1 Peter 3:8-17: Relating to a Hostile Culture

1 Peter 3:8-17: Relating to a Hostile Culture

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 1 Peter, and today the next passage we come to is 1 Peter 3:8-17. It says,

⁸ Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. ⁹ Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. ¹⁰ For “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. ¹² For 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.  

May God bless the reading of his Word.

 Let’s pray: Father, we’re gathered around this text of Scripture today because we want to hear from you. And we want to hear from you because we want to know you more and love your more and be more conformed to your image. So, please, bless our efforts and glorify your name. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Several weeks ago, my family and I went to the Carnegie Science Center and saw their new exhibit about Mars. And one of the things I found most interesting was just how hostile the climate of Mars is to human life. One of the main reasons for this is that there’s only a very thin atmosphere around Mars, and it’s comprised of all the wrong gasses. This means, first of all, that there’s virtually no oxygen on Mars and also that the atmospheric pressure is so low that, if we were to go there without the proper equipment, our eardrums would rupture and the water within our bodies would boil, which doesn’t sound like a particularly enjoyable experience. The thin atmosphere also results in temperatures on Mars being quite frigid, dipping as low as -285 degrees Fahrenheit. It also allows a lot of radiation coming from the sun to reach the surface of Mars—radiation that would prove lethal to us over the course of a few months.

Now, of course, there’s no shortage of ideas for how we might adapt to these hostile conditions. For example, any future human settlements on Mars would almost certainly have to be located underground in some type of artificial environment that would shield us from many of these dangers. But even that presents numerous challenges. So, I don’t know about you, but I, for one, am very happy right here on earth.

Yet, that’s not to say we don’t face any challenges here on earth. As we can clearly see from our main passage today of 1 Peter 3:8-17, there are plenty of challenges we can face especially as Christians living in the midst of a culture that’s increasingly non-Christian and in some cases even hostile toward Christians. Just like Mars is a physically hostile environment, those of us who are Christians may at times find ourselves in a socially hostile environment. In fact, as our country continues to become increasingly secular, that seems to be something we’re having to deal with more and more. And that can be very difficult. So, how can we not only survive but even thrive in the midst of social hostility? And how can we relate to that hostile culture and respond to that culture in a way that glorifies God?

Well, in this passage, Peter tells us how we can do that. According to Peter, God calls Christians living in the midst of a hostile culture to bless those who mistreat them and be prepared for gospel opportunities. That’s the main idea. God calls Christians living in the midst of a hostile culture to bless those who mistreat them and be prepared for gospel opportunities. And we’ll spend the rest of our time this morning talking about those two things.

Blessing Those Who Mistreat Us

So, first, let’s look at what Peter says about blessing those who mistreat us. He begins in verse 8: “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” In other words, everything begins with us cultivating the right attitude. Even though the instructions in this particular verse seem to be oriented mainly toward the way Christians should relate to other Christians, they serve as a good foundation for what Peter’s about to say about how Christians should relate to those who aren’t Christians.

Peter then says in verse 9, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” So, we should expect, at times, to be on the receiving end of both evil and reviling. “Evil” is a very general word that would include any way in which someone wrongs us or mistreats us, while “reviling” is more specific and refers to verbal abuse and the scornful words others might direct toward us.

These things shouldn’t come as any surprise to us. After all, Jesus himself also tells us to expect these things. He says to his disciples in John 15:18-20 that, just as people hated and persecuted him, we can expect them to hate and persecute us as well. So, in Peter’s words, we will at times be on the receiving end of “evil” and “reviling.”

And of course, our natural inclination, whenever that happens, is to treat them as they’ve treated us. It’s almost like a game of tennis. Whenever someone hits the tennis ball over the net into our part of the court, our natural response is to hit it right back over the net into their part of the court—and preferably, if we’re able to, to hit it back toward them even harder than they originally hit it toward us. So, if they mock us, we want to mock them back. If they troll us, we want to troll them back. Whatever they do against us, we want to do the same back to them.

Yet that’s not at all the example Jesus left for us, is it? In fact, Peter just reminded us in the previous chapter that Jesus did the exact opposite. In 1 Peter 2:21-23, we read, ²¹ For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. ²² He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³ When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. So, when Peter tells us in our main passage not to “repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling,” he’s simply telling us to follow the example of Jesus that he just reminded us of in the previous chapter.

And friends, this is one of those things that sounds simple enough to do…until you find yourself in a situation where you actually have to do it. For example, not all that long ago, I discovered that someone—not someone who’s involved in our church or anything, but just someone—had told a lie about me to someone else. And it wasn’t a particularly nasty lie or a lie that directly attacked my character, but it was still a straight-up lie, and they knew it was a lie. And I have to admit that, for several moments, I forgot all about what Jesus and Peter tell us to do and became rather indignant—at least, within my heart—that someone would have the audacity to tell a lie about me. Now, thankfully, the Holy Spirit restrained me from whatever sinful response I might otherwise have engaged in and helped me to move past the situation. But in the heat of the moment, it wasn’t easy.  Yet that’s what we’re called to do.

Then, as we continue on in verse 9, Peter goes a step beyond what he’s said at the beginning of the verse and tells us not just to avoid repaying evil for evil or reviling for reviling but to actually “bless” those who mistreat us. Don’t just avoid doing something bad to them. Show them the extent to which God’s changed your heart by actually doing something good to them. “Bless” them, Peter says.

Think about what that might look like. How might we bless those who mistreat us? Let me, very briefly, suggest five ways. Five ways we can bless those who mistreat us. First, pray for them. Pray for God’s general blessing on them and their lives, and, if they’re not yet a Christian, pray specifically that God would bring them to saving faith in Jesus. Second, speak to them in a kind and respectful manner. Don’t be cutting or sarcastic or condescending but instead speak to them in a way that will be a blessing for them to hear. Third, speak well of them to others. Of course, there may very well be some areas of their character that you’re not able to speak well of. But try your best to find ways to publicly acknowledge and affirm whatever areas in which they do display virtue. And certainly avoid spreading any gossip about them.

Then, fourth, look for opportunities to serve them through acts of kindness. These might include offering practical help with something that they need or even financial assistance if that’s a need. And fifth, forgive whatever wrongs they’ve committed against you. After all, God has forgiven you, so you should certainly be able to forgive them. So, these are just a few practical ideas for how we might follow Peter’s instructions in verse 9 and “bless” those who mistreat us.  

And, of course, Peter isn’t alone in telling us to do this. You can ultimately trace this pattern of thinking back to Jesus, who said to his disciples in Luke 6:27-28, ²⁷ “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Notice how, in that verse, in addition to telling us display various external behaviors—including “blessing” those who curse us—Jesus tells us to do something that’s actually even more radical. He instructs us not only to do various good things to those who wrong us but to do those good things as an overflow of genuine love in our hearts. “Love your enemies,” Jesus says. You know, so often, we might treat those who wrong us in a polite and cordial way on the outside but be seething with anger and bitterness and resentment on the inside. I know you know what I’m talking about, and I’ve been there too.

But that’s exactly the wrong attitude to have. Jesus cares not only about us exhibiting the right external behavior toward those who mistreat us but also about us having genuine love in our heart toward them. And that might very well be the most difficult thing of all. In fact, it’s so difficult that we can’t have that kind of love apart from God’s grace and apart from the Holy Spirit working within our hearts and filling us with that love.

In addition, as we seek to cultivate that love within our hearts, one thing I’ve often found helpful is to remind myself that, apart from the grace of God, I myself would be just as bad—if not worse—than the person who mistreated me is. Whatever they’ve done to me, I’d be doing even worse if it weren’t for God’s grace. And reminding myself of that softens my heart toward them and often enables me to respond to them not as I might otherwise respond but rather with the love of Christ.

And, friends, when we respond with the love of Christ even toward those who mistreat us, that has a way of getting people’s attention and serving as a powerful gospel witness. Because who else does that? Where else in our society do you see people loving their enemies? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone do that who’s not a Christian, and I doubt that most people even have a mental category for that. So, when we as Christians demonstrate that kind of love—a Christlike love even toward those who mistreat us—it’s one of the most powerful things we could possibly do to get people’s attention and open doors for the gospel.

And returning to our main passage, after Peter tells us to bless those who mistreat us, he shares with us something else that should motivate us to do this. He says in verse 9, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, [and here it is] that you may obtain a blessing.” So, the result of us blessing those who mistreat us is that we ourselves will “obtain a blessing” from God. Peter then supports this idea with a citation from Psalm 34:12-16. This citation is given in verses 10-12, where Peter writes, ¹⁰ For “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. ¹² For 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.”

Peter then reinforces this idea even more in verses 13-14a: 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…. Now, Peter doesn’t explain exactly how we’ll be blessed, but I think we can assume it involves blessing both in this life in various ways in eternity.

Being Prepared for Gospel Opportunities

Then, as we continue moving forward in the passage, we see that Peter discusses not only blessing those who mistreat us but also being prepared for gospel opportunities. Being prepared for gospel opportunities.

Look at verses 14b-17: ¹⁴ …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.

So, the first thing Peter instructs his readers to do here is to avoid living in fear of those who mistreat them. He writes in verse 14, “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.” Whenever someone’s capable of harming us or of making our lives difficult, our natural tendency is to fear them to at least some degree. In fact, even just in our lives in general, we often function in what the Bible calls the “fear of man.” That is to say, we often care way too much not just about what others might do to us but even about what they might think of us and how they might view us.

And a lot of times, we don’t even realize just how pervasive this mentality of the fear of man is in our lives. You might compare it to a major city that has a smog problem. When you’re standing in the downtown area of that city, the air might seem fine. It might appear to be pretty clear, and you might be able to see a nice blue sky. But when you drive a little way out of that city and look at it from a distance, it’ll often become apparent that the downtown area is actually surrounded by a bubble of smog.

In a similar manner, many of us are so surrounded by and immersed in the “fear of man” that we don’t even realize just how pervasive it is in our lives. For example, just think about the clothes you wear or the vehicle you drive or the professional achievements you pursue or the way you approach relationships or the way you engage in conversations or the pictures you post on social media. How much of that is influenced and even driven by a concern for what other people think about you? How much of your life is spent obsessing about what other people think and, in one way or another, trying to impress them? Like I said, a lot of times, we do it so much that we don’t even realize we’re doing it. We function in the fear of man. As a result, we end up being controlled and even enslaved by the opinions of others. They essentially become our masters—to whatever extent we fear them and allow their view of us to drive our lives.

In addition, there’s also a spiritual dynamic of this as well that’s actually pretty central to it all. When people become big, God becomes small—at least, from our perspective. It’s almost like we’re looking in a fun house mirror or something: people are exaggerated to become inordinately big, and God is therefore reduced to become inordinately small.  It’s in this way that the fear of man becomes an idol. It leads us to become so wrapped up in what will impress other people and be pleasing to them that we barely give a second thought to living in a way that pleases God.

So, what’s the answer then? How can we escape from the fear of man? Well, according to the Bible, the way to escape the fear of man is to cultivate the fear of God—or, we might say, a proper regard and reverence for God. We can see it right here in 1 Peter. Right after Peter instructs his readers in verse 14, “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,” he writes in verse 15, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy….” In other words, cultivate a proper regard for Christ as the only one who’s holy and therefore worthy of worship. Stop worshiping other people as if their opinions of you had any lasting significance, and instead direct your worship toward Christ—and not just to Christ but, Peter says, to “Christ the Lord,” emphasizing the lordship of Christ over everyone and everything. So, according to Peter, the solution to being dominated by a fear of other people is to “honor Christ the Lord as holy.”

You see, it’s when we begin to cultivate the fear of God in that way that all of our other fears—such as the fear of man—begin to evaporate. We might say that the fear of God displaces all other fears. Kind of like when you drop a large rock into a bucket that’s already filled to the brim with water. If that bucket is filled to the brim, it’s not able to hold the water it’s currently holding and something else. So, when the rock goes in, water spills out. The rock displaces some of the water. And the bigger the rock, the more water it displaces. Similarly, the fear of God displaces all other fears in our lives. And by the way, unlike the fear of man or other earthly fears, the fear of God allows us to flourish rather than causing us to be enslaved. It lifts us up rather than weighing us down. It leads us to a life that’s full and abundant and radiant with the joy of closeness to God. So, that’s one way to think about it—the fear of God displacing other fears.

We might also think about it like this. Anyone who’s walked among the giant redwoods of California isn’t going to be very taken up by the size of a small sapling in someone’s backyard. Also, anyone who’s been to the Alps isn’t going to be very impressed by the various hills that we have around Pittsburgh. In both of these cases, the person has seen things that are so stunning and magnificent that they’re just not very affected by smaller things such as saplings or hills. Likewise, the more time we spend in the presence of holy God and the more we behold his glory and become enamored with him and cultivate a proper regard for him, the less regard we have for the opinions of others and the less we care about impressing them.

And as we continue working through verse 15, we see that this mentality enables us to be prepared for gospel opportunities. That’s where Peter’s line of thinking leads us. Remember, Peter told us in verse 14 not to be controlled by the fear of other people. He then told us the solution for that in the first part of verse 15, which is “honor[ing] Christ the Lord as holy.” And then, in the second part of verse 15, he talks about how this enables us to be prepared for gospel opportunities. He says that we’re supposed to “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.”

Many Christians point to this verse as a key proof text that demonstrates the need for apologetics—or rational arguments defending the Christian faith. And even though I believe there’s certainly a place for those rational arguments and a need for them, it seems as though the primary thrust of this particular verse—if you take into account the context and the flow of Peter’s thought—isn’t about the need for apologetics but rather about the need for us to be delivered from the fear of man so that we can be “prepared” to essentially share the gospel with all boldness and without hindrance. We’re to “make a defense” in the sense of giving an explanation for how we can have such hope in the midst of such suffering. This implies, of course, that we actually do exhibit hope in the midst of our suffering.

So, to summarize verse 15, Peter’s assuming that we’re exhibiting hope in the midst of suffering to such a degree that people will at times ask us about the hope that’s in us. And when they do that, we’re called to be sufficiently free from the fear of man that we’re “prepared” to answer their questions directly without fearing what they might think or how they might respond. We’re to be ready to freely make it known that it’s because of Jesus that we have the hope we have. That’s the sense in which we’re supposed to be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks [us] for a reason for the hope that is in [us].”

So, for those who are already Christians, think about your life for a moment. Are you prepared to take advantage of the opportunities God gives you to share the gospel? Are you prepared to make known to people the reason for the hope that’s in you? Or are you shying away from those opportunities because you’re so concerned about what someone might think of you or how your relationship with someone might be affected if you try to share the gospel with them? I think a lot of us might need to go home and spend some time repenting of the fear of man—because, a lot of times, when we’re hesitant to share the gospel with someone, that’s what’s holding us back.

Yet, even as we seek to be bold gospel witnesses, Peter does give us one caution at the end of verse 15. He says that, as we make a defense and give an explanation for the hope within us, we should always do so “with gentleness and respect.” In giving this reminder, Peter’s returning to the idea he emphasized earlier in the passage of blessing those who mistreat us. Even though people might mock our beliefs and be quite harsh and disrespectful in arguing against our beliefs, we have to resist the temptation to sink down to their level and instead respond to them with “gentleness and respect.”

And by responding in that way, we’ll often discover that the gentle and respectful manner in which we conduct ourselves is much more persuasive than any words spoken in a spirit of harshness could ever be. You know, we might not have a brilliant intellect or captivating charisma, but if we’ll just exhibit a spirit of love even toward our opponents, that will often prove quite persuasive—certainly to people on the sidelines, as it were, who are watching us and perhaps even to our opponents themselves. I think that’s part of what Peter means in verse 16 when he talks about “those who revile your good behavior in Christ [being] put to shame.”

And by the way, one of the most important areas where we can remember this is on social media. Christians probably fail to demonstrate “gentleness and respect” much more often on social media than they do in personal, face-to-face conversations. Because, when you can’t actually see your opponent and they’re instead just a bunch of pixels, it’s very easy to dehumanize them in your mind and say things to them and about them that you’d never say if you were speaking with them face-to-face. So, if you really want to be revolutionary in our current culture, you’ll be well on your way toward that simply by demonstrating “gentleness and respect” in all of your online interactions.

Conclusion

And as we think about all we’ve discussed this morning related to interacting with those who mistreat us and who mock us and who, we might say, spew venom on us in various ways, it might seem exceedingly difficult to respond to them in the way that Peter tells us to. Peter’s instructions are easy enough to understand but quite challenging to actually live out. In fact, they’re impossible to live out in our own strength.

But that’s precisely where Jesus comes in. We’ve already seen from 1 Peter 2:23-24 that “When [Jesus] was reviled, he did not revile in return” and that “when he suffered, he did not threaten.” Instead, we’re told that he voluntarily “bore our sins in his body on the [cross].” So, when people wronged Jesus, he didn’t wrong them back. He didn’t retaliate or seek revenge. In fact, according to Luke 23:34, he actually prayed for his enemies on the cross. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus loved the very people who were crucifying him and demonstrated his love by praying for them even as he hung there on that cross. So, if you want an example of how to relate to a hostile culture and interact with those who mistreat us, just look at the way Jesus acted toward people who were mistreating him in the worst possible way.

And of course, Jesus demonstrated love not only in the way he spoke from the cross but even more in what he actually did on the cross—willingly offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Essentially, Jesus took on himself the judgment we deserved for our rebellion against God. Normally, we’d have to face that judgment in hell, but Jesus suffered it all in our place on the cross.

He was then raised from the dead so that he’s now able to offer forgiveness and eternal life to everyone who puts their trust in him. That involves turning away from all of the ways in which we’ve been rebelling against God and placing our confidence in Jesus alone as our only way of being right with God once again.