1 Peter 3:8-22
There are many questions people have that prevent them from surrendering their lives to Jesus. Did Jesus really live? Did Jesus rise from the dead? How do we know that Jesus was truly God? How can a loving God send people to Hell? There are many others.
Perhaps the most asked question is: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Peter is going to give us the definitive, once-and-for-all, beyond a shadow of a doubt, final answer to this question. That may be overstating it a bit, but Peter is going to give us something to think about as we ponder that question.
Verse 8 begins with the word “finally”, and what that signifies is that this is the end of the discussion on how we, as the declared holy people of God, are to conduct ourselves as we accomplish the mission we have been given. Peter is wrapping up his argument here. What follows in these next verses is the result of what we have examined over the last few sessions.
We are to give honor to the emperor and everyone else while showing love to the brothers and sisters and having a deep reverence for God. This is done by submitting to others in the different relationships we find ourselves in. Up to this point, Peter has addressed subjects, slaves, and husbands and wives.
Now, finally, all of you. Regardless of whatever status you fall into, Peter is addressing everyone together. All of you are to be like-minded and sympathetic, to love one another, and to be compassionate and humble. We are to be like robots and all think alike and like the same things. Of course not.
What is the meaning of “like-minded”? The point Peter is making is that we should be like-minded in the way we care for each other. It is not about “me” but about “you”. If we all have that mindset, then society is going to function according to God’s design.
When all of us have this like-minded mindset, we are not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary, we give blessings. The reason for this is because this is what we have been called for. Our purpose is to bless others. When we bless others, we inherit a blessing.
We need to spend a few minutes on this. Are we giving blessings simply so we get blessed in return? The answer to that is yes, but it depends upon your definition of blessing. If you think you are giving money to get more money back, the answer is no. If you think that by helping others that you are going to get cured of what ails you, again, the answer is no.
The blessing that is received is that the eyes of the Lord are upon you, and the ears of the Lord are open to your prayers. Peter quotes from Psalm 34:12-16 here. The key to understanding this is to look at Psalm 34:11. This is what it means to fear the Lord.
This is how the Kingdom of God is set up to work. When you give blessings to everyone, regardless of how they treat you, the blessing you receive is that the Lord sees you and the Lord hears you. If you repay evil for evil and insult for insult, the eyes and the ears of the Lord are shut off from you.
It is not just the husband who is mistreating his wife that the Lord doesn’t listen to, but all of us who are not like-minded. The like-mindedness, then, is that all of us are to be like-minded with Christ.
Who then will harm you if you are doing what God called you to do? This is another way of asking, “Who do you trust more, God or yourself?” If we trust ourselves more, then we need to repay evil for evil and insult for insult. But if we trust God, then we can trust in His way.
If, however, you should suffer for righteousness, remember that you are blessed. What is the blessing? God sees you and hears you. Therefore, do not fear them or be intimidated by them. This is a quote from Isaiah 8:12. Instead, regard Christ the Lord as holy. Be ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
Observe how you should give this defense: with gentleness and reverence, maintaining a clear conscience, so that when you are accused or suffer, those doing it will be put to shame. Peter’s point here is that if you are doing what Christ calls you to do, and someone causes you to suffer because of that, then they are mocking or disparaging Christ. That is never a good idea, and we can trust that God will handle it in his way and in his time.
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. I realize that this doesn’t truly answer the question of why bad things happen to good people. Simply saying that it is God’s will might make it harder for some. Peter won’t give the full answer until chapter 4, but looking ahead, we see that if we are ridiculed because of Jesus, the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
Sometimes, the purpose of suffering is to remind us to trust in God. Again, not what people want to hear, but that is because we have the wrong understanding of what true blessings really are. The ultimate blessing is Christ Himself who suffered for sins once for all.
It is hard to ask why bad things happen to good people when the only truly good person was beaten and hung on a cross. Jesus was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. That same promise awaits believers who are put to death in the flesh. Others may be able to harm us in the flesh, but they can do nothing to our spirit.
We then have this very confusing bit about Noah. Perhaps this quote from Martin Luther would be helpful: “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.”[1]
There has been a lot of speculation and opinions on this, so let me just share what the majority view is today, and the one I think is most likely. In ancient times, there was a lot of speculation about the events of Genesis 6, and one of the beliefs was that there were these evil angels who had relations with women and brought about offspring, and that is why God sent the flood. Peter is saying here that Jesus went and proclaimed his victory and judgment over these evil angels.
There are a lot of reasons that are far too technical for this forum, but the point is not what happened to these evil angels but that God saved 8 people through the water. Baptism, which is a symbol of this, now saves you.
Does baptism save? Not the water baptism we do when someone confesses Christ as Lord, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God. The pledge of a good conscience toward God is the decision a person makes to submit to Christ. Once that pledge of a good conscience is made, the way we mark that is to undergo water baptism, which is a symbol of how God saved Noah and his family.
Through Christ’s death and resurrection, He has victory over evil and has been given authority over angels, authorities, and powers. Everything is subject to him.
How does this help to answer the question of suffering? Here is a story from a commentary that shows how this works.
A woman named Sarah Farkas felt compelled to give one of her kidneys to a man named Duke Guy from her church, whom she barely knew. God asked Sarah to suffer not because she had done anything wrong but because she had done everything right. God blessed her first with a tangible sense of his presence and second by the fact that she ministered to this man and testified to the love of Jesus to thousands of people through this story.[2]
How we respond to suffering can be the difference in someone coming to know Christ for themselves. Suffering can then be a means to bless others, while at the same time being blessed by God.
[1] Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 184.
[2] Jim Samra, James, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2016), 162.