How does God think? What is important in His mind? Peter says of women, 1 Peter 3:3–4 “Let your adornment not be the external kind, braiding hair and putting on gold jewelry or putting on fine clothing, 4 but the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is highly valuable in the sight of God” and he also says, in 1 Peter 2:15 “For the will of God is as follows: by doing good to silence the ignorance of foolish people”. Everyone has their opinion, everyone has something they want or need, it is in our flesh to need food and comfort and company, yet God did not create us to be driven by our flesh. God created us for a higher level of thinking, the “same way of thinking” Jesus Christ demonstrated that we could in 1 Peter 4:2 “live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for the will of God”.
By Doing Good to Silence the Ignorance of Foolish People
1 Peter 2:13–25
Have you noticed, everyone has an opinion. But where is wisdom? What is the right answer? What should you do? It is a very simple answer, “Do Good”. Peter says it this way in
1 Peter 2:13–14 Subject yourselves to every human authority for the sake of the Lord, whether to a king as having supreme authority, 14 or to governors as those sent out by him for the punishment of those who do evil and the praise of those who do good.
Of course, he is speaking of those that are ruling as God intends, “for the punishment of those who do evil and the praise of those who do good”. But whether they have it right or not, they are still the authority. Peter is using this, not to suggest blind and mindless obedience no matter what the abuse, in fact, it is another point altogether in
1 Peter 2:15 For the will of God is as follows: by doing good to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Use your freedom for good, “and not using your freedom as a covering for evil” in 1 Peter 2:16. Then he goes on to describe the behavior expected of every human being and especially we who are Christians in
1 Peter 2:17 Honor all people, love the community of believers, fear God, honor the king.
But then he makes an odd statement. It is odd as in unusual, or unexpected. Peter says when “someone endures sorrows while suffering unjustly”, “this finds favor”. What? How can you find favor when you are being oppressed or abused? It isn’t that you find favor with the abuser, it is that “this finds favor with God” in 1 Peter 2:20. When you choose to endure and as Jesus did, he “entrusted himself to the one who judges justly” in 1 Peter 2:23. Now read Peters statement in
1 Peter 2:19 For this finds favor, if because of consciousness of God someone endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
There is injustice in the world, and sometimes we are faced with it. Endure it, “because of consciousness of God” and trust Him as savior, deliverer, the righteous judge who will repay.
They May be Won Over Without a Word
1 Peter 3:1–7
As much as we try, people are not easily changed by what we tell them to do. They may do what we tell them, but more often, we are likely to get a reaction, defensiveness, self-justification, an argument, as it says in
James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The world of unrighteousness, the tongue, is set among our members, defiling the whole body and setting on fire the course of human existence, being set on fire by hell.
So why do we keep trying to tell people what to do? There is another way, and it is so simple. First, demonstrate “the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is highly valuable in the sight of God” in 1 Peter 3:4b and in
1 Peter 3:2 when they see your respectful, pure conduct.
and then, “they may be won over without a word by the conduct of their wives” in 1 Peter 3:1b.
The Eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous
1 Peter 3:8–12
Set Christ Apart as Lord in Your Hearts
Equip Yourselves With the Same Way of Thinking
1 Peter 4:1–6
Jesus Christ has already come. He lived on the earth and demonstrated a sinless life. There is an unruly nature in our flesh that suffers when it can’t have what it wants. Our flesh has a voice, the voice of natural human physical desires. And the way Peter says it is “the time has passed” in
1 Peter 4:3–4 For the time that has passed was sufficient to do what the Gentiles desire to do, having lived in licentiousness, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries, 4 with respect to which they are surprised when you do not run with them into the same flood of dissipation, and so they revile you.
But, Peter says, there is a reason Jesus came, there is a reason for the gospel and it came to those that were dead and dying in their dissipation in
1 Peter 4:6 Because for this reason also the gospel was preached to those who are dead, so that they were judged by human standards in the flesh, but they may live in the spirit by God’s standards.
Now, though our flesh may not like it, we are to “also equip yourselves with the same way of thinking, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” in 1 Peter 4:1b and when we have equipped ourselves with “the same way of thinking” as Jesus, it is in
1 Peter 4:2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for the will of God.
If Anyone Speaks, Let it be as the Oracles of God
1 Peter 4:7–11
The Spirit of Glory and of God Rests on You
1 Peter 4:12–19
Study Verses
- 1 Peter 2:13–25 By Doing Good to Silence the Ignorance of Foolish People
- 1 Peter 3:1–7 They May be Won Over Without a Word
- 1 Peter 4:1–6 Equip Yourselves With the Same Way of Thinking
Today’s Reading
- 1 Peter 2:13-25
- 1 Peter 3:1-22
- 1 Peter 4:1-19
