Living Hope: Suffering for Doing Good

Imagine if I could take each of you on a plane to a Muslim country with your goal to tell others about Jesus! What would you say to them if you sensed they were ready to receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour? What would you say to Muslims or even Hindus across the sea who were very interested in Jesus? Would you take them through the 3 Circles? Would you use the 4 Spiritual Laws or some other evangelism diagnostic tool? According to Tom Doyle, who works among Muslims, his team asks two questions of Muslims on the precipice of taking a leap of faith in following Isa Jesus: “1) Are you willing to suffer? 2) Are you willing to die for Jesus?”^[1] You see, many people who convert to Christianity will experience persecution when deciding to follow Jesus. It is a sobering reality. However, are those questions relevant here. Does the question, are you willing to suffer and die for Jesus apply not just across the sea, but across the street? Should we ask the same questions when we share the gospel with our family, friends, neighbours, co-workers and classmates? But let’s go further and turn the questions on ourselves: are we willing to suffer and die for Jesus? Are we willing to suffer for doing good and for the good news? This includes, but is not limited to, doing the dirtiest jobs that no one else wants, giving money to God’s work when it would seem more fun to go on an amazing vacation, forgiving that person who has hurt you deeply, courageously and lovingly speaking out for the truth in the classroom, talking to that person everybody else ignores and telling others about Jesus. Are you willing to suffer for doing good? The “doing good” part is key to having hope in the midst of suffering. As Canadian Psychologist and Professor Jordan Peterson says, “We must have something to set against the suffering that is intrinsic to Being (what each us experiences and what we experience jointly with others). So, no value, no meaning.”^[2] But today we will find value in our suffering and part of that is doing good for God and His good news.

Last week, we learned that understanding one’s identity is key to fighting evil because it helps you fight for the right things. Fighting over land and loot should not be our focus as elect exiles because we understand that we are homeless and handpicked by God. If you understand that this world is not your home, you don’t fight over it as much. Think about that. Are you fighting for your rights? Your stuff? Your reputation? Embracing being an “elect exile” in Christ changes all that. Peter reminds his readers that they have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:4) That helps the next time people rob you of the temporal things God loaned you on earth. You can still go to the authorities because of the injustice, but the emotional attachment to things should wane. Remember eternal inheritance awaits because of the fact that God sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins and rise again to give us eternal life as born again believers (1:3). This will give you a living hope (1:3). It will help you suffer for doing good. In other words, we won’t be willing to suffer for doing good unless we understand that Jesus makes us good and we understand what is truly good. Today we are going to learn how to suffer for doing good from 1 Peter 3:13-17. If you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Peter 3:13-17 and stand for the reading of God’s Word. Read 1 Peter 3:13-17!

Before we go any further, we need to define suffering. Gerard Peterman distinguishes between pain and suffering, “Suffering is often mental and emotional whereas pain is physical suffering. Suffering can be the trauma and outcome of pain.” Verse 17 helps us to find the positive definition of suffering – suffering for doing good is good because it is God’s will. Suffering for doing good is good because it is God’s will. We are not talking about suffering for doing evil. Peter already explained this in 1 Peter 2:20, “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.” I have already given some examples of suffering for doing good, but nowadays one can suffer without even leaving one’s house. Suffering now can happen virtually. I learned more about cyberbullying this week as part of a course to serve as a volunteer in our community.^[3] There are several different types of cyberbullying (see if you know them all):

• Harassment: Harassment involves the bully sending offensive and malicious messages to an individual or a group and is often repeated multiple times. Cyberstalking is one form of harassment that involves continual threatening and rude messages, and can lead to physical harassment in the real, offline world.
• Flaming: Flaming is similar to harassment, but it refers to an online fight exchange via emails, instant messaging or chat rooms. It is a type of public bullying that often directs harsh languages, or images to a specific person.
• Exclusion: Exclusion is the act of intentionally singling out and leaving a person out from an online group such as chats and sites. The group then subsequently leaves malicious comments and harass the one they singled out.
• Outing: Outing is when a bully shares personal and private information, pictures, or videos about someone publicly. A person is “outed” when his information has been disseminated throughout the internet. This can actually turn into the crime of extortion if a ransom is threatened. 
• Masquerading: Masquerading is a situation where a bully creates a fake identity to harass someone anonymously. In addition to creating a fake identity, the bully can impersonate someone else to send malicious messages to the victim.

Maybe you have been harassed, flamed, excluded, outed or masqueraded for doing good and more importantly, for God? Do not give up. God sees and He rewards righteousness. Keep your eyes locked on Jesus. He is the motivation for suffering well for righteousness as He suffered well for righteousness. If our leader Jesus Christ suffered well for righteousness, then we His followers should also expect suffering. Jesus will also help us to suffer well through the power of His Spirit. 

So it begs the question: How do you suffer well for righteousness? The first step in suffering for righteousness is to: 1) Recognize you are blessed (v. 14). Verses 13-14 make this point, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.” Notice that in some translations like the ESV say you will be blessed (future tense), but actually it is a present progressive tense like the NASB, NIV, NKJV and KJV, you are being blessed. This means that the blessing isn’t just in the new heavens and new earth, but now while on earth. You are blessed now, not just later. This is why you have a living hope. Sound unrealistic, even impossible? How can we be blessed now when we are suffering? Isn’t suffering the opposite of being blessed? “Believers are safe from true harm and blessed even in suffering because their God rules the future and their vindication is near.”^[4] We are blessed for suffering for good. Verse 16-17 remind us that the blessing comes in the form of a good conscience, in the form of good behaviour and in form of doing God’s will. But there is more. Listen to what Andrew Bunson tells from his experience of suffering for doing good. Andrew Brunson was an American Presbyterian pastor serving in Turkey until he was falsely arrested for being accused of terrorism and espionage by the Turkish government. Brunson spent 2 years in prison in Turkey. He wrote an article for the Billy Graham Association magazine Decision entitled “Be Faithful with No Regrets – 10 Blessings from Standing Strong.” To prepare us for persecution, “Step one is to talk about persecution so we’re not caught by surprise. Step two, is to develop a fear of God to counter the fear of man. Step three, we should pursue the heart of God. Step four, build perseverance. Step five, build community, which is why we talked about last week how we overcome evil by blessing others, which starts in the home and church. If we can’t bless others who we love, how are we going to bless others who are outside our families and church family? Step six, guard the Word of God from deception. These are no guarantees to avoid persecution, but help us to overcome persecution. If we do, the 10 blessings of persecution are: a) Persecution can draw us closer to Jesus. We will love Jesus more if we have suffered for Him since we have paid the price for our relationship; b) Testing brings more confident intimacy with God; c) Pursuing God with unusual desperation. Pressure makes us run after God as never before; d) We can start to identify with the hardships Jesus suffered for us; e) Through suffering, we end up bearing more of His nature; f) Suffering makes us more sensitive to our own sin; g) Suffering builds perseverance; h) Persecution puts us on display for other believers. It is a very long line of people who have suffered for Jesus for 2000 years. It may be our turn to stand in that line; i) Persecution puts us on display for unbelievers; We become His witnesses, which in the New Testament is the Greek term martyr; j) Those who endure persecution will be greatly rewarded for eternity.”^[5] All of these blessings will help us obey the command at the end of verse 14, “Have no fear of them (those causing your suffering), nor be troubled.” We don’t have to fear because we are blessed. How do you suffer well for righteousness? Recognize you are blessed. When you are overlooked because you are a Christian! Tell yourself, “I’m blessed.” When you are made fun of at school for being a Christian, tell yourself, “I’m blessed.” When you are rejected for sharing the gospel, tell yourself, “I’m blessed.” You are blessed because you are an elect-exile (homeless, but hand-picked, born-again child of God) who will spend all eternity with God and His forever family. The first step in suffering well for righteousness is recognizing you are blessed.

The second step in suffering for righteousness is: 2) Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts (v. 15).Now in the ESV in verse 15 it reads, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.” Honouring Christ the Lord as holy is good and reminds us of 1:15-16 that we are called to be holy as God is holy. However, the word “honour” is not strong enough. The KJV and NASB captures the word better “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” This does not mean that Christ lacks holiness and we have to help him. “To sanctify Christ in our hearts is to ever keep him in our hearts as ‘the Holy One.’”^[6] Christ is the Holy One because He is different than all other gods – He is the One truly living God. Warren Wiersbe gives us a practical reality. “If we sanctify Christ in our hearts, we need never fear man or circumstances.”^[7] Does this feel overstated? The Apostle John was suffering for Jesus by being exiled to the island of Patmos. He sanctified Christ in his heart and yet when he saw Jesus in a vision, he fell over as a dead man. But notice John, didn’t fear man, but Jesus. We still fear, but the only object of our fear must be Jesus. We fear Him because we revere Him. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Recall what Christ did for you at the Cross. He was the only One, the Holy One, who suffered for righteousness to make you righteous. We must keep our eyes locked on Jesus. Let me tell you an extreme example of keeping one’s eyes locked on Jesus so that we keep our eyes locked on Him while suffering less. “Farah was a young Jordanian woman who was doing well working at a bank. In fact, her job was to help refugees. However, she was being harassed by a man named Jamal who would leave notes on her desk with lewd propositions. One day when shopping at the mall, she got a call from her father that her mother had cancer and the only way to pay for the salary was use the government money that is aside for each Jordanian single woman to pay for their dowry when they get married. Her father said that he had arranged a marriage. Farah was devastated. She wanted to pick her own husband. She came home to her parents and was distraught, but that was not the worst of it. Guess who her father had arranged Farah’s marriage to? Jamal whose nickname was ‘Jihad.’ She told her father that Jamal had been harassing her and surely this is not the type of man he would want her to marry. Yet, Farah’s father threatened her, ‘Marry him or your mother dies.’ Then her father slapped her. She had no other choice, but to marry to Jamal. From day one of the honeymoon, Farah experienced abuse after abuse. Jamal forced Farah to quit the job she loved so she would stay home and have children. She soon got pregnant, but the abuse continued for years. One day she decided to give away her work clothes to the refugee women from Syria who were now living in Jordan. She went down to a church where the refugees were being cared for. She met some of the Syrian refugee women and they were surprisingly very happy. Farah was not. She asked them why they were so happy when they had lost their husbands and homeland. The women told Farah to come back tomorrow and they would tell her. She was nervous to go and talk to the Syrian women, but she felt compelled to because they had something, she didn’t. The women told Farah that Jesus had come to them in dreams and had guided them out of Syria. They now follow Jesus. Farah kept going back day after day to visit the women and soon Farah trusted in Christ. Farah’s heart changed. She went back daily to study the Bible with the women. Jamal noticed the difference. She served her family with joy. Despite her kindness, Jamal raised his hand to beat her as what is encouraged in the Quran 4:34. But Farah said, ‘No! You will not hit me, Jamal! You cannot do this to me anymore. I’m no longer a Muslim. I’m a child of the King. Do you understand me?’ Jamal froze and walked away.”^[8] As an aside, ladies if you are being abused here in Canada, you should call out to Jesus and also the authorities. In many Muslim countries, the authorities will do nothing because abuse is sanctioned. But Jesus did something. He will do something in your life. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts and you will suffer well for righteousness.

We suffer well for righteousness when we recognize we are blessed and when we sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. There is a third way to suffer well for righteousness: 3) Always be ready to gently give a reason for the hope within you (v. 15-17). This is what we read in 1 Peter 3:15-16, “But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be God’s will, than for doing evil.” Bible Scholar Craig Keener says, “The key words in this verse are: defense, expectation and clear conscience.”^[9] Let me break them down. The word “reason” or “defense” comes from the word that we get apologetics. A lawyer would defend or literally “talk off” the charges of his client. When we hear apologetics, we may think of having to have all the answers so that we can win the debate. But, “The purpose is not to win an argument, but to win lost souls to Christ.”^[10] And we don’t have to have all the answers, but just point others to Jesus. We are to give a reason for the hope living within us. We can say, this is who I was before Christ and this is who I am now because of Jesus changing my life. Think of this less a defense and more of offense, without being offensive because we are obnoxious. We give “a reason for the hope that is in us, yet with gentleness and respect.” Our conscience becomes clear knowing that we have done nothing to undermine our witness. We have practiced what we have preached. Then we won’t be put to shame by our conduct or communication about Christ. In fact, others will be put to shame. “Shame arises from the fear of men; whereas conscience arises from the fear of God.”^[11] Always be ready to gently give a reason for the hope within you. This requires studying God’s Word, but just as importantly living out God’s Word. We go back to verse 8, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind.” We train ourselves to fight evil and suffer well for righteousness by how we live out the gospel in our homes and church. As Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you love another.” Maybe giving up something for Lent is a time of training for persecution? Maybe your loving conversations and praying for each other in the Hub afterwards trains you to suffer well for righteousness? Alexander Strauch once said, “Suffering for the gospel builds stable character.”^[12] “It is mighty hard for anybody to mistreat people who are zealots for goodness.”^[13] It is hard, but not impossible. And running back to the Christ and His Church for comfort is how we suffer well.       This will help us to always be ready to gently give a reason for the hope within you.As we conclude, please do not mistake what I have said today and think that I am minimizing your suffering. We need to understanding our true condition. “When his wife protested that Socrates was about to die an innocent man, he allegedly protested, ‘What? So you think it would be better for me to die a guilty one?’”^[14]We chuckle, but what Socrates didn’t understand is that there is no innocent man except One – Jesus. Friends, don’t just settle for being saved from your suffering. Be saved from your sins through Jesus Christ of Nazareth who suffered well for righteousness and for your righteousness. Some might suffer for their own righteousness. Jesus suffered for our righteousness. This is what the next verse in 1 Peter 3:18 declares, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” So we are back to our original questions: are you willing to suffer for Jesus? Are you willing to die for Jesus? And I’ll add one – are you willing to live for Jesus?

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^[1] Tom and Joann Doyle, Women Who Risk (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2021), xvii.

^[2] Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2018), xxxi.

^[3] “Abuse Awareness for Adults” by USA Baseball

^[4] J. Ramsey Michaels, 1 Peter – Word Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Publishers, Nashville, 1988), 185.

^[5] Andrew Bunson, “Be Faithful with No Regrets – 10 Blessings from Standing Strong,” Decision – Canadian Edition (Calgary: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada, December 2022), 26-28.

^[6] R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. John (Columbus: Wartburg Press, 1945), 149.

^[7] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Volume 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 413.

^[8] Doyle, 65-90.

^[9] Craig S. Keener, 1 Peter – A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), 260-261.

^[10] Wiersbe, 414.

^[11] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Volume 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 415.

^[12] Alexander Strauch, Acts 20 – Fierce Wolves Are Coming (Colorado Springs: Lewis & Roth Publishers, 2021), 49.

^[13] Lenski, 152. 

^[14] Kenner, 203.

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