Called to Holiness #12

OUR CALLING: BLESS, BLESSING, BLESSED

How do you respond when you are personally offended? I’m talking about being outright insulted. Our base instincts would tell us to fire back. But as some wise sage once said, “The more mud you throw, the more ground you lose.”

            I wish that I could say that words of offense roll off my back like water off a duck’s well-oiled feathers. I wish I could, as my mentor once told me, grow a soft heart with a thick skin, to have compassion for others, even adversaries, while not letting their arrows pierce me. I wish I could, but I can’t.

            That’s not entirely true. I have grown to understand that hurting people hurt other people and that they don’t mean to hurt. I have been able to process those hurts through the filter of “second thought” known as my wife, Sharon. But unlike the “sticks and stones” jingle, words still hurt.

            When I was about nine, one of my school pals picked his nose and wiped it on me saying “You’ve got snot-itis.” There was nothing worse than an “itis” in those days. Seeing some girls across the street, I thought to run over and “tag” them to divest myself of the “itis,” (this was the cure). As I turned to run across the road, I immediately ran into a speeding car. If I had been faster, I would have been in front of the car instead of hitting the car on the passenger door.

            If we do not respond appropriately to insults and offenses, the consequences can be disastrous. You might not get killed, but you might kill your reputation. Or worse, to retaliate and respond aggressively to your nemesis shows what side of the spiritual conflict you are on. The Christian’s choice in how to respond to others in every situation is a choice to be blessed by God or opposed by God.

            This is the message that Peter gave to his readers, who, as Christians, were not only persecuted outright, but were being slandered publicly by their neighbors. Peter taught that the Christian’s calling in all situations is to be a blessing.

1. To Bless: Family Dynamics for Christian Community

Christians need to have an attitude of harmony with others. There is a saying, “Charity begins at home.” Lots of things begin at home including how we treat others. So Peter begins with a reminder that how we treat others begins with how we treat fellow Christians.

            Five virtues are encouraged in v. 8 as being essential for the harmony of any Christian community. Let’s consider each one separately and then as a whole:

Be like-minded – Believers are to have a common mindset. In Phil. 2:5 Paul tells us to have “the mind of Christ.” The cross of Christ is our common focus; we have the same forgiveness, the same love of God, the same Holy Spirit. Being like-minded does not mean being a clone, as if we were a cult, or having the same gifts or tastes or habits. Rather, we have a common heritage of faith and ethical tradition.

Be sympathetic – The term “sympathetic” is a compound word made up two roots: “suffer” and “with.” To be sympathetic is to “suffer with” others as they suffer, to be sensitive to their hurts. What it means to be sympathetic might be illustrated by a video I watched on YouTube of an intersection in an African city. There were no traffic lights to govern the flow of cars in this intersection. It was amazing to watch the multiple lanes of cars turning and going straight with no one crashing. This is the Christian way to operate in community – being sensitive to what’s going on around them.

Be brotherly in love – Sorry, the NIV 2010 says “love one another” but that misses a key piece in the equation. We are not just to love one another but to love like family. We are not mere acquaintances or distant relatives; we are family. This is the love Jesus required of his disciples (John 13:34-35).

Be compassionate – This word was used to refer to the intestines or bowels since it was believed that deep and intense emotions came from deep within a person. Peter uses the word to refer to the depth of concern we ought to have for one another. This virtue of compassion was understood in the 1^st century as kindness towards family members.

Be humble – In the Greco-Roman world humility was a sign of weakness and shame. If you could not think of a “come-back” or even physically defend your honor, you were considered humble (not a good thing). Peter holds humility up higher as a virtue to be sought. Humility is like submission and essential for building unity in the church. Christ humbled himself and became a man – certainly he is our example.

            These virtues have one thing in common. “Brotherly love” and “compassion” particularly point to the kinship obligations of family. Peter applies family relationships to the Christian community, building on the theme that our new birth through Christ literally makes us family under God the Father. These virtues testify to the transformed character of the believer, that we are no longer like the rest of humankind, we are different.

2. To Be a Blessing: Christian Responses to Offenses

With this character in mind, and in hopes of being consistent, Peter now addresses the relationship of Christians to hostile people outside the Christian community. He writes, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that may inherit a blessing,” (3:9).

             Do you hear the echo? Peter is either borrowing from Paul, or Paul is borrowing from Peter. Either is okay. In Romans 12:14-21 we find the same Spirit at work as in 1 Peter, the same teaching in effect (Read Romans).

            What Peter identifies here as expressions of hostility are insults, defamation of character, and verbal abuse. These are the weapons typically used in an ungodly, honor-and-shame society for challenging the honor of others. They would publicly shame a person precisely to get a response, get the person to defend themselves, and thereby humiliate themselves. The Christian response of non-retaliation would be startling within that culture. Peter exhorted the believers to respond with blessing rather than verbal retaliation.

            Trash-talk is expected in sports. Players say things to each other on the ice and on the field that would curl your hair. They are trying to psychologically throw each other off their game. Unfortunately, trash-talk finds its only comparison on the school playground. Seven-year-olds may talk “big” but true maturity does not yield to verbal taunting.

            Peter goes further than non-retaliation; he teaches that the Christian is to “repay evil with blessing.”        

            After the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, no person in all of East Germany was more despised than the former Communist dictator Erich Honecher. He had been stripped of all his offices. Even the Communist Party rejected him. Kicked out of his villa, the new government refused him and his wife new housing. The Honechers were homeless and destitute.
            A pastor by the name of Uwe Holmer was the director of a Christian help center north of Berlin. Holmer became aware of the Honechers’ situation, but thought it would be wrong to give them a room meant for even needier people. So Pastor Holmer and his family decided to take the former dictator into their own home.
            Now, the interesting thing is that Erich Honecher’s wife, Margot, had ruled the East German educational system for twenty-six years. Eight of Pastor Holmer’s ten children had been turned down for higher education due to Mrs. Honecher’s policies, which discriminated against Christians. Here were the Holmers caring for their personal enemy—the most hated man in Germany, and his wife. This was so unnatural, so unconventional, so Christlike.
            By the grace of God, the Holmers loved their enemies, did them good, blessed them, and prayed for them. They turned the other cheek. They did to the Honechers what they would have wished the Honechers would do to them. [i]

            This is the acting out of Peter’s principle in the most literal sense. This is what it means to repay evil with blessing.

            One writer who commented on 1 Peter 3:9 helps us out with the complicated feelings we have in this regard. “Loving” in modern culture refers to an emotional attachment of a greater intensity than merely “liking.” But Peter clearly interprets Jesus’ command to love (your enemies) to refer not to emotions but to acting rightly towards one’s adversaries, regardless of whatever emotions may or may not be involved.[ii]

            It’s not about “feeling” but about “doing” that makes love real. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Mt. 5:44). Be a blessing to them.

3. To Be Blessed: Why We Don’t Retaliate

What we have seen so far is how Peter uses Scripture (OT) to make his case. This is not new teaching; Peter learned from the Master (Jesus) how to use the OT to teach disciples.

            Peter quotes Psalm 34 to persuade his readers as to why we need to endure ridicule for believing in Jesus and do not retaliate. First of all, David, the writer of the Psalm, challenges his readers that if they want to see good days they will do two things: 1) keep their tongues from evil, and 2) turn from evil and do good instead.

            David learned this from experience. If you look at Psalm 34 in your Bibles, you will note at the beginning that this is a Psalm of David, written after he pretended to be insane before an enemy king so that he could escape. The story is found in 1 Samuel 23. David scribbled on the gate and drooled down his beard to mimic insanity. It worked.

            The story is much broader than this strange incident and the Psalm really covers three chapters of 1 Samuel. What Peter quotes reflects 1 Samuel 25 when David sent men to a wealthy man to receive supplies. David tells his messengers to greet Nabal with these words, “Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!” (25:6). Then, seeing as how David’s men had not molested Nabal’s shepherds but actually protected them, maybe he could spare some meat and supplies.

            But Nabal answered, “Who is this David? Who is this Son of Jesse?” He basically insults Israel’s most famous warrior and sends his men away empty-handed. David’s reaction to insult is to arm his men and get ready to slaughter the whole lot of them.

            A servant, however, goes to Abigail, Nabal’s wife, and tells her what happened. She loads up some bread, wine, mutton, grain, and raisins and other foods, and goes to head off David before he can act on his temper. It works…except for the raisins (what an insult).

            David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands,” (25:32-33).

            Ten days later, Nabal is struck dead by the Lord’s hand. It seems he had a stroke from the text. So David could write in Psalm 34, “turn from evil and do good…seek peace and pursue it.” And remember what we read in Romans 12? “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” (12:19&21).

            Christians are, in no uncertain terms, to avoid evil. For if we do evil (by verbal retaliation or otherwise) God will be against us, for the Psalm clearly says, “the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” Peter employed the Psalm quotation to show that people who have been born again into the good days of the new life in Christ are called to bless when insulted and to return good for evil no matter what happens.

            It comes down to trusting God. When someone hurts you emotionally with uncaring words or thoughtlessness, our calling is the same: to bless in order to receive a blessing from God, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

C. S. Lewis said, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

            The cross of Christ reminds us of that truth. Jesus died for the sins of the world. That means that he died for the offenses that you and I experience. When you are hurt by words or actions from a brother or a sister, remember that Jesus died for your hurt. Jesus died for the one who hurt you. All of the fallenness of our world, all the insults and careless gestures and physical wounds were gathered up and nailed to the body of Jesus on the cross.

            In response to our injustices, Augustine wisely said, “If you are suffering from a bad man’s injustice, forgive him lest there be two bad men.”

            We suffer injustices and cruel words with grace and respond with blessing because Christ has absorbed all that evil and sentenced it to hell.

            “That is why,” Paul declared, “for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong,” (2 Cor. 12:10). His grace is sufficient for you in your times of offense and hurt.

                                                            AMEN

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[i](Reported by George Cowan to Campus Crusade at the U.S. Division Meeting Devotions, Thursday, March 22, 1990.)

[ii] Karen Jobes, 1 Peter, p. 217.