Christ Wins - 1 Peter 3:17-22 Series

1 Peter 3:13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." 15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that is in you. But do this with gentleness and fear, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that when your good behavior in Christ is being slandered, the ones mistreating you may be put to shame. 17 It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also he also went and preached to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now also saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand--with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Introduction

Think of the last time you were mistreated by someone. Someone gossiped about you, or took something away from you, or treated you unfairly, or made fun of you, or hurt you in some way. Do you have it in your mind? How long ago was that? Raise your hand if you are thinking of something in the last couple of months.

Now think about how you responded to that unjust suffering and compare that with all that we have been learning in 1 Peter about the right way to respond. Peter has been teaching us to respond with meekness - with gentleness and humility. He has been teaching us to repay the person with blessing and kindness and love rather than retaliation. In order to have a clear conscience afterward, we need to respond graciously to abuse. How are you doing? If you are like me, you are not quite there yet. I just look at my typical response to being mistreated, and I still have to admit that even after all these months of instruction from Peter, my response to being treated poorly is still way too much like the world. And so I am glad Peter did not just give us the command and then move on to something else. He has been giving us reason after reason to help adjust our perspective, and he is going to continue that today. What we see in this closing section of chapter 3 is a ladder of reasons to respond the right way to suffering. And as we ascend up this ladder, each step is another more glorious and powerful motivation for meekness.

Trust in God's Will

17 It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

Isn't that kind of stating the obvious? Do we really need a verse in the Bible to tell us that? Does anyone read that and think, "Oh, all this time I thought God would rather me do evil and suffer rather than to do good"? Is Peter stating the obvious? Well, maybe it should be obvious, but judging from the way I tend to react when I am mistreated, it is not obvious enough to sink in to my thick skull. If I thought suffering for doing good was a good thing, why would I get so worked up when I am falsely accused or I suffer unjustly? Obvious or not, verse 17 is something we need to be reminded of because it goes against the grain of our natural sensibilities. When we do evil, and then we suffer consequences, most of the time we can understand that. We usually do not get too riled up over that because it makes sense to us. We can see that it is fitting that we should suffer if we have done something wrong. That feels appropriate. But when we suffer for doing what is right – that is when we get all upset and lose sleep and get tension headaches and act like the world is coming to an end.

So if you judge by our reactions, you could argue that we naturally think that suffering for doing evil is better. It certainly seems more appropriate. But Peter wants to reverse our thinking on that and show us that when we do what is right and it blows up in our face – that is a victory, not a defeat. It is a good thing. If that happens to you and then someone asks if you are having a good day you can say, "Yes, - a really good thing happened to me today; I suffered unjustly."