1 Peter 3:8-22 

I am sure many of you are familiar with that peculiarly Northern Ireland phrase - “So and so is good living”. It is meant to be another way of saying they are a christian or a very devout or religious person. If you think about it, although it is a bit hackneyed, it is actually an appropriate description of a believer for they should indeed be “good living”.  In the remainder of chapter 3 and on into ch.4 Peter moves into talking about the very practical issue of how we should behave as christians, and in particular how we should behave when we are under pressure or threatened with persecution. In some ways it is easy to be a fair weather Christian but in the stormy times we are tested and it differentiates the true from the false and the serious from the half-hearted.

As we know Peter was writing to a community of Christians that had been scattered, which had experienced some suffering for their faith in the political climate and were likely to experience more soon.

In the west we do not face imprisonment or direct persecution for our faith but there is increasingly a marginalisation of christian principles and values at a personal and a public level.  Jesus said that true followers of him will always find themselves in the minority and we should expect this, we should not be surprised by opposition because often the way the world thinks is contrary to the way God thinks.

So Peter in these verses will talk about how to respond when suffering comes, will our lives reflect the cross and the saviour who suffered. The cross and suffering is the mark of our faith so we should be prepared for it. Our faith was born out of the crucible of suffering and we should not forget that. Also in our culture today there is a need for authenticity. Our culture is tired of duplicity and selfishness and it is looking for something different. If we in the church claim to have the good news of salvation for the world and we claim to follow a saviour who makes a difference then we have to show that he makes a difference. As people look at our lives do they see a level of goodness that surpasses the ordinary person in the street? Do they see a different way of living and different values even when the going is tough, or especially when the going is tough.  As people look at us do they see goodness, real goodness.  Someone has said “We can do more good by being good than in any other way.”

Peter in these verses tells us what goodness looks like as if we did not know.  Here we see the characteristics of good living, the foundation of good living and the victory of good living.

1.The Characteristics of a Good Life

In verses 8 – 17 we can see ten qualities that should be evident in the Christian’s life. The first five are in one verse, v.8, and seem to apply more internally to how we relate to our own church fellowship but I do not think this is exclusively so. Some of the qualities such as humility and compassion should be exercised outside the church also.

The five qualities in v.8 are living in harmony, being sympathetic, showing brotherly love, being compassionate and having a humble mind. Now I do not need to spend a lot of time explaining what these qualities are for we should know what they are, it is the doing of them which is the challenge. But because they are important let us emphasise them and not pass on too quickly.

a) I love harmony, I love to hear it in a song, in  a choir, see it in a marriage or family, experience it in  a church. There is a blessing and a sense of wholeness and peace that comes with harmony. It is easier to live with and in a state of harmony.  The Psalmist says  it well in Ps.133 -  “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony”.  The opposite is disharmony, dis-junction, a lack of peace. We have talked recently about unity in diversity, it is an important thing to have for it can impact our witness more than we know. Are we striving to be harmonious Christians or are we discordant, looking to make trouble, looking for a fight.

b)Sympathy.  The root of the word suggests “suffering with” someone; that is entering into the experience with them to share the joy or help carry the hurt. Rom.12:15 says “rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn”. Are we there for each other? I have heard lovely storiesd over the past two years of Christian in High Kirk who have been there for each other and have received great support and comfort. I have also heard instances where people have felt the church has let them down. Let’s seek to improve on this – let’s raise our eyes and look out for the hurting, the missing, the drifting.

c) brotherly love. We could equally well say sisterly love. Church becomes a second family and as we come to faith we come into a family of brothers and sisters that God calls us to love. Jesus said in John 13:34  “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”. In America there is phenomenon called red letter Christians – those who pay particular attention to the words of Jesus which are printed in red in American bibles. Now all of the bible is inspired and I prefer not to have red letter bibles but we should pay attention  when Jesus says “By this people will know that you are my disciples. By this, more than any other thing, people will see that you follow me – our love for one another. Goodness has love at the core just as God has love at his core. God is love.

d) be compassionate or have a tender heart some versions say. Are we people of soft or hard centres. Are we capable of showing compassion. Ladies tend to be more compassionate than  men but men this is something we need to work harder on. We need to show loving consideration to those who are in need rather than saying “It’s not my problem”

e) A humble mind. Increasingly as I go on in life I think humility is one of the supreme virtues that we can possess because it is the best weapon against one of mankind’s greatest vices - pride. Can I commend a marvellous little book to you by CJ Mahaney called Humility: True Greatness. Listen to what he says in the opening chapter. (p.17-18)

You see God loves those who are humble, his heart is drawn towards them. Isaiah 66:2 says “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Humility draws the gaze of God toward us.  Peter also refers to Psalm 34 – a Psalm written out of a place of distress and pressure and which encourages us when times are stressful to follow the way of goodness and righteousness and holding our tongues rather than the way of retribution and evil. Walk the higher path, seek the better way, do not follow the ways of those who slander or accuse but rise above that. And this leads into the second set of five characteristics of the godly person.

f)  a passion for goodness. Be eager to do good. When we seek to live good lives we should not receive persecution or trouble ordinarily. Although often the world’s values are not the same as God’s sometimes they are and many laws are biblically based. Those who break the law and steal and cheat are more likely to get into trouble. We as Christians should be eager to be law abiding, we should respect those in authority over us.

g) do not fear. But when we find that our standards do differ from others, or when we are subject to persecution or vilification for standing up for what is right and good we should not fear and not be frightened (v.14) but rather face trouble calmly with the conviction that God is with us. Sometimes we need a holy boldness to speak out against injustice or something that is just wrong.

h) we have a devotion to Jesus for he is our Lord and we ultimately must answer to him for how we live our lives. We are to sanctify or set apart Jesus as Lord. The Lordship of Christ is a given but the working through of lordship is another matter – is Jesus truly master of our lives or is that just a form of words with little reality in our day to day lives. As people see us they should see that we come under a different master, we have different priorities, different things that pre-occupy us. As we do this then people will ask us “to give the reason for the hope that we have.”

i) we show a readiness to defend our faith. But if our lives are no different to other non-believers then people’s curiosity will not be aroused and they will not be prompted to ask why do you speak differently, why do you spend your time and money differently? We should always be prepared to give the reason for the hope that we have. How is our testimony? Is it up to date? Is God teaching us new things, are we growing in Him and is he leading us into new adventures or are we living off the stale bread and stale testimony of when we first came to Christ?  

j) a pure conscience. We should defend ourselves with gentleness and respect and with a clear conscience so that we do not give those who oppose us any ground for accusation. How we speak and defend our faith is as important as the content of what we speak. If they are to be offended let them be offended by the content of the gospel, not the manner in which we speak it.

So here are ten characteristics of living a good life.  Here are ten good qualities to pray into our lives as we get out of our beds in the morning and as we head to bed at night perhaps asking forgiveness for where we have fallen short. And we will fall short for we are sinners. Jesus reminds us in the gospels  that only God is totally good and sinless – but he calls us to be holy as he is holy. Not to rest in our sin but to strive for goodness.    

2. The Foundation for Good Living

You see Jesus has gone before us and led the way. In his life and death we have the foundation for what we do. Verse 18 says we should live this way “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God.”  Jesus suffered for doing good. We too may suffer for doing good but it is worth it for God is achieving his purposes through it.

 In other words Peter is saying this. As we live as Christians, life can be tough, we will face opposition, we will face temptation, we will face testing and sometimes we may ask ourselves is this worth it? Is holding on to a Christian profession worth it when life gets difficult, is putting the effort into living a holy life, a righteous life, a good life worth it especially if you are criticised for trying to be good. The answer Peter says is yes because in doing so you are following one who was totally good and righteous who was crucified and treated like a criminal. Out of this most evil act God saved the world and did great good. In following Jesus’ example we will do good for God and for the world also although we may not see it that way sometimes.  God’s purposes are being fulfilled and we need to hold on to this as we live the cross centred life.

The foundation of good living is knowing in our heads and hearts that living a good life is worth it for the ultimate good act seemed to be the most futile and hopeless – Jesus dying on a cross. So when we do good things be assured that it is making a difference not just at a local level but at a cosmic and eternal level. This helps me and I hope helps you when we struggle to live the good life, as we often do. For we know our hearts and we know that we are not as good as others think we are. We sometimes have a veneer or a varnish of goodness, but for that to go deeper and for us to make the effort in going deeper we need to come to the foundation and know that following Jesus and the way of the cross is worth it.  

The other point, that Peter makes in these closing verses - which we can tend to lose because they are controversial and people are not sure what Peter means by Jesus preaching to the spirits in prison - is that Jesus’ death was vindicated by God. Jesus has the victory.

Peter tries to illustrate this by speaking about Jesus in the Spirit preaching to the disobedient spirits of Noah’s day. There are three main interpretations of these verses which I will give to you for the sake of completeness. Each has something to commend it but I personally am not sure which is the right interpretation.

a)    Jesus descended to hell after his death and before the resurrection and preached to the spirits of those who perished in the flood in the time of Noah. For some this was just Jesus declaring his victory and confirming the wrong choice these people had made. For some this was Jesus giving them a second chance to repent (for which there is little other biblical warrant)

b)    The spirits in prison refers to fallen angels rather than humans and Jesus proclaims to them his victory and their doom. This probably occurred after his resurrection.

c)    The final interpretation is that the spirit of Jesus was in Noah and those to whom Noah preached were not in a literal prison but a spiritual prison.

Each has arguments for and against. I am not too concerned as to which is the right interpretation for the point Peter is making is the same for each. Jesus is the victor. He has been vindicated over his opponents and those who scoffed. His good life and death in the midst of persecution and the most evil of acts was worth it and we must trust in him.

When we stand with Jesus at the resurrection on the last day our good lives will be vindicated, the bad bits of our lives will be covered by the blood of Jesus and we will be saved, just as Noah was with his family. The symbol of our salvation is baptism, Noah was saved through the waters and so will we. It is not the baptism that saves us, it is faith in Jesus that saves us, but the waters remind us that our sin has been washed away and is a reminder of a good conscience towards God.

So we have ten characteristics of good living (and next time we will see more) and we have seen the encouragement or the foundation of good living  - a good saviour who died for us, a baptism that speaks of the washing away of our sins, the final vindication of Jesus and all who follow him.  Finally this Spirit of Jesus is not only with us but in us – his Spirit helps and enables us to live a good life, but we will cover that in our evening series beginning tonight. We need power to live a good life for in our own strength it is too much of a struggle.

So for today our prayer is Lord help us to live a good life, for we know it is worth it, and let us constantly reflect on the example of Jesus and to see that living the cross centred life is honouring to God and a blessing to those we meet every day. For his glory we pray.

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