Wayfaring Strangers Part 14-" The Fair Is In October " Series

Wayfaring Strangers

A study of 1 Peter

Part 14

“The fair is in October and we don’t have tickets”

1 Peter 3:13-17

Today we are going to continue our study of 1 Peter titled wayfaring strangers

Last week we looked at Peter’s checklist of spiritual maturity

As he prepared us for the suffering part of his message

We learned that if we will respond in ways that please God

Even when we suffer

Even when we are persecuted

Even when we are mistreated

Our hope is still in Christ

And with his strength

Not our own

We can overcome every trial

And even consider them as joy

Let me quickly remind you of the checklist items

Strive for unity

Show sympathy

Love each other

Have compassion on our fellow man

Humble ourselves

Forgive others

Keep quiet if we can’t say something nice

And chase purity and peace with everything we have

As I said last week

If we can check each of these check list items

Our lives will be better

Our relationship with Christ and with each other will be better

And even our relationship with ourselves will be better

Peter gave us this check list because

Life just ain’t fair sometimes

That’s not fair

Seems to be the battle cry of many in this world today

When one person gets a bigger piece of the cake

That’s not fair

When someone else gets the job or the promotion or the position

That’s not fair

When something bad happens

Even when it is our own fault

We want to cry

That’s not fair

My dad used to say

When I would cry

That’s not fair

“The Fair is in October and we don’t have tickets”

To that I have added over the years

Get over it

In this section of Peter

He deals with a principle

Listen

There are many promises in the bible

And God never breaks his promises

But there are many things in God’s word that are principles

Not promises

When we don’t differentiate between the two

And confuse God’s principals with his promises

We can easily become discouraged

When things don’t go as we feel they should

Mixing these two up also can highjack our faith

When we believe God has broken a promise

We may begin doubting the other [promises

And even doubt God himself

So

Today

Peter begins with a principle of God

Please open your bibles to 1 Peter chapter 3

And I will break down verses 13-17

Let me read them in their entirety first to set the scene

And then as always, we will come back and break them down and apply them to our lives

1` Peter 3:13-17

13 Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. 15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way.[a] Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. 17 Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!

Now the general principal of this passage

Verse 13

13 Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good?

Peter asks a rhetorical question here

Who will want to hurt you if you do good

What this means is in principal

If we live a good and Godly life

Do what is right

Follow the check list from last week

Keep our noses clean

Our thoughts focused on Christ

That no one

Should want to do us harm

Notice

I said

Should

This is what makes this a principal and not a promise

We know that bad things happen to good people all the time

We know we live in a sinful world

And sometimes stuff happens

If we take Peters’s words here as a promise

And then we live right and something bad does happen

That would mean the promise was broken

And God

Remember does not break his promises

Period!!!!!

So

He says

Live like you know you should as believers

And most likely nothing bad will happen

But we know life is not always fair

And so does Peter

So, he continues

With verse 14a

“14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right”

Peter adds the but

Always a but right

But

Even if

I am not a Greek and Hebrew scholar