No More Fears - 1 Peter 3:13-15 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 you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ died 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 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 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

If I were to pick out the top ten most unhelpful pieces of advice of all time, I think I would give the number one slot to the statement, “You should have been more careful.” Didn’t you just love that when you were growing up? You make some costly mistake, and now you are in pain or some valuable possession has been ruined, and your mom said, “Well, you should have been more careful.” And you said, “Oh, that’s so helpful – thanks, mom!” How could you have ever figured that one out on your own?

Another one that might be high on the list for some of you might be this one: “Don’t worry,” or “Don’t be afraid.” How many times have you been scared to death over something, and someone comes along and says, “Don’t be afraid,” and all your fears just melted away? It takes a lot more than just someone saying that to overcome fear, doesn’t it? But it is important that we figure out what does overcome fear, because the wrong kind of fear can ruin your life. And worse than that – it dishonors Christ.

We have returned today to our verse by verse study through the book of 1 Peter that has been on hold a couple weeks over Christmas. And if you can think back to our last study, verses 8-12, you remember that Peter is calling us to repay people with blessing when they abuse us. He has been talking about how to have a godly response to abuse ever since midway through chapter 2. And so it is no surprise that Peter would at some point take a moment and talk to us about the problem of fear. If we cannot overcome fear, everything we have learned here is going to be out the window. So let’s take a look at what Peter teaches us here. He is going to give us three principles for dealing with the problem of abuse and mistreatment

Douse the Fires of Persecution

He starts with some preventive medicine.

1 Peter 3:13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?

Most of the time persecution will not happen when we are eager to do good. In most cultures at most times, doing good will win admiration from most people. The threat of persecution is always smoldering out there, but when we live lives eager to do good, that has a tendency to douse the fires of persecution and cause people to be favorable toward us.

When we do what is wrong, the world will react to that. They will be harder on us for wrongdoing than they are on anyone else. In fact, very often they will respond to our wrongdoing by persecuting us even for our ‘right’doing. For example, suppose an unbeliever at work knows you, and sees your righteous life. And he does not persecute you for it – he leaves you alone, but he does take notice. And it bugs him. It makes him feel guilty, it exposes his sin, and it irritates him. But he does not dare mistreat you, because that would make him look bad, because you are such a good person. Then one day he sees you do something hypocritical. And then he is all over your case. Now he is down on you, makes fun of you, ridicules you – even for your righteous behavior, but it started because of some area of hypocrisy he saw. But if they do not ever see any hypocrisy, then in most cases, most people will not persecute you for doing what is good.