proclaimed victory over sin and death and the angels when He went to Hades, He proved victorious when He ascended on high and took HIs rightful place at the Father’s right hand, the hand of privalege, the hand of power, the seat of all authority over the devil and every thing on earth.  He has authority over death and hell. And our salvation is guaranteed by Him, who is over all authority.  Our eventual resurrection and life with God for eternity is guaranteed by Christ.

Peter says in his second epistle that the earth was destroyed the first time by water, but the second time will be by fire, when the earth and it’s works will be burned up.  John writes of what will happen when God destroys this world in final judgment. Rev 21:1-8 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer [any] sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be [any] death; there will no longer be [any] mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”  And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”  Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.  “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.  “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part [will be] in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Rev. 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”  Christ has died in your place, so that you might have eternal life.  Come to Him and believe in Him  and trust in Him as your Lord and Savior that you might have life and escape the judgment which is coming upon all the world.  It’s appointed for a man or woman once to die, and after that the judgment.  Come to Christ and live.  The invitation is still open, the door to the Ark is still open.  Don’t wait.  Come to Christ today.

I’m sure you have all heard of someone who is at the top of the world, or the height of fame, or something to that effect, and they are said to be “living the good life.” In the jargon of the world the phrase “living the good life” is associated with having an abundance of material things to enjoy; money, nice clothes, good food, luxurious vacations, and expensive cars, beautiful  houses and beautiful people.  To the world it means having the kind of life that is fulfilling, that is happy, that has all the luxuries of life in abundance.  This is the American dream.  I think you might even say for a lot of people that it’s the Christian dream.  To have all that your heart desires is considered by many Christians today to be the fulfillment of the gospel in our lives. They quote the verse found in Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”  They believe that the good life means to have all that your heart desires.  They believe you get to obtain the material blessings which many teach are the results of being spiritually blessed.  Some preachers have made this doctrine the hallmark of their ministries, “how you can live your best life now.” 

The question though is whether or not our perspective of what constitutes the good life,  is formed by our carnality or by our spirituality. 

Peter speaks in this chapter about living the good life.  He speaks about the blessings the Christian can expect.  And for those of you who like such things, he even gives us a formula for living the good life.  We like formula’s don’t we?  Well, Peter gives us, so to speak, a formula or a series of steps we can take in order to life the good life.  But I will warn you in advance, the good life in God’s perspective probably differs considerably from the good life that the world promises.

In vs 10 Peter is quoting from Psalm 34, which says in vs 12, “Who is the man who desires life

And loves length of days that he may see good?” The Septuagint version, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament that Peter and the apostles were familiar with, says it this way, as translated into the KJV; “For he that will love life, and see good days…” So semantics aside, the gist of what is being said is that if you want to live the good life, then these things are the principles you must live by.

Now I want to clarify one more thing by way of introduction before we get into the formula. And that is what is this good life that is spoken of? It’s the same kind of life that Jesus spoke of when He said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  The Greek word for life there is the same word that is used by Peter, which is zoe.  And let me give you the definition of zoe; it means the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animated.  It means to really live in all the fullness of life. It speaks of spiritual life, having the fullness of life as it was intended at creation,  an abundant life, even everlasting life. 

Let me say further as an answer to my own earlier question, that the good life is found by living life in the Spirit, not in the flesh. It’s not found in carnal, material possessions, but it’s found in walking by the Spirt, living in the Spirit.  So while Peter does talk about inheriting blessings in vs 9, he is not necessarily talking about carnal possessions, or money, or riches.  Those things do not satisfy.  They don’t bring fulfillment, they do not give happiness, and they certainly are not tied to an eternal reward. Jesus said in another place, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not [even] when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”  And Paul in Galatians warns that “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

Now as I said last Wednesday night at Bible study, everlasting life or eternal life is not something we gain when we die and get to heaven.  It’s something that begins when you are born again.  And this new life in Christ is spiritual life, nurtured and taught by the Holy Spirit, and one in which we are to grow and mature.  And that maturation process is what we call sanctification.  Where we begin to follow in the pattern of Christ, following His footsteps, as Peter outlined in chapter 3vs21, and in so doing we develop the mind of Christ, we act in righteousness, we become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, that the world might see by our testimony of life the truth of the gospel and that they might be saved.

This sanctified life that we live is what Peter is talking about as the zoe life.  It’s what we who have the life are supposed to desire, that we might see good days, and that we might inherit a blessing.  And that blessing is the gift of everlasting, eternal, zoe life.

So in vs 8 he says he is summing up what he has been saying all along.  He’s summing up this teaching about sanctification. And the goal of our sanctification is that our life may be like Christ’s life.  That’s the abundant life.  That’s zoe life. It’s not a life free from illness, it’s not a life free from suffering, or from persecution. It’s not a life filled with all the world’s goods.  It’s a vibrant, spiritual life, a meaningful, fulfilling eternal life even in spite of suffering.  Just a cursory read of 1 Peter  and you will see that he was writing to Christians who were suffering, who were being persecuted.  Yet again and again he makes the point in this epistle that in spite of their suffering, they should live righteously, living in the fullness of the Spirit led life.  

So let’s get into the formula for the good life.  A life that God defines as good, and that God will bless.  The first point that Peter makes is that such a life requires the right attitude. It requires the right perspective. It requires the mind of Christ. And he goes on to say that this right attitude will be characterized by five things.

The first aspect of a right attitude is harmonious. “To sum up, all of you be harmonious.” Harmonious means to be like be like minded.  To think the same, that’s what harmonious means, to be like-minded. It has the sense of unity. Let me qualify that though by saying this; unity for the sake of unity without believing in the same truth is not Biblical. The United Methodist Church just had a big international conference about unity.  It was in reference to their views towards LGBTQ issues.  And only by the more conservative African votes were they able to maintain unity.  But a large faction of particularly the American arm of the UM Church was in favor of accepting the LGBTQ agenda. And afterwards I read a quote by one of the African spokespersons who rightly said, “Separation in truth is better than unity in error.”  So particularly in church doctrine, we do not compromise on the truth for the sake of unity.  

But I’m not sure that church unity is what Peter is really referring to here.  I think he’s talking about considering another persons needs as just as important as your own needs.  Not working against one another, but working with one another. I think the idea of having a complementary attitude is what is being said here. Not flattery, but working with one another even though you may not all be singing the same note.  Recognizing that God uses varying talents, and varying gifts, in order to weave together a tapestry.  As Paul said to the church at Corinth, all the parts of the body are necessary.  A good analogy might be a choir, where everyone sings, but they sing with individual voices and singing different parts, and yet the whole sounds harmonious.  We should look for ways to work with others,  to be a complement to one another, rather than try to make everyone be like us.

The second word that Peter uses in regards to the right attitude is sympathetic. Sympathetic means to show sympathy.  It means caring about another’s problems.  Showing sympathy towards someone who is suffering.  Too often the church is viewed by the world as unsympathetic.  We seem like we condemn everyone who isn’t one of us. And yet we forget where we came from.  We forget who were were and what we were like before we were saved.  Because we were fallen, sinful creatures we should be able to show sympathy to those who are also fallen, trapped by sin, and suffering the ravages of the devil.  It doesn’t mean we wink at sin, but that we have mercy on those who are still in their fallen condition.  Zechariah 3:1-2 speaks of Joshua the high priest as a brand plucked from the burning.  Jude speaks of having mercy on some, snatching them out of the fire.  Both indicate the means by which we were added to the church, only by God’s grace and mercy.  And so we should be caring towards others, and sympathetic towards those who are suffering.

The third word he uses is the word from which we get Philadelphia.  It’s translated as brotherly. It’s talking about an attitude of brotherly love that should be a characteristic of the good life. This kind of love is related to a love of family.  It’s recognizing that we are all of the family of God.  It’s sharing in the kind of love that God had for the world, in that He gave His only begotten Son in order that they might be saved.  It’s the kind of love that the Good Samaritan showed towards the man that he found by the road who had been robbed and beaten.  Jesus said the world will know you are My disciples by your love you show for one another.  

The fourth word is “kind-hearted.”    It means “compassionate.”  It means tender-hearted.  It’s sympathy in action.  It means showing mercy.  Showing love.  It’s one thing to have sympathy for someone who is in need, and another thing to act to serve that need. The Good Samaritan could have had all kinds of emotive feelings about the person lying in the ditch and yet done nothing.  But he showed compassion in getting down from his horse and tending the man’s wounds, and paying for his medical needs and physical needs from his own money.  Compassion is an attribute of Christ that we should emulate.

The fifth word is humble in spirit. Jesus was humble in spirit.  Above all others, He had a right to be exalted. Phil. 2:6-8 “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”   Paul tells us in Philippians what it means to be humble;  Phil. 2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;  do not [merely] look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”James 4:6 says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

So these five attributes are the characteristics of the right attitude, which is necessary if you are going to live the good life.  And of course, it should be evident that the one person in whom all these attributes were most clearly exhibited was Jesus Christ.  And Peter has said that we are to follow His example by walking in his footsteps.

In addition to the right attitude, we need to have the right response if we would live the good life. And to that Peter says in vs 9, “not returning evil for evil or insult for insult.” We’ve talked about this before, about not giving a tit for tat.  Not treating others as you are treated. 

The fact is that there is evil in the world.  There is more evil than there is good.  In fact, evil is the default position of the world, I am afraid. It’s more natural to do evil than good.  We were talking at dinner the other night and my son mentioned that it seemed the majority of people that he came into contact with through his work or daily activities seemed to be rude.  He said it seemed like that most people were so concerned about their own problems that they had no energy or inclination to be nice to others.  But there was one woman that he mentioned that was always nice.  And she made such an impression upon him, especially because so many others were rude.

As Christians, as people of God, don’t you think we ought to be one of those people that someone might say, “she is always so nice.” I’m afraid that I might act more rude than I actually  feel.  I admit I don’t always act nice, but neither do I realize that I sometimes act rude.  And yet I am told because of my carelessness, or my preoccupation with something or another, I often come across as rude.  It’s something that we should work on.  It’s not the way we are supposed to act.  

The key is not to retaliate. Not to come back with a retort.  I have been on the receiving end of criticism a few times in my life.   And though I can’t say I am always this way, I have tried on a few occasions to bend over backwards to diffuse the situation. And when I did so I found that it usually resulted in a complete reversal on the part of my accuser.  And over time I learned the hard way never to respond to letters or emails or texts in an acrimonious way.  But to allow their retort to go unanswered.   The Bible says a soft answer turns away wrath.  

Matthew 5:38, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said Verse 38,  “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 an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on [the] evil and [the] good, and sends rain on [the] righteous and [the] unrighteous.”  So in other words, Jesus is saying that God does good to evil people, and so should we.

In the same way notice that Peter says, rather than retaliate, give a blessing instead.  That’s kind of like taking our response to evil another level.  How do you give a blessing to those who insult you?  How do you give a blessing to someone who has done evil towards you?  Peter says give a blessing to such people.  How do you do that in real life?

Well, to start with, I believe giving a blessing means to forgive them.  Jesus when He was being nailed to a cross, prayed “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Stephen prayed the same thing when he was being stoned to death.  To forgive someone is to bless them.  Another way Jesus showed us to give a blessing is to pray for them. It’s to seek their good, ultimately, to seek their salvation. 

Peter said in vs 9, “but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.”  To inherit something means that you didn’t earn it.  It’s something that is given to you. This blessing we have been given is no less than everlasting life and all the glory that will be ours at the consummation of the Kingdom. And since you were given a blessing you didn’t earn, then shouldn’t we give a blessing to those who don’t deserve it as well?

The next attribute that we are to exhibit if we are living the good life is we must have the right standard.  In vs 10 Peter is quoting from the Old Testament, Psalms 34.  He’s quoting from scripture to validate what he is saying.  In other words, he’s not just making up this criteria out of worldly philosophy, but he’s providing a scriptural basis.  And notice that the verses  he is quoting from in Psalm 34 echo the very same themes he has been saying in vs 8 and 9. 

Let’s read what he quotes;  For, “THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS, MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.  “HE MUST TURN AWAY FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD; HE MUST SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT. 

So if you want to have the good life, the zoe life, the life of Christ living in you, then don’t speak evil, don’t speak deceitfully, slanderously, insultingly.  Turn away from evil and do good, give a blessing instead, pray for them, forgive them.  Seek peace and pursue it.  In the beatitudes Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  That’s a blessing that we cannot even comprehend, to be called the sons of God.  In Romans 12:18 Paul said, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”  I wonder if we are doing that to the best of our ability.  I wonder if instead of being called peacemakers, I wonder if we are being called troublemakers. I hope not. 

The final aspect of the good life that we are to aspire to is that we need the right incentive. Notice vs 12, which is still quoting from Psalm 34,  “FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER, BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL.”

So our incentive to live the good life is because the eyes of the Lord are watching us. The eyes of the Lord is a rather ominous phrase, isn’t it?  We get the picture of God watching to see if we are going to mess up and then He will punish us.  But the eyes of the Lord is not necessarily a figure of speech that implies judgement so much as watch care over His people.  It’s like a father or a mother who watches over their children, never taking their eyes off of them.  

Why is the Lord watching us so closely?  Is it to pounce when we fall?  No, the Psalmist says it’s because His ears attend to our prayer.  In other words, He is watching over us, listening for our prayers.  He is waiting for us to call out to Him, much as a parent watches over a child playing outside, their ears tuned in case he should call out Mommy! or Daddy!   And God is ready and willing to come to our rescue at a moment’s notice.  Read the rest of Psalm 34, I don’t have time to read it all now, but it’s a Psalm of assurance that God will rescue us, that He will help us in the time of need.

Vs.4, “I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.”

Vs 6,7,  “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his troubles.  The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them.”

Vs. 17, “The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles.”

So there is the response of a merciful, gracious, compassionate Father towards His children, watching over them, listening to their prayers.  He helps us when we are unjustly treated, He helps us when we suffer.  He helps us when we try to walk like Christ walked as sanctified in a fallen world. 

But there is a different response of God towards those that are evil.  It says the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.  If you are not a child of God, (and children are known by their obedience to their Father,) then God will turn to those with a face of wrath.   There will be a day of judgement for every careless word or deed for every man and woman living on the earth. The face of the Lord often is used in the Bible to speak of judgment.

Revelation 6:16,  When at the coming of Christ the people begin to cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them they say, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.”  The face of God, the face of the Lamb, associated with wrath, with anger against sinners.  There will be a day of reckoning for those who reject Christ.

The invitation still stands however, for you to become a child of God.  That you might have the life that comes from Christ, even the best life, the good life, the zoe life, life eternal.  Jesus came to offer Himself as a substitute to take your place by death on the cross to save you from the penalty of sin, if you will just trust Him and believe in Him as your Lord and Savior.  To those who come to Him in faith He will give eternal life.  You can live the good life.  You can have life, and have it more abundantly.  Come to Jesus today and trust Him as your Savior for the forgiveness of your sins, and find new life in Him.