Living Harmoniously
1 Peter 3:8-12 · Andrew Molloy · Jun 14, 2020
1 & 2 Peter (2020-21), No. 21
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191974677

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we are at 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 8 through 12 this morning. Commands with regard to lifestyle commands or attitude commands with respect to the body of Christ, people in the church, fellow believers. Here's our verse, here's our verses, starting in verse 8 of 1 Peter chapter 3.

To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, 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.

For, and now he's quoting from the Old Testament, Psalm 34, for, The one who desires life to live 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. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears attend their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

So I want to start by reviewing where we are in the text so far. Peter is wrapping up an exhortation section to all the strangers and aliens who have been forced to flee Jerusalem around 63 AD and now they find themselves in Upper Galatia. and Cappadocia and those areas fleeing Roman persecution. So he's addressing these believers. The believers up there are They were suffering persecution down in Jerusalem by the Romans. Now they're suffering persecution where they are locally now up in Galatia from the pagan populace up there.

Peter says in chapter one, verse six, even though now for a little while you have been distressed by various trials and the King James has, you have been distressed by manifold trials. or you've been perplexed in manifold trials. But the good news, Peter says, and the reason to be hopeful is that you have a living hope. And if you remember, we studied that beginning in the first chapter of 1 Peter, verse 9, the living hope is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And in this, you have an inheritance. It's imperishable, undefiled, forever unfading. and it's reserved and kept in heaven for you. With the certain hope of the revelation of Jesus Christ, you will soon see him face to face, full of glory with inexpressible joy, resulting in the salvation of your souls.

That's verse 9. So there's very good spiritual news for these believers up there in Galatia. So he ends up that first part of the book saying, so gird up, gird your minds for action, keep sober in mind, fix your hope completely on the grace that is being brought to you now at this unveiling or the disclosure of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's verse 13.

So there's good news. And he's just telling them to buck up, you know, and gird their, Roy, you covered that section. And you had brought out the fact that Jesus Christ is being revealed now, right? And also, personally, physically, he'll be revealed face-to-face in the future. So that's a hope we have too. So on to verse 8. Verse 8, to sum up, he says, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit.

I like that wording, to sum up. You don't hear that. It sounds very contemporary. To sum up. Other texts say, you know, finally, or something like that. But the word is telos in the Greek. It's a terminal point in a succession of preceding points. And it's translated finally, but he's summing up various points.

They started Verse 13, chapter two, verse 13, with submit yourself to all the governing authorities. That's where this section starts. Then it runs through chapter two in verse 18, telling servants who are among these people up there in Galatia to be submissive to their masters. And then to wives to be submissive to your own husbands in chapter three, verse one. And then finally, he addresses husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way. And that brings us all up to chapter three in verse seven. Now we're in verse eight. So that's the text so far. The exhortation section that he's giving us.

Who are the all of you? When he says, to sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted. Well, definitely it's who he's addressed before. It's the people who are the yourselves. It's the servants who he's addressed as the wives and the husbands. But it's also the body of Christ generally, isn't it? And even us in this day and age. Hamilton Smith says it's the Christian circle. That's a good way to describe it. The body of Christ, we says. So he's addressing the people above and all the people who might not fall under those specific roles, isn't he? It's the body of Christ. We're going to look at now, there's five adjectives. And it's five adjectives that follow the verb. And I guess you can read in the verb to be.

Be harmonious, be sympathetic, be brotherly, be kind hearted, be humble in spirit. The first one is harmonious and the Greek is homophron or homophron. Hamo or homo means same and fronis means mine. So be of the same mind, be like-minded is the first command.

And it's not think the same thoughts, it's more of focus on the same issues, the same things, mind the same things, but not as I say, think the same. All the commentators really were sure to stress that point that it's not same thinking, but mind the same things. The subtext of it, of course, to be harmonious, what are they being, should be harmonious with, and that's, I think, the things of God and things of Christ and things of the Holy Spirit. Doctrinal things is where they should be on the same page is the underlying text there, the subtext.

A couple, one or two commentators, or one did, and I thought of this too, is it's music is a good analogy. And that is you can, everyone can sing the same song, but there may be two to 12 different parts that people are singing. Um, completely different things, but if you're in the same key and the composer has taken a course in harmony, in music theory, this piece that everyone's singing should sound glorious because it's in harmony, the tune harmonizes, even though they're singing separately each different things. So music, good analogy.

The opposite of this in music would be dissonance or discord. And if you know what dissonance is in music, it sounds ugly, right? Some classical music in the 20th century started the use of dissonance. So people didn't like it because it doesn't sound harmonious. It sounds ugly.

Macaulay says that they are to have a common outlook in the body of Christ. A common outlook. Another rendering. In classical Greek literature, I found, Richeson mentions this, is that being of one mind in connection with a war of common consent, and that's the consent of the government. So that's a populace of people.

So when they went to war, are they behind the war? World War II was a war of common consent. Everyone was, you know, the United States girded up and went to war and everyone pitched in. The Vietnam War, not so much, right? It was a time of terrible strife and I don't know, half were for it, half were against it. The nation pulled apart. That was not a war of common consent.

So people in this body here should have common consent with each other to be harmonious. The second adjective that Peter covers is be sympathetic. Sympatiko is the Greek word. That's having compassion for one another, right? Having sympathy for one another. And the first part of the word synpachko is together with. The last part, pachko, is to feel or to be affected. So it's to feel with each other, to be affected by each other, to bear one another's burdens sort of thing. Compassion at a distance is another way to look at synpachko. Interesting that it can be in, we think of it in sorrow to be sympathetic. We always think of it to bear another's sorrow, but there's also joy.

You know, if, um, so if, uh, Tom, I don't know if Tom's in on the, the meeting here, but if I were to drive Tom to the drive home, drive him home, but he wanted to stop at seven 11 along the way. And he wanted to get a pack of gum and he said, I'm going to get a pack of gum and a lottery ticket. And he said, do you want me to get you a lottery ticket, Andrew? I said, no, Tom, you go ahead. So he gets a pack of gum, lottery ticket, and then he ends up winning a hundred million dollars. I should be a simpachko in his joy of winning a hundred million dollars. And I shouldn't be jealous of Tom.

That's, so it's in joy and in sorrow, isn't it? Bearing another's burden is another way to look at sympathetic or sympachko. And Wiest, I like this, it's an interchange of fellow feeling with another believer, having fellow feelings with other believers.

Okay, the third adjective is Philadelphos. And you know that to be Philadelphia. It's not agape. It's brotherly love. And the best way to describe that is to have rapport with people, rapport love. I thought it was a good definition. And it's also when you have love for your country and countrymen, that's a Philadelphos sort of love. And then number four, kind-hearted, be kind-hearted.

This is the most interesting one, that Greek word you see there is eushploknos, eushploknos. And that means to have good bowels, literally. And so that's strange. But what does that mean in context? to have good bowels and it needs to be compassionate or tenderhearted, pitiful, but not in the sense that I'm pitiful or you're pitiful. It means being able to take pity on someone, right?

And here's where the bowels factor come in or the guts factor. It's the ancient Greeks believe that the intestines down there were the seat of violent, violent passions, hate being the most important of the passions. But in the Hebrews, the Hebrews use that word, it's the intestines or the guts right there in the belly were the seed of tender minded emotions, tender hearted emotions, affection, benevolence, I mean, kindness. It's a heart where, a heart in which mercy resides.

And I think it's, what is it, Colossians 3.12, I think we'll get to it, but it's, Paul says, have bowels, and he literally says this, and it translates that way, have bowels of mercy. And that's the Greek word, eushploknos, to be kind hearted.

Fifth and finally is to be humble in spirit, and it's typenephron, is that word, humble in spirit. Have a low heart or a low mind for something. Can also, I think, mean low understanding, which means, you know, it might kind of translate to a low IQ type of thing. But it means here to be meek. Meek, being meek ones with one another is what Merriman says.

He also says, Christianity is the great humiliator. If you think about that for a second, Christianity is the great humiliator. So each of us are humiliated by the fact that we, how we were sinners at one time and we have We can't do anything about our sinful condition, our human condition, but God took mercy on us and we were saved. A very humiliating situation there.

Macaulay says having a correct opinion of yourself, that word for tape, binaphron, or an accurate opinion of yourself, not being haughty, right? So those are those five adjectives in verse eight, and that's all he's saying in verse eight. Be harmonious, be sympathetic, be brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit. On to verse nine. Verse nine is not returning evil for evil. or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you were called for this very purpose, that you might inherit a blessing.

So the believer can act in one of two ways, and that's by the power of the flesh or the power of the Holy Spirit, or being filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm going to go over this neat little thing that this Dr. Wierski, I don't know how to pronounce his name, but he mentions this with this verse. And he says, as Christians, we can live on one of three levels.

The first level is the satanic level, which is, as you can see, if you return evil for good, That's satanic, he says, and that's not evident in the text. That's not mentioned in verse nine, the satanic level action. But the second one is implied in verse nine, and that's the human level.

And all humans will return good for good and evil for evil. And that makes perfect sense. That's what everyone does. That's logical to return good for good and evil for evil. That's the human level. And there's a third level, the divine level, and that's returning good or blessing for evil. And that's the divine level. So there's the satanic level, the human level, and the divine level, which is a neat way to think about, and it ties into this verse really well. And Jesus, of course, is the perfect example of the divine level action or action or thinking on this.

And first Peter 2.21 through 20.23. describes the situation very well. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you as an example to follow in his steps.

Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but he kept entrusting himself to one who judges righteously. So you can see there in verse 23 how it matches up perfectly with verse 9 of chapter 3 that we're studying this morning. So Christ was reviled. He didn't return reviling for reviling. He did return threat for threat. And in our verse nine, we have returning evil for evil or insult for insult. And some texts translate the word for insult, railing, railing for railing.

So you can see how Christ manifested verse nine up there. He lived that life on the divine level, of course, because he is divine. The ground on which we can respond with this divine level response. It's the mercy we ourselves have received from God, isn't it?

These two verses, Romans 5.10, for while we were far off in enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. And much more having been reconciled now, we shall be saved by his life. So that's God's divine level response to our sinfulness and our lost condition right before we were saved. Titus 3, 5, he saved us not on the basis of the deeds which we have done in righteousness, because we had no deeds in righteousness, but according to mercy, his mercy by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. In grace, God dealt with us.

With divine mercy, while we're yet sinners, Romans 5.8, we can, and we should mirror this with this divine level of response with not returning evil for evil or railing for railing. Because we have ourselves been dealt by him in that way.

But on the contrary, give a blessing, right? And that's what the verse says, verse nine. Greek word for blessing is eulogia. It's a good word, praise, commendation, even a prayer for someone else's well-being, their contentment, a prayer for their contentment and protection. I got that from the Amplified Bible, defining the word blessing, eulogia. So let's look at this Part B of verse nine, and that's, we were called for this very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. What is the purpose for which we've been called?

I had a hard time working this up. I wasn't understanding this part of the verse nine. I was having trouble with it. I was going back to the phrase, inherit a blessing. And I was thinking back to the first part of Peter chapter one and the fact that we have an inheritance, right? Undefiled, undemished, not fading away. And I was thinking in those terms. So I was bringing it back to there and I was confused. So I was thinking too much on it. But I think what Peter is saying, it's just a snapshot here. So if we don't return evil for evil or insult for insult, in that moment of time, we will inherit a blessing. So keep it narrowed to just that and not like I was doing, sort of expanding out too much.

And it really goes back to 1 Peter 2.21 that we looked at just a minute ago.

For you have been called for this very purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you as an example to follow in his steps. And you can see, you can see it right there. There's the exact same wording. Do you see that? You have been called for this very purpose in 221, and in verse nine up top, he says, for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. So exact parallel thought.

The saints in 1 Peter 2.21 were suffering, they're made to suffer, and their motivation for enduring through the suffering is to look at Christ and his example and how he managed to suffer in the same condition they were.

What was the suffering they were experiencing earlier in the book of Peter? It starts in 2.13 and it begins by they were suffering under unreasonable government authority, right? And then 2.18, servants who were suffering under an unreasonable master. And then to chapter three and verse one, a wife who was suffering under an unbelieving husband. So he, in 221, he's, they were being called for that.

Suffering has a purpose. And he's in verse 21, he's talking about the people suffering in chapter 2 and verse 13 through the wife in chapter 3 and verse 1, right? So it's all a chord that runs through, it's a long chord of thought and it's all one consistent thought I think that Peter is having from chapter 2 and verse 13 through actually chapter 3 and verse 22, which is yet future for our study. It's all, it's all runs together.

And when I figured that out, then it all made sense because the fact that he goes into the Psalm 34, the Old Testament, he quotes Psalm 34 in verse 10. I was having trouble seeing why he was quoting Psalm 34. I just couldn't understand that until I figured out that.

Oh, there's this one purpose here that we're looking at. So if we bear up under unjust suffering, and instead of offering a tit-for-tat response, evil for evil and insult for insult, and if on the contrary, we respond with good words and commendations and prayers for fellow believers' well-being, then we ourselves will come into We will receive a blessing, that eulogia, and that can be a commendation or goodwill or approbation ourselves.

If you remember when I did this first, verse 14, up in chapter two, submitting to government authorities. It said, if you submit to the governing authorities, the government, You know, the purpose of the government is to punish evildoers. That's one purpose. But it also said to the praise of those who do well. So the government should respond with praise and commendation and approval. It's a word, espeños. Espinos, I think it is. You see that at the bottom. It's close, it's very close to eulogia or a blessing, but it's a closely related word.

So you can see how in verse nine up top, we're inheriting a blessing for not railing, returning railing for railing or evil for insult, evil for evil. And down at, in up in, Verse 14 of chapter two, the government will respond to us with some commendation as well.

Insult for insult and evil for evil is like, it's like a matter of dog eat dog is what Richeson says. So where it is a matter of dog eat dog, you might think of that as giving insult for insult or evil for evil. Where it is a matter of dog eat dog. God will kick both dogs, is what he says.

And I like that. So if you're, if you're offering evil for evil, you could be maybe in the right, maybe you're in the right with your other party, but God will end up just kicking both of these dogs who are railing against each other. I thought that was...

Yeah, Andrew, that is so contrary to what the world the world wants you, you want to get your shot at the person, and they want to get their shot at you, so it just goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, where this is just totally different than that. Yeah, yeah, and this was convicting to me because, you know, I can think of a few people who are unbelievers, but I fall into this much more easily with unbelievers, you know, people that you just don't get along with. And the temptation is to respond with what they're dishing out to you. You know, you dish it out, you dish it back to them in the same way.

And that's that. And now I was thinking, oh, boy. So it was a matter of conviction for me there. So, yeah. Amen. Amen. You started it. Right. So, um, and I'm kind of flying through this because I know that we, uh, we want to keep to the, uh, the time. So we're doing pretty good. Um, okay.

So I'm going to cover verse, uh, 10 through 12 all in one kind of, uh, felt swoop here because it's quoted from Psalm 34. It's a Psalm. I think it's 1 through 16, that might be the wrong quotation, but it's Psalm 34 and he's quoting from there. So the question is, the first two points I have on this slide is that some commentators think that Peter has this psalm, this section of the psalm in mind when he says, For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. So either Peter is doing an exhortation on this section of the Old Testament, or he's writing his letter here to these believers. And he thinks, I just got a call, so I had to let it go there.

He's either doing an explanation of this Old Testament section or he's, it's hard to word, but he's going through and he's telling them to be harmonious and tenderhearted with each other and then In his mind, he thinks of this Psalm 34. So either way, we don't know, but that's why he brings in this section of Psalm 34. Literally, the Psalm says, one who wishes or desires to keep on loving life and to see good days, Merriman says, or one who is loving life and wishes to continue to do so, we says. So grammatically it's a present infinitive. So it's loving life and to keep on loving life and to keep on seeing good days. And of course it's David talking. In order to do that, if you want to Go on loving life and continue to see good days.

You should keep your tongue from evil and speak no evil and have no guile in your heart. And guile is defined as, we don't use that word much anymore, but it means deceit and deviousness and cunning and craftiness towards others. Verse 11. Let him eschew evil and do good. And eschew, if eschew, if you know that word, that's an older word. The new American standard renders that word eschew as turn away from evil. In the Greek, it's eclino or eclino. And it's kind of cool because it means to lean out from and away from, to lean out and away from evil.

Verse 12, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. So it's kind of cool that in verse 12, the rendering of that, the Lord, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, that if you drill down on that word, it's the eyes of the Lord are upon and into the prayers. of the ones who are eschewing evil and doing good and pursuing peace. So it's an interesting thing I have there at the second to the last bullet point there. If you lean out and away from evil, God comes upon you and leans into your prayers and he hears your prayers because God, of course, shuns evil too. And shunning, to shun is another definition of the word eschew. So that's kind of cool. So you lean out and away from evil, God will lean into and come upon you and hear your prayers.

And I have the last point here. David was under the law system. So he's under law and the law was terminated at the cross of Christ, wasn't it? And we are under grace. So we're under the grace principle. But the fact is God's character is the same, isn't it?

Eternally. So we can say that, yeah, if I'm... Like I said before, if I return evil for evil or railing for railing with this person or some person who is a non-believer, I'm going to lose fellowship with the Lord. He's going to pull back from me and he might even discipline me spiritually and I might be disciplined. So it's a character of God that is the same under law and under grace. Okay, so final thoughts, as Roger would say. But I say, my thoughts are deep, so I have final deep thoughts. Yeah, I like deep. Yeah, you like deep. Final deep thoughts. I have this up.

Here is, and I won't go through all of these, but here is, Lucifer Schaefer has a section kind of dealing with Christian love. and he hears all the commands to love the brethren and to suffer and rejoice with them and to to walk in love with each other and to you see in the middle to put on bowels of mercy kindness and humbleness of mind meekness and long-suffering that's from Colossians 3 you know love without hypocrisy so it's a whole refrigerator list of things or of commands that how we are to love the brethren, right? And it's, it's huge. I couldn't even finish the rest because I ran out of room. So I just say, et cetera, at the end. And it's just a mass, it's a massive list and it's a divine list. And it's, it's an impossible list to kind of accomplish, but we are under grace.

How do we accomplish all this? And then I thought, um, Here's one way to look at it, and this Schaeffer kind of alludes to in this book he has, the fact that we are all baptized into one body with one another. So we are all one, we are all made one by position, right? Because if we are all baptized, God did that, we didn't do that. But we're baptized all together into one body.

And in John chapter 17, verse 21, Christ willed that very thing. He willed that to be so. When he said that they may be one as a father, we are one. And he goes on to say, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity. And that's us, you and me and all the other believers here on this earth, that we may be, especially in the local body, that we may be perfected in unity and the world may know that you sent me. So it's done.

I mean, we're all branches of one vine. So how can we not? Fulfill all these high commands, you know, they're all high commands and grace, but they're all They're all doable because we have all the this supernatural Power from the Holy Spirit, right? So I end with saying how could we not do these things, you know, so there you go.

How ah Yes, pretty good on time. So let's end there any questions or thoughts? Pretty deep thoughts. Yeah, yeah, it is, yeah. But yeah, it's amazing that when you look at the list of how we are to be living with each other in the body, it's really quite humbling, isn't it? Right. It's beyond what we can do out of the flesh, certainly. Yeah, yeah.

And I think I'll leave this the session up so everyone can talk. Yeah, that's fine. The ones that have to leave can just go and we'll be waiting for you. Okay. We're here. I'll close in prayer real quick. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this meeting this morning and we thank you for your wonderful grace and be with us throughout this week as we go about our business and Just keep our minds on you this week, Lord. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.