1 Peter 3-5: No Matter Who You Are

We finish First Peter by tracing a single thread through marriage, community, suffering, leadership, and spiritual warfare: humility that makes room for God’s care. The letter’s hard edges lead to soft hearts, and we end with a simple prayer that God always answers.

• honoring marriage with mutual dignity and gentle strength
• blessing instead of payback under insult
• readiness to explain hope with respect
• baptism as pledge of a good conscience through resurrection
• leaving old habits for God’s will
• fervent love, sober prayer, and cheerful hospitality
• serving with God’s strength for God’s glory
• rejoicing in trials and entrusting souls to a faithful Creator
• elders as examples, younger as learners, all clothed in humility
• resisting a prowling enemy with steady faith

Have you prayed for your humility lately? Lord, please help me be humble. Please take any pride in my heart, rip it out, throw it away, transform my heart to be more like Jesus.

Chapters

• 0:22 Finishing First Peter
• 2:40 Submission Modeled By Jesus
• 4:20 Marriage, Honor, And Hindered Prayers
• 7:01 Blessing Enemies And Ready Answers
• 9:23 Suffering, Baptism, And Living Hope
• 12:13 New Life, Old Habits Left Behind

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike. We've been in the book of First Peter, which is really like a letter. It's not super long. In fact, we're finishing today. We started last time and now we're going to finish it today. Five chapters. But First Peter is in part a letter, we think, to Jews. That was Peter's ministry, writing to Jews and helping them live in accordance with the way that Jesus has now come and taught people how to live in light of the kingdom and how to please God and seek after God's heart. But it's not that the letter is only for Jews. You know, there's a lot of teaching, especially today, that it really doesn't matter who you are. This is what we should live by. This is again kind of like reading a letter that wasn't necessarily written to us, but it teaches us God's heart. It teaches us how to please our Father. So it's like, okay, well, with these in mind, I want to do those things too, if I want to please my father, right? I want to, I want to do this too. And so uh this is how he is pleased. Well, I want to please him. So uh this section of this second half of the letter of 1 Peter has a lot of just general teaching, general rules to live life by, no matter who you are. Last time we left off with a discussion about submission in a couple different contexts, submission to earthly authorities like the kings and the people who are in charge of things, and also slaves to masters in that culture and in that way, uh, just some instructions for that relationship. And it was all rooted, though, in Jesus. How did Jesus submit to his father in pursuit of love, loving us? How did he love us by submitting to his father? And how did he humble himself? A man who really should not have needed to humble himself at all, but he did, he chose to, and that changes everything. And so it's in that argument of Jesus' humility and Jesus' submission that Peter continues this letter today. We're going to read 1 Peter 3 through 5 in the New English Translation. In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. And then even if some are disobedient to the word, they'll be won over without a word by the way you live, when they see your pure and reverent conduct. Let your beauty not be external, the braiding of hair and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes, but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit which is precious in God's sight. For in the same way, the holy women who hoped in God long ago adorned themselves by being subject to their husbands, like Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. You become her children when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so. Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as the weaker partners, and show them honor as fellow heirs of the grace of life. In this way nothing will hinder your prayers. Interesting little note there, your prayers might not be answered because, husbands, you're not respecting your wives and treating them as fellow heirs of the grace of life. Maybe your prayers are hitting a wall for that reason. Moving on. Finally, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, affectionate, compassionate, and humble. Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing. For the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit, and he must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the Lord's face is against those who do evil. For who's going to harm you if you're devoted to what's good? But in fact, if you happen to suffer for doing what's right, you're blessed. But don't be terrified of them or be shaken. But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you. For it's better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil. Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh, but by being made alive in the spirit, and in it he went and preached to the spirits in prison. After they were disobedient long ago, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark, a few, that is, eight souls, were delivered through water. And this pre-figured baptism, which now saves you, not the washing off of physical dirt, but the pledge of a good conscience to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him. So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same attitude, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin, and that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires. For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries. So they're astonished when you don't rush in with them into the same flood of wickedness and they vilify you. They'll face a reckoning before Christ Jesus, who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. Now it was for this very purpose that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that though they were judged in the flesh by human standards, they may live spiritually by God's standards. For the culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of prayer. Above all, keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Whoever speaks, let it be with God's words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. Dear friends, don't be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed, you may also rejoice and be glad. If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed, because the Spirit of Glory, who is the Spirit of God, rests on you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or criminal or as a troublemaker, but if you suffer as a Christian, don't be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear such a name. For it is time for judgment to begin, starting with the house of God. And if it starts with us, what will be the fate of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners? So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator as they do good. So, as your fellow elder and a witness of Christ's sufferings, and as one who shares in the glory that will be revealed, I urge the elders among you. Give a shepherd's care to God's flock among you, exercising oversight, not merely as duty, but willingly under God's direction, not for shameful profit, but eagerly, and don't lord it over those entrusted to you, but be examples to the flock. Then when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that never fades away. In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders, and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And God will exalt you in due time if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him, because he cares for you. Be sober and alert. Your enemy, the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. Resist him, strong in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering, and after you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him belongs the power forever, amen. Through Sylvanus, whom I know to be a faithful brother, I've written to you briefly, in order to encourage you and testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. The church in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with a loving kiss. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. Well, there you have it. I don't care who you are. Humility and love. Not at the expense of truth, but in the support of truth. Humility and love. That's what we're called to do. God will turn his face to you. He will favor you. He will bless you. He will take care of you if you humble yourself. Humility, I would say, is the number one way we can be like Jesus. And in the same way, pride is the number one thing Satan will use to lure you away from Jesus. Have you prayed for your humility lately? Lord, please help me be humble. Please take any pride in my heart, rip it out, throw it away, transform my heart to be more like Jesus. Help me to be humble. Please point out any way that I'm prideful, that I put myself above others, that I think more highly of myself than I should. Please expose these things and take them out of my heart. Have you prayed a prayer like that recently? It's a prayer I guarantee he will answer. 100%. You will not get a no answer for that one. He will do it. Now, how good it feels, how long it takes, well, that's another thing. But we can trust that he will go through the process if we give our pride and our humility over to him to fashion us into exactly who he wants us to be, to be more like Jesus. Your best next step is toward humility, no matter who you are. And that's the thinking out loud thought for the day.