Published: November 23, 2025 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 26 | Scripture: 1 Peter 3:8
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in 1 Peter 3. Once again, I'm going to read from verse 8 down through verse 12. Um although our focus will be on verse 8,
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Peter writes, Peter writes, "To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in
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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
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blessing. For let him who means to love life and see good days refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile. And let him turn away from evil and do
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good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is
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against those who do evil. Let us pray. Our father, we do ask that you would
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prepare us as our our brother has prayed. We we have the the Holy Spirit in Christ. in Christ. And so we ask that we would be prepared
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for this life, that we would be ready to run the race. We'd be ready to fight the fight. we'd be ready to do
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your will. And so we ask, Father, that you would use these words of Peter, we do ask that you would by your Holy Spirit speak to our hearts and our
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minds. We might glorify you in all things and that your church might be built up to be a glory to you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
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some wonder did he actually conclude the letter here and then something was added later or is it a conclusion of what he has just said beginning in chapter 2
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verse 11 that I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust. The the word is telos. It it means the
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goal. And perhaps I'm reaching too far, but hopefully be able to make the connection in in your mind as it is in my mind. And
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I say that as a uh play on words that the section perhaps goes all the way back to verse 13 of chapter 1.
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Therefore, gird your minds for action
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because of the glorious grace of Christ. He's saying, "Okay, now get on with the journey. your journey as resident aliens. Quickly gather up those loose robes
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as he pictures there in girding themselves. Gird up the loose robes of your mind. your mind. Gird them up and walk on in faith.
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Your mind is the faculty of understanding. It must according to that verse your minds for action keeping sober in spirit it your minds must see
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it through you must now walk in these things that I have taught you. He says, "Being sober in spirit, set your hope
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completely or perfectly on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." In chapter one, he sees the future for these people. Verse 7,
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that you'll have praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Christ. But I think he also sees the now in verses 11 of chapter 2 uh 11-13
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as some point to beloved I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wave war against your soul. Keep your behavior excellent
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among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the
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day of visitation. He he he's saying, "Okay, now is the time. I I I have set before you and I would say has also set
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before us before us the inner qualities that characterize righteous lives in the world and in the church. And now he's summarizing these
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things. Some say general summary, but I again I believe he's telling us now is the time to gird your minds for
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action. I've reminded you, it says of of the hope that you have in Christ. I I've given you my wisdom on how to conduct yourselves in relation to your various
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societal uh status where you are. Are you a slave? Are you a master? Are you a husband or a wife? He says, I've recreated for you the scenes of my own
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experience when I've seen the supreme example of living a holy life. that supreme stranger and souljourner on the earth,
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Jesus Christ himself. And I know he has said in chapter 1 verse 6 that you have been distressed by various
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trials. Now prepare yourselves to meet them. Prepare yourselves for action. I believe it is the mind and the mindset
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of the Christian that is the focus of this next section in first Peter that I've read 8 through 12 because he's going to go on in 13 to talk about
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suffering to talk about the trials and how they ought to deal with them. And so here this to sum up and literally in the Greek it's now finally all.
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And then he says same minded same minded be sympathetic be sympathetic brotherly love compassion humility.
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Peter I guess he was saving papyrus and ink. He he he forgot to put a burr a verb in this sentence. Finally, all
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Finally, all do these things. I guess we could supply the word be.
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Five adjectives that he lists here. And they reflect grace. They reflect grace that we ought to give to one
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And I believe it's as some have pointed out and I am planning to preach it this way. It's in a what's called the the Hebrew kayastic form. And what is what
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does that mean? The kai in Greek looks like an X. And so the form of these things is to help us understand
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uh and and remember what he's saying here. Now whether Peter thought uh consciously of this uh given his Jewish background I am not sure. But if you'll
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picture an act and the words that he lists here and I'm going to say them the way that I
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I see them in the Greek. Um the first word if you imagine this leg coming down in the X up here in the top is going to
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be same minded. The New American Standard says harmony which could be that same word but the idea is
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samemindedness. And down at the bottom of that leg is the fifth word in that line which is humility but it's actually
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lowlymindedness. So you have the relationship on this leg of samemindedness of samemindedness and lowlymindedness.
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And then the second and fourth terms very hard to distinguish between sympathy and compassion even in the Greek but it's on the other leg. So if you picture
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same-minded lowly minded on this leg and now this leg coming up this way is sympathetic and then compassion
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and then of course where they cross is the middle word of the five brotherly love.
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The first two deal of course with thinking the mind single-mindedness harmony if you want the H the H and lowlymindedness humility.
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The second and the fourth deal with emotions. And I know that many of you like me growing up or early in my Christian life, the the phrase that was
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around in the circles that I walked in was don't trust your feelings. Christians can't be emotional. Well, we're going to see that these words,
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we ought to be imitating the emotions of Christ. If you want H sympathetic, I would say humanitarian. It it has to do with how we relate to others. And compassion is humaness. The
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actions on that humanitarian idea. Perhaps I'm trying too hard. I like the Greek better. single-mindedness,
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lowlymindedness, sympathies and compassion held together by Philadelphia, the love of the brethren. The question some writers have about
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this uh section is Peter still speaking of the household codes. Is he still speaking to the lowest of the low, the slaves, and then to the women and then
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to the husbands? Are the words to believers instructions in how to relate to believers only or to
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And a third question is, did Peter rob Paul from Romans 12 and publish it as his own? Because it certainly sounds a whole lot like like Romans 12. Now certainly the brotherly
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love must be to believers. Brotherly love means those who are related in
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the brethren, everyone in the church. There's the idea of kinship. of kinship. If I were to translate the passage from the Greek
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the Greek and make Peter from southern Galilee, he would say, "Now, finally, all y'all, all y'all do these things."
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And certainly we see that we are related in Christ when he writes in chapter 1, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born
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again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He's caused us to be born again. We're in the same family. We are related and he is our father
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through Christ. And these traits that he lists here, I think were probably not stolen from
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Paul, but a common tradition among the believers in even in that first century of Christianity. of Christianity. the really from the teachings of Christ
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and the things that they heard him say and saw him do in his life on earth.
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But compassion But compassion surely includes not only those in the church but also outside of the church. But in general, if I were to outline
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this section, this section, verse eight, I think, is directed primarily at those in the Christian community and building them up and
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encouraging them to action. And verse nine primarily relates to our Christian life in relation to
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those outside the church, particularly those who are hostile to Christianity and to our faith. And then in verses 10- 12, and in some
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of your Bibles it'll be capitalized because Peter quotes from Psalm 34. with some of his own changes to it to
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make it more personal from the second person to the third person. But it is his scriptural foundation for his Christian ethics,
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his grounds for his exhortations that have come before. And yet he grounds them, cements them in Psalm, the words
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of Psalm 34. And I know that when we look at a passage like verse 8 with all these words, it it it can quickly kind of
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devolve into a word study. And I want to avoid that avoid that because again, I think that we can point in the scriptures in the New Testament,
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we can see how Christ is the foundation for us in all of these traits. and characteristics. And so it's not just that we're looking
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at a word and trying to say, well, how does that relate to me and how would I put that into action? But there is a a depth to this of what is the Christian life about.
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Peter knows that the Christians face in various levels of intensity hostilities and insults from people outside the church.
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And I guess I would ask about this should believers have to face the same kinds of things from people within the
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The church should be a place of support, a a place to learn, a place to grow spiritually, a place to be accepted, a place to
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have that true participation in the gospel, the fellowship of Christ. And I think Peter begins with the word
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samemindedness because the church is prone to division and dissensions.
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And it is interesting that Paul who begins his section much larger expanding these ideas these ideas in Romans chapter 12 begins with the mind
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with the renewing of our minds. So I believe it's a very pointed beginning the singlemindedness.
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Yes, it does mean harmonious. does mean of one mind. It does mean united. One person wrote likemindedness is a
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common heritage of faith and ethical tradition. But that heritage and ethical tradition must produce something. It must produce
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this kind of likemindedness, a cohesion, one person wrote, needed to sustain a community. The foundational values because it's meant to unify
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people of all walks of life. It is meant to bring them together, join them together by faith in Christ.
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Manifested how? Manifested how? Well, in the mind and the love of
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unity is not based on creeds. It's not based on confessions. Some churches, that's how they define unity. I believe you can create
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uniformity, but I don't know that you create a lot of unity. of unity. And unity certainly is not adding new traditions to those already in the world.
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And that's why Peter's message is so subversive even as he's trying to keep us in mind of how we live in our society. How do we
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do good and do right in a society that basically hates Christianity? He's aware of that. But at the same time he's saying
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you have to put off in order to put on rejecting the false religions of society and its ethics because what well what he's already told us in chapter one it was your feal way of life inherited
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from your forefathers. And we'll have opportunity in the other verses in this section to talk about what Paul would describe as the putting off and the putting on.
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But here I think that his focus is on these traits. these traits. There should be in the church no divisions. Your aims and your purposes must be
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identical because to be contrary-minded will be harmful and destructive to the body of Christ. But that's why we also need to be lowly
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minded, humble minded. humble minded. Humility is defined as the conscious effort to be truly humble. It it's countercultural.
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It was countercultural in Peter's day. It's countercultural today. It it brought a a certain sense of disdain and and shame because when the
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idea of lonelymindedness is well, you must be weak. You must be in able to unable to defend yourself.
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culture and I think again universally culture tends to praise the hotty tends to praise the high-minded tends to want to see domination.
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Um, winning matters, but conceit and arrogance do not find room in the community of the humble.
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Philippians chapter 2, consider others more important than yourselves. And and what disrupts harmony
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is pride and selfc centeredness.
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hostility and misunderstandings. and misunderstandings. Not only and many take this is the understanding of the gospel. Yes, it is the understanding of the gospel and and
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we we have room to talk it over and to work it through and to work out our salvation together in our understanding
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of the gospel. But it's also the understanding of what attitudes we ought to have.
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It's not about personalities. is not about your style. As one author wrote, the problem is not assertion but self assertiveness.
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It's not about how you come, you do things. It's not about your background. It's about the attitudes
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to be of the same mind and the lowly mind. And again to that we look to our savior.
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What did he say? Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart.
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What are the believers concerned? I I had a hard time writing out the outline. It's it's more than concerns. It it is emotions. It is a feeling.
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And again, the writer writer of scripture tells us we have the example. For we do not have a high priest who cannot
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sympathize with our weak uh uh who do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. See that sympathy and that compassion, those
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emotions are important in the church. I get sympathy and empathy mixed up. But I think the sympathy and the compassion
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help us understand that we need both. Sympathy is generally understanding another's distress, either their pain or or simply their point of view.
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a feeling of sincere concern for someone who's experiencing something either difficult or they may be experiencing something wonderful and we have an
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obligation to have a sincere interest in that. So what do we care about? We care about their needs. We care about their joys.
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We care about their sorrows. We care about their hurts. Edmund Clowney wrote, "Christian sympathy does not exploit,
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it shares and supports." But then we have compassion. What does it mean to be compassionate? Could be translated kind-hearted or
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tenderhearted, full of pity. Could be merciful, generosity, warmth. Sympathy is understanding somebody's distress. But
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empathy or this compassion invites us actively to share in that person's emotional experience.
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If you were to try to take this word in the Greek the Greek and say it in English, and I'm going to try, the word would sound something like
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usoy. It has kind of this guttural sound. And again, I use that as a play on words. It literally describes your internal
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organs. It's your gut. And the idea here is that the feelings deep within you result in mercy for others.
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I don't know what movie it's from. They play it on one of the sports shows as they're doing the introduction, but somebody says something. It's the feeling that you get right in here. Well, our
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Well, our scriptures are telling us those feelings that ought to be right in here are scriptural. And if you don't have them, there's a problem.
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The feelings in scripture seem to link compassion with mercy and concern.
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Paul writes in Ephesians 4, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted," forgiving each other. And this is the real kicker,
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just as God in Christ also has forgiven. You see, that doesn't let us kind of sit
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dispassionately and kind of look, I you know, well, I'm I'm sorry for you. This this word says, "No, no, there's there's a feeling and there's an action
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that results from that feeling." I mean, it it can be a contempt that you might feel for someone else when they're put down as weak or inferior.
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I was reviewing some of the passages in in Matthew in Matthew and they're familiar passages and and you've all seen them in Sunday school. The feeding of the 5000 in Matthew 14,
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the feeding of the 4,000 in Matthew 16 and and it's like the Sunday school lessons, you know, as I was reviewing in my head, the Sunday school lessons are on the Whoa. Jesus took a few fish and a
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couple of loaves of bread and he fed 5,000 people and 4,000 people a few days later. But each of those passages tells us that
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Jesus looked at the crowd long before he even touched those loaves and fishes and said to his disciples, "I feel compassion for these people."
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Jesus had real compassion right in here and it resulted his in his actions. He looked at the people and said, "They're like sheep without a shepherd. I feel compassion for them." He looked
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he heard the cries of the blind men coming. He's walking out of Jericho in Matthew 20. And there's two blind men standing on the road and saying, "Jesus,
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we want to see." And it says, "Moved with compassion, with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight and followed
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him." So we have the single-mindedness or same-mindedness and lowlymindedness. And on the other leg, we have sympathies and we have
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compassion. and they're held together by the believer's love.
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As one author pointed out, we tend to when we see this word Philadelphia, we go, "Oh, there's the pho. There's the love." And he says, "Yeah, but in Peter, Philadelphia,
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the brotherly love falls very heavily on the brother.
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In chapter one again he says, "Since you have ha have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart."
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He's saying, "Okay, you have that and you know how to put that in action. Now get on with it." It is affection.
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But love is also resolved to do right by our fellow believers. Not that dispassionate idea but emotional because God designed us to feel
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affection. What did he say? The world Jesus said the they will know we are Christians by our love for one another. A new commandment I say to you, that you love
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one another, even again, he throws these kickers in there, doesn't he? Even as I loved you, that you also ought to love one another.
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How did he love us? He was kind to us. He had insultsight into our very souls. and he laid down his life to save me from my sins.
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So, how do these values and traits compare to our society today? Well, Peter knew that the Greco Roman society expected high commitment
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to stability and well-being inside the home. Peter's fine with that. Peter's reinforcing that because Peter's saying, "How do these
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traits and values compare inside the church?" And he would agree that it's the stability and well-being of the
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community of the church that matters, not the individual needs.
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The modern mindset I believe along among a lot of Christians is if my needs aren't being met, I'm out of here. I'll find a place more obliging to what
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I think I need. But how does Peter want us to think? As Karen Jobes wrote in her commentary, like-mindedness implies a willingness to
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conform one's goals, needs, and expectations to the purposes of the larger community.
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The principle of humility in that day was to declare oneself powerless to defend one's status.
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I think that ought to be the same principle of humility among believers. Peter's message is do not use the world's tactics to defend who you are.
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He says, "You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. You are free in him." But then he goes on and says, "But do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bonds
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slaves of Christ."
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y'all same- minded, sympathetic, compassionate, lowly minded. lowly minded. Let us pray. Our
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father, we do again ask that you would by your holy spirit teach us these words. cause us to gird up our minds, to be ready for action,
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to be ready to live as resonant aliens, strangers and sojourers, knowing who we are, that we are bought and paid for by Christ. We are his. We
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are free. And yet we are free to be your bonds slaves, to serve you, and to serve others. We ask that you would do these things in Christ's name. Amen.
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You rise for the benediction from 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Paul says, "Finally,
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finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be likeminded, live in peace, and the God of love and
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peace shall be with you.