Do you know anyone who just loves life? You know the kind of person I’m talking about, who just has this zest for life? Those are the kind of people you want to be around. It’s contagious.

Orchard, Doug Pettit, bass player, 6’2”, 450-500 lbs, happy guy.”Morning, Doug, how you doing?” “Just living large!”

I want to have that kind of attitude.

Everyone wants to be happy. If you dig deeply enough into our motives for whatever we do, you will inevitably find some impulse reaching for happiness, for joy. It’s uncontrollable and inevitable.

That is the way God designed us, because we were to designed to find our satisfaction and deepest joy in our relationship with him, with his loving, Fatherly, Creator love for us and our worshipful, reverent, adoring love for Him.

You realize God designed humans to flourish, right? Adam and Eve in the Garden, they’re whole job was to populate the earth with more image-bearers of God, and to tame the earth, subdue it, bring the glory of the Garden to bear on the rest of the world.

That’s a pretty good gig, don’t you think? Up until the Fall, they were immensely, perfectly joyful. They were happy. They were loving life and seeing good days.

But then… then the Fall. They stopped believing that God was enough to satisfy their deepest longings, that he was the singular place of ultimate joy and rest in the universe.

And ever since then, their children have been trying to get back to that place, trying to find that joy and satisfaction in a million other places.

And life has been hard ever since then. Making a living is hard work. Having children in hard work. Raising a family is hard work. Marriage is hard work.

As we get bogged down with life in a fallen world, maybe especially in these days that can seem especially bleak, I think there can be a tendency to see life as nothing but drudgery and hard days. Do you get that?

In the middle of this book written to suffering Christians, there’s a reminder that just because we’re called to suffer, doesn’t mean that we’re called to a life of misery and drudgery.

Even if that’s true externally, it’s should not be true of believers internally. Sure, Peter may have started this book calling us exiles, but we’re elect exiles.

Sure, we may be strangers, pilgrims, aliens, sojourners in a strange land, but that’s only because chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy ethnicity all our own, a people for his own possession, no longer in the Kingdom of darkness but in light.

It’s not true internally, it’s not true eternally. There’s an inheritance kept for us. We have a living hope.

You reveal the path of life to me;
in your presence is abundant joy;
at your right hand are eternal pleasures.

Psalms 16:11

He’s going to make a little more known about that to us today.

Do you want to love life and have good days? Yes, even in these days?

Then even if outside is pain, suffering, exile, we should see peace and joy internally, for sure we’ll see it eternally, and we should pursue it relationally, in the people of God. That’s what we’re going to look at today.

Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, 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 may inherit a blessing.

For the one who wants to love life
and to see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit,
and let him turn away from evil
and do what is good.
Let him seek peace and pursue it,
because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against
those who do what is evil.

1 Peter 3:8–12

So, for 6 weeks now we’ve been in this little series within a series on submission. It starts back in chapter 2 with these words…

Submit to every human authority because of the Lord

1 Peter 2:13

And he took that general statement of submission and applied it specifically to different situations we find ourselves in.

Living as the distinct people of God who are here to declare the glory of God, we’ve talked about how that looks in all these other situations, but what does it look like among us?

When the Gospel changes a community of people, what does it look like? Rapid fire, let’s look at it.

Like-minded

What it doesn’t mean: we all think the same thing. That’s not only unrealistic, it’s actually antithetical to the gospel message. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and it’s so overarching and reshapes our identity so much that…

There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28

Did the Jews cease being Jews? Greeks? Slaves? Male/female?

There is now a greater identity that trumps those things that divide us.

We’re talking about unity, not uniformity. A place where everyone thinks alike on every issue is called a “cult.” A CHURCH is a group of diverse who find a unity in Christ that outweighs their differences. They discover a message that unites them that goes far beyond any secondary agenda that divides them.

Let’s point out the obvious: the fact that Peter commands this of us means it doesn’t always come naturally! It’s going to create tension.

Sympathetic

Sympathy means feeling something alongside someone else. Trying to enter in with them into their pain.

During a time of conflict, if you are sympathetic with your brothers and sisters, you will ask,

I’m not saying you have to agree with them, but sympathy means you at least try to see things through their eyes.

Here’s a question I heard a pastor ask this week describing sympathy and I thought it was so helpful:

If you are on the opposite side of some other believer with some issue, can you state their opinion in a way they would say fairly represents their view?

Again, seeking to understand them doesn’t mean you concede they’re right about everything, but it does mean you try to understand them because they’re your brother/sister, and Jesus died for them too, not just you.

Love one another

Love means you care deeply about someone, even more than you do having your own opinion affirmed back to you.

Living as the people of God, an outpost of His Kingdom in Franklin County, means caring more about each other and our unity in Christ than we do uniformity in opinion on a matter.

Paul exemplified in Romans 14. There were issues in the church that were deeply divisive between Jews and Gentiles. They were emotional issues. On some level, political issues.

Paul had his opinion about who was right, BTW, and he backed up his perspective with Scripture. He even called those who didn’t see it his way “weak” in their understanding of the gospel.

But Paul said he would rather downplay his convictions on these issues in the church than see disagreement on them destroy the unity of the body.

This is love! You care more about your brothers and sisters and unity in Christ than you do having everyone around echo your perspective back to you.

Listen, I know this is easy to say and hard to live out, and for every finger I point out here today, there are three pointed back at me.

It’s hard when you are deeply passionate and deeply convinced about something to be around people who think differently. But is the body of Christ and the message of the gospel worth that?

Be Compassionate

I listened to the current president of the SBC, JD Greear, explain this this week. The root word for “compassionate” in Greek is “splagma”, it’s a great word.

You remember what an “onomatopoeia” is? Sounds like the word. Like “splash!”

The word ‘splagma’ means a deep feeling of pity that works up from within. It was supposed to mimic a guttural sound. SPLAGMA. Come on, try it, say it with me… SPLAGMA

It means you don’t just fake nicety, like we tend to do. “Oh, bless his heart… he’s such a moron.”

Let your love for others be more than just surface level platitudes. Really invest yourself emotionally in the pain of your brothers and sisters.

That’s submission on a heart level, isn’t it? I’m submitting to you not even on a preference level, but I’m submitting my feeling to what you’re feeling. Bearing one another’s burdens.

And Humble

I always think I’m right about whatever I am thinking. So do you.

But when you look back on how you thought about things, let’s say 15 years ago, has your perspective changed at all? I look back and shake my head. What a tool.

Maybe that should evoke some humility that I’m not right about every perspective I have now.

Counselors talk about active listening. Back to before, when you’re in the midst of a disagreement, before you offer your opinion, make sure you can repeat back the point the other person is making in a way where they say, “That’s right. That’s how I feel.” Don’t just listen so you can refute their arguments. Listen so you can understand them.

Not paying back insult for insult but, on the contrary, give a blessing

Peter keeps coming back to this, doesn’t he? It’s almost like he really expected that followers of Jesus would be like Jesus.

Be like Christ, who never returned evil for evil. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he was cursed, he blessed. When someone says something hurtful, harsh or condescending, don’t return in kind.

Our immediate reaction is to hit back, isn’t it? Otherwise, how will they learn?

Uh, the Holy Spirit, the same one who is teaching you, sanctifying you. And he’ll teach them more with your godly reaction that you ever could with your witty comebacks. One will do damage, the other will bring healing.

Promise: Good Days.

Peter quotes from Psalm 34:12-16. When Peter wrote this, Psalm 34 was already a thousand years old. He wants us to know that what he is saying is ancient wisdom that has been tested again and again and has been proven true.

For the one who wants to love life and to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit, and let him turn away from evil and do what is good.

1 Peter 3:10–11

How simple/modest it is. We don’t have to be geniuses to follow Christ.

There is a connection between living at peace with those around you, in community, known and loved, and good days. Think back in your life, you know it to be true.

Keep your mouth shut… when you should.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:21

Turning away from evil includes the evil in your mouth. “Out of the heart the mouth speaks…”

Pursue Peace

Let him seek peace and pursue it
because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against
those who do what is evil.

1 Peter 3:12

Same word as “persecute” elsewhere. Going after it with a passion.

Why? Because I want his eyes on me, not his face against me!

Whole section reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus taught us “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

Often the opposite is true in churches.I heard about a man who invited a friend to church. He said, “Won’t you come to church with me?” But his friend said, “No thanks. I’ve got enough problems of my own!”

Life in the body of Christ should be the solution to a lot of our problems, not the addition of more.

Conclusion

Remember the overarching theme… “as to the Lord”.

We are the distinct people of God, here to declare the glory of God.

We’re to interact with each other as family, servants, missionaries to a lost world.