Overcome Evil with Good, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In today's message, titled Overcome Evil with Good, Rich will show how our acceptance into God's eternal community equips us to love and bless our earthly community. We can love because we have been fully loved, and that love allows us to build bridges into the lives of others. Our passage, 1 Peter 3, 8-13, reminds us to love regardless of how others treat us in return. Let's listen in. I'm going to quiz you on the first eight.

Or not. Today, we're going to look at chapter 3, verses 8-13. This characteristic is free people overcome evil with good. The ninth characteristic is people who are free. People who are free overcome evil with good. Now let's look at chapter 3, beginning at verse 8, the first word, finally. Now as a pastor and a student of Greek, I studied this word thoroughly to try to figure out what it means. It doesn't mean what you think it means.

Because he's only barely over halfway through the letter. What he's talking about in this particular paragraph, where he's talking about the characteristic of people who are free, the context he's been speaking of so far is that we are free through our submission. We're free through our submission in God's order in relationships. Civil relationships, vocational relationships, family relationships, we'll get to those later. And we've talked about that at the beginning of verse 3 as well.

Church relationships, we'll get to later. That is, he's talking about our freedom through submission. That's where he says finally, because he's been talking about all these other relationships you have. He says finally, all of you. He's talking about the beautiful community of the church, all of you. He's writing to believers. And as he's writing to believers, he says all of you as God's people, children of God, that is not a public statement. Peter is not saying all people are children of God. He is saying in a very, very specific way, all of you being people who are in Christ or part of the family of God.

That's what he's saying. All of you do what, verse 8, have unity of mind. All of you have unity of mind. So he's going to describe here a beautiful community, which is the church. And he's speaking of a mutual submission. He's been talking about our Christian submission to civil authorities. He's been talking about Christian submission to vocational authorities, family authority, the order of authority in the family.

We just talked about the last couple of weeks. And now he's saying all of you, and he's speaking of mutual submission. And he uses the words have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. John makes it clear that if you love God, you love his children. First John, chapter 5, verse 1, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

It's a beautiful verse. Whoever loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. That's the family of God.

That's family love. So he's going to describe here. Peter is going to describe the church as a beautiful community. Have unity of mind is the first thing he says, unity of mind.

There's two things that this is not. In today, a popular phrase, a popular notion, a popular pursuit today is find your own truth and live your own truth. If we do that, we're all wandering sheep.

Well guess what? It said we're all wandering sheep already. And so that's just affirming. Wandering sheep have unity of mind. But what he's not talking about is that he's calling us to group think, that we completely abandon rational thinking, that we abandon critical thought, that we abandon active listening. He's not asking us to do that when he's calling us for unity of mind.

What is he calling us to? To have unity of mind. Well, he's affirming that there is one Lord and one faith. One Lord and one faith. So in other words, he's saying unite yourselves around the one who is the point of our existence and the one who is the object of our worship.

Invite around it that's having a common center and a common anchor to our attitudes and our affections. And that is found in the objective truths of history and God's revelation. Listen, Christianity is anchored in history. When the apostles were evangelizing and establishing churches, what were they talking about?

History. Jesus Christ came to us. He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross in our place. He rose again. He ascended and he's coming again. That's not myth.

It's history. And so we unite around these objective truths. We don't look for truth in ourselves. We have something outside of ourselves that determines what is true. And Peter says unite around that. Together we look to God's self-disclosure to shape our attitudes and our affections. That's what unity of mind is. And when we do that, we will find that we have a common identity. We have a common mission and we have a common destiny because we're in Christ.

We're a family and it's a beautiful community that is describing here. The next few phrases are sympathy, brotherly love, and a tender heart in verse 8. Something we have to recognize and we remember the context in which Peter is writing this. Things were difficult for the church. That's why he wrote this letter. The Christians were struggling.

There were questions. Life was hard. And there's brokenness all around. And if we're honest, we have to admit that there is brokenness within. That being the case, it is clear and understood it is reality that we all suffer. We all struggle.

And that is why he says for all of us, we are to have sympathy, brotherly love, and a tender heart. We are all a work in progress. Do that right now. Go to your neighbor and say, you are a work in progress. It's true, isn't it?

It's true. You are a work in progress. Here's the work that's happening. The image of Christ, the more I walk with Christ, the image of Christ is replacing the broken control addict that has been redeemed. That's the work in progress.

No one has arrived, okay? And that's why we need sympathy, brotherly love, and a tender heart. Because we're all still recovering from the brokenness from which we've been redeemed. So we are to be compassionate and forbearing with each other. As Paul said, forgiving one another even as what? Christ has forgiven us.

If you ever have a question whether or not you should forgive someone, you look to the cross. It is a gracious, what he's calling for here is a gracious mutual investment. That's what makes a beautiful community. That's what the church is. We are a people, a family of sympathy, brotherly love, and a tender heart.

Why? Because we have unity of mind. We are centered and anchored in the same thing, and that is God's self-disclosure in Jesus Christ that shapes our attitudes and our affections.

And then he says in verse 8, he says, and a humble mind, a humble mind. Two reasons why he says that. Number one, you are not the point. I am not the point.

Say it with me. I am not the point. Listen, you are born with the opposite of that affirmation. You are born thinking that you are the greatest and most important reality. You are born with a problem of self-preeminence, and you don't belong on that throne. Christ does.

So that's why we must have a humble mind. First of all, you are not the point. Secondly, you have not arrived.

I already said that. You have not arrived. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m.