1 Peter 3:13-17 Submission as Sufferers
Good morning! We’re back in 1 Peter this morning, chapter 3 verses 13-17, on a whole new page in the pew Bibles, page 1015!
In the last few weeks we have talked about everybody’s favorite Christian virtue, submission. Submission as citizen, submission as servants, submission as spouses, submission as saints, and now we are on to: submission as sufferers. Submission and suffering all in one sermon! Woohoo!
So to begin, let’s go back to verse ten of chapter three.
“Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
Let’s pray.
Now I’ve heard sermons on this text that are all to do with evangelism and how we should tell everybody about the hope that is in us, and we should. I’ve heard sermons on this text all about apologetics and how we need to be able to defend the faith, and we should.
But I don’t think that’s Peter’s point at all. I think the simple truth is found in the question: Do you really trust in God?
I’ve entitled this sermon: Submission as Sufferers because suffering is the context, suffering is the stage upon which our faith truly performs, really, suffering is the stage upon which that which we trust is truly revealed.
Suffering pulls back the curtain to see who is really behind all the fire and smoke, it reveals who really is at the controls of our lives.
“Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
That last phrase bears some investigation, “who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?”
The word “to do harm,” has the same Greek root as the word “evil” that we talked about last week: “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling…”
To be zealous, is to be deeply committed to something and therefore zealous, or eager, or enthusiastic.
And what is good, what is the good that we should be zealous for and deeply committed to? It’s Jesus, right?
So, let’s use our favorite Bible study tool for understanding meaning: a plain reading of the text!
Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for doing good? Does this really mean that no one can harm a Christian if they are deeply committed to Christ? Let’s look at a short list…
Peter – crucified upside down, James – killed with a sword, John – died in exile, Andrew – crucified, Philip – crucified, Thaddeus – crucified, Simon the Zealot – crucified, Bartholomew – beaten with rods, scourged, then beheaded, Matthew – stabbed to death, Thomas – pierced with spears, James son of Alpheus – stoned then clubbed to death.
Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for doing good? Were these men zealous for doing good, were they committed to Jesus who is good?
Yes, and thought they were all slain they were all welcomed into the arms of Christ. On the surface it looks like great harm was done to them, great evil, but that is because our definition of what is good is so tied to this life.
Their trust was in the Lord Jesus, no earthly evil could harm their eternal good.
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.
There is no promise that we will not suffer, there is no promise that there won’t be people who want to harm the church, or to do evil to us individually. But there is a promise that if we should suffer for righteousness’ sake we will be blessed. Jesus said in Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,
This is a quotation from Isaiah 8:12, 13, 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Do not fear what they fear, or, do not fear the fear that they cause, don’t be stirred up emotionally or be distressed, don’t be troubled by the trouble that they cause. Sounds easy, right?
John Calvin wrote, “If we are convinced from the depth of our soul that the promised help of God is all-sufficient, we shall be most effectually armed against all fear.”
JP Lange also, wrote, “The world is enraged, Satan shows his teeth, it rains enemies; should this make you alarmed, you who love God? Have you not a Father who is almighty, and a King who is the conqueror of all His enemies? Shall men, vile dust and ashes as they are, or hell itself then be able to hurt one hair of your head unless He permits it? Therefore be courageous! The Lord is with you; come sword of the Lord!”
We have no need to fear harm or even death because, in Jesus, we have victory in, and over, both.
But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy… but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy…
Christ the Lord IS the Lord of hosts, revere Him as God! Through faith in Him we have victory over our circumstances and victory over death, even if our circumstances lead to death.
Faith means trust, they are the same word in Greek and they mean the same thing, our problem, or at least one of our problems, is that we limit faith to only salvation. We trust in Christ to pay the penalty for our sin on the cross but that is just the beginning of the wonderful, horrible, blessed, difficult, Christian life. Now that we trust Him with our sin, we need to trust Him with our lives.
Peter’s thoughts here are all about suffering. Suffering is part of humanity, but there is unique suffering that is part of Christianity, suffering for righteousness sake, suffering for holding to Biblical principles, suffering for not valuing earthly things.
This suffering is very real, and it happens all over the world. But it doesn’t just happen in places where Christianity is illegal, it happens in the halls of our schools, in the locker rooms, in our workplaces, and in our neighborhoods, and even in our families.
But here is the wonderful blessing that suffering is: suffering exposes our hope, suffering is the stage for our faith to perform, for our hope to be exercised and for the gospel shared with gentleness and respect. So we ought to submit, as sufferers, to God’s will.
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…
“Make a defense,” here, in Greek is where we get the theological term, “apologetics,” which simply means, a defense of the faith.
And there’s a lot to be said about these few verses but we can’t separate them from their context. Peter is talking about the church’s response to suffering for being a Christ follower. And what is that response? Hope.
Always be prepared in the face of suffering to defend the reason for the hope that is in you.
I’ve been talking all this time just so I could get to this: Hope means to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.
So what is your hope, what is the reason for the hope that you have within you?
Is your hope in your circumstances, you just hope that things will get better in this life? That you’ll get into the school you want, or get the job you want, or the spouse that you want, that the Red Sox will win the World Series, that it won’t rain tomorrow?
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:19, If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Our hope is not that things in this life will get better, our hope, our confident expectation of that which is good and beneficial is that Jesus conquered death and has purchased a place for us in His eternal kingdom.
You can say amen to that if you’d like here and now, but as Peter wrote, the confession of the reason for our hope must be accompanied with a good conscience, knowing that our faith, our hope, and our behavior all line up.
John Calvin wrote, “What we say without a corresponding life has but little weight. For we see that many are sufficiently ready with their tongue, and prattle on, very freely, and yet with no fruit, because their life does not correspond. Besides, the integrity of conscience alone is that which gives us confidence in speaking as we ought; for they that prattle much about the gospel, and whose dissolute life is a proof of their impiety, not only make themselves objects of ridicule, but also expose the truth itself to the slanders of the ungodly.”
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
Amen.
