Living for Christ (1 Peter 3:8-12)

 "Now finally, all of you should be like-minded and sympathetic, should love believers, and be compassionate and humble,9 not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing." (1 Peter 3:8-9, HCSB).

After finishing his discussion on how a Christian should live out his faith in marriage, Peter then turns to all believers to discuss how we should live out our faith in a more broad context. In essence, Peter is giving us detailed instructions on how we should live out our lives for the sake of Christ, both in day to day affairs as well as within the body of believers. 

First of all, we note that we are commanded to be like-minded and sympathetic. To be like minded, "homophrōn" conveys the idea of literally being of one mind. In essence this describes a harmonious relationship where all involved are in full agreement with each other. To be sympathetic, "sumpathēs" means to be compassionate of one another. Together these words describe the harmonious relationship we as believers should have with each other, united to a common goal of following Christ, being like minded in our beliefs, and having compassion on each other.

Peter makes it even clearer: We should love the other believers. This briefly sums up what has already been stated. In Hebrew 13:1, we find a similar statement: "Let brotherly love continue." (HCSB). This does not imply we do not love un-believers. Quite the contrary- we are commanded to love all. (Matthew 5:43-44, and Luke 7:27-36). 

However, in the spirit of being like-minded and sympathetic, we should love each other. I believe that much of our disagreements, arguments, and church splits would disappear if we all truly believed and followed this command! By loving someone, we put the other ahead of ourselves, giving preference to their values and thoughts/opinions over our own. This does not mean we forego church discipline or compromise on our foundational theology. However, when we deal with each other, it should be done in love, and most of our disagreements that happen in the church are over preferences. Is it worth violating this command in order to maintain our preferences?

In verse 9, we are commanded to be compassionate, humble, not repaying evil or insult with the like in kind. While all of this certainly applies to the context of our daily lives, day in and day out, I think that this passage is also very much essential in our interactions with believers, a theme Peter has been bringing out in this passage. Do our interactions with other believers, particularly in the church setting, stay in line with these commands? Are we compassionate and humble toward our brethren, regardless of how they may treat us?

When someone does evil to us or insults us, we are to bless them, not to use their behavior as a license to react in the same way. This lines up with the rest of scripture, particularly Jesus's teaching in Luke 6:28: " bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." This teaching is also found in Romans 12:14, and 1 Corinthians 4:12. Since this theme appears numerous times in Scripture, it is abundantly clear that these are not just idle words, but an imperative command for all of us. 

To "bless", eulogeō, conveys the idea of speaking well of the other. This is where we get our word eulogy. Regardless of how we may feel of the other, we should speak well of them when they are around and when they are not.

"For the one who wants to love life
and to see good days
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit,
11 and he must turn away from evil
and do what is good.
He must seek peace and pursue it,
12 because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and His ears are open to their request.
But the face of the Lord is against
those who do what is evil. " (1 Peter 3:10-12, HCSB). 

Peter than quotes from Psalm 34:12-16 to further back up this command to be loving towards each other. There is an imperative command here. If you want to be able to enjoy life, you must live in love towards other. You must keep from slandering those you disagree with, or speaking deceitfully about them. Living in opposition to our brethren not only hurts them - it hurts us as well! By choosing not to love others, especially our brethren, we put ourselves at odds with God and with His will for us.

This passage is pretty clear. If we desire closeness with God (The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their request), then we are to live in this manner. That is not to say that if we live in love towards other as God commands here, we will have an materially abundant,  prosperous life. That is not what is being taught here. This is not the "Prosperity Gospel" or a "Name it, claim it" passage. Otherwise it would be at odds with what Peter has discussed previously about suffering and the Christian life. If we are a Christian, we have no guarantee of what our culture defines as a perfect, or even a "good" life. Suffering is a part of life for a Christian- suffering because of Christ.

However, it is clear that life will be better and spiritually abundant when we obey this command and love others in this way. Our physical quality of life may not improve per se, but we will be at harmony with God and with others, and that is what is implied by loving life, and seeing good days.

We are to live for Christ in this way. We represent Christ to the nations by the way we treat each other and others. It is clear that our lives are to be lived in love toward others.