18 Securities Against a Hostile World (1 Peter 3:13–17)
Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. (3:13–17)
Today there is an escalating hostility toward biblical Christianity throughout Western culture. But the roots of that hostility are decades, even centuries, old. Francis Schaeffer provided the following analysis in the 1970s:
In ancient Israel, when the nation had turned from God and from his truth and commands as given in Scripture, the prophet Jeremiah cried out that there was death in the city. He was speaking not only of physical death in Jerusalem but also a wider death. Because Jewish society of that day had turned away from what God had given them in the Scripture, there was death in the polis, that is, death in the total culture and the total society.
In our era, sociologically, man destroyed the base which gave him the possibility of freedoms without chaos. Humanists have been determined to beat to death the knowledge of God and the knowledge that God has not been silent, but has spoken in the Bible and through Christ—and they have been determined to do this even though the death of values has come with the death of that knowledge.
We see two effects of our loss of meaning and values. The first is degeneracy. Think of New York City’s Times Square—Forty-second and Broadway. If one goes to what used to be the lovely Kalverstraat in Amsterdam, one finds that it, too, has become equally squalid! The same is true of lovely old streets in Copenhagen. Pompeii has returned! The marks of ancient Rome scar us: degeneracy, decadence, depravity, a love of violence for violence’s sake. The situation is plain. If we look, we see it. If we see it, we are concerned.
But we must notice that there is a second result of modern man’s loss of meaning and values which is more ominous, and which many people do not see. This second result is that the elite will exist. Society cannot stand chaos. Some group or some person will fill the vacuum. An elite will offer us arbitrary absolutes, and who will stand in its way? (How Should We then Live? [Westchester, Ill.: Crossway, 1976], 226–27; emphasis in the original)
Believers in Peter’s time lived in the Roman Empire Schaeffer referred to, facing all the same kind of degeneracy and depravity that assaults today’s church. But they faced more frequent and overt hostility and persecution than believers in today’s culture face. In some parts of the world, however, there is direct persecution of believers, and it is likely that in the coming years Christians everywhere will face increasing hostility, both from civil authorities and from unbelievers at the personal level. This passage speaks to all who would live godly lives in the midst of a hostile, ungodly culture. The apostle Peter gives five principles believers need to embrace to equip and defend themselves against the threats of an unbelieving, hostile world: a passion for goodness, a willingness to suffer—for wrong and for right, a devotion to Christ, a readiness to defend the faith, and a pure conscience.
A PASSION FOR GOODNESS
Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? (3:13)
Peter’s rhetorical question shows that it is unusual for most people, even those hostile to Christianity, to harm believers who prove zealous for what is good. On the other hand, the world has little hesitation attacking with great hostility those charlatans and frauds that enrich themselves at the expense of others. Good refers generally to a life characterized by generosity, unselfishness, kindness, and thoughtfulness toward others (cf. Pss. 37:3; 125:4; Prov. 3:27; 11:23; 2 Cor. 9:8; Gal. 6:9–10; Eph. 2:10; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 5:15; 1 Tim. 6:18; Titus 1:8; 2:7, 14; 3:14; Heb. 13:16; James 3:13, 17; 3 John 11). Such a lifestyle has a way of restraining the hand of even the most ardent foe of the gospel (cf. 2:12; Matt. 5:16; Rom. 12:20–21).
Prove (genēsthe) means “to become” and points to believers’ basic character quality, which should be good and above reproach (cf. Rom. 13:3; Phil. 2:14–16; 2 Tim. 2:20–22). Zealous (zēlōtēs) means “intensity” or “enthusiasm” and describes a person with great ardor for a specific cause. In New Testament times, there was a radical political party of Jewish patriots, called the Zealots (from zēlōtēs), which pledged to free the Jews from all foreign rule by whatever extreme measures (lying, stealing, assassination) were necessary, even if those efforts resulted in their own deaths. Peter was surely familiar with that group—Simon the Zealot, one of his fellow apostles, had likely been a member (Matt. 10:4; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13)—and he wanted his readers to be zealots for what was noble (cf. 1 Cor. 14:12; 2 Cor. 7:11; Titus 2:14; Rev. 3:19).
Of course, being zealous for what is good produces a godly life—the delight and goal of all believers—which leads to pure living and the loss of one’s appetite for the world’s ungodly attractions.
A WILLINGNESS TO SUFFER—FOR WRONG AND FOR RIGHT
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, … For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. (3:14, 17)
Having a passion for goodness is certainly not a gilt-edged guarantee against suffering; it may only make it more unlikely or less frequent. Jesus Christ “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38; cf. John 10:32), yet a hostile world eventually killed Him (Matt. 27:22–23; Luke 23:23–25; Acts 2:23; cf. Isa. 53:9). Jesus Himself made it clear that believers cannot presume to escape all suffering if their Lord did not (cf. Matt. 10:24–25; Luke 6:22; John 15:20; Acts 14:22; Phil. 1:29–30; 2 Tim. 3:12; Heb. 12:3–4).
But even if conveys the idea of “perchance” or “contrary to what is expected” and fits with the verb should suffer (paschoite), which in this Greek verb form (optative) expresses a fourth-class condition implying there is no certainty that suffering will happen, but it might.
Many Christians in the early church, including some of Peter’s readers (1:6–7; 2:20; 4:12–16), did suffer for the sake of righteousness (Acts 5:40–41; 7:57–60; 8:3–4; 12:1–4; 13:50; 16:20–24; 17:5–9; 26:9–11)—their upright, godly behavior. Likewise, faithful Christians today should not be surprised or afraid if such suffering comes, because that becomes a means by which they are blessed. In what ways does suffering for godliness bring blessing? Later in this letter Peter describes some of the ways: “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (5:10).
Peter is not the only New Testament writer who expressed the blessing in suffering. James did in his letter: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (1:2–4). The blessings of suffering did not escape Paul’s observation, either:
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16–18)
The apostle John was given a promise related to suffering in Revelation 2:10, “‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.’”
Blessed (makarioi) here does not emphasize the effect—happiness or joy—but the motive for such “privilege” or “honor.” Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist and a relative of Jesus’ mother, Mary, said of Mary, “Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:42). Mary’s heart would be pierced with many sorrows (2:35), so Elizabeth’s statement was not merely a reference to general happiness. She instead referred to Mary’s divinely-endowed favor and privilege of giving birth to Christ (1:26–35). All believers can have the same sense of privilege by sharing in His sufferings:
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt. 5:10–12; cf. Rev. 14:13)
Peter’s admonition for his readers to not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled is an allusion to Isaiah 8:12b–13, “And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread.” The historical setting of those verses is significant. With an impending invasion by Assyria, Ahaz king of Judah faced a crisis. The kings of Israel and Syria had sought to make an alliance with him against the Assyrian forces, but Ahaz had refused. Israel and Syria therefore threatened to invade Judah. Meanwhile Ahaz had allied Judah with Assyria, but the prophet Isaiah warned him against such an ungodly alliance and told him not to be afraid. Ahaz and the people of Judah were not to fear Assyria as Syria and Israel did, but rather they were to fear the Lord by trusting in Him.
Likewise, Peter wrote that Christians must not fear their intimidation, literally, that they should “not fear their fear, ” that is, be intimidated by unbelievers who would persecute them (cf. Ps. 118:6; Prov. 29:25; Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:4–5; Acts 4:23–30). Furthermore they must not be troubled, literally “not shaken or stirred up” (cf. 4:16, 19).
In their willingness to suffer, believers must face all circumstances with courage (cf. Josh, 1:7, 9; 10:25; 2 Sam. 10:12; 1 Chron. 28:10, 20; Ezra 10:4; Ps. 31:24; Mark 6:50; 1 Cor. 16:13). Suffering must be viewed as an opportunity to receive spiritual blessings, not as an excuse to compromise the faith before a hostile world. As the seventeenth-century English preacher and writer John Bunyan accepted imprisonment in the Bedford Jail for preaching without a license, and Reformer Martin Luther stood before his enemies and refused to recant his scriptural beliefs, so Christians today must stand firm in the face of suffering. Believers whose minds and affections are set on things above (Col. 3:2–3) will rejoice when they must undergo sufferings because they see through to the blessings to be gained.
Concerning suffering, there are two possibilities. First, believers may suffer for doing what is right, accepting that pain as part of God’s wise and sovereign plan for blessing their lives. Second, they may suffer for doing what is wrong, receiving the expected discipline of the Lord for their disobeying His Word (cf. 2:20; 4:15–19). God sometimes wills that believers suffer for righteousness so they might receive the blessings that come out of such suffering. It is also God’s will that believers endure His beneficial chastisement when they sin (Heb. 12:5–11). Of the two possibilities that may come, Peter recognizes that the first is unique because it comes only if God should will it so. That is a comforting promise. Paul certainly learned that lesson:
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:7–10)
Christians suffer for the sake of righteousness when God wants them to. He never wants us to sin, so that suffering, in one sense, is not what He wished for them though it has sometimes become His will for their righteousness (Heb. 12:11).
A DEVOTION TO CHRIST
but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, (3:15a)
Here the apostle again alludes to Isaiah 8:13, “Sanctify the Lord of hosts” (KJV). When believers sanctify Christ as Lord in their hearts, they affirm their submission to His control, instruction, and guidance. In so doing they also declare and submit to God’s sovereign majesty (cf. Deut. 4:35; 32:4; 1 Kings 8:27; Pss. 90:2; 92:15; 99:9; 145:3, 5; Isa. 43:10; Rom. 8:28; 11:33) and demonstrate that they fear only Him (Josh. 24:22–24; Pss. 22:23; 27:1; 34:9; 111:10; 119:46, 63; Prov. 14:26; Matt. 4:10).
Sanctify (hagiasate) means “to set apart, ” or “consecrate.” But in this context it also connotes giving the primary place of adoration, exaltation, and worship to Christ. Believers who sanctify Christ set Him apart from all others as the sole object of their love, reverence, loyalty, and obedience (cf. Rom. 13:14; Phil. 2:5–11; 3:14; Col. 3:4; 2 Peter 1:10–11). They recognize His perfection (Heb. 7:26–28), magnify His glory (Acts 7:55–56; cf. Rev. 1:12–18), extol His pre-eminence (Col. 1:18), and submit themselves to His will (Mark 3:35; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 6:6; Heb. 10:36; 1 John 2:17), with the understanding that sometimes that submission includes suffering.
This honoring of Christ as Lord is not external, but in the hearts of true worshipers—even when they must face unjust suffering. That submission to and trust in the perfect purposes of the sovereign Lord yields courage, boldness, and fortitude to triumph through the most adverse situations.
A READINESS TO DEFEND THE FAITH
always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; (3:15b)
It is not just endurance through the blessing of suffering that believers are to submit to; there is also the opportunity to defend the truth when they are being persecuted. Christians must be ready to make a defense of the faith. The Greek term for defense (apologia) is the word from which the English terms apology and apologetics derive. It often means a formal defense in a judicial courtroom (cf. Acts 25:16; 2 Tim. 4:16), but Paul also used the word informally to denote his ability to answer those who questioned him (Phil. 1:16). Always indicates believers’ need for constant preparedness and readiness to respond, whether in a formal courtroom or informally, to everyone who asks them to give an account for why they live and believe the way they do. Account is simply logos, “word, ” or “message, ” and it calls saints to be able at the time someone asks (present tense) to give the right words in response to questions about the gospel.
The gospel is identified as the hope that is in believers. Hope is synonymous with the Christian faith because the motive for believers’ embracing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is their anticipation of escaping hell and entering eternal glory (cf. Acts 26:6; Eph. 1:18; 4:4; Col. 1:23; Heb. 10:23). Thus hope becomes the focal point of any rational explanation believers should be able to provide regarding their salvation. (For further insights into the meaning of hope, see the discussion of 1:3 in chapter 2 of this volume.)
The believer’s defense of this hope before the unbeliever who asks must be firm and uncompromising, but at the same time conveyed with gentleness and reverence. Gentleness refers to meekness or humility, not in the sense of weakness but in the sense of not being dominant or overbearing (cf. Eph. 4:15, “speaking the truth in love”). The Lord Himself was characterized by this virtue, as was Paul: “Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1a).
Reverence expresses devotion to God, a deep regard for His truth, and even respect for the person listening (Col. 4:6; 2 Tim. 2:24–26).
Christians who cannot present a biblically clear explanation of their faith (cf. 1 Thess. 5:19–22; 1 John 2:14) will be insecure when strongly challenged by unbelievers (cf. Eph. 4:14–15). In some cases that insecurity can undermine their assurance of salvation. The world’s attacks can overwhelm those who have not “put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8; cf. Eph. 6:10–17).
A PURE CONSCIENCE
and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. (3:16)
The final thing that will allow believers to be secure in a hostile world is a pure conscience. The conscience is the divinely-placed internal mechanism that either accuses or excuses a person, acting as a means of conviction or affirmation. As I write elsewhere:
The conscience is the soul reflecting on itself; both the Greek word suneidēsis (conscience) and the English word “conscience” have the idea of knowing oneself. According to Roman 2:14, even those without God’s written law have an innate moral sense of right and wrong: “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves.” The conscience either affirms right behavior or condemns sinful behavior.
The conscience, however, is not infallible. It is neither the voice of God, nor His moral law, as Colin G. Kruse helpfully observes:
The conscience is not to be equated with the voice of God or even the moral law, rather it is a human faculty which adjudicates upon human action by the light of the highest standard a person perceives.
Seeing that all of human nature has been affected by sin, both a person’s perception of the standard of action required and the function of the conscience itself (as a constituent part of human nature) are also affected by sin. For this reason conscience can never be accorded the position of ultimate judge of one’s behavior. It is possible that the conscience may excuse one for that which God will not excuse, and conversely it is equally possible that conscience may condemn a person for that which God allows. The final judgment therefore belongs only to God (cf. 1 Cor. 4:2–5). Nevertheless, to reject the voice of conscience is to court spiritual disaster (cf. 1 Tim. 1:19). We cannot reject the voice of conscience with impunity, but we can modify the highest standard to which it relates by gaining for ourselves a greater understanding of the truth. (The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995], 70–71)
Since the conscience holds people to their highest perceived standard, believers need to set that standard to the highest level by submitting to all of God’s Word. As they continually fill their minds with the truths of Scripture, believers clarify God’s perfect law. Their consciences will then call them to live according to that law.
The conscience functions like a skylight, not like a lamp; it does not produce its own light, but merely lets moral light in. Because of that, the Bible teaches the importance of keeping a clear or good conscience. “The goal of our instruction, ” Paul wrote to Timothy, “is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). A few verses later Paul stressed the importance of “keeping faith and a good conscience, which, ” he warned, “some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith” (v. 19). A necessary qualification for deacons is that they hold “to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9). Peter commanded believers to “keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame” (1 Peter 3:16). Both Paul (Acts 23:1; 2 Tim. 1:3) and the writer of Hebrews (Heb. 13:18) testified that they had maintained good consciences.
At salvation, God cleanses the conscience from its lifelong accumulation of guilt, shame, and self-contempt. The writer of Hebrews wrote that “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, [will] cleanse [the] conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). As a result, believers have their “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience” (Heb. 10:22). The cleansed conscience no longer accuses because of past sins, which are pardoned (Pss. 32:5; 103:12; Prov. 28:13; Mic. 7:18–19; Col. 1:14; 2:13–14; 1 John 1:9) through the blood of Christ (Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5).
Believers’ must guard the purity of their cleansed consciences, winning the battle for holiness on the inside where conscience works. Paul gained victory at that point, so that he declared to the Sanhedrin, “I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day” (Acts 23:1), and to the Roman governor Felix, “I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men” (Acts 24:16). He wrote to Timothy, “I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience” (2 Tim. 1:3). He reminded his young protégé that “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5) and exhorted him to keep “a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith” (1 Tim. 1:19). As noted above, Paul instructed that deacons must hold “to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9). Christians must also be careful not to cause other believers to violate their consciences (1 Cor. 8:7–13; 10:24–29). (John MacArthur, 2 Corinthians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 2003], 30–32)
A good conscience is what every Christian must keep or, better, maintain.
A clear conscience allows believers to be free from any burden of guilt as they face hostility and criticism from the world (cf. Job 27:6; Rom. 14:22; 1 Tim. 3:9). An impure conscience, however, cannot be comfortable (cf. Gen. 42:21; 2 Sam. 24:10; Acts 2:37) and is unable to withstand the stress originating from difficult trials and persecutions. Regarding the thing in which they are slandered, believers ought to be able to agree with the apostle Paul, who declared, “I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men” (Acts 24:16; cf. 2 Cor. 1:12). (For a more in-depth discussion of the conscience, see John MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience [Dallas: Word, 1994], especially chaps. 2, 3, 10, and appendixes 2 and 3.)
Slandered believers who maintain good behavior in Christ will have their consciences at rest, untroubled by guilt, and their godly lives will prove any criticisms from unbelievers to be false. Slandered (katalaleisthe) is an onomatopoetic word (one whose pronunciation suggests its meaning) that describes “evil speaking” or “verbal abuse.” Revile means “to threaten, ” “to insult, ” or “to mistreat.” A pure conscience can withstand and deflect whatever abusive, insulting speech the world hurls at it (cf. 1 Cor. 4:12). Those who engage in such sinful mistreatment of obedient believers (Pss. 42:10; 74:10; Matt. 27:29, 31, 41, 44; Mark 15:32; Luke 23:36; Acts 2:13), with the aim of shaming and defeating them, will themselves be put to shame (cf. Gen. 42:8–21).
Adversity is a reality and suffering a spiritual privilege for believers. If they realize “that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28), they will be able to accept suffering as part of God’s plan for them and equip themselves with His securities against a hostile world. Puritan Thomas Watson wrote,
Afflictions work for good, as they make way for glory…. Not that they merit glory, but they prepare for it. As ploughing prepares the earth for a crop, so afflictions prepare and make us [ready] for glory. The painter lays his gold upon dark colours, so God first lays the dark colours of affliction, and then He lays the golden colour of glory. The vessel is first seasoned before wine is poured into it: the vessels of mercy are first seasoned with affliction, and then the wine of glory is poured in. Thus we see afflictions are not prejudicial, but beneficial, to the saints. (All Things for Good [reprint; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1986], 32)