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 blessingsof 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?
[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.
[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.
How do you fight evil? Evil comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. From human trafficking to drug trafficking. From the tiniest of the laboratory-created viruses to massive atomic bombs that wipe out whole cities. Or to make it more personal – the bully in the schoolyard – evil is all around us. How do we fight evil? This the question for us today. Many attempts have been made in human history to eradicate evil using the pen and penitentiary, the sword and the statute, the lash and the law. Have they worked? Does might make right? No!
However, there is a way to fight evil. Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3:8-12. To give you context, let me quickly review starting from the beginning of this book. The book was written by Peter, one of Jesus’ key disciples. Peter knew about evil. He grew up under Roman occupation. He most likely saw tax collectors bilk his nation, his family and his business (Matthew 17:24-27). He had witnessed crucifixion – the most horrific torture device ever invented by humans. Peter had been on the run himself from evil. This is why he writes to a group of Christians and reminds them in the first verse of the book that they are “elect exiles” – homeless, but handpicked by God. 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). God is so good. He is holy and has declared and made us holy. Our holiness means we are different than the world and are devoted to God (1:16). It means we are building a new spiritual house and royal priesthood, not just for ourselves, but to serve the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ (2:9). Out of this identity, we can submit ourselves to government, even if it acts evil at times, because our King is over the government and our time here is short (2:13). We can live differently as we labour and suffer unjustly (2:18-19). And we can live differently in our homes, winning over our families through submission and honour when they do not obey the word of God (3:1-7). These are in fact ways we fight evil. We fight evil at home first, then through the church and finally out there in the world. But let’s get more specific. Let’s read 1 Peter 3:8-12. Read 1 Peter 3:8-12!
How do you fight evil? Overcome evil with good. This is a repeated principle in Scripture – overcome evil with good (c.f. Romans 12:14-21). Let me summarise 1 Peter 3:8-12: Overcome evil by blessing others. Overcome evil by blessing others. We can explicitly see in verse 9, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” This is amazing! Did catch the revolutionary principle that Peter is proclaiming? Blessing those who hurt us leads to our own blessing! Yes, our primary intention is to bless our persecutors, but God is promising that we will receive a blessing in return. Where is Peter getting this? From Jesus! Jesus declared in Matthew 5:10-12, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Jesus promised us blessing if we are persecuted and subsequently bless our persecutors. This is the way of the Kingdom because it was the way of the King. Did not Jesus come to earth as the Son of God and was persecuted? What did He do? He blessed His persecutors. He blessed us! And Jesus in return was blessed with glory. He was blessed by turning us, His enemies, into His forever family. “We are called to bless those who hurt us because we ourselves were blessed by God when we hurt Him through our sin.”[1]Overcome evil by blessing others and you yourself will be blessed (v. 9).
But let’s get into the how to bless others. I skipped over verse 8, but it is critical to fighting evil. It will also help us to understand that we fight evil first at home, then through the church and finally out in the world. Let me go back to the home for a moment. Pastor Kyle taught us last week on 1 Peter 3:1-7. Did you pick up that just like the rest of Peter’s letter that the instructions on marriage were written in the context of suffering and hostility? The wife is supposed to submit herself to her own husband (not other people’s husbands) so that her disobedient husband would be won over (v. 1-2)! This is a principle, not a promise, meaning that a wife’s submission does not guarantee the salvation of her husband, but it sure makes it harder for him to say “no” to God. Of course, this does not give men the right to abuse their wives. But their wives’ submission wins them over. This is not only subversive culturally, but spiritually. In other words, Peter’s instructions didn’t just open the door for women’s rights that many enjoy today, but it also opened the door of the heart of the woman’s husband to the gospel in that day and now. We here at Temple, believe the Scriptures teach that men should provide protective leadership for their family and church family, but that does not mean that women are not leading. Often wives are leading their husbands back to the truth of God through respectful and pure conduct. This is not weak leadership, but winsome leadership! It is the best leadership, because Jesus led from a posture of respectful and pure conduct. He won you and me through this humble approach. If you have a beloved unbeliever at home, do not neglect them. Respect them and win them over with your pure conduct and devotion to them. Women have a power way beyond their sexuality and beauty. Their power is their spirituality and submission to follow Jesus. They see Jesus as their Master and can serve lesser ones appropriately and accordingly. It is very winsome. It is the Kingdom ethic of the “weak” winning the strong. It goes with our theme for 2023 – eyes locked on Jesus. How do remain faithful in an ever-increasing hostile world? Eyes locked on Jesus! My wife Lori wins us over all the time in our home through her godly conduct and respect she demonstrates in our family. Husbands, you too can overcome suffering and hostility through living with your wife in an understanding way as a co-heir in the grace of life (v. 7).
So we fight evil at home first, but then through the church. I am not talking about the church rising up as a collective to be a prophetic voice against societal ills, though sometimes that needs to happen. I am talking about how the church overcomes evil by blessing others through loving one another first. Verse 8 makes this clear, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind.” You cannot have unity of mind, sympathy, and brotherly love with the context of community. How could you have unity, sympathy and brotherly love if you didn’t have brothers and sisters in Christ? You can’t! “There can be no Christianity without compassion.”[2] This is why we must overcome evil by blessing others with a … harmonious and humble heart (v. 8). A harmonious and humble heart go hand in hand. You cannot have unity of mind without a humble mind.[3] You might have a good idea, but without humility and harmony, you won’t overcome. Fighting evil is a community project, but notice I am not saying that you are bringing others into the fight to escalate it to a war. You are deferring to others. You are submitting to others. Your training to fight evil happens in the church with unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and humble mind. To do this we need to understand why the world is in a state of disunity. It goes back to the rebellion in heaven when Satan sought power over God. He got kicked out. Then Satan tempted our first parents Adam and Eve to break God’s only rule, which was to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This led to separation from God and with each other. We humans too have pursued power. Fast forward to the Middle Ages when the aristocrats’ main task was to protect the territory they had and try to gain some more. They were knighted. Both religion and the state held power. Then as Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor explains, “The Reformation gave power to the individual and opened the door to naturalism and the world denuded of the supernatural. The buffered self allowed individuals to feel a greater sense of responsibility for the cultivation of personal, but it inadvertently created a self that is closed off, not just from magical forces, but the transcendent as a whole.”[4] And so without a pursuit of God, individuals try to determine their own lives and identities. The problem is that we live in community and each person pursuing their own way leads to disharmony. So now we look for a leader to lead us. We are back to the aristocrats where leaders are about fighting with others and calling their followers to protest and make war.[5] But when we bless others things change. Overcome evil by blessing others with a harmonious and humble heart.
Overcome evil by blessing others with a harmonious and humble heart, but also through loving lips. Overcome evil by blessing others with… loving lips (v. 10). This is what we read in 1 Peter 3:10 as Peter quotes Psalm 34:12-16 when David feigned craziness with the enemy king Abimilech (c.f. 1 Samuel 21), “For ‘whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.” Notice again the blessing of loving life by keeping their tongue from evil and lies. David speaks this psalm after learning about the danger of mimicking mental illness. A harmonious and humble heart is related to loving lips. A truthful heart evidences a tender heart. Yehiel Dinur understood this. “Yehiel Dinur survived the holocaust and was a witness during the trial in 1961 of Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Dinur entered the courtroom and stared at the man behind the bulletproof class – the man who had presided over the slaughter of millions. The court was hushed as a victim confronted a butcher. Then suddenly Dinur began to sob and collapsed to the floor. Not of anger or bitterness. As he explained later in an interview, what struck him at that instant was a terrifying realization, ‘I was afraid about myself,’ Dinur said, ‘I saw that I am capable to do this … exactly like he.’ The reporter interviewing Dinur understood precisely, ‘How is it possible for a man to act as Eichmann acted?’ he asked. ‘Was he a monster?’ A madman? Or was he perhaps something even more terrifying … was he normal?’ Yehiel Dinur, in a moment of chilling clarity, said, ‘Eichmann is in all of us.’”[6] Yehiel understood that evil starts in our proud hearts and quickly works itself into lying lips. Eichmann lied to so many people including himself. But when Yehiel looked in the mirror, he saw Eichmann. Overcome evil by blessing others with a harmonious and humble heart and loving lips.
But not only a harmonious and humble heart and loving lips but by pursuing peace. Overcome evil by blessing others bypursuing peace (v. 11). This is what we read in verse 11, “let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.” Pursue peace. I am not talking about the peace a new born baby gives like my grand baby. Pursue peace even when persecuted. “Persecution can be a time of spiritual enrichment for us believers.”[7] Jamie Winship understood this and has blessed others by teaching this truth. Who is Jamie Winship? Jamie Winship was a former cop who was recruited by the U.S. State Department to work in the Muslim world, teaching people how to hear from God and live in His kingdom. He befriended a man named “Salim who needed a driver’s license to secure a profitable job to provide for his ailing parents. The challenge for Salim was that because he was a member of a discriminated ethnic minority, obtaining a government-issued driver’s license was nearly impossible … He would wait in long lines only to never have his name called after seeing his ethnicity. Jamie would use the stories of Gideon and Moses to remind him what to do when facing an impossible situation – they asked God for wisdom…”[8] Salim struggled to believe and felt like he was a real disappointment. Maybe you feel that way today? Jamie responded, “‘I think God wants you to know what the real hindrance is to you obtaining a driver’s license. It’s not unfair policies of the government. God can overcome any obstacle. What God will not do is lead you with a false sense or belief of who you are and who He is. And he wants you to love the people who work in the government office, whether they give you a license or not.’ Salim agreed to the spiritual exercise where he would spend time confessing each day his wrong belief that he was a failure and disappointment asking God to show his true identity. After several weeks, Salim confessed that he sensed the words ‘intellectual’ and ‘scholar’ from the Holy Spirit. So one day Jamie said to Salim to ask God about getting a driver’s license. Salim sensed God saying, ‘Go stand in line at the licensing office. I AM is with you.’ (I Am being the name God calls Himself.) Salim went to the licensing office. After a 6 hour wait, a police officer called his name. They went out to the car and the officer said, “Drive.” Salim had never sat this close to the ruling class and who had done so much to destroy Salim’s family. Jesus’ words, ‘Love your enemy and do good to those who hate you,’ came to mind. Salim drove on, becoming more relaxed with every minute. Then he saw a cat. The cat, lying injured on the side of the road, looked as if it had been struck by a car. Salim felt very strongly that the Lord wanted him to stop and help the cat. ‘I can’t, God. The policeman will become angry and will fail me.’ Salim stopped the car at a red light, but could not stop the words that burst forth from his mouth, ‘Sir, I think we should go back and help the injured cat.’ ‘What do you care about a stray cat?’ the policeman snapped. ‘I believe God wants us to help the injured animal.’ Salim winced at his own words, ‘God loves cats too.’ ‘Well, if your God is telling you to turn around,’ the policeman huffed, ‘you better obey.’ Salim whipped the car around a legal U-turn and returned to the injured, but still living animal. The officer asked, ‘What shall we do?’ ‘Do you have a box or something in the truck of your car?’ asked Salim. ‘I have a blanket. We could lay the cat on the a blanket and take it to the vet.’ ‘That sounds like a good idea, sir,’ Salim agreed. ‘But how do we pick up the cat? I don’t want to touch it with my hands,’ said the officer. Salim asked God for wisdom, ‘Can we use your hat?’ ‘What?’ said the policeman, incredulous. ‘Your hat. Can we scoop the cat up in your hat and lay it on the blanket in the trunk? I will clean your hat for you later. My cousin works in a laundromat. Many of my people work in laundromats because without licenses we cannot get good-paying jobs. I will get your hat cleaned for you.’ ‘You will clean my police hat?’ ‘Cleaner than it has ever been before. Let’s save the cat.’ Salim and the officer knelt-down and working together were able to scoop the skeletal-like cat into the policeman’s hat. They got back into the car. The policeman said, ‘Drive as fast as you can and disregard traffic signals. This is an emergency.’ Salim drove quickly and safely to the vet with his one-time enemy turned feline-rescuing compatriot. Bound together in a quest to save the life of a stray cat, Salim and the officer paced the waiting room of the veterinary clinic together, hoping against hope that their efforts were not in vain. When the vet burst forth and announced that the cat would live another day, Salim and the officer hugged and congratulated each other on a well-executed plan. They drove back to the licensing office with Salim driving more cautiously. Once parked the officer said, ‘Salim, you are a fine driver and I am happy to issue you a license. Congratulations.’ Six years later, during a dinner celebrating his graduation with honours from a university in the U.S., Salim asked to address the young Muslim students in attendance. When the room went silent, Salim pulled his driver’s license from his wallet and holding it out for all to see, he said, ‘I’d like to tell you the story of the true Messiah who, when you ask him how to obtain a license from a corrupt government, will not only help you drive, but also save a cat and cause you to love your enemy. Above all else, Jesus will call you into your true identity, He has given you before the foundation of the world.’”[9]
How do you overcome evil? Overcome evil by blessing others and doing good! This Jesus did and He won you and me! Keep your eyes locked on Him!
WRAP-UP – But what does one do with the injustice? You take that to God. This why it is so important to pray the Psalms and give full emotion to your prayers. This is why it is so important to gather with others for prayer like at our Prayer Encounter on Wednesday nights where we fight evil with weapons far better than the world does and where people don’t get hurt, but helped.
[1] R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. John (Columbus: Wartburg Press, 1945), 143.
[2] William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible (Toronto: G.R. Welch Co. Ltd., 1976), 227.
[3] Craig S. Keener, 1 Peter – A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021, 252.
[4] Benjamin K. Forrest, Joshua D. Charrow & Alister E. McGrath, The History of Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020), 680.
[5] Present examples would be protests in France, Israel and former President Trump’s call to his followers to rise up to protect from his impending arrest. Another example is Russian President Putin’s war in Ukraine.
[6] Charles Colson, “The Enduring Revolution,” Contact, Volume 34, Number 3,
[7] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Volume 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 412.
Commissional 