THE SEVEN ESSENTIALS OF SUFFERING FOR JESUS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on January 16, 2019 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: January 16, 2019 from 1 Peter 3:13-16

Theme: This passage gives us seven essentials that must be in our lives if we would suffer for Jesus to His glory.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

It shouldn’t surprise us that genuine believers in Jesus suffer for being identified with Him.  The Lord Jesus Himself has told us, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). Suffering for His cause is not unusual. And neither is it purposeless. Our suffering for Jesus is something that the sovereign Lord uses to advance His testimony in this world—if we are careful to be what we ought to be in it!

The apostle Peter had written this letter to suffering Christians in order to teach them what they ought to be in it all. He had just written in his letter about how they should not respond to their suffering in the wrong way—that is, not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult. He told them that, instead, they were to bless those who mistreated them. And now, after telling them what not to do, Peter goes on to tell them what they were to do. In 1 Peter 3:13-16, he wrote;

And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed (1 Peter 3:13-16).

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In this passage, Peter gives us seven essentials of suffering for Jesus in a way that brings Him glory to Him and advances His cause. Notice first that we must have an attitude of …

1. CONFIDENCE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS (v. 13).

Peter asks, “And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?” We should be a people who earnestly desire that which is considered to be just and equitable and fair and honorable in the sight of all people. In fact—as it is put in the original language—we should be “zealots” for what is good; very passionate for it; very committed to seeking it; very sacrificial in our pursuit of it. One byproduct of such zeal is confidence.

One of the best things that we can do to protect ourselves from harm in an ungodly world is to make very sure we’re a people who are truly zealous for good works—and then, in that zeal, to be confident. “The wicked flee when no one pursues,” Proverbs 28:1 says; “But the righteous are bold as a lion.”

Now; if we zealously pursue what is good, then—generally speaking—few people would actually want to harm us. But in a fallen world, we know that we may still nevertheless suffer for doing good. And this leads to yet another essential in suffering for Jesus; and that is an attitude of …

2. HAPPINESS IN HOPE (v. 14a).

Peter says, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed.” In the original language, the word that Peter uses for “blessed” is the same word that is used in the section of our Lord’s Sermon on The Mount that we refer to as the Beatitudes. It’s a word that means “very happy”. Even if we do suffer at times for righteousness sake, Peter reminds us that we have cause to rejoice in great hope in that suffering. It may be that Peter’s use of this very word was meant to point us to our Lord’s words in the Beatitudes when He said;

“Blessed [how very happy] are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed [how very happy] are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

Why should we be happy when we suffer for Jesus’ sake? It’s because we have a great reward in heaven. This ‘happiness in hope’ is one of the essentials we must have in order to suffer for Jesus as we should—a glorious happiness in the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. Every act of hostility directed against us for righteousness’ sake—rightly endured with faith in Jesus—makes us richer in future heavenly glory. And when we sincerely show forth that hope, we thus testify to our Savior in this world.

A third essential is the attitude of …

3. FEARLESSNESS UNDER THREAT (v. 14b).

In verse 14, Peter goes on to say, “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” Peter is here quoting from Isaiah 8:12. It was a call to God’s people to have courage in Isaiah’s day; and Peter is exhorting his fellow believers to have that courage as well.

One of the most important elements in our faithful witness to Jesus Christ is the courage to testify to the validity of our faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. When we display the confidence that the Lord has His hand on us whenever we proclaim Him—and thus fearlessly proclaim Him in spite of threats of men against us—we bear a powerful witness of the truth of the gospel. Peter himself displayed this when, after the authorities told him to be silent about Jesus, He proclaimed, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The apostle Paul also made this point in his letter to the Philippians when he wrote;

Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me (Philippians 1:27-30).

Unbelieving people marveled at the apostles when they proclaimed Christ with bold confidence; realizing “that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Now; these first three things—’confidence in righteousness’, ‘happiness in hope’, fearlessness under threat’—are habits of ‘attitude’. But next, Peter wrote of what we might call habits of ‘action’. Once we are of the right mindset in a time of suffering, then there are certain essential things to ‘do’. The first essential action is that of …

4. SANCTIFICATION OF CHRIST (v. 15a).

In verse 15, Peter writes, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts …” To “sanctify” basically means ‘to set someone or something apart as sacred or holy’. And the most reliable texts of the original Greek have it that the focus is on Christ Himself. (This is represented in the New American Standard translation; “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts”.) We are to sanctify Christ Himself as Lord. But how do we do this? Isn’t He already set apart as holy?

While it’s true that He is already ‘set apart’ as Lord in actual fact; He may not yet be fully set apart as Lord ‘in our hearts’ as He should be. He may be ‘a part’ of our lives; but He may not yet be ‘set apart’ as the chief part. Jesus Himself once said something about why this is important. He told us;

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:34-38).

When Jesus is truly ‘set apart as Lord’ in our hearts, then we will faithfully go where He wants us to go—even into times of suffering; and say the things that He wants us to say in them. We will follow His commands and instructions in the midst of times of threat. We will also recognize Him to be Lord over the circumstances of our suffering. We will recognize that those circumstances will never exceed His sovereign control; and that they will never thwart His good plan for us. They instead serve the good plan that He has for us—and for those who hear us.

We absolutely cannot be what the Lord Jesus would want us to be in a time of suffering for His sake, unless He is truly set apart by us as Lord of our whole being!

When He is seated on the throne of our hearts as He should be, we should get ready. People will want to know what it is about us that is so different. Why do we have hope, even when we suffer for Jesus? Why do we rejoice and count ourselves blessed in it? This leads us to the next essential attitude …

5. READINESS OF TESTIMONY (v. 15b).

After urging that Christ be sanctified as Lord in our hearts, Peter then says, “… and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you …” We need to be ready to give a verbal, reasoned argument for the hope that is in us.

This doesn’t mean that we have to be experts in theology, or that we have to know how to answer every perplexing philosophic question that unbelieving people put forth to us. Rather, it just means that, when people see the evidence of the hope in us and ask about it, we’re always to be ready to tell them that it’s because of Jesus. We should make such a priority of this that we actually prepare for it in advance. We can do this by writing down the brief story of how we came to know Jesus Christ as our Savior, and by thinking it through so we can share it with someone clearly in just a few minutes. We can even practice telling it to another brother or sister; so they can help us to make it clearer.

Whenever you are genuinely prepared for a thing, you’re much more likely to do that thing when the opportunity comes. So; we should get into the habit of always being ready to give a defense to everyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is in us.

But we should be very careful. It’s not only essential that we have a readiness in our testimony, but also that we exhibit an attitude of …

6. GENTLENESS OF MANNER (v. 15c).

Peter says that we are to give the reason for our hope “with meekness and fear …” Meekness, of course, doesn’t mean ‘weakness’; and the ‘fear’ is not a matter of being afraid of the people to whom we speak. Rather, ‘meekness’ has to do with the intentional gentleness of our approach to people, and the thoughtful, courteous and respectful way we treat those who inquire into our faith. And ‘fear’ has to do with reverence toward God, and the respectful way we talk about the things of our Lord.

Nothing makes people interested in our Lord like the hope that they see us have in a time of suffering. And yet, few things turn them off faster than an insensitive and harsh and disrespectful response to their interest. The apostle Paul once wrote;

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

And along with that, Peter adds the essential of …

7. INNOCENCE OF CONDUCT (v. 16).

People don’t just pay attention to our words. They also pay close attention to our manner of life. And so, Peter adds, ” … having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.” This is very much like what is said in those two important verses we have often turned to in our study of this letter:

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Peter 2:11-12).

And note that this seventh essential brings us back full-circle to the first one. In order for someone to be unable to defame us because of our good conduct, there actually has to be ‘good conduct’—just as Peter said in verse 13; “And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?”

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So then; when God allows us to suffer harm because of our devotion to the Lord Jesus, let’s not look at it as an unusual thing. In fact, let’s learn to look at it as an opportunity from the sovereign God in which He is working through us to expand the kingdom of His Son.

By seeking the Lord’s help in building these seven essentials into our lives, we will become the kind of people He wants us to be in those times of suffering. Then, those times of suffering can be used by Him to advance His glory!

EA