Peter has said “this is who you are in Christ Jesus”
* If you are in Christ it is because you have received mercy, being born again to a living hope. (this makes you an exile)
* Having been born again by the Holy Spirit “be who you are, and you are Holy.”
* Since all of your life is now lived before the face of a holy God – vertically
* Therefore – love your neighbor, put away community destroying sins in 2:1-4; and live as the new living temple of God.
* Today, you are a member of a community that lives and worships in grace and truth. You have received mercy. Now, Consider how living in conformity to who you are in Christ will affect your neighbors. Consider your conduct among unbelievers.
Today we are examining how Honorable living as a follower of Jesus– ought to cause people to seriously consider Jesus and the Gospel because they have seen the transformation that occurs in a Christian community.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. [12] Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12 ESV)
#1 The Reality of “being the bad guys”
#2 The Reality & Goal of the war for your soul
#3 Moving from Defense to Offense: Good Deeds That God May be Glorified
#1 The Reality of “being the bad guys” – v. 12 “when they speak against you as evildoers”
Gollum frames Sam for stealing food and “being a bad fat hobbit.” Frodo, shows love and compassion to Gollum…But actually as much as a love Sam. Sam quite possibly drives Smeagol back into being Gollum by his unkind conduct towards him. But at the end of the Day, Gollum looked for every opportunity to say, look he’s the bad guy, I am the good guy trust me.
That is how the Romans, the Greek Culture often viewed Christians in the 1st century. They did not worship the right gods, they were anti-social, they were subject to willful misinterpretation. And so Peter gives this warning of the uphill climb, When your neighbor speaks against you as an evildoer, are you going to give them any ammunition to think that plausible? Or will you help them to Glorify God by seeing your light.
Peter says in v. 11, “Dear Friends, Beloved in Christ” – You are loved by God. You are secure in Christ…Let us now consider more than ourselves, more than indeed our immediate church Family. Because we live as a Light. A City on a Hill and the world, people enslaved to their flesh and the devil are watching…we are always witnesses and 1 Peter 2;12 says we always stand before “hostile witnesses”
And as those who are Free we now are being empowered by the Holy Spirit to honor Christ and be children of light,
Ed Clowney reminds us that for the believer, “The dark blindness of sinful selfishness is gone; [believers] are free to love. They are also free to honour unbelievers as God's creatures, and to respect the role of authority given to each one.” – Ed Clowney
Love God. Love your Family. Love Church. Love our believing neighbors….even love the neighbor who thinks being a Christian means you are the “bad guys”
Remember, Every generation has areas where they praise Christian virtues but every generation has areas where they strongly reject what is good and true and beautiful. The bible has a challenging all of life encompassing ethic and we must boldly live according to the bible’s definition of “Honor” in both the areas that our culture dislikes and the areas our culture likes.
We should not make the mistake of self-righteous PRIDE that is living as Christians just to stick it to the culture. Or COWARDICE: Where we hide our compromise with the world by only living Christianly in those areas our culture approves.
So Peter Calls us today: Live Honorably in a society that assumes you are a dishonorable exile. Live honorably to those who expect “societally defined evil” as far as you can. Because you are Free in Christ. You have belonging, freedom, and a true heavenly King so you can in matters of general human society honor earthly authorities. So #1 That is the reality of “being the bad guys.”
#2 The Reality & Goal of the war for your soul
The Goal is the salvation of your neighbor. The Goal of our godly living : that they may see your good deeds and so may Glorify God when they stand before the throne on Judgement day.
The Reality is that you must wage war against your own flesh if you are to give Honor to Christ. In order to achieve that Goal.
How do we wage war against the Flesh?
First always remember We are sojourners and exiles
Peter Davids makes that point that
“remembering we are pilgrims, does not mean withdrawing from our culture, but to take our standard of honorable conduct … from [our] "home" culture of heaven, so that our way of life always fits the place we are headed to, rather than our temporary lodging in this world.” (Commentary 1 Peter).
So our standard is always God in his Holiness. Never unthinkingly our culture. But our good and honerable conduct has a kind goal, towards our neighbor.
Therefore, We must, in order to achieve this goal, abstain from the passions of the flesh Recognizing they wage war against our souls
Abstain – it is a stronger idea than just abstaining to vote, but active avoidance. This certainly means Self-control. If we lack self-control in regards to sin, then John Calvin Says, this of our soul:
“Whenever the soul consents to [the desires of the flesh] they lead to perdition. He proves our carelessness in this respect, that while we anxiously shun enemies from whom we apprehend danger to the body, we willingly allow enemies hurtful to the soul to destroy us; nay, we as it were stretch forth our neck to them.” – John Calvin
This morning I want to give one example of an area where Christians are accused of being no different from the culture when it comes to passions of the flesh. But in fact, when we prize it we honor Christ, guard the Christian community, and it draws unbelievers from unstable and chaotic backgrounds to want the community and lifestyle of the Believer.
That is to Call to honor God in our singleness. Integrity in our call when single. Or Integrity in our call and commitment to monogamous healthy marriages. Who has heard this statistic, “50% of marriage end in divorce? And Christians are no different from secular people? Statistician Brad Wilcox would call this the “50% lie.” That Christian marriages are the same as unbelievers divorce rates.
When meaningfully measuring believers as not just in name but as regular church attenders: this is untrue. The 50% lie is based on outdated projections after no fault divorce devastated the country. The media often conflate cultural nominal “Christians” with practicing Christians, leading to distorted statistics.
And Peter says, of course unbelieving reporters will gleefully speaks against you as evildoers. “See being a Christian does nothing.” But what is a meaningful definition of being a follower of Jesus.
Are surveys of Nominal Christians meaningful? Those who claim Christian identity but are not active in faith or church life—often have divorce rates comparable to or higher than the general population.
What is signifance is not claim ot the name but actual life. Therefore, Religious attendance, not just religious affiliation, is the strongest predictor of lower divorce rates. Couples who attend church together regularly report: Greater marital satisfaction, Lower rates of divorce, Higher levels of commitment and stability. – Kinda like how complementarian men do in reality more equal household work than egalitarians…also a fun statistic.
The follower of Jesus, has the great example of Jesus as the husband of the Church and so Cherishes Honorable family life. So We abstain from the sins of the flesh, we guard against destructive sin patterns as we are conformed to the image of Christ as? LIVING STONES.
The Context of 1 Peter would predict what the statistics say, a true living faith, lived out in a community does give us resources to live honorable lives among the wider culture. And Living stones gathered in community will have different outcomes. And greater support and community when we fail and fall short. TO be restored and built back up.
And the same is true for our family outcomes, our individual lives whether married or single. I was blessed with a church family growing up filled with young and old, married and single, and when we went on church retreats we were brothers and sisters in Christ and how blessed we were.
So when I got to college and the invitations were there to pursue a hedonistic life. And Satan wants sin to sound enticing, how much a poorer and poverty stricken…lonely, life was offered by the flesh compared to the united family of God.
I think short term many may enjoy the illusion of the freedom of the flesh when they are young but end up regretting not having lived in the fellowship of a stable community whether single or married over the long run of their lives.
J.C. Ryle warns us: “Habits are like stones rolling down hill — the further they roll, the faster and more ungovernable is their course. Habits, like trees, are strengthened by age. A boy may bend an oak when it is a sapling — a hundred men cannot root it up, when it is a full grown tree. … Custom becomes second nature, and its chains are not easily broken…Oh, dread the hardening effect of constant lingering in sin! Now is the accepted time. See that your decision not be put off until the winter of your days. If you do not seek the Lord when young, the strength of habit is such that you will probably never seek Him at all. … Every fresh act of sin lessens fear and remorse, hardens our hearts, blunts the edge of our conscience, and increases our evil inclination…Young men, you may fancy I am laying too much stress on this point. If you had seen old men, as I have, on the brink of the grave, without any feelings, seared, callous, dead, cold, hard as stone — you would not think so. Believe me, you cannot stand still in your souls. Habits of good or evil are daily strengthening in your hearts. Every day you are either getting nearer to God, or further off.” (Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men).
Peter and Ryle speak with one voice: I urge you abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul and live a life of honor in the family of God.
In a word anything that promises happiness now but makes you pay the price later. The pleasure now but pain to your soul in the long run
I’ve spoken in generalities. I think it is helpful for both Peter and Paul and the whole Counsel of Scripture to remind us from God’s holy inerrant and inspired word what we are abstaining from. (Please note the role of the community to help each other here. Not individuals. It is a War with comrades. Not a 1v1 WWE match with Satan.
Galatians 6:1–2 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. [2] Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (All references ESV).
Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. [8] For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Galatians 5:13–14 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. [14] For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 5:19–24 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [21] envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Note how many of these are sins of not just the body, but the mind: envy, anger, enmity, strife. Community destroying sins of a fleshly mind. Not just the obvious ones of a degraded culture.
Remember the Goal: Simon Kistemaker says, the believer abstains from these desires. By his conduct and good deeds, he shows unbelievers the way to God.”
My hope and prayer is that we trust Peter’s words that this is keeping our conduct HONORABLE among our unbelieving neighbors.In the short run in modern political terms, the immoral left may call you a bigot or intolerant because we refrain from celebrating so-called pride month, sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality.
In the short run you may be accused of not being staunchly conservative enough if you don’t employ what are actually Marxist advocacy methods to achieve a conservative end because you refrain from sins of the mind and attitude, from “anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, etc…” e.g. saying We need the good guys to win using the bad guys play book
At the end of the day, these are sins we put off…We are not looking for the middle ground, we are looking for biblical ground to stand on. The mind of Christ.
We are not just putting off sins. Peter would have us put on Honorable fruit of the spirit…honoring practices that win over our neighbors for Christ.
Look in verse 12 again
v. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers,[they what?] they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
#3 Moving from Defense to Offense: Good Deeds That God May be Glorified
We live in a glass house….we not only refrain evil, we put on honorable good works. We Celebrate the good physical gifts of God.
This is not Monasticism. Instead, We build a compelling community, culture, and landing place for people to be brought into. We don’t just live in fear of sin lists…of messing things up. No! We are joyfully building churches, families, and communities.
Christian’s love the joys of marriage, family, food, fellowship, joy, laughter. That is the man or woman being recreated after the image of Christ has such joy and pleasure in the holy and good gifts of God given in creation that satan is jealous of holy goods enjoyed by mankind, Christ’s church going forth with Joy.
Sin hates to see the happy marriage. Satan hates the Hollywood adventure movie that everyone enjoys, but did not need to employ explicit scenes …but rather showed valor. Courage and Honor as the victors. That light wins and darkness loses. Forming an honorable heart not debasing and desensitizing our mind.
This does Not make anxious do-gooders. Busy citizens. Never able to do enough guilt ridden people. No in various seasons and capacity, we do good to others as we are able, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Tim. 2:2).
But the good is good virtues that even the unbeliever can recognize as VIRTUE. How can the unbeliever answer to the faithful marriage of 50 years? But yet what we have here is also a tension. It seems that Peter has in mind that the accusation of evil is inevitable.
Every generation has some areas of easy agreement with believers and some areas where they call good evil and evil good. We must be consistent from generation to generation. And to do that we must be consistently biblical.
What are the hoped for results of following Christian Ethics in all of Life and putting to death the world, the flesh, and the devil?
“When Peter tells his hearers to live good lives, he uses a word that can also mean 'beautiful' or 'attractive' The high holiness of fellowship with God must also produce observable conduct, admirable in its consistency and integrity. This theme of luminous goodness runs like a thread through all of Peter's exhortations. It reflects the word of Jesus, 'Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven' (Matt. 5:16)” ( Ed Clowney, Emphasis mine).
The hoped for further result is Silencing the accusations, that people would be saved, that God would be Glorified, and that God would be worshipped
So The Accusation: Christians are evildoers
But Our Testimony of Honor: Believers are actually those who work good deeds and its beautiful.
And here’s the kicker. Where is Peter going in Chapter 2. The beautiful community, out of gospel love and gratitude (not legalism and anxious fear) is following the 10 commandments. Specifically, the honorable and good conduct, the beautiful conduct Peter starts to zero in on, I think in the following passage is the 5thcommandment. Honor your father and your mother. Peter gives a call for honoring authority and what Peter is beginning to think about that in regards to how Christians live among unbelievers.
As we continue These 10 good deeds
1. Honoring Public Authorities and Human Institutions
2. Honor Everyone
3. Love the Brotherhood
4. Fear God
5. Honor the Emperoror
6. Be Subject to those over you such as employers
7. Endure suffering well
8. Do not revile (Internet people)
9. Entrust ourselves to God
10. Remember Jesus
Why this list? Peter Knows the likes of Nero and his persecution is coming. The Christians being fed to the lions is coming
Ed Clowney says, “Peter knows that the opposition of the Gentile world will not be limited to gossip, …and fantastic lies. Christians will be accused in the courts; false charges will lead to imprisonment and death. Peter had escaped the sword of Herod, but he would not escape the perverse hatred of Nero. Yet in spite of pagan injustice, the impact of the Christian witness will not be lost, in Peter's day or ours. The surrounding world will see the good deeds of the Christian community (12). They cannot avoid it. For some, unbelief will turn to belief as they behold the obedience of the people of God. Unbelieving husbands will see, and be touched by, the godliness of their wives (3:1-2). On the day of God's 'visitation' (RSV, ASV), even those who misrepresented and hated the good works of Christians will glorify God for them.”
To close, What is the goal? If in any way we can be a light and witness to the fact that there is forgiveness and mercy in Christ Jesus. The Light will show the darkness. And the Christian can show the unbeliever that their darkness can be forgiven and that they can become children of the day. Sons and Daughters of God in Christ Jesus.
The good and honorable conduct of the Christian ought to both provoke a reaction from sin, and hatred of the light that gives way to a longing for forgiveness of the sin and a possession of the light.
May our light win our neighbors for Christ. So therefore put the flesh to death and put on Christ. And may we be a people who are quick to forgive and welcome people out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Next week Peter will continue to hold out a vision of honorable living that will be a light to a world lost in darkness.
