The Kid is the story of a successful, high-powered image consultant named Russ, who lives an empty life. Then one day, an 8-year-old boy shows up at Russ’ home. The boy’s name is Rusty and eventually Russ comes to realize that the kid is actually Russ himself when he was eight-years-old.
While Russ struggles to figure out what is going on, Rusty begins to explore the house.
“Chester, Chester. Come here boy,” Rusty calls excitedly.
“Stop that yelling,” says Russ.
“Where's Chester?” Rusty asks.
“Who is Chester?”
“My dog,” Rusty replies. “The dog I'm going to get when I grow up. He's the world's greatest dog.”
“Sorry, no dog here,” answers Russ.
“No dog! I grow up to be a guy with no dog. Why?” the boy says in disgust.
“I don't have time to take care of a dog. I travel all the time for work,” Russ replies.
“I knew it,” says Rusty with renewed zeal. “I grow up to fly jets!”
“No, I'm not a pilot,” Russ answers sadly.
“Then what do you do?”
“I'm an image consultant.”
“Shouldn't there be a lady here,” asks Rusty.
“You mean my wife? No, I'm not married,” replies Russ.
“So, you're almost 40, and you have no dog, you don't fly jets, and you're not married.” The kid flops down on the couch, concluding, “I grow up to be a loser.” (The Kid, Disney, 2000, 00:40:13 to 00:42:33, directed by Jon Turteltaub, written by Audrey Wells; www.PreachingToday.com)
The boy’s disappointment leads Russ to reevaluate his own life, and that’s a good thing for all of us to do every once in a while. Do we love life? And if not, what do we have to do to love the lives we live?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Peter 3, 1 Peter 3, where God Himself tells us how to “love life.”
1 Peter 3:8-12 Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (NIV)
Those last three verses are a quote from Psalm 34, which tells us how to love life even when we’re going through hard times. They are Peter’s scriptural support for the way he tells us we should treat people in verses 8 & 9. In other words, if we want to love life, then first of all, we must…
LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
We must love our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. We must love our fellow believers in the church.
This is the completion, the perfection, of life. That word for “finally” (telos) in verse 8, literally means the end in terms of reaching a goal. It can’t be the end of Peter’s comments, because he goes on for another two and half chapters.
It reminds me of the boy who visited his friend’s church and afterward told him, “I like your pastor better than mine. When your pastor says “finally,” he finishes. When my pastor says “lastly,” he lasts and lasts and lasts.
Peter is not coming to a conclusion here as much as he’s talking about the goal of life, the thing that completes our lives, and that’s love! & He uses five adjectives here in verse 8 to describe what that love looks like.
1st, he says, “Live in harmony” – literally, be of the same mind. It’s not that we all have to think exactly alike, but we must at least be playing the same song. It’s like a finely tuned symphony orchestra. The players don’t play the same notes, but what they do play blends together to create beautiful music. So in the church, God wants us to blend together to create a ministry that honors Him beautifully. Be of the same mind. Then…
2nd, “Be sympathetic” – literally, suffer with each other. When one of us hurts, we all hurt. We weep with those who weep. &
3rd, We are to love each other as brothers and sisters. Oh, we may disagree sometimes, but at the end of the day there is nothing that can separate us, because we’re family. Love as brothers, and…
4th, “Be compassionate” – Literally, have good bowels. Now, in the ancient world, people felt with their bowels. Today, we feel with our heart, so we might say, “Be good-hearted.” &
5th, “Be humble” – i.e., be lowly minded. The word was used in Bible days to speak of those who were lowly or servile in their thinking. It was often used in a disparaging way, but the Bible turns it around to speak of those who have a servant’s attitude.
This is what it means to love each other: To serve each other; To be good-hearted towards each other; To treat each other like family; To suffer with each other; & To be of the same mind.
This is what completes us as individuals and as a church, and this is what makes life worth living. For if we want to love life, we must love people, and that starts when we love each other right here in the church.
Philip Yancey, in a Christianity Today article a few years ago recalls talking to a pastor from India who said, “Most of what happens in Christian churches, including even miracles, can be duplicated in Hindu and Muslim congregations. But in my area only Christians strive, however ineptly, to mix men and women of different castes, races, and social groups. That's the real miracle.”
Yancey says, “Diversity complicates rather than simplifies life. Perhaps for this reason we tend to surround ourselves with people of similar age, economic class, and opinion. Church offers a place where infants and grandparents, unemployed and executives, immigrants and blue bloods can come together.” Then he talks about sitting in church “sandwiched between an elderly man hooked up to a puffing oxygen tank and a breastfeeding baby who grunted loudly and contentedly throughout the sermon.” (Philip Yancey, “Denominational Diagnostics,” Christianity Today, November 2008, p.119; www.PreachingToday.com)
Where else but the church can we find that mixture? That’s the true miracle of Christianity, and that’s the reason Christ died on a cross. He died not only to reconcile us to God, but to reconcile us to each other. Ephesians 2 says His death destroyed the barriers between us so that we could come together as “one new man” (Ephesians 2:14-15).
That’s what’s so fun about being a part of the church. We’re striving, however ineptly, to mix people of different ages and social groups. It gets messy sometimes, but how rich it is when we learn to accept and appreciate one another despite our differences.
Dear friends, if we want to love life, we must love people, and that starts when we love each other right here in the church. But it doesn’t stop here. For if we want to love life, we must also…
LOVE OUR ENEMIES.
We must love those outside the church. We must love even those who are hostile to us.
Verse 9 says, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” (NIV)
Warren Wiersbe says, “We can live on one of three levels. We can return evil for good, which is the satanic level. We can return good for good and evil for evil, which is the human level. Or we can return good for evil, which is the divine level.” The highest level of life is repaying people with good when they do us harm. It is blessing them when they insult or slander us.
That word for blessing in the original text is eulogeo. We get our word “eulogy” from it, and it means to speak well of someone. At a funeral, we usually say nice things about the person who died in the eulogy. Well here, God wants us to say nice things about living people even when they don’t say nice things about us.
This is our calling as believers in Jesus Christ, and this is the way we too are blessed (or eulogized). In other words, when we say nice things about others, then God says nice things about us.
This is truly living! Otherwise, we become trapped in prisons of bitterness and anger. We can’t love life until we learn to love our enemies.
Helen Prejean, author of the book Dead Man Walking, talked about one of her heroes in an interview with a newspaper reporter last summer (August 2010). His name is Lloyd LeBlanc, and he was the father of David LeBlanc, a 17-year-old who was murdered by Patrick and Eddie Sonnier. When neighbors started harassing Ms. Sonnier for her sons' actions, Lloyd Leblanc came to her house with a basket of fruit. Lloyd told Ms. Sonnier that he was a parent too, and he understood that she wasn't responsible for the murder.
Utterly amazed by this act of forgiveness, the interviewer asked Prejean, “How does a parent do such a thing?” Helen Prejean replied with the following story:
Lloyd told me how the sheriff had brought him to the morgue to identify his son's body. David was a beautiful kid, 17-years-old. He had been shot in the back of the head, and when the sheriff pulled his body out on the cold tray… Lloyd – who was good with his hands and could fix things – looked down at his son and thought, I can't fix this. And he began to pray [the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray]. He came to the line about forgiving those who trespass against us. “I didn't feel it,” he said, “but I knew that was where I had to go.” And that is where he went. (David Cook, "And Justice for All," The Sun, August 2010, p.11; www.PreachingToday.com)
With God’s help, Lloyd refused to let anger and hatred kill him. Instead, He chose to repay evil with good, and it set him free to live again despite the horrible thing done to his son.
Dear friends, if we want to love life, we must love people including and especially our enemies. We must love one another. We must love our enemies. Then we will…
LOVE LIFE!
Then we will enjoy living. Then we will be glad to be alive! That’s what it says in verse 10
1 Peter 3:10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. (NIV)
If we would love life, then we must keep our tongues from evil. That means, in this context, we repay an insult with a blessing (vs.9); we speak well even of those who don’t speak well of us.
It was his first day on the job. He was a new clerk in the produce department of a super market. A lady came up to him and said she wanted to buy half of a head of lettuce. He tried to dissuade her, but she persisted.
Finally he said, “I'll have to go back and talk to the manager.”
He went to the rear of the store to talk to the manager, not noticing that the woman was walking right behind him. When he got into the back of the store, he said to the manager, “There's some stupid old bag out there who wants to buy half a head of lettuce. What should I tell her?”
Seeing the horrified look on manager’s face, the new clerk turned around. He saw the woman and quickly added, “And this nice lady wants to buy the other half of the head of lettuce. Will it be all right?”
Considerably relieved, the manager said, “That would be fine.”
Later in the day, the manager congratulated the boy on his quick thinking. He then asked, “Where are you from, son?”
The boy said, “I'm from Toronto, Canada, the home of beautiful hockey players and ugly women.”
The manager looked at him and said, “My wife is from Toronto.”
The boy said, “Oh, what team did she play for?” (Bruce Thielemann, “Because,” Preaching Today, Tape No.105; www. PreachingToday.com)
That time I don’t think his boss was impressed. The boy’s tongue was going to get him into a lot of trouble, and our tongues can get us into a lot of trouble, as well, making life pretty miserable. The sad thing is a lot of people have not learned to control their tongues.
Joseph Telushkin, author of Words That Hurt, Words That Heal, has lectured throughout the United States on the powerful, and often negative, impact of words. He often asks audiences if they can go 24 hours without saying any unkind words about, or to, another person. Invariably, a small number of listeners raise their hands, signifying “yes.” Others laugh, and quite a large number call out, “no!”
Telushkin responds: “Those who can't answer ‘yes’ must recognize that you have a serious problem. If you cannot go 24 hours without drinking liquor, you are addicted to alcohol. If you cannot go 24 hours without smoking, you are addicted to nicotine. Similarly, if you cannot go 24 hours without saying unkind words about others, then you have lost control over your tongue.” (Rick Ezell, One Minute Uplift, 7-21-06; www.PreachingToday.com)
Do YOU have a serious problem in this area? Then repent of your sin and ask Jesus to deliver you from it before it destroys you as much or more than alcoholism ever could.
If we want to love life, we must love people, and that means we must keep our tongues from evil.
That also means, we must turn from evil and do good, verse 11 says. Literally, we must “bend out of” evil. In other words, when somebody does evil to us, we bend out of that evil and not respond in kind. That’s what verse 9 says: “Do not repay evil with evil.”
In his book Confessions of a Pastor, Craig Groeschel talks about a time when he was silently praying during a worship service a few moments before he had to preach. His eyes were closed. He was focusing on God when he felt someone slip a note into his hand. He never saw who it was, but the not was marked “PERSONAL.”
Groeschel says, “I thought to myself, ‘Someone probably wrote a nice note to encourage me before I preach.’ A warm, loving feeling settled over me as I unfolded the paper. A moment later, I lost that loving feeling.”
The note was from a woman who had tried to see him on Friday, his day off. She took offense at her pastor’s absence and blasted him with hateful accusations. This happened literally seconds before he was to stand up to preach. Groeschel says, “In that moment, I had a choice. I could internalize the offense and become demoralized and discouraged. Or I could ask myself, ‘“I wonder what she's experiencing that caused her to lash out?’”
Groeschel says, “I chose compassion over depression. My heart hurt for her. I knew that such a disproportionate reaction must indicate deep pain, so I didn't take her note personally.” (Craig Groeschel, Confessions of a Pastor, Multnomah, 2006, p.169; www.PreachingToday.com)
He bent out of the evil done to him. He dismissed it and moved on. Otherwise, he says, “You may become the very thing you despise.”
Dear friends, if we want to love life, we must love people. That means we must keep our tongues from evil. We must turn from evil and do good.
And verse 11 says we must also seek peace and pursue it. We must run after reconciliation. We must actively chase it down, not content just to let our relationships deteriorate into disrepair.
The Greek word for “peace” here in verse 11 describes harmonious relationships, and it translates the Hebrew word shalom in Psalm 34, which speaks of a state of wholeness and unity, of restored relationships (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament).
It’s really what is described in verse 8 where it talks about living in harmony with one another. We all know that when our relationships are not right, then life is not right. On the other hand, when we love people, we love life!
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (NIV)
When we bless our enemies, our Lord blesses us. He is attentive to our prayers and answers them “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).
Dear friends, if we want to love life, we must love people. We must love one another, and We must love even our enemies.
I think the evangelical theologian, Douglas Wilson, has discovered this in his relationship with one of the world’s most famous atheists, Christopher Hitchens. Just a few years ago (2008), they went on tour together to promote their new book, entitled “Is Christianity Good for the World?” Wilson’s son, Nate, went with them on the tour, and he described the relationship between these two men.
He said, “To be honest, the most interesting moments have all been outside the formal events – discussions over meals, in cabs and elevators. Both men share a love of poetry (over lunch, they gave an antiphonal recitation of "Jabberwocky"), a love of the English language and the well-turned phrase, and have spent a good ten minutes spouting favorite lines from the British writer P. G. Wodehouse to mutual laughter. And both men have a respect for each other – though clearly not for their conflicting opinions of God and the nature of the world.
“At the King's College debate, Hitchens professed disdain for the biblical admonition to ‘love your enemies,’ calling it total nonsense. And yet, as he appears in Christian forums, wrangling with a Christian man, that is exactly what he is experiencing firsthand. The exchanges are heated. No punches have been pulled, and no one is pretending like the gulf between atheism and Christianity is anything but dark and profound. Yet underlying it all, there is an affection shown to him that is just as profound.
“Hitchens said he wanted all his enemies destroyed. Wilson countered with qualified agreement, saying that God destroys all his enemies, but doesn't only destroy them in the traditional way, as understood by man, but also destroys his enemies by making them friends. (Nate Wilson, On the Road with Atheism, www.ChristianityToday.com, 10-29-08; www.PreachingToday.com)
Again, I remind you: that’s what the cross is all about. Romans 5 says, “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10).
God destroyed His enemies by making those who trust in His Son His friends. Why don’t you trust in God’s Son and experience what it’s like to be God’s friend. Then, in that same Spirit, why don’t you destroy a few enemies too, by making them your friends.
It’s the only way to really live. For if we want to love life, we must love people.
