Published: November 30, 2025 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 27 | Scripture: 1 Peter 3:9
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We'll be looking at First Peter chapter 3 verse 9 this morning, but I'd like to read that little section from 8 down through 12 of chapter 3.
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To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but
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giving a blessing instead. For you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For let him who means to love life and
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see good days refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile. And let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.
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For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Let us pray.
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Our father, again we ask that by your holy spirit you would speak that you would draw our hearts and souls to the
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attention of the word and to the writings of the apostle Peter as he writes to people very much like us
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who live in a world that is hostile to what we believe. In a world that believes in retaliation
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of insult for insult and expects that that is how the world will work and we ask that you would teach us that we would also hear you and
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obey. We ask in Christ's name. Amen.
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In chap uh chapter 3 verse 8, Peter has his little summing up this list of virtues meant to remind the Christian community of what sustains
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them. letting all be harmonious, brotherly, kind-hearted or having compassion and humble in spirit.
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And verse 9 appears to be the way they are to deal with those who are hostile to the church. Those outside of
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the church that want to insult or bring some kind of accusation against those in the church. Not return
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Verse 9 seems again appears to have be in the heart of what Peter is trying to say. to say. It certainly seems to have a book end in verse 19 of chapter 4 when he ends that
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section by saying, "Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is
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Certainly we have some idea of the kinds of hostilities that Peter sees are coming here.
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He may be that this is the reason why he he wrote in the first place. And here he's he's transitioning to the heart of his message to the people.
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But we get this idea of the hostilities and and mainly uh verbal abuse. We see insults um probably character defamation,
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challenges to their honor, shaming them and discrediting them. Um, I thought of these as a a
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conglomerate of, if you'll humor me a little bit, weapons of mass denigration that somehow there is that hostility
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as they look at the Christians and how they live their lives. They view them as some of the historians say that the Christians were sometimes
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viewed as their competitors that that somehow their behavior they were trying to to to be noticed and and Peter obviously is not pushing them to
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be noticed but to live rightly before them even if that is subversive to the culture. But if they are behaving differently and
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they view them as competitors, my thought was they probably treat the Christians as if they were in a sports arena and arena and they treated them by trashtalking.
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advocates would have been very startling in its difference in how that culture expected them to respond. I mean, what's the natural response when you're insulted
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is to insult back, right? When when you're verbally abused, you're going to be verbally retaliating. Payback is fair, right?
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The Greek seems to indicate that this is a cycle, the insult for insult, evil for evil. Um, as a a natural cycle of human
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nature to escalate the conflict, the conflict, evil exchanged for evil, insult exchanged for insult,
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jab for jab, punch for counter punch. But see, Peter seems to say that even though society expects
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retaliation in kind and even though, and I believe it's true, they will be confused why you're not retaliating.
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He says rather go ahead and instead of retaliating give a blessing to the one dishing out the abuse to you.
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And who is the greatest cycle breaker of that cycle of escalating conflict? He's already told us in verse 23 of chapter 2
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of our Lord. And while being reviled or being insulted, being insulted, he did not revile in return.
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And our task is to have that kind of inner resistance, that kind of inner determination to break the
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cycle of insults and evil. And again, as I say, Peter's words seem to be primarily directed toward their relation to those outside the church,
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those who would uh be insulting the
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But as we all know, the church is not always a place free of charge and countercharge among the congregants. And it creates a toxic environment
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that again is a cycle and an escalation of conflict of conflict and it will threaten the unity of the
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congregation. And though the causes may vary, I think we could go back to verse eight and say this same-mindedness, the sympathies,
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the brotherly affection, the compassion, the lonely mindedness goes missing in action. And what are those causes?
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Some expect the church to meet all of their needs. for pastors to be perfect, offer perfect guidance, and never make any mistakes.
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Some come projecting their own personal struggles. Or what is the modern language? We they're carrying their baggage and they're expecting that the church will be an outlet for their pain.
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or they misinterpret scripture and so they adopt a rigid judgmental legalistic attitudes legalistic attitudes which if everyone else does not follow
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those then we're all wrong. There are some who resist change simply because it's change. They're threatened by new ideas and
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initiatives within the church. And some just lack emotional and spiritual maturity to handle conflicts and relationships in a manner that is
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healthy. And so I get it that there could be that Peter is speaking only of those outside the church. But uh we've been in this church
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churches long enough to know there will be conflict and there will be that temptation to retaliate to give an insult for an insult
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or gossip for gossip. And Peter says, "Respond to insults and literally the
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word evil or baseness that comes your way with blessing."
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blessing? Well, the Greek literally translated, I think, would be to speak well of someone publicly. The the word you would recognize, it's the word eulogy. which
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is what we do at somebody's funeral. We have somebody stand up and say something nice about the deceased. But I think Peter and again the context
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tells us there's more to this word. There's more to what Peter is saying here to give a blessing.
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And just frankly, the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit of self-control is what is required. And and so here in this context, I think
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it means to invoke God's favor on someone. It means to being able to pray sincerely for the good of the person abusing you,
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for their well-being, for God's grace to come upon them. And sometimes And sometimes it takes getting creative in how to do
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that. And sometimes it means putting yourself in a way that will actually invite more
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because the call I believe is not to passive aggression passive aggression although we see that in the Lord. There were times for silence be he was silent be as a lamb before his sheerers is
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dumb. But sometimes, and I believe this is what Peter is getting at here, it's not passive aggression, but active
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you send him a a card or you you buy him flowers or you bake him a cake. Peter is saying this is how
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a Christian ought to respond with with an action that goes beyond those little nicities.
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One of the authors used the term, he says, quote, "This is how Christians get even." I don't think that's quite what Peter has in mind here. Yes, it sounds nice and piffy. This is Christians getting
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even. We give a blessing instead of an But getting creative and putting yourself on the line
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is not pathy. It's not cute, but it is obedience. There were two that came to my mind. Uh examples uh one that I read and one that I
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actually witnessed some. I had a friend in in college, Dan, college, Dan, from the very beginning of moving into the dorm. One of his palm mates uh just
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took it upon himself to mock him for his Christianity. And uh this was one of those individuals who had um I don't know how it happens,
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but he had his little posi. He had his little groupies who kind of imitated him, but stayed in the background, but did what he did. And they imitated him
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and insulting Dan for his his belief, for his faith. And of course, we prayed with Dan for this individual and his friends for most
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of uh two semesters. And Dan never retaliated. He remained friendly. He would smile and
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he would acknowledge the insult, but he would not return it. And day after day, apparently, and I didn't witness all of this, but gradually over time,
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the his adversary, this young man, took Dan aside and basically said, "What is it with you? What is the deal? Why do
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you not retaliate against what I'm doing?" And that in time opened an avenue for hearing of the gospel.
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Another story that I read was of a Christian soldier in his barracks. And every night he would read his Bible
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and he would pray before lights out. And the soldier across the aisle from him would point to him and insult him
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and ridicule him for his crutch of Christianity. And one night as the soldier read and prayed, uh, a pair of muddy boots
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clocked him upside the head. But the next morning, the hostile soldier across the aisle found his boots
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clean, polished, and ready for inspection. And as I understand the story, several of the soldiers in the barracks
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who witnessed this became believers because of the strength of the one who did not retaliate, did not insult for insult, exchange evil for
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evil, but gave a blessing. like much of what Peter says uh about the Lord's the it's a purpose statement.
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It's not a promise that people will come to the Lord. They may be even more abusive as I say,
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but this is the injunction. Not returning evil for evil or insult for evil, insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead.
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But I came across this in another book in another context. But I think it applies here. I thought of this verse. His statement is that we cannot
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lean on what he calls zap theology. When we struggle with a particular sin, we sometimes wish that God would zap us.
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Have you ever felt like that? When you you're struggling with something, we pray for help in changing and then we it's as if we okay, I I've
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I've done my part, God. I've prayed. Now I'm waiting for you to zap me and just take that sin away and I'll never struggle with it again.
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But the scripture tells us it's a process. It's a process that one takes working out working out our salvation as God works
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within us. You're familiar with Philippians 2. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for
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it is God who is at work within you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Paul calls it in other places a putting off of sin and a putting on of Christ.
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You you've read about the demon that left the one guy and left and it was cleaned up. His mind was clean and
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everything was empty. But because there was nothing to fill it, seven demons more powerful than the one before came back.
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That's the idea here is that that's a putting off and a putting on. In Ephesians 4 is very helpful in this.
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Paul writes in verse 22 of that chapter in reference to your former manner of life. you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and that you be
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renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
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So not paying back insult for insult is not just giving up a thing but it's replacing it with something
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And the ten commandments particularly are intended I think to be viewed this way that thou shalt not imply a thou shalt.
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For example, in the ninth commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Well, what's the positive view of that? We stand with
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others and vindicate them when they're slandered by a li lying accuser. See, there's a putting off, but there's
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a putting on. There's a laying aside, but there is a taking hold. taking hold. A person who habitually lies must quit
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lying. Yes. lying. Yes. But they must start becoming truthful. Again, Ephesians 4. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one
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of you, with his neighbor, for you are members of one another. A person who is given to stealing must stop stealing. Yes. But they must become diligent and
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generous workers. And Paul again says, "He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he
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will have something to share with the one who has a need." Putting off those things that make for division and dissension and strife in
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the church are instead replaced by becoming kind. Again, Ephesians 4, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor,
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and slander be put away from you by becoming kind, I think we could translate to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in
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Christ has also forgiven you. See, there it's not a passive thing. Yes, we we pray earnestly
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secretly, but there I think has to be an action that replaces that putting off by putting on. And what is the greatest aid to putting off and putting on is the
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power of the Holy Spirit in the word of God. John 16, but when he the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own
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initiative, Jesus says, but he'll speak. Whatever he hears, he'll speak and disclose it to you. In Romans 12, Paul says, "And do not be
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conformed to this world, but be transformed." There's the the negative and the and the positive. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you can prove what the
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will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. And what is part of that doing that is not giving insult for insult but instead giving a
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Peter uses the words here for you were called for this very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. There's a question in the Greek uh among the Greek scholars and I don't know I
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saw a list of authors that I sometimes consult about 20 people in there and I think it was 12 to eight to eight that saying it refers to something that
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happened be that had comes before and eight of them says it refers to something later here's the either or does Peter say you have been called to
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bless those who insult you? Or does he say, "Bless those who insult you because you know that a blessing most certainly awaits you."
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I think it's probably the latter because he speaks here of our inheritance. But Peter has already spoken of our inheritance that comes from God. In
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verse three of chapter 1, God who has caused us to be born again to a living hope to attain an inheritance which is
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imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you. It's God who has called us to obtain an
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inheritance. There are those who who view that this is say it is a clear and it's not to me a reference to Esau. One who sought his
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inheritance but but he had sold it for a bowl of porridge and yet he sought it with tears but could not inherit. But I think Peter
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is telling us you have an inheritance. God has caused you to be born again. And that inheritance is yours and it is imperishable. It is undefiled. It's
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waiting for you. And this is what impels us to bless others and give them the blessing.
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We show our conversion and the fact that we are inheritors by our blessing instead of our cursing.
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In Luke chapter 6, Jesus says, "Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you."
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The writer Richard Lansky writes, "God called us to inherit his infinite blessing. This impels us to bless
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We are called to bless others because we are blessed by God. That's how I see the for this. You were called for this. You were called. You were given an inheritance. And this is how God expects
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us to behave among those who are hostile to our
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underscore. We cannot pronounce God's favor on a hostile person hostile person but we can pray for it. There is a time for silence and prayer
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for their repentance for their salvation for their good. But again, it's not a well-wishing.
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It's praying sincerely that God would bring real change to them. In Matthew 5, Jesus says, "But I say to
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you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
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But also understand this that Peter is not espousing a work's righteousness here as if he were suggesting that our inheritance depends on our merits. Our merits as a Christian earning it as a
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believer. But what he does advocate is behavior in keeping with our confession as believers. What we do in blessing others is
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evidence of not a basis for our
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But again, Peter is summing up the kind of attitude, the kind of behavior that he is expecting from his readers,
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from his readers and from us who have inherited new life.
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Refusal to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in retaliation to hostilities to hostilities would call our conversion into question.
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Do we identify with Christ or not? Our ethical behavior, both to those outside the church and to those inside the
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church, must be above and beyond what
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and what they think is the norm for how people treat each other. You were called for this, not returning insult for insult or evil for evil, but instead giving a blessing.
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Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we do ask that you would cause us to
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to walk to to behave to have the attitudes that were in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that these things would
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characterize our church. They would correct characterize our lives. that they would not just be a list of words that that we memorize and kind of know
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the definitions of, but in our daily actions, the way we live our lives would be lived with the same attitude,
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the same behavior, the same beliefs as our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we ask, Father, that we would take these to heart and that we would practice them as
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we will have daily opportunity as things come our way and that you would be glorified, but your church would be built up, your church would be strengthened, your church would be ready
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to glorify you. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. you please rise for the benediction from Colossians chapter 3.
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Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace and be thankful.