Essentials of Christian Living

We need be in no doubt as to Peter’s objective in writing this letter. He tells us in 5:12 that he has written briefly, encouraging us, and testifying that what he has been writing is the true grace of God, and exhorting us to stand fast in it. We have reminded ourselves as we’ve gone through that Peter was not writing in a time of tranquility, but rather, he was writing in a period of persecution, which makes his call to submission, which we’ve been considering these last few Sunday mornings, all the more telling.

As I studied this week in 1 Peter, I just stood back from it all again, in the way that I’d done in prefacing the studies, to remind myself that here I was, studying a book written under the guidance of the Holy Spirit by a Galilean fisherman from two thousand years ago. And as I sat there with the Bible before me and in this twentieth-century American culture, I said to myself, “My, my! This is almost unbelievable, that we should be here opening the pages of Scripture and paying attention to such a one as Peter.” And it was a great encouragement to me—and I pass it on to you—insofar as it reminded me of this truth: that God sets his hand upon some of the most unlikely people to do his work.

Peter does not necessarily stand before us as a classic example of somebody whom God would choose to use. Even as he went about the business of his routine life along with his brother and in the family business, Jesus came and arrested him on the seashore with a very simple word of command: “Follow me, and I will make you, Peter, a fisher of men.”[1] His name was Simon. His name actually meant “shaky.” And by the grace of God, his name became Peter, which meant “rocklike.” And so the shaky one, by God’s goodness, became rocklike and was given the responsibility of strengthening the brethren.[2]

And so it is to this shaky, now rocklike, character that we turn our attention as he writes these words and as he draws this whole section to a close in 3:8. You will notice that this section had begun at 2:11, where he had said, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world…” So he had issued a very generic word to those who were his readers, and then he has proceeded in the section which follows to address specific groups and particular individuals. Having done so, he now returns once again to his general scope as he draws this whole section to a close. And you find him saying in 3:8, “Finally, all of you…” “I’ve said a word to those of you in employment. I’ve said a word to those of you in specific responsibilities in civil jurisdiction. I’ve spoken to husbands. I’ve spoken to wives. And now,” he says, “I want to speak to all of you once again.”

It may even be that with the help of Silas, he has the scroll before him which contains Psalm 34, because from verse 10 to verse 12, that is exactly where he’s quoting from. And in this, he gives us a kind of graphic portrayal of the unity of Scripture. If you think about it for a wee minute: Here is an apostle, commissioned by Christ to a peculiar task. And the apostle takes the Word of God in his hands—namely, in the psalmist’s words. And with the Word of his Master in his heart, he brings the Old Testament and the New Testament—the Gospel records—together. And in his apostolic instruction, he shows the great clarity and unity of the Bible. And for those of us who are tempted to come with a great cleaver and destroy our Scriptures and chop them up into sections—some of which are applicable and others which are not—we find that the apostles had no such interest. Rather, here he is with an Old Testament book, with the words of Christ from the Gospels, and with the fullness of the Spirit in his own life, giving instruction concerning how to live.

It has been suggested that Psalm 34 may well have been used as a catechism in the early church. It may have been that it was used as a kind of discipleship manual. It’s also possible that Psalm 34—indeed, more than likely—was sung as a hymn in the early church. So if we’d been gathering with some of those in Cappadocia or Bithynia to whom Peter wrote, when they received Peter’s letter and he quotes from the Thirty-Fourth Psalm, they don’t have a problem to go back scurrying to find it out, because they’ve been singing it frequently, and also, they have been studying it carefully. And it may well be that it was given a title such as “Recipe for a Happy Life” or “Recipe for a Fulfilled Life,” because as you take the Thirty-Fourth Psalm and read it, it provides for us the answer, “How can I enjoy a satisfying and a worthwhile life?” And in it—and Peter only quotes from part of it—general guidelines are set down which may be applied to our benefit.

And the picture which is created for us here is in direct contrast to what we discovered when we studied Ecclesiastes together. And the conclusion of the writer of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 2:17: “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun [is] grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” Well, that was Ecclesiastes. What does the psalmist have to say? The psalmist says, “Here in the fullness of the Lord’s purposes, I can trace my way through life, and I can live in a way that pleases him.”

We ought not to press the psalmist’s poetry into categorical statements. Neither Scripture nor human experience would allow us to do so. If we were to press the Thirty-Fourth Psalm into wooden application, then we would have a problem explaining, in my case, why it was that my mother died at the age of forty-six in a completely out-of-the-ordinary, unexpected reality. Why would that be, in light of Psalm 34? Was there something wrong? No, it was this: that in Psalm 34 we have general guidelines of truth, not categorical statements of actuality which may be pressed to unorthodox conclusions.

Rather, what he is saying is that when we engage in active goodness, that is a fairly efficient way of avoiding evil. And when we engage in goodness and we avoid evil, there is blessing which attends such an approach. If you put your hand on the stove and it’s on, you burn your fingers. If you live your life on the broad road that leads to destruction, you get burned. But there is a road “which lead[s] unto life, and few there be that find it.”[3] The same psalmist says, “Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the council of the ungodly. He doesn’t stand in the way of sinners. He doesn’t sit in the seat of the scornful. Those who do are like the chaff which are blown away, but those who walk in the paths of righteousness are like trees flourishing by riverbanks.”[4] There is blessing which attends doing it God’s way. And Peter, quoting from the Old Testament, drives this home as he applies these final truths to those who were his readers. Here we see Peter the Bible teacher at work. And there is benefit which accrues, he says, to those who live their lives in this way.

But there is also implicit in it an obligation that we must face, and there is also contained in it an opportunity that we can find. The obligation is found in the fact that the things we’re going to look at now are not optional extras. They are essentials of Christian living. And when, Peter says, God’s people, the chosen ones, live in this way—fulfill these obligations—then we provide a tremendous opportunity for the gospel. Then we’re beginning to live in a naturally supernatural way. Then we’re beginning to display before the world a dimension of life which will make inquirers of our friends and neighbors.

You see, the real question for these early readers was, “How are we going to create a right impression in a hostile world? How can we live in such a way in this environment of Roman persecution, where to be a Christian is to be involved in the craziest group of people ever, where all kinds of things are unleashed against us? How, Peter, can we live in a way that would commend the gospel?” Well, notice what Peter doesn’t say. Peter does not say, “Go out and make a jolly nuisance of yourselves. Go out and aggravate your community. Go out and take the warfare and the weapons of your society and just do what they do.” No! Peter actually says, “Do the reverse of that.” He says, “Live in such a way that the world will say, ‘I don’t know why these people do what they do.’ Live in an inexplicable fashion.”

Now, as we come to these factors—and you’ll find them in verses 8–9, which is where we spend the remainder of our time—we discover that Peter is referring to a quality of life which is God-produced. It is, if you like… The only way that you can understand this is by cross-referencing it with Philippians 2:13, where we’re called to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”—that’s our part—because “it is God who is at work in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure”;[5] that’s his part.

In other words, as we go through this, if ever you find yourself thinking that Peter is calling us as his readers to some self-righteous, legalistic activity whereby we attempt to score points for heaven, we are absolutely wrong! Okay? These are not six things that earn heaven. This is not six things we’re supposed to pull our socks up… “Oh, the pastor had a sermon this morning, said, ‘You’re supposed to do this. And if you do this, then you will be okay.’” No, no. What the Word of God is saying is this: “You are chosen. You are called. You are empowered by the Spirit. You have been born anew by a living hope. You are purifying yourselves by obedience to the truth. You are walking in the light. You are filled with the Spirit.”[6] “Now,” says Peter, “because all of that is true, here are the essential characteristics which will flow from lives like that.” That is vitally important. Otherwise, what I now share with myself and with you is really just a chronicle of despair, because by nature, we cannot do what Peter is about to ask us to do. These qualities are supernatural in their exposure.

Let’s go through them, then. I think there’s six.

Harmony

Number one: “harmony.” “Harmony.” “Finally, all of you, live in harmony.” Essential characteristic of Christian living amongst the family of God is that we are of one mind.[7] The literal translation is “Be like-minded.”

This should be no surprise to us, because if you turn to John 17, you discover that is exactly what Jesus prayed for those who were his own in his High Priestly Prayer. You’ll find it in verse 21 and following: “[I’m praying, Father], that all of them may be one.” Well, could you explain that a little more? How one? How much one? “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Now, that’s close, right? Whatever else it is, that’s close. So the like-mindedness which Peter says should characterize those who are the chosen ones of Christ is something for which Jesus prayed.

Secondly, it is something which the early church displayed. Acts 4:32—look at what it says: “[And] all the believers were [in one] heart and mind.” They weren’t a ragbag of opinions. They weren’t a group of people who believed everything and anything. They were not united around some osmosis-type experience. No! They were brought together, under Christ, to a like-mindedness which the world said is incredible. And this, says Peter, is exactly to be the experience of those who are in the church.

So, it was prayed for by Jesus (John 17), it was displayed by the early church (Acts chapter 4), and before the early church had gone very far, it was the desperate and daily need of those who were God’s people. Romans chapter 12. We read part of it already. Verse 4, and then verse 16: “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member”—note it—“belongs to all the others.”[8]

Now, I’m not sure that we have fully understood this as a church family in terms of body life. Or if we’ve understood it, I must suppose that we have decided to ignore it. When your body moves from the kitchen to the bathroom, how much of it moves? All of it! When God speaks about the family that he brings together, he presupposes a like-minded unity. He presupposes that when he says, for example, concerning the Lord’s Supper, “Do this in remembrance of me,”[9] he might safely assume that those who are under the authoritative headship of Christ, who are his body, will do what the head says[10]—no matter how brightly the sun shines, no matter how many demands come across our path. Why? Because we are brought under Christ to a harmony which is as God ordained.

If it was needed in the Roman church, it was certainly needed in the Corinthian church. First Corinthians 1:10: he says, “[I’m writing to you so] that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” Now, don’t let’s start explaining this away yet. Okay? Press all those buttons that are going off in your head that are going, “But… But… But… But…” Let’s just allow it to say what it says. This is what the Bible says: “perfectly united in mind and [in] thought.” Okay, let’s set ourselves against that standard. How we doing?

Here’s the question: How can such a diversified group of people as those to whom Peter wrote and continues through the centuries to write ever come to a united common interest and outlook? Now, some people would say that the key to that is establishing a human agenda which is easily understood—that the way you do that is you finally find out some great overarching purpose statement, and everybody says, “That’s our purpose statement, and therefore, we must go.” That’s good to have. We’re working on that. I hope we can do it. But you can have the clearest, most succinct, fantastic three-color brochure describing the purpose and the most chaotic disunity you’ve ever seen underneath it. There is a dimension—which is God, by his Spirit—taking place which needs to happen.

How, I ask you again, can a funny bunch of people such as we ever come to be like-minded? Well, the answer is actually very, very simple. Turn to Ephesians 4:13. Ephesians 4:13. The only way that men and women in our day amongst the family of God can ever come together in this harmony will not be upon the basis of a human agenda but will be upon the foundation of divine authority. Ephesians 4:13. He’s talked about the responsibility of the various functions within the church to evangelize and to edify. And he says when this begins to happen—when the Word of God is communicated in truth and is brought home by the Spirit—then, he says, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” So we need be in no doubt as how we come to this harmony. We come to this harmony under the headship and authority of Jesus. The unity to which we come is not uniformity. It is not the negation of diversity either of gift or of background or of outlook. It is a unity which takes all of that diversity, recognizes it, and brings ourselves under the truth of the Word.

“Then,” he says, and only then—verse 14—“we will no longer be infants.” But until then, we will always be infants. Until a church family gets about the part of harmony in this way, we can continue to be “tossed back and forth by the waves, … blown here and there by every wind of teaching,” and we will be susceptible to “the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” It’s just a fact, he says. Unless you come to this like-minded commitment to Christ and to his Word, you will be up for anything. But when you do, when you—verse 15—speak “the truth in love,” then you “will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” And “from him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Do you see the picture? Do you understand it? It’s not that we’re all singing in unison. That’s not the key to wonderful singing. There is a strength in singing in unison, but the real beauty of singing is when we’re broken out into the various parts. But not into five different songs! Not somebody’s playing jazz over here, and someone’s playing something else over here. No! But that we are under one conductor—Jesus—we have one score open before us, and we take the part which God has given us. Then we begin to enter into what Peter refers to here in one word, which is simply “harmony.” “Just an old-fashioned love song comin’ down in three-part[s] harmony.”[11] Your part is not my part. My part is not your part. Quit telling me to do your part, and I’ll quit telling you to do my part. Find your part. “Who told you where it was?” Jesus did. “How’d you find out?” Read your Bible. In any doubt? Talk with those who are spiritually mature. Take your part, sing your song, and let’s go. Harmony. Okay?

Sympathy

Second word: sympathy. Spent too long on the first one, but you’re used to that. Sympathy. “Be sympathetic.” Doesn’t say, “Be pathetic.” It says, “Be sympathetic.” Churches, we can handle that, but… In other words, we should be sensitive to the same spiritual emotions. If we have the same common mind, then presumably, we will be stirred by the same things—unless, of course, we’re out of our minds, right? But when we have the mind of Christ—Philippians 2:5—then if all these people all have the mind of Christ, and they’re all submitting to the same head, then presumably, there will be a stirring in the heart which is shared.

So we don’t sit around and go, “Well, what did it mean to you?” “Well, I don’t know. What did it mean to you?” “I don’t know.” No, no, no, no: that God by his Spirit orchestrates sympathy within his body so that just as our physical bodies have sympathetic reactions to other things that are going on—and we need to check with our medical staff to understand that perfectly, and I should leave the analogy alone, but that does happen—so, he says, in the body of Christ, there will be those sympathetic reactions, but they will only be there when there is harmony first. Without that there is submission to the same head, there will be no sensitivity to the same central nervous system. So how can people respond to the same central nervous system if they’re not tuned in to the same head?

That’s why, you see, that the singing of God’s praise should produce fervor. Why? Because we’re sympathetic with one another. You hear the guy singing next to you, you understand what this phrase really means, huh? “I’ve got to be sympathetic to him. If he hadn’t come here, we could have used him as a foghorn. But bless his heart! There he is.” That’s okay. But far and beyond that, what is this: that when we take a hymn that extols Christ…

Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts,
Thou fount of life, thou light of men,
from [the best] bliss that earth imparts,
[I] turn unfilled to thee again. …

[Jesus,] thy truth … ha[th] ever stood;
Thou savest those that on thee call;
To them that seek[est], thou art good,
To them that find thee, all in all.[12]

And suddenly, Begg is going on the hymn. But he’s not alone! Because his brothers and sisters around him are saying, “That’s right! Amazing grace!” That’s why we don’t do all our things alone. That’s why there is value in coming together. I can go sing in the park, sure! And so can you. But I want to sing with you! I want to hear you sing! I want you to sing out and sing up! And I want my heart to be warmed and stirred as, sympathetically, I bow beneath the same truth.

Now, we don’t often think of it in that way. But maybe we will after a moment or two after this morning. I can never be sympathetic towards somebody else when I’m preoccupied with myself. Preoccupation with me and sympathy for you cannot coexist. If I’m stuck on myself, and what I’m doing, and where I’m going, and what I’m buying, and what I’m getting next, I will have no interest whatsoever in who you are, and where you’re going, and what you’re doing, and what you’re getting next. Therefore, it means that I must somehow begin to get under the burden of who you are. This is what it means to bear another’s burdens:[13] to get down underneath their load, as it were—to walk into that hospital room and to look at that individual as if they were your own. For in a very real sense, they are your own. That’s what he’s saying.

Hebrews 13:3: “Remember those in prison.” “Well, how am I going to do that? I never was in jail! Not for longer than an evening.” “Remember those in prison.” How? “As if you were their fellow prisoners.” How are you ever going to empathize with a prisoner unless you suddenly start and say, “Can you imagine what it would be like to walk in, get stripped absolutely naked, everything taken from you—your watch, your change, the whole caboodle—and they give you some unglorified pair of pajamas? They march you around, they shower you, they put you in a room, and they bang the thing behind you.” Can you imagine what that must be like? Well, think about it for a wee while, because once I think that through, then I’m going to be able to begin to understand what it means.

Look at that poor guy! Time magazine this week.[14] Thirteen years ago, he killed somebody. Finally, the justice system gets real. Thirteen years later, he’s now thirty years old. He was seventeen at the time. And finally, they take his life away. Whatever we want to say about capital punishment, which is not our subject this morning, the delay in justice is a disgrace in our society—a total disgrace. But when I read that in Time magazine, and I looked at that young man’s face, and I thought about some of the things that I did when I was seventeen, I said, “Yeah, I could have been that man.” This is what sympathy means, dear ones. It means getting under the burden of those whose load is heavy. It means rejoicing with those whose hearts are light.[15]

Love

Thirdly, the word “love.” Philadelphoi. What does it mean? Well, it’s almost a reiteration of what we’ve been studying in 1 John. Let me use what he says from Psalm 34 to describe what love means here. Let’s use his Bible teaching from the Old Testament to clarify the phrase “Love as brothers.” What does it mean to love as a brother?

One: when I love my brother, I will not use my tongue to harm him or to mislead him. That’s verse 10. I’m going to “keep [my] tongue from evil and [my] lips from deceitful speech.” I’m not going to use my tongue to harm my brother; I’m not going to use my tongue to mislead him.

Secondly, when I love my brother, I will do a body swerve from evil so that I might encourage him in the paths of righteousness. That’s verse 11: “He must turn from evil and do good.” So if I really love you, I’m not going to take you down the broad road that leads to destruction. I’m not going to compromise your morals. I’m not going to interfere with your life and the purity that God intends for you—not if I love you.

Thirdly, when I love my brother, I take the initiative in repairing the breeches which exist between us. That’s verse 11b: “He must seek peace and pursue it.” So in other words, there is something vigorous about this kind of love. It’s loyalty. It’s not a mealy-mouthed sentimentality. And it’s a recurring theme of Peter, because he knows that while you can choose your friends, you can’t choose your relatives. And what it must have been to be amongst the believers in Thessalonica—to hear from Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:9 and following—that he could write to them and say, “I don’t need to write to you about brotherly love, ’cause you’re a great gang.”[16] Must be nice to get a letter like that.

Compassion

Fourth word is the word compassion. Compassion. Harmony, sympathy, love, “Be compassionate.” The word, in its English transliteration, is eusplanchnoi. Eusplanchnoi. Say that three times quickly. And it has a kind of internal-organ sound to it, and justifiably so, because that’s what the word is all about. When you come across “bowels” in your King James Version, it has to do with this splanchnizomai stuff right here.

For the Greeks, they used the word as an expression of intestinal fortitude. “Guts”: does a guy have it? For the Hebrews, they used the word as an expression of mercy and concern. And it is in that way that Peter uses it. He says, “I want you to have compassion for one another.” Ephesians 4: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving [one another], just as in Christ God forgave you.”[17] It’s not sentimentality—a sentimentality which has a moment’s comfortable sorrow and then does nothing. It is love in action. It is the good Samaritan that we considered last time.[18] It is the father welcoming his son home: “And when he saw his son who was a great way off…” What does the very next phrase say? “He was filled with compassion.” “And he wrote a book.” No. “And he ran, and he grabbed his boy, and he hugged him real good.”[19]

Compassion is not a sentimentality which has a moment’s comfortable sorrow and then does nothing. It is love in action.

Humility

Fifth word is humility. “Be compassionate and humble.” How could we ever be like-minded unless we’re humble-minded? Genuine humility revolves around recognizing, first of all, who God is, and then we see who we are. When we see who God is, then we say with the psalmist, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”[20] When I see who God is and who I am, and when I see how great my offense against God has been, then it helps me to minimize the offenses that others have committed against me. But when I only compare myself with other people, I might find grounds for increasing pride. And the blessings of God do not grow in the soil of pride but rather in humility.

If you drew all of these things out… And we have one to go, and we’ll just finish it. But if you drew them all out (harmony and sympathy and love and compassion and humility), and you drew them out, forming them in a circle in the final word, if you drew into the center just lines from each, then you would find that every line ended up in Jesus Christ—that if we were in any doubt about what it meant, we just needed to look at Jesus: the one who said, “For I am humble and lowly in heart, and you can find rest for your souls”;[21] the one who left the glory of heaven to be born in that strangest of environments so that we, who have been born in the strangest of environments, might go and share the glory of heaven.

Blessing

The final word is “blessing.” “Blessing.” Verse 9: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.” Sounds like Jesus in Matthew 5, doesn’t it? Let me quote it for you. Matthew 5:44: “You[’ve] heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies.” Oh, come on! “And pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good.” The same sun is shining over bad people in Cleveland this morning as is shining over good people. He “sends [the] rain on the righteous and [on] the unrighteous. [And] if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? [Don’t] even … tax collectors [do] that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do[n’t] even pagans do that?”[22] So Jesus said, “Let me give you a new standard: be perfect even as your Father is perfect.”[23]

You see, it’s one thing if it stopped with “Do not render evil with evil or insult with insult.” That way, we can close our car doors, drop our garage doors, close our front doors, close our blinds, close our curtains, close everything, and say, “I will not repay evil with evil! Good! Now I’ve obeyed the Scriptures. I’ll get on with my life.” No! Wrong! “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult”—but we’re not finished—“but with blessing”!

“Oh no! No, it doesn’t say that!” Yeah, it says it! “Because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” In other words, you were called, under God, into a blessing—an unbelievable blessing! Did you deserve it? Did I deserve it? Not for a moment! Is it more than we can handle? Yes, it is! Every day, fresh evidences of his blessing upon our lives. So we are to take some of that blessing, as it were, and to use it to bless others. It is not enough. Things have never been dealt with simply by avoidance. Rather, we are to bring blessing to bear.

Let me finish with two illustrations. Let me take you, first of all, to a jail cell in Philippi. A jail cell in Philippi. Acts chapter 16—you’ll read it there. Two guys, Paul and Silas, had a bad day, big-time. They’re all beaten up, smashed up, bloodied, hauled in, chained up, stuck down—dungeon city. Okay? “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.” Okay, so we know that they’re not down there in the dungeons going, “If I get my hands on you, Mr. Jailer, you’re a dead man.” Why? Because that would be to contravene the Scriptures.

But they’re not lying there licking each other’s wounds either. What are they doing? Singing! Why would they sing? They are blessing the jail with their singing! And as they sing, people are going, “This is not what we expect! What is wrong with these weirdos?” And then the earthquake. And then the final scene with the jailer about to take his sword and stick it right through his middle. And Paul shouted, “Hey, hang on! Don’t do that. We’re all here.” And then the jailer going, “What do you mean you’re all here?” And then the jailer saying, “What must I do to be saved?”[24]

You see, if Paul and Silas had done what everybody else does in the jail and screamed murder, and maligned the system, and spat at the guards, and grumbled through the night, there would be no story of the conversion of the Philippian jailer. But they blessed instead of cursed.

Finally, Acts chapter 7. A cruel scene. A horrible scene. A lovely man getting a beating—not a physical beating but beaten with stones, hammering down on him cruel blows. And as the stones begin to ebb his life from him, Acts 7:60 tells us that he fell on his knees and he cried out—what? A word of curse? No, a word of blessing. This is what he cried out: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And “when he had said this, he [went off to] sleep.” He died. And look in your Bible and notice the very next four words. What are they? “And Saul was there”—Saul, who had seen so many people imprisoned and martyred. Saul, who had the potential of becoming one of the most hard-nosed, hard-bitten characters of his day, stands and waits for the screams from Stephen—says to the people, “I’m not going to throw stones, but you just put your clothes down here. I’ll take care of them. You just get yourself well oiled up, and let’s get rid of this character.” And as he stood and watched the final scene, he heard Steven pray a blessing upon him. And then you turn to Acts chapter [9], and the light shines, and Saul of Tarsus looks up into the heavens and says, “Who are you, Lord?”[25] Why? From a human perspective, because Stephen applied the instruction given to us by Peter here to bring blessing into another person’s life.

I hope that as you go to lunch, you might think about these things, you might talk with one another concerning them, and you might think of some illustrations of how you and I might live a blessing in the lives of those who are around us. For it’s one thing to manage to stop ourselves from responding and from retaliation; it is, in my experience, a quantum leap to seek to bring a blessing to bear on the life of someone who has maligned us, and accused us, and vilified us, and hated us. And yet, says Peter, these are the essentials of genuine Christian living. Who is sufficient for these things?[26] None, save by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s pray together.

As we end our morning and we ask God to write his Word in our hearts, I’m reminded of the little song that begins, “Is your life a channel of blessing? Is the love of God flowing through you?”[27] And then the refrain:

Make me a blessing, make me a blessing;
Out of my life may Jesus shine;
Make me a blessing, [dear] Savior, I pray;
Make me a blessing to someone today.[28]

May grace and mercy and peace from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bless our lives and enable us therewith to bless the lives of others. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

[1] Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17 (paraphrased).

[2] See Luke 22:32.

[3] Matthew 7:14 (KJV).

[4] Psalm 1:1–4 (paraphrased).

[5] Philippians 2:12–13 (paraphrased).

[6] See 1 Peter 1:2–3, 22–23; 2:9.

[7] See 2 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 2:2.

[8] Romans 12:4 (NIV 1984). Emphasis added.

[9] Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24 (NIV 1984).

[10] See 1 Corinthians 11:3; Colossians 1:18.

[11] Paul Williams, “An Old Fashioned Love Song” (1971).

[12] Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. Ray Palmer, “Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts!” (ca. 1160, 1858).

[13] See Galatians 6:2.

[14] See Walter Shapiro, “A Life in His Hands; Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer,” Time, May 28, 1990, https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,970187,00.html.

[15] See Romans 12:15.

[16] 1 Thessalonians 4:9 (paraphrased).

[17] Ephesians 4:32 (NIV 1984).

[18] See Luke 10:25–37.

[19] Luke 15:20 (paraphrased).

[20] Psalm 8:4 (KJV).

[21] Matthew 11:29 (paraphrased).

[22] Matthew 5:43–47 (NIV 1984).

[23] Matthew 5:48 (paraphrased).

[24] Acts 16:22–30 (paraphrased).

[25] Acts 9:5 (NIV 1984).

[26] See 2 Corinthians 2:16.

[27] Harper G. Smyth, “Make Me a Channel of Blessing” (1903).

[28] Ira Bishop Wilson, “Make Me a Blessing” (1909).