Sermon Transcript
As Nate mentioned, we’re still in our series in 1 Peter, and we’re in chapter 2, verses 11 through 20 today. Those will be up on the screen in just a second if you want to follow along that way or find it on your own. Either way will work perfectly well. We’re so glad that you’re here this morning and joining with us as we hear what God would want to say to us. From these verses.
Let’s check it out. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11, Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to the governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.
Live as free people, But do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God.
Honor the emperor. Slaves, in reverent fear of God, submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is commendable before God.
Christians can unfortunately sometimes act like every other group in society, wanting the world to adjust to us Wanting the world to adjust to our needs, our wants, our desires. We can think things like, they need to make room for my beliefs. They must accommodate how I want to live my life. They must respect me and my traditions. Basically, it’s me versus you.
It’s us versus them. And me and us are going to use whatever means necessary to overpower you and them. That’s the way the world works, right? Let me try to get the upper hand over you. Like husbands and wives, whichever spouse you are, you might think things would go a whole lot better if your other half would just get with the program and do things your way.
The problem with that, of course, is that your spouse is thinking the exact same thing, and each of you are digging your heels in trying to overpower the other one. Or kids and parents, each side can think, I’m smart, they are stupid, and I’m going to push for what I want as hard as I can, and whenever I don’t get it, I’m going to make life as miserable as I can for everybody until I get my way. We see the same phenomenon in basically any political group, demonize the other side, admit no fault on our side, and squash the opponent if possible. It’s us versus them. Or with our coworkers, we could want to outdo the guy next to us because we want the bonus, the recognition, promotion instead of him.
But then if we see him trying to do the exact same thing, like he’s trying to outshine us, he’s trying to draw attention to his accomplishments, maybe he’s even trying to downplay what we’ve done. Throwing out little condescending phrases like, oh, I like your little project there. Or we come up with a great idea and he says, you know, that’s actually a great idea. I can’t believe you came up with it. You’re like, well, guess what, buddy?
Now I have a new little project and it’s to destroy you. That’s what’s about to happen. It’s our fallen human condition. Get more power than the other guy. Do whatever is necessary to make sure others submit to our desires, our needs, our rights.
Win the argument. Get the upper hand. Make sure everyone knows we are right and the other guy is wrong, and then collect everything that we deserve and a little bit more if we can. Does this sound like the world in which you live? This passage says Christians, if Christians have been changed by what Christ has done for us, and that is a big if, if Christians have been changed by what Christ has done for us, we will no longer fit that pattern.
We won’t do the status quo. We will do something completely different, something compellingly different. It will be as if we are from a different world. We have something new on the inside driving us to behaviors which are completely foreign to everyone else around us. Being around Christ has changed us, so we don’t need to be against our enemies anymore.
And once we have tasted what Jesus offers, the old us versus them fades away and we begin to live out a new and completely opposite set of behaviors. If we have been changed by Christ, we no longer think it’s us versus them. We no longer think it’s us versus them. If we have been changed by Christ, we think it’s us for them, always. Us for them.
The verses immediately following the ones we read this morning explain the reason for our shift, which is what Jesus did for us. When Jesus came to the world, He didn’t come to condemn. He didn’t come me versus them. He came me for them. He came to serve, to sacrifice, to die.
He didn’t come to destroy us or win an argument or make us look as dumb as we are. Which He could have. He could have taken that route. But rather than that, He submitted Himself to us. He served us.
He died for us. When that clicks, when that hits home, like the deeper that that sinks in, the more we then reflect that to the world. We are now for those who are against us. We serve those who are against us, we sacrifice for those who are against us. This text gives 3 examples of this new paradigm, 3 types of opportunities to serve others, to live out what we have received from Christ, and they seem to be in increasing levels of intensity.
So, level 1, opportunity 1, may not even at first seem like it is a way to serve other people, And then by the time we get to level 3, you’re like, well, that’s impossible. So, let’s get started. Level 1, the easiest opportunity out of the 3, meaning it has the least amount of cost to you. This is verses 11 and 12. Abstain from sin.
That’s verse 11. But not just that, did you notice following in verse 12? Abstain from sinful desires in such a way that though people accuse you of doing wrong, they’re accusing you of wrong because you’re abstaining from sin, that’s what they’re calling wrong. Even though that happens, they may see your good deeds and end up glorifying God. And now, it probably seems oxymoronic that someone could be accused of doing wrong for attempting to live a good life.
It seems a little odd, like you help the little old lady across the street and someone calls you hateful. It seems like that wouldn’t happen, but actually every culture disagrees with New Testament biblical ethics somewhere. You take Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness to certain places in the Middle East, for example, and they will think it’s crazy. Forgive my enemies? What are you, insane?
I’ll get taken advantage of, I’ll get steamrolled by my competitors. Or same thing in a culture that places a high value on family honor. There can’t be any forgiveness for someone who shames the family. Forgiving that person would bring even more dishonor to the family. People in that culture would say, we can’t accept that person back after what was done.
So, in those cultures, if you are a Christian trying to live out the biblical ethic of forgiveness, you are going to be accused of doing wrong. They will tell you, you are wrong. You are an idiot. You are bringing shame to your family. You will get eaten alive by your business associates.
Now, in the West, of course, we’re generally okay with forgiveness as a concept. As long as we don’t have to do it ourselves, we’re okay with it. We would applaud other people doing it. But obviously here, the biblical sexual ethic doesn’t align with what general society believes is right. And if you try to live out what the Bible says about sex, you could be called a prude, or maybe even a bigot.
So, whatever culture you are in, if you are actually following Scripture, there will be some point of your ethics that the society around you will say is wrong. And the text says, for the sake of your own soul and the sake of the souls around you, keep living out the implications of what Christ did in you. Now, we might be used to hearing things like avoid sin because it can hurt you, it can wage war on your soul, that was verse 11. But we are less accustomed to hearing that living a good life avoiding sin is a way in which to serve those around us. Of course, the reality is sin always hurts us and hurts an untold number of others around us from the domino effect that ripples out.
And no matter how private we think it is, no matter how much we believe we are only hurting ourselves and it doesn’t make a difference to anyone else, no matter how much we believe that, it always erupts somewhere else. As a friend of mine says, sin always gets all over everybody, always. But that is not actually the reason given in this text that living a good life is a way in which to serve those around us. The reason given in this text, verse 12, is so that when others see you living a good life, even though they accused you of wrong at first, eventually after watching your life and watching your life and watching your life, they realize there might be something to this whole God thing, and they begin following him themselves. In other words, now if you’re confrontation-averse, you’re going to love this.
In other words, It’s a way to convince accusers and naysayers of the truth without actually arguing with them. Maybe there is a place for debate. Maybe there is a way in which to use words to convince someone of truth without making it feel like me versus you, us versus them. Maybe there is a way to approach that conversation so it doesn’t feel like, let’s teach these godless heathen how bad they are. Maybe you can have a conversation without having that kind of atmosphere, hopefully, but that’s not what is described here.
Instead of us versus them in some kind of heated debate, it’s just live out the implications for what Christ has done for us and let that speak for itself. When we pursue sin, we know this, right? It’s always because we believe that it will get us. Something. So in cultures where people say forgiveness is wrong, they believe that is the path to attain family honor, or they believe it will protect them from their enemies taking advantage of them.
They believe they are going to get something good out of it. But then here comes a Christian who freely forgives enemies and family members and anyone else without hesitating, because Christians understand, for one thing, Their honor doesn’t come from other people’s behavior. Honor comes from the fact that God himself was willing to die for us. The one with the most honor got on his knees to serve us, which gives us immeasurable honor. Since then, we already have all the honor we could ever have.
We don’t worry about attaining it some other way or losing it some other way. And on top of that, we can forgive our enemies because we understand Christ forgave us when we were his enemies. Now, I wonder if there are people who were taught as they grew up that forgiveness will get them run over or forgiveness will bring shame onto them, but then they were taught that when they were younger, but then when they get older, they begin to see Christians who forgave and they saw it over and over and over again. I wonder if it ever led to a conversation like, Hey, Christian, you don’t seem to be concerned about honor. You don’t seem to be— and you don’t seem to be concerned about your enemies running over you, and you seem at peace.
What’s that about? If that ever happened, that’s what this text is about. The behavior of Christians led non-Christians to seeing what was driving Christian behavior, and that led them to seeing Christ. Or I wonder if in our culture, if the people who are looking to sex to feel accepted or to feel loved or to feel approved or to feel like they matter or hoping sex can secure a relationship or gain power or fulfill a conquest, because sex is never just about sex, it’s always about something deeper. I wonder if they ever looked at a Christian and said, hey, I know I made fun of you before, Sorry, not really.
But why are you staying celibate before marriage and faithful in marriage? What’s going on with that? And the Christian says, because I don’t need sex to feel accepted and loved. I know I’m already infinitely accepted and loved. I don’t need a conquest to feel significant because my significance is found in who it was that died for me.
I wonder if a conversation like that ever helped someone take a second look at Jesus? And if so, that’s what this verse is about. Live such a good life that even though you are accused of being wrong, down the road, those who accuse you of being wrong will wake up and see Jesus for who he is. Okay, that was the easy level. Serve other people by simply living out the implications of what Christ has done for you.
Instead of hitting them over the head and calling them godless heathen in a me versus you battle royale debate. Easy level. Level 2, intermediate difficulty, submit to authority. Submit to human authority. He gives the example of the government, which in his day were the emperor and the governors, and he says it is their job to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
Paul writes something similar in Romans saying that government authorities only hold terror for those who do wrong and says the same thing, they commend those who do right. That seems like it might be pretty straightforward, but the reason these verses can be so baffling is they were probably written when the government was persecuting Christians. Persecution during the first century of the church, so 30 AD to 130 AD, it came in waves and was different in different regions, so it’s hard to know exactly if Christians were being persecuted by the government at the exact moment that this was written, but if not, it was either very soon before or very soon after, and either way, they all would have known about Jesus who was executed by the government even though he had never done anything wrong. So how could these writers say the government only punishes those who do wrong when everyone knew about Jesus being executed? And how could they say Christians should submit to being persecuted for doing right?
Why submit to that? Aren’t you supposed to fight against persecution, fight for your rights? Okay, point 1. This doesn’t describe what governments are currently doing. That is not its goal.
It describes what governments ought to do. The government is supposed to punish those who do wrong and commend those who do right. That is what is supposed to happen. Just like we find rules for ourselves in the Bible, how we ought to live, we find rules for the government in the Bible, how it ought to govern. So, that is the only reason why it is saying, not saying what’s happening, saying what ought to happen.
Point 2, yes, we can fight against persecution as Christians, but we do it in a very unusual and compelling way. We fight against persecution by serving our persecutors. They harm us, we love them. It’s not us versus them, it’s us for them. This will really heat up in the 3rd level of intensity, but for now, let’s just think about the government.
Let’s just imagine, and I know this is completely far-fetched, but let’s just imagine there is some way in which you feel the government is oppressing your Christian beliefs or practices. I know, it’s practically science fiction, right? But in that completely unrealistic alternate universe, Just think about what is a you versus them approach and what is a you for them approach? How about if you’re raising money, hiring lawyers, signing petitions, fighting tooth and nail in every court that will hear the case, you use all your resources to try to out-leverage them so your rights are not infringed. Which one is that?
It’s you versus them. It’s not you for them. And hey, maybe there’s a time for that, okay? If you feel called to that, maybe there’s a time for that. Maybe.
I’m not so sure. I think it would be fine in some case where you’re fighting for someone else’s rights, like if you were an abolitionist trying to end slavery, You aren’t fighting for your own benefit, right? You are working on the behalf of someone else who can’t, so you are not protecting your rights, you are protecting somebody else’s rights. Seems like that is not what this is talking about. It is not what is described here.
Here in this text we see a lack of concern for our rights whatsoever. We don’t even think about them. Our rights are not in this text at all. All we think about is displaying the gospel through our actions. The cause of Christ, may I be known for the cause of Christ and nothing else.
What is the gospel? What is it that we want to display? Here it is. While we were against Jesus, Jesus was for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We were His enemy and He sacrificed for us and gave of Himself to us.
What would that look like for you who believe the government is against you? How could you sacrifice yourself, give of yourself to the benefit of government officials who are against you? Whatever that might be, what if you spent your time and energy doing that instead of fighting? Over and over and over again working to somehow make life better for the government official who is against you. And I wonder if that would change the outcome at all.
I wonder if maybe it would silence the ignorant talk of foolish people, verse 15.
I wonder what would happen, another hypothetical far-fetched scenario, never happen obviously, But let’s just imagine you were the victim of police brutality. Let’s say, for the sake of hypothetical, it’s ongoing police brutality against your particular demographic. What is a you versus them approach? And what is a you for them approach?
Taking up arms and shooting cops is you versus them.
It’s not you for them.
What if instead of that, there was a gathering of people saying, we just want this officer to know that we love him and forgive him, and we’re starting a scholarship in his name, and we took up a collection to help his children with whatever they need while he’s being investigated. We even wrote some poems. Just over-the-top stuff. Just silly, ridiculous, over-the-top, can’t believe this is happening kind of stuff, and it happened over and over and over and over and over again. What if that happened?
See, this actually is a type of protesting, but it’s protesting through sacrifice and service and love. It’s being for the one who is persecuting you. That is the gospel. Jesus was for us when we were against Him. And I’m just guessing, total guess, but if you really want to change our nation, I’m guessing that that type of protest, if you want to call it that, is probably much more effective and compelling to others than screaming and fighting and lawyering up.
Imagine watching an oppressed person or group sacrificially loving the oppressor instead of swinging back. Imagine watching that on the news over and over and over and over again. Eventually, you’d probably think, you know what? I’m on the side of the oppressed guy. That’s probably what you would think.
So, third level of difficulty, hardest to wrap our minds around by far, submit to unjust suffering.
It started in verse 18, slaves, in reverent fear of God, submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, it is commendable before God. First, let’s just get this out of the way.
We’ve talked about this before in here, but is the Bible pro-slavery? Of course not. Paul writes, for instance, that slaves should get free if they can do it. So that’s not pro-slavery. And he writes to a slave owner, hey, if you really loved your slave, you’d let him go free.
Further, the slavery that we have in our minds, New World slavery, was entirely based on kidnapping, and that is explicitly forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments. And by the way, this text, how would a slave even have the opportunity to hear this scripture if there weren’t a basic equal footing between slaves and the rest of society? Society in the first century. In the New World slavery that we know of, the slave and master would have never sat under the same teaching, but here it is assumed because there’s this basic equal footing. So the slavery in the first century is nothing like the slavery that we have in our minds, which the slavery we have in our minds, the Bible is consistently and utterly against from beginning to end.
But even so, why would How could Peter write something like, slaves, bear up under unjust suffering, submit yourselves to it, endure it? And if that’s not pro-slavery, then what in the world is going on here? It’s saying even in a horrible situation like that, there is something bigger at stake. It’s saying, you as a slave have an opportunity, perhaps you have the best opportunity out of any of us to display what Christ did for you. There may not be a closer illustration to what Jesus did for us than a slave in unjust suffering who decides to love and serve the master who is being unjust.
Jesus bore unjust suffering so that the ones who were beating Him could be saved. We talked about this last week, the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. My rejection of Jesus, your rejection of Jesus sent Him to the cross where He took the punishment that we deserve. There is a sense in which He bore the unjust suffering that we put on Him. He submitted to the suffering we laid on Him, and He did it for us.
Peter tells the slave, if you have a chance to be able to show people what Jesus did for you to that level of clarity, don’t pass it up. Don’t waste that opportunity. So, if that is what Peter would tell a slave, What do you think he would tell you? How do you think he would recommend you react when someone treats you unjustly, when someone falsely accuses you, for instance? Fight for your rights?
Overthrow the oppressor?
Unlikely, right? We might wonder, well, what am I supposed to do, just roll over and take it? Someone is lying about me at work, I am in danger of being fired, I am just supposed to do nothing? No, not supposed to do nothing. That would be way too easy.
Sit there and take it? Way too easy. Clam up? Way too easy. Instead, we are to love and serve and sacrifice for the one who is slandering us.
We figure out a way to give to that person. I figure if our life is in danger, it’s okay to get away and then love from a distance. But either way, we say, hey, I know you are slandering me. We still call wrong wrong. We still speak against unrighteousness, right?
And then after we say it was wrong, next step, here’s what’s coming after that. Here comes sacrificial action. Because that is what Jesus did for me. And that is way harder than doing nothing.
You may ask, but if I don’t defend myself, I may get fired. What about my job? What about my reputation? I’m not sure. I didn’t write 1 Peter.
But Peter might say, what about your job?
Of what consequence is that? What about your reputation? Is that what you’re living for? Is that the cause that you’re living for? Is that what you’re doing with your life?
Or are you living to display Christ?
Some of you are wondering how in the world you can begin to share your faith with the people who are around you. Like, where do I even start? How can I possibly get them to see how beautiful and amazing Christ is? Here is a place to start. Who treats you horribly?
Who oppresses you? Who is unjust to you? Start there. And instead of trying to get the upper hand over them, go love those people sacrificially. Spend whatever it takes of yourself to get them exactly what they need.
In other words, deal yourself the lower hand. I’ll tell you, this will sound so bizarre, I’m sure, but once you start approaching conflict as a means to share Christ, you’ll almost look forward to it, almost. Why? Because if you are like me, it can sometimes be difficult to start a conversation about Jesus. Like, how do I just enter Jesus into the— we were talking about French fries and now, oh, Jesus.
It seems kind of like it doesn’t relate. But this is a surefire conversation starter. If people treat you unfairly and then you send them cookies, Give them a hug. Compliment them. The door is open to talk about Jesus.
This is going to happen on a small scale, just daily with random people. It doesn’t need to be some giant infraction because people are randomly jerks all the time. Like, someone runs to cut in front of you at the grocery store checkout aisle. Like, you are 5 feet from the cash register and he’s 20 feet from the aisle and he starts sprinting to get in front of you, right, just being a jerk. What do you do?
Right, how do you live this out? Do you just let it happen? You sit there and do nothing? Do you fight for your rightful place in line? No, you turn and sacrificially serve.
Maybe you pay for his groceries.
Oh, you sliced in front of me? What can I do for you? Deal yourself the lower hand. My favorite thing about this is it really gets people’s attention. It has your attention right now.
It breaks down every wall people have up against religious conversations. They say, what is this? Why are you being nice to me? They are immediately curious because they have never seen anything like that. And since— and it’s because it is utterly different from anything in the world.
And then you get an opportunity to say, because Jesus was nice to me when I didn’t deserve it. Jesus gave himself for me when I was his enemy.
Whatever the scenario, as big or small, checkout aisle or national policy, even if it’s something as extreme as enduring suffering as a slave, the paradigm is never us versus them. It’s always us for them in order that we might display Christ.
Let’s pray together. Father, this is hard for us to do. We are not changed sufficiently by Christ in order that this is our nature, and I pray that You would do that work in us this morning.
Lord, we, we need you to keep going on us. We’re not to where Jesus was or is yet, but we want to be like him, and we want the world to know him for all he is. So help us to live out what you have put inside of us already. We ask those things in his name. Amen.
