1 Peter 3:13-17 | Who is There to Harm You?

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor 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, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

There’s a hymn with the words:

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;

I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;

I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame.

I’d rather be true to his Holy name.

We resonate with those words, don’t we? We long for faith that stands for Christ in a world that stands against him. But how do we get there? How does that boldness so capture our heart that it defines our life? That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Peter shows growth into Christlikeness includes an ability to suffer well, including suffering persecution. Jesus suffered, and servants are not above the master. If he suffered, we will suffer too.

Suffering well for Christ is courageous. Yet to many of us, it might seem impossible. When we are alone, and the questions come, and we start feeling the pressure—how do we stand for Jesus? What do we have in that moment that makes the difference? Peter shows us three truths to encourage us.

1.       Blessing from Christ never fades (vv. 13-14)

2.       Honoring Christ constantly prepares (v. 15)

3.       Living for Christ always shines (vv. 16-17)

Blessing from Christ Never Fades (vv. 13-14)

We live in a time and place where Christian persecution hasn’t yet been widespread. Peter’s audience was in a similar situation. The persecution that would come in the years ahead was still on the horizon, but Peter wanted them to be ready, to understand that even in the midst of persecution, blessing from Christ never fades. In fact, it’s the times of persecution that highlight the blessing the greatest. So in verses 13 and 14 he said, “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. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.”

Remember from last week’s sermon on verses 10-12. Peter quoted Psalm 34 which says God’s favor is on the righteous, but evildoers will be punished. David, the psalmist, was suffering. We don’t want to suffer. But we might. Who isn’t at least a little afraid of that? But fear of it cannot keep us from preparing for it.

So flowing from Psalm 34, Peter asks an important question in verse 13—he wants us to think through the implications. “Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?” Peter enters our thought process. No matter what we tell ourselves about suffering, our default is to connect a life of health and peace to God’s blessing and a life of suffering to his displeasure. But is that what the Bible says?

Peter presses us to think biblically and eternally. As we see persecution out ahead, what should we conclude about the blessing of God? If we look only to today, we might conclude it isn’t worth it. It’s far too painful. But if we’re looking to that great and final day when we stand before the Lord and enter his presence, no matter the living hell our persecutors put us through, what blessing from Christ can they take from us now as we enter heaven? In fact, all their efforts only made this day all the more wonderful as we enter the presence of the one who never stopped loving us, whose very sufferings became our peace, whose embrace is all our heart ever longed for, and who, in our sufferings, became to us our only hope. Rather than taking Jesus from us, our suffering for him showed us he was all we ever needed and all we ever really had. Peter says, “Even if you should suffer for righteousness’s sake, you will be blessed.”

This is how the Bible trains us. True blessing from Christ never fades, no matter what this world might do to us. This was the conclusion David came to in Psalm 34. David was among Israel’s great enemy, the Philistines, where he acted crazy in front of their king to avoid being harmed. Why was he there in the first place? Because Israel’s king, Saul, drove him out of Jerusalem. The king at home wanted him dead. The king of the Philistines did too. Who was there to harm him? It seemed everyone. Yet David said, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Rather than rejecting God, David leaned into him all the more. He found protection in God. He said, “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”

By faith, David saw beyond his current circumstances into the truth of God’s future for him. He saw “those who take refuge in the Lord are blessed. Those who fear him have no lack.” That doesn’t mean their life is easy, yet David ended the Psalm with, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous. but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” David was suffering for one reason and one reason only: he was God’s chosen king. He was suffering because God loved him. In this world, that’s the kind of crazy stuff that happens. People might hate us because God loves us. David was stripped of all he had—his house, his office, his family—but when everything was taken, he found himself richer in God than ever. In fact, throughout the Bible, it is the sufferings of saints that brings them closest to God.

David did not deny the reality of suffering for righteousness’ sake. He just looked deeper into it. By faith, he looked to what God has for his people in suffering, and what he found is what Peter urged us to dare to believe. In the Christian life, suffering and blessing are not on opposite ends of a spectrum. They move together. Blessing does not mean no suffering, and suffering does not mean no blessing. There is blessing in the suffering, and no matter how much suffering takes from us, blessing from Christ never fades. The more this world hurts us because of Christ, the more Christ comforts us by his Spirit.

So when Peter asks, “Who can harm you?” he’s getting to the very heart of our functional beliefs. We tend to think suffering is the removal of Christ’s blessing, but the Bible says it’s the opposite. Really, our persecutors might even be doing us a favor. As they hurl insults and our reputation takes a hit, we realize the smile of Christ was all we ever needed anyway. As they take our opportunities away, we realize our true work was to love the Lord anyway. As we lose power and control, we find comfort in God’s sovereignty and let go of the reins on our life. Without even realizing it, our persecutors push us deeper into God. He becomes our true reputation. He becomes our true wealth. He becomes our true power and comfort and security.

And we know this is true, not because we want it to be, but because Jesus showed us this truth. Was Jesus blessed? Yes, of course, he was. Did Jesus suffer? Yes, of course, he did. Jesus suffered yet was blessed. Jesus was blessed yet suffered. No one had more afflictions than him, but he was the Beloved Son in whom God was well pleased. If suffering was good enough for Jesus, is it not good enough for us?

Jesus told us what would happen when we suffer for his name. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” Jesus knew the world would be a scary place for his people. But he gave us something sure and steady to hold us in those stormy times. “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). No one can ultimately harm us. The worst they can do is kill us, and as Jesus said even they are not to be feared. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matt. 10:28). As Paul said in Romans 8:31, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

In Christ, even our times of suffering are made into times of blessing, and blessing from Christ never fades. There is no expiration date to fear. There is no harmful substance to ruin it. Put Christians in a raging fire and they’re refined like precious metal in God’s care. The pain of this world is only temporary. The blessing of God is eternal life in Christ. Your future in Christ is incredibly bright. So have no fear, nor be troubled. Christ is yours!

But still, the fire does burn. How can we stand when the heat is turned up. That’s our next point.

 

Honoring Christ Constantly Prepares (v. 15)

We can agree with what we just heard but still wonder how we will stand for Christ in the day of testing. So Peter addresses that next in verse 15. This is the key to the entire passage. “But in your hearts honor 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.”

Verse 14 ended with a command. “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.” And verse 15 opens with the alternative to fear, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.” The way out of fear is honoring Christ.

What does it mean to honor Christ? Think of the Lord’s prayer. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Hallow is the same word Peter uses for honor. To hallow Christ is to honor him. In biblical language, it means to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Everything else in the Christian life becomes possible when that becomes a reality. And that becomes a reality as we behold the glory of Jesus in the gospel, as we see the holy one step out of heaven and come down to earth to save his people.

Maybe we think of the gospel only as the doorway that gets us saved. But the gospel isn’t only the doorway; it’s the pathway. The further in we go, the bigger it gets. The call of Christ is to follow deeper and deeper down the gospel’s path. We need, as my friend Jared Wilson calls it, the “gospel deeps.” We need the deep, deep love of Christ to fill our deep, deep need.

We tend to flatten the gospel, making it one-dimensional. Jesus constantly expands it, creating a whole world in which we live and move and have our being. And in a passage like this, he’s asking us to walk way down the path to a place this world will never understand but one Christians throughout history know well. As we walk down the path of suffering for the gospel, we find the Suffering Servant ready to welcome us at the end, now fit for him in ways only suffering can provide.

How do we walk down that path? How do we honor Jesus as holy? It’s all about beholding. Have you ever noticed how often the Bible calls us to “Behold!”? Why does it do that? Because we’ll never see the depths of the gospel until we behold it, and we can’t behold it unless we are looking at it. As Ray Ortlund says, “Stare at the glory of God until you see it.” Beholding God’s glory in the gospel is the thing that changes everything.

But how do we do this? How do we behold Christ in the gospel? Maybe your view of it is smudged. It gets that way in this world of sin. But Jesus washes the feet of sinners, so he can clear your vision too. It starts with asking him to give us eyes to behold. And then we look at him. How? Well, the Bible is a great place to start. Find a verse of scripture that just blows you away with the glory of Jesus. Here’s one for me. Hebrews 1:3. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” I mean, wow! The Bible is filled with things like that. Behold!

One of the problems with us is that it’s easy to look at Jesus without seeing him. We do it all the time—at least I do. We read our Bible and can’t remember what we read. We come to church and can’t remember the sermon text an hour later. We’re seeing but not beholding. It’s like if I asked you what a quarter looks like. You’d say yes. But what’s written on it? You know what it looks like because you’ve seen it, and so you think you know what it is, but you haven’t beheld it, so you don’t really know it at all. We can be like that with Jesus. But we can’t move ahead properly without first beholding clearly.

There’s an example from the world of psychological science. “Researchers asked a group of college students to look up at either a tall building or a grove of eucalyptus trees for one minute. The students who studied the trees experienced more feelings of awe—a sense of wonder and of being in the presence of something larger than oneself. Afterwards, when one of the experimenters pretended to accidentally drop a bunch of pens, the students who had seen the trees and felt awe helped pick up more pens than those who had looked at the building.” (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_trees_can_make_you_happier)

Awe changes us. If staring at trees can make students more generous and helpful, what can staring at the glory of God do?

The glory of Christ is far more awe-inspiring than trees. Jesus died for us! Who else has done that? More than that, he rose for you, promising a renewed and restored world with him forever. As we walk down the gospel’s path, we behold Jesus in his glory, and we honor him as we praise his redemption by his blood, as we consider him as our greatest good, his salvation as our greatest need, his way as supreme. Then we are ready for what Peter commands next. “Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”

What is our hope? It’s Jesus himself. It’s his salvation of our souls. We aren’t hoping for an easy life but for a holy one. We’re aren’t hoping for happiness at all costs but for Jesus and his righteousness. We’ve felt the sorrow and the shame and the guilt of sin and looked to Jesus for rescue. And in mercy and grace, he took upon himself all our sins and bore the wrath of the Father on our behalf. He forgave us by his blood. No more sin. No more shame. No more guilt. We are free. Jesus is our hope—our only hope. So when persecution comes and we’re asked about the reason for our hope, it’s not the precise theological answers or seminary degree dissertation that we’re asked to give. It’s Jesus. We tell of what we’ve seen—the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died.

See from His head, His hands, His feet

Sorrow and love flow mingled down

Did ever such love and sorrow meet?

Or thorns compose, so rich a crown?

Suffering breaks us open, doesn’t it? What’s really inside comes gushing out. So as we honor Christ deep within as holy, when suffering comes and breaks our heart, what comes out but the Lord Jesus himself? When this world rejects you and beats you and cracks you open, because you have been honoring Christ the Lord as holy, as they attempt to break your spirit, they find His.

As you continue to look to Jesus, you are more prepared than you realize. And if you feel as if you aren’t because you haven’t ever really beheld him in his glory, you can start today. Just ask him to help. He will.

When we deeply accept the love of Jesus, not only does he prepare us to make a defense, but he also makes us shine as we live for him, which is our third point.

 

Living for Christ Always Shines (vv. 16-17)

Now, look at verses 16 and 17. “Having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”

After urging us to boldness for Christ, Peter doesn’t let us forget that it’s a humble boldness that Jesus calls us to. A life of humility compliments our bold stand.

President Woodrow Wilson once told of his experience at a barber shop that illustrates the power of humble boldness. Here’s what he remembered.

“While sitting in a chair…I became aware that a personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself and sat in the chair next to me. Every word he uttered…showed a personal and vital interest in the man who was serving him.”

Wilson went on to share more of that experience. He realized later the man sitting next to him was the great evangelist D.L. Moody. Moody was a holy man, one who lived for Christ, and spoke boldly for Christ. He was willing to be reviled without reviling in return. He was willing to be slandered without slandering in return. He was willing to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. And here, in Wilson’s words, was the effect of Moody’s life.

“I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. Moody was in the next chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he left and noted the singular effect his visit had upon the barbers in that shop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thought. And I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.”

 What can any enemy ultimately say about such a man? Living for Christ always shines. It did in the life of D.L. Moody, and it does in yours as you live for him. It starts way down deep inside us, in our hearts as we honor Christ the Lord as holy, and it expresses itself outward in our deeds and actions as we live our very normal life. D.L. Moody went to get a haircut and left an impression on a president. You have no idea what your little, faithful life with Jesus will do. You have no idea who you will impress.

So you might suffer. You might be slandered. You might be reviled. But it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. Have a good conscience. Live for Christ and let his light shine through you. Who can harm you then? Even if they kill you, your life in Christ will have an effect. Your hope will linger. It will stick in their shoe like a rock, pestering them and bothering them, unable to leave their mind. And who knows? Perhaps God will use you to bring another son or daughter into the kingdom. Who else but the Lord Jesus Christ can make times of persecution into opportunities to witness to his grace and mercy?

In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. Everything flows from that one important decision. If we will decide, moment by moment, to honor Christ deep in our hearts, he will never fail us.

As the hymn says,

     I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

     I'd rather be His than have riches untold;

     I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands.

     I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hands.

Let’s pray.