|
Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
Living
Positively
(1 Peter 3:8-12)
by
Karl J. Forehand
Tuesday I was
on the mountain top. We had just had
the best Sunday our church had ever experienced. We have seen several people saved over the past few weeks. I was excited. The message came easy and I was excited about delivering it –
then came Wednesday.
Wednesday was
the worst day I have ever experienced as a pastor. It started at the doctor’s office for me, which is never a good
experience. Then, several things
began to unfold and I found myself with a youth event to host, totally
drained. It was almost as if God
whispered “How positive are you now?
Do you really believe this stuff or just when things are good?” It took me a while to answer.
One popular
world view is to expect the worst.
This view assumes that if we expect the worst, we won’t be disappointed. One similar view is to fear everything, so
that we won’t ever be surprised. It’s
second cousin is the devil’s advocate.
But, God’s view is an expectation toward the positive. Very simply, we are to expect the
best. Often, that is difficult.
To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic,
brotherly, kindhearted,
and humble
in spirit; (1 Peter 3:8)
Peter has been
talking about husbands and wives and how to conduct ourselves as
Christians. He begins the passage
with the words “To sum it up.” Just
as love summarizes the law, it also summarizes the role of human
relationships. Romans 13:8 says, “Owe
nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor
has fulfilled the law.”
If we want to
live positively, we have to learn to love.
I wish I could just tell you to psyche yourself up. But, that never lasts very long. I was pumped on Tuesday – but Wednesday
wiped that out. It has to be
something deeper than that. I wish I
could give you a complex formula or checklist to being a more positive
Christian; but would just be giving you a human attempt to proceduralize
God. We must learn to love deeply if
we want to live positively.
1.
We must love each other .
The verse above
lists several things that are helpful.
Harmony, unity (of one mind) How can we be in unity. First, understand that unity is not
uniformity. Unity is not that we all
look alike, smell alike and act alike.
Unity is cooperation amidst diversity. Why not uniformity? The
Bible describes uniformity as deformity.
For
the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not
for this reason any the less a part of
the body. And if the ear should say,
"Because I am not an eye, I am not a
part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would
the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell
be? But now God has placed the
members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. (I Corinthians 12:14-18))
To achieve unity we have to avoid obsessive focus on HOW to get
things done. This leads to uniformity
and thus, deformity. Instead, we
should focus on WHAT needs to be done and WHY. Then we can achieve unity.
Sympathy. Most people that you condemn are actually a lot like you. We often refuse to have sympathy for
others because, in our minds, they deserve what they are getting. Sympathy says that we should try to
understand what they are going through.
This doesn’t mean that we ignore sin; but we do have to show mercy.
Brotherly Love. Phileo loves stresses that we love each other because we
are on the same team. Love is a verb,
not a noun. It is not a state of
being or an ideal – it is a verb that requires actions. One person decribed love as a transitive
reality. I’ll let you look that one
up.
Kind-Hearted. To be compassionate, we have to understand that there is a God,
and we are not Him. We have to stop
punishing people. Vengence is God’s
job. He is the only one worthy of
that job. David realized, “The battle
is the Lord’s” (I Samuel 17:46-47).
He knew he was going to defeat the giant, but he also knew that God
would have to ultimately do it.
Humility. If we would start with humility, we would have a much easier
time doing the other things. God’s
principle still stands: If we humble
ourselves, we’ll be exalted – If we exalt ourselves, we will be humbled
(Matt. 23:12). Any time we start with
the thought, “I’m smarter” or “I’m more important” we are in trouble.
To live positively we must love each other. Several of the thing that happened
Wednesday were things that affect our congregation. My first inclination was to be mad. I wanted to feel sorry for myself. Then, God reminded me I needed to love THEM.
- We must love our enemies
not
returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead;
for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a
blessing. (1 Peter 3:9)
The church at this time was suffering some persecution. They had been scattered by
persecution. Persecution is part of
the deal. But, how we respond to it
is another matter. Warren Wiersbe
gives 3 levels we can operate on:
Satanic level – return evil for good
Human level – return evil for evil; or good for good.
Divine level – return good for evil.
And “eye for an eye” is nothing more than justice. Jesus encouraged us to go beyond justice
to mercy (Matt. 5:39). Our “calling”
is to return a blessing for a curse.
We are blessed in heaven when we suffer; but we CAN be blessed on
earth when we return good for evil.
- We must love life.
"Let
him who means to love life and see good days Refrain his tongue from evil and
his lips from speaking guile. "And let him turn away from evil and do
good; Let him seek peace and pursue it.
(1 Peter 3:10-11)
I though this was surely a mistake. I guess most of us figure that Christians are supposed to be
miserable. We assume that a good Christian
is a miserable one. I don’t know
why.
How can we love life?
We have to decide
deliberately to do so. If we are going to love life, we have to
“mean” (or intend) to do so. It has
to be deliberate. We can endure life
as a burden. We can escape life with
substance or suicide. But, we can also learn to enjoy life (if we
deliberately decide to do so). It is
a positive approach that takes faith.
We have to speak
selectively to do so. Peter knew
the value of this because he was the only disciple with athletes tongue, from
sticking his foot in his mouth too often.
Most of his hardships were because he spoke to soon without
thinking. To love like, we will often
have to close our mouth. James told
us to be “quick to hear, slow to speak and
slow to anger” (James 1:19).
If we could memorize the
following two verses and say them before we talk, I believe we would be much
better off. They are: Psalms 141:3 and Psalms 19:4. I’ll let you look them up.
We have to also live
decisively to love life. Notice
the instruction, “And let him turn away from evil and do good.” This is a vivid picture of
repentance. Repentance is a turning
from one thing to another. We must
decisively decide to turn our back on the flesh and turn toward the things of
God.
We have to seek peacefully
to love life. We are not commissioned
to be peace keepers as much as we are told to be “peace makers.” Romans 12:18 tells us, “If possible, so
far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” Peace may not always be possible. Jesus said we will never have peace on
earth (Matthew 10:34). But we can
have the peace of God (Phil. 4:7) that surpasses understanding in our hearts;
and we can seek and pursue peace in our lives.
The last element may be the
hardest for me.
- We must let God keep
score
For
the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And His ears attend to their
prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. (1 Peter 3:12)
God’s eyes and ears are open and He doesn’t miss a lick. He sees and He hears all that we go
through. Even when we are totally
wronged – even if no one believes us – God still knows and He is still in
control.
Karl
J. Forehand, 2002
|