In 1 Peter chapter 3 and in verse 7, Peter writes, having written to the wives, having written to the servants, having written to the citizens, he writes to husbands and says,
husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel.
and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered." Peter makes it clear that if husbands do not properly dwell with their wives, it will
affect their spiritual life.
There are few who can try and convince anyone that if their wife is not happy, everything is still just fine.
The adage is true, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
But Peter points out that it goes beyond just peace at home.
It goes beyond just the scenario you find yourself in, in the comfort of your own house.
That it affects your spiritual life.
That he says specifically that it affects your prayers.
He says that your prayers being not hindered.
Now, there's an interesting concept there in that Peter makes it clear that how we live
how we interact with others, the relationships we have can hinder the results of our prayers.
Have you ever stepped back to consider that there may have been an occasion in your life where you were praying for God to deal with something, or you were praying for God to do
something, or you were praying for God to act in some matter, and yet it was your relationships with those around you that caused that to not actually take place?
Peter tells us that that's a distinct possibility.
That when we do not behave in the way that we should towards those who are on, shall we say, a horizontal plane with us, it affects the relationship we have with God on a
vertical plane.
that what we do with one another affects what he will do for us.
Turn over to 1 John chapter 4 and notice this.
In 1 John chapter 4
John writes,
God, little children, and have overcome them.
Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."
They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
We are of God.
He who knows God hears us.
He who is not of God does not hear us.
By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Now, as he's introduced this discussion, he's said twice, we are of God.
He's making it clear that those who belong to God, those who are the children of God, those who are Christians are of God.
And those statements are the foundation upon which he says, beloved, let us love one another.
For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not
Know God, for God is love.
Now Peter says to the husband, dwell with your wife according to knowledge, you give honor to her as to the weaker vessel, you do these things and you make sure that your
relationship is what it should be because if you don't your prayers will be hindered.
because if you cannot dwell with your wife in love...
which involves how you behave towards her, how you provide for her, how you interact with her.
If you can't do that, you're not going to have a good relationship with God.
For the same reasons that John tells the Christians in 1 John chapter 4, if you do not love, you do not know God.
In this the love of God is manifested toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
In this is love not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
John is making it clear you do not love one another because they treat you right.
You do not love one another because they interact with you in a way that you enjoy.
You do not love one another because they are perfect and flawless and sinless.
You do not love one another because they have no faults and they have never done you wrong.
You do not love one another because you are perfect.
None of those are the reasons why you love one another.
John says you love one another because God sent his son to die on the cross as the sacrifice for you that you could never have paid for yourself.
So doesn't matter if they treat you right.
It doesn't matter if they behave the right way toward you.
It doesn't matter if they are everything that they ought to be.
It doesn't matter if they exhibit faults that you think they shouldn't have.
What matters is they're the children of God and they are of God.
And you'll notice back in verse 9, he says,
Sometimes when you have a positive statement like that, you can dwell momentarily on the negative of that statement, the opposite.
That had God not sent His Son, we were dead.
and had no life.
And so we are reminded.
that without Christ we're nothing.
We're dead.
We're hopeless.
We're without hope.
And yet with Him we have everything.
And so as we consider the love that we are to have with one another, we are to love one another with Christ in view.
We are to love one another as if they are Christ.
We are to love one another as if their sins and their faults and their failures and their imperfect actions are covered over by the blood of Christ.
Go back to John chapter 1 verse 1 and that's what you read.
If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
The blood of Christ is the connector between all Christians.
Without the blood of Christ, we do not have fellowship.
But with the blood of Christ, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses our sins.
So.
John helps us to understand what Peter is telling these husbands in that he doesn't say, if your wife treats you the way that she ought to, if your wife respects you the way that
she ought to, if your wife submits to you the way that she ought to, if your wife does everything that she ought to do, and if your wife is easy to get along with, and if your
wife is genial, and if your wife doesn't give you a hard time, then dwell with her in honor.
and dwell with her according to knowledge and dwell as heirs of life." No, he doesn't say that.
Peter is pointing out to them their responsibility to dwell with their wife as a Christian first.
having already shown her the honor of providing for her.
Then Peter writes, finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another.
Love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous.
As Peter.
exemplifies in his message the characteristics that these Christians are to have.
He says first and foremost, have one mind.
when people work together, not because they all do the same thing, not because they're all mimicking one another, but when they work together, when they complement one another, when
they strive together to achieve the same goal, it's an amazing thing to observe.
It's just worthwhile to pause for a moment and watch.
because you have a group of people working together in an excellent way.
Peter says that's what the church is supposed to be like.
It's supposed to be like a group of people being of one mind, not because they're perfect.
but for the same reason that Paul described.
He says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus over in book of Philippians.
But he also says having compassion for one another.
Do you have to have compassion for one another if there's never any problems?
If nobody ever has any hard scenarios to deal with?
Nobody ever has some unfortunate situations they have to put up with?
You don't have to show compassion if everything's rosy and sunny all the time.
You've to show compassion when things hurt, when things are hard, when things aren't going right, when invariably difficulties of this life begin to mount up.
You need Christians who will show compassion.
But he then also says, as brothers.
Do brothers always get along?
Only the people who have never had brothers would assume that they do.
Because all of us who have had brothers know that that is not how brothers work.
And yet, what is typically true, not always, but typically true in families with brothers, is that brothers will be the hardest on one another, but the minute there's an outside
person trying to pick on the brother, now they're the defender.
I mean, they will give the one who is their brother the hardest time, but the minute there's somebody who's not a family member picking on that brother, it's the outside
person who's gonna get the whooping.
Peter says, love as brothers.
Love as those who are part of family, who are tied together by blood.
Because we are brothers not according to birth in the physical sense, but according to the blood of Christ.
He says, love as brothers, be tenderhearted.
be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
Peter calls upon these Christians to interact with those direct context within the church, greater context within the world,
in such a way that they offer blessings and not revilings, that they offer good and not ill, and that they understand that when they do this there is an inheritance of a blessing
awaiting them.
He says, verse 10, for he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good.
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
Peter here brings in Psalm 34, and he brings in a passage which lists a number of things that the psalmist writer says, if you want to love life, if you want to see good days, if
you want to have joy and happiness and all of these blessings that are invariably part of the life that people desire, he says you need to do a few things.
You need to help yourself out.
I was talking with a business consultant earlier today who I've got a good relationship with and he's getting ready for a presentation he's doing tomorrow and it's all on, he's
just beginning with a list of don'ts.
If you own a business, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't, help yourself out and don't make all of these mistakes.
That's what Peter's doing.
Peter's like, you want to love life and see good days?
Refrain your tongue from evil.
Refrain from speaking that which is not good.
Have you ever met the most miserable people alive?
They're the people who cannot say anything good about anything, no matter how good their situation is in life.
They have a complaint for every moment of every hour of every day.
All you have to do is talk to them, walk near them.
They will tell you about something that is wrong.
Hehehehehe
You know, there's two senses in which there's in scripture.
Evil carries with it an idea of that which is sinful at times.
It also carries with it the idea of that which is negative.
Both of those fall into the use of the term evil.
And Peter,
is describing how we use our tongues and he says if all your tongue dwells on is negative, if all your tongue puts out is that which is evil.
then you're not going to have a good life.
You're not going to see good days.
You're going to kill all the good days with your mouth.
And we've all experienced this at some time in our lives where we were just having the best day you could have.
And you walk in a room and somebody shoots their mouth off and it's over.
Everything about the day from that moment forward is bad.
Imagine if, yeah.
That is absolutely true to a degree, but sometimes those days just turn around no matter how hard you try.
if I'm trying to.
I tell my story a lot.
And it's not good.
Is that bad?
No.
So.
Sure, there's talking about things that are bad because you're trying to cope with things that are bad.
And then there's talking about things that are bad when everything's good, all right?
And the difference is, and let me add, one of the things that we need to avoid is talking about negative things.
with people who have no ability to help with those things.
Okay?
So sometimes we as Christians will describe the difficulties that we're going through and we'll talk to people, especially other Christians around us about the difficulties we're
going through because we need comfort.
We need strength.
We need encouragement.
Okay?
That means the person who's on the receiving side of that can provide that comfort, provide that strength, provide that encouragement.
They can do something about it.
But if we go about our day and all we ever do is talk about the negatives, even to the person who can do nothing about it, even to the person who all they'll do is feed off of
that to cause more harm.
then we're not even working in our own best interest.
I don't agree with everything Dave Ramsey's ever said, but one of the policies he has at his company, and it's been ranked one of the top companies in the state of Tennessee to
work for for I don't know how many years in a row, they have a policy.
If you complain about a company issue to a person who is not authorized to fix the issue, that is a fireable offense.
because they have a policy of there's not going be any gossip, there's not going be tearing everybody down, not going be tearing the company down.
So if there's a problem, take it to the person who can fix the problem or be quiet about the problem.
Because if you're only talking to the people who aren't authorized to fix the problem, you're not trying to solve the problem.
You're part of the problem.
And so it's a fireable offense to talk about a company problem with someone who's not empowered to actually solve the problem.
You've got a recommended solution to go with.
That's exactly correct.
So, as you consider what Peter is saying here, he says, if you want to love life, and I kind of skipped over that phrase, I thought that John wrote over in 1 John that we're not
supposed to love the world or the things in the world.
He that loves the world, love of the Father's not in him.
So why is it that Peter's saying you're supposed to love life and John's saying you're not supposed love the world?
All right, when you love life as a Christian, you do not prioritize the physical over the spiritual.
You do not prioritize the here and now over the eternal.
You love life in its fullest extent and not just the temporal, physical lusts of the flesh, which is what John's talking about.
John's referring to a love of the world and the world's view of that which is worth loving.
And John says, no, you can't even, you're an enemy of God if you love that.
Peter's saying, you ought to love life.
You ought to love what God has created.
You ought to love the existence that we have in this world.
You ought to love the church that is around you.
You ought to love life even when your government is opposed to you, even when your master is opposed to you, even when your spouse is opposed to you.
All of those occasions, you still ought to love life.
because he says you have the ability to impact it.
Consider as well, he says, he who would love life and see good days.
Some come to the disposition and come to the mindset of life that they have no control over how their life is going.
And that is nonsense.
Every individual has control over how their life is going.
They don't have control over every aspect of how their life is going.
But Peter makes it clear.
The psalmist writer makes it clear.
It's been clear for a thousand years.
You have control over how your life is going because you can negatively impact it by allowing your tongue to speak evil.
Well, if you can negatively impact it, that means you have some control over it.
It means you can positively impact it.
He goes on to say, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
You start lying, you start deceiving others, you start being deceitful, and you will find your world crumbling around you.
He says, him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good.
But wait a minute, if I do this thing that's evil, I'm going to make so much more money this year.
If I participate in this thing, that yeah, defrauds the client, but hey, I'm going to get paid.
Peter says, you are going to destroy your happiness.
You are going to destroy your good days.
He says, rather turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it.
back in the silent film era.
there were the Keystone cops back in that era of film.
And every aspect of that involved them chasing something.
They were chasing it in a car, then they were chasing it on foot.
The disaster would happen, they were chasing it on a horse.
But they were always chasing something.
There's only so much you can do with silent film.
Sound was actually kind of important.
So there were a lot of chases in those films.
Peter saying, see peace and you pursue it.
Now, the world would have a substitute true peace for the world's version of peace.
You see people all over the place, especially online, trying to sell you peace.
Peace is sitting in a house on a porch on the edge of the beach with no work to do.
Peace is the four hour work week.
Peace is having freedom of time.
Peace is being wealthy.
They'll describe peace as all of these things.
This is what we're all working for.
They haven't read the book of Proverbs very well.
Proverbs writer will describe the sleep of a laborer as peaceful.
He's labored all day.
He's provided for his family.
He comes home.
He's exhausted.
He's tired.
He goes to sleep.
And it's peaceful.
And then he compares him to a rich man who's always worried about something.
Always worried about one thing or another that he always has to keep an eye out for somebody else inflicting some sort of harm on his riches.
And he can't get any sleep.
So here's the man who has virtually nothing and he sleeps well.
Here's the man who has abundance and he doesn't sleep at all.
We fool ourselves sometimes when we allow the world to dictate what peace is.
God tells us what peace is and then God offers us in Christ peace that passes, surpasses understanding.
Which Paul says will guard our heart and mind.
Peter says you pursue peace.
Because Paul has already told us when you reach that peace, when you achieve that peace, when you obtain that peace, it is a defense for your heart and your mind.
And so you should hold on to it.
But notice verse 12, Peter says, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
Sometimes we approach,
God looking at people with a disposition that that's probably only something that brings about judgment.
that, you know, God's watching me, so I better not mess up.
Like every moment of our lives we ought to be looking to wonder, is God going to see me mess up?
Because if so, I'm going to have punishment.
That's not how God's children are supposed to have a disposition towards God.
Rather, we are to be those who go, I have assurance, I have confidence, I have the ability to do what I need to do in this life because I know God's eyes are watching me.
Most adults at some point have helped a little toddler try and walk.
When you do that, especially as they're just starting to get their feet under them, you're looking for everything that could cause them to fall.
And you're, yeah, they're gripping your fingers and you're guiding them this way and guiding them that way, don't step on that toy.
You're watching them to make sure they don't stumble.
That's the picture here.
God watching His children.
so that their feet are on steady ground.
He says, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
Now he's wrapped back up what he was stating in verse 10 when he says, if you would love life and see good days, you better not have God against you.
Because if God's face is set against you, this is what you can have guaranteed.
You will not love life and you will not see good days.
Now, Psalms writer over in Psalm 73
from a single moment in time with a single sliver of time will look at life and he'll look at the righteous and their struggling and their being defrauded and their being abused and
then he'll look at those who are doing evil and he'll see them just everything's great nothing goes wrong they die in peace well clearly they're loving life and seeing good days
except the psalmist writer then describes that he struggled with this situation almost to the point of giving up until he finally understood.
He says, when I went into the house of the Lord, then I understood their end.
So while there are those who do evil who will see nothing but seemingly outwardly happiness, comfort, peace, enjoyment, leisure, they're still gonna leave this life and
they're still going to meet God.
And the reality is when you dig a little deeper into their lives, rarely do those lives quite look inwardly the way they look outwardly.
He says, verse 13, and who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?
As he's just described, pursuing peace.
He now describes the Christians as those who are followers of what is good.
And the picture here is, here's a Gentile, a pagan Gentile, and he looks at these Christians, he considers them meddlesome, he considers them troublemakers, he considers
them those who, you know, upset the peace, not to mention the prosperity of the idolatry and the land, and he's looking for any reason to accuse them.
Except just like Daniel, when the other rulers tried to do that to Daniel, the only thing they could find against Daniel was what?
disfaithfulness to God.
Daniel is that epitome in the Old Testament of one who followed good.
They couldn't find anything about him that they could actually present as a reason to the king to have a bad disposition towards Daniel.
They could find nothing that he did that would be worthy of accusation.
Certainly nothing that would cause the king to not hand over all control of the entire region to Daniel.
the only thing they could find.
Maybe that's my new bell.
It's a new buzz instead.
The only thing that they could find.
was his complete devotion to God.
Peter says, and who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?
Will there be those who, just like those rulers of old, tried to harm Daniel?
Yes.
But when they tried to harm Daniel, who was defending Daniel?
Number one in his camp, God.
So they throw him in a pit with all the hungry lions, and the lions never even open their mouths.
But who else did he have on his side?
Who came to the den first moment of the day and hadn't slept a wink?
The King!
Now here's someone who clearly probably had really important things to be doing that day.
The only thing he was concerned about was Daniel.
The only thing he wanted to know is, did your God save you?
when we follow what is good.
We may not convert everyone that we know.
We're going to have people who are invested and on our side, even if they don't agree with everything that we believe.
because they see a character of life that they're willing to defend.
So Peter says, but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed.
And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.
Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 12.
Turn over to Isaiah chapter 8 real quick.
Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 11, "'For the Lord spoke thus to me,' Isaiah says, "'with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people.'" Isaiah
begins as he's about to deliver what the Lord had spoken to him and given to him to say.
The first thing that the Lord had to say to Isaiah was, don't walk the way this people
walks.
Don't live like these people.
So do you think Isaiah's message is gonna go over real well with those people?
No.
And yet notice, he says, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy.
man, we could use a little bit of that today in America, couldn't we?
He says, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.
the Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow, that is to make holy.
Not because He's not holy, but because you recognize Him and react toward Him and behave toward Him as if He is holy.
The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow, let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread.
tired of Israel whining and complaining about every bad situation they come across thinking there's some grand conspiracy by men that they should be afraid of.
And God says, are you kidding me?
Why don't you try being afraid of the person you should be afraid of?
Me.
Why don't you fear the one who can actually do harm to you?
Me.
Why don't you DREAD ME?
because you're afraid of all these other things.
They were afraid of Assyria.
They were afraid of the Philistines.
They were afraid of this people and that people and this people and that people.
And they were never afraid of God.
yet he was the only one they should have been afraid of.
He says, will be a sanctuary, but a stone of a, excuse me, he will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence to both the houses of Israel as a trap and a
snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Interestingly, Peter's already discussed back in chapter 1, Jesus Christ, the stone of offense.
the stone of stumbling, also the cornerstone.
And Isaiah, as Peter references him here, says, let me be what you fear.
And instead, do not fear their threats and do not be troubled by their words.
So Peter helps us to realize that when we follow after what is good, we don't have anything to fear from the people around us.
that doesn't mean they won't ever act against us.
It means we have nothing to fear from them, which reminds us of what Jesus taught.
Do not fear him who can destroy the body, rather fear who.
He who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
All right, thank you for your attention.