Word of Salvation – September 2026

Title: Living Like Jesus

Sermon by Jesse Gollan

Series: How to Survive in a Hostile World
Passage: 1 Peter 3:8-22

Introduction

So here’s our situation. Peter has explained our identity, and then explained how God wants different relationships to work:

• Our relationship with the government
• Our relationship with our bosses
• Our marriage relationships

And then we get to our passage, 1 Peter 3:8. This passage is one of the last ones where he specifically is outlining how different relationships should work. In the first half, from verse 8 to 12, he’s specifically talking about how relationships within a kingdom context should be.

He explains how God wants his people to treat each other. And then in the last verses, he gives us the “why and how” we can live such otherworldly lives.

Church Relationships

The principles will undoubtedly apply to relationships outside of the family of God, but specifically in these verses, Peter is talking about relationships within a church context. When I say “church context,” I don’t just mean that his instructions only apply on a Sunday morning. I mean relationships within the spiritual family of God.

Here’s what Peter says about how ALL Christian relationships should work:

• Family relationships
• Friendship relationships
• Acquaintance relationships

This is how relationships where both parties are Christians should work. Peter says in 1 Peter 3:8:

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”

It’s an attitude of love… overwhelming love, in other words. Oftentimes it’s easier to show love to people who we do not know very well, but treat those in our family the worst. That can be true both for within an earthly family and our spiritual family.

It is often a lot easier to love those outside our church than those inside our church. It’s easier to love your non-Christian friends and show them more sympathy, tenderness of heart, and brotherly love (and forgiveness) than you do your spiritual family.

And that should not be the case. This should not be the case.

However, those are the instructions. God, in particular, wants you to go out of your way to be loving to your co-adoptees into his family. But Peter realises that even if one party wishes to behave in such a way towards their Christian brothers and sisters, that is no guarantee that they will be treated the same way.

So he gives instructions, right? He says in 1 Peter 3:9:

“Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”

He recognises that people will do evil to each other. People will even revile each other in the church. (For anyone who isn’t sure about the word “revile,” the dictionary defines it as criticising in an abusive or insulting manner).

This should not be the case. He’s just outlined how Christian relationships should work. But he’s a realist, right? He’s not floating on clouds imagining this perfect world.

He knows that there will be people in church who wrong other people. Who sin against them. Maybe gossip about them, or treat them unkindly.

And he says… when you are treated unkindly by someone in your spiritual family—your eternal family, your most important family, the one that will last forever unlike your earthly family which will be superseded by your spiritual family in eternity—you must be the bigger person. You must not repay evil for evil, or reviling (or insulting criticism) for reviling.

But instead… to bless. Bless not just your friends or the people who are nice to you, but especially bless those who treat you wrongly.It’s not fair… but it’s also exactly what Jesus did for you. He died for you not because you were perfect, but because you were loved by God.

He also died for your fellow Christian… even though they aren’t perfect either. And just like he sacrificed for them, he wants you to sacrifice for them.

That’s totally against our sinful human natures. That’s not something that comes naturally to us. Our natural way of doing things is to strike back when someone says something bad about us, or does something unkind to us.

We’re sinful humans. Our sinful natures have been trained to stand up for ourselves whenever someone attacks us. You hit back with all you’ve got.

Or maybe instead of hitting back with all you’ve got, you decide, “Oh, okay, revenge is a dish best served cold. I’ll just slowly work to make their lives miserable and ruin their reputation.”

Peter says, “DO NONE OF THAT,” and that’s against our human nature. It is hard. No grudges. No simmering anger. No open anger. Love.

Motivation

So he gives reasons for why we should live this way.

Motivation.

Now it’s important to note that if God has put it in the Bible, we can trust that his way is the best way. If God gives us an instruction, then it is sin for us to do otherwise, and we should do whatever he has told us to do whether or not he gives us a reason. However, God, in his mercy, sometimes gives us reasons to help motivate us to do what he tells us to do.

So let’s read the reason together, starting at the end of 1 Peter 3:9-12. It says:

“Bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For: (or because)

Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
For 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 evil.”*

Reason 1: Blessing

Peter gives us the first reason why (if you are a Christian) you should bless those who treat you wrongly. God will bless you.

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,” he says, “and his ears are open to them.”

That’s the Almighty God whose ears are open to the prayers of the righteous, but it also says that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. If you habitually do evil to others, God will NOT bless you.

The mighty God will bless me if I am righteous—that’s the carrot. The stick is that if I do evil, I am revealing that the gospel has not penetrated my heart. I am revealing that I know facts about God, but do not have saving faith in Jesus, and will not receive the blessings of the living God.

God is forgiving, and always willing to welcome us back… just like the father of the prodigal son welcomed him back when he repented. But while we are living with our backs to him, his blessing will not be on us, even if we know facts about him.

Motivation. That’s mighty good motivation.

Reason 2: Lack of Enemies

So then Peter continues in 1 Peter 3:13 and gives us the second reason, and he’s now broadening the scope to include people outside the church. He says:

“Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?”

He points out that if you are doing good to people, who is really going to want to pick a fight with you? He points out that if you are doing good to everyone around you, even if they have wronged you, you are just not going to have that many enemies.

It’s just a fact of life. That’s a second good reason to obey God. (And again… we DON’T NEED reasons in order to obey God… him saying something is reason enough… but reasons sometimes help us with motivation, which is why Peter is including them).

He keeps going in 1 Peter 3:14-17:

“But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;

yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behaviour 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.”

Reason 3: Makes God Look Good

Peter points out a third reason why we should do this

• It fulfills our ultimate purpose.

As Christians have recognised for hundreds of years, our chief purpose for which we exist is to glorify God, and Peter points out that doing good to our enemies reflects wonderfully on our Creator.”

That’s what we have been created to do. Peter points out that if we live this way, it will reflect well on our Creator, who is also our Saviour, who is also our Lord.

If we love our enemies, we do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, slander for slander, stealing for stealing, but instead we bless people. Especially our enemies, both within the church and without.

What Peter is saying here applies to everyone. Then people will ask, they will ask us—I’m reading from 1 Peter 3:15here—“For the reason for the hope that is in us.”

We are not acting as if our eyes are fixed on earthly things; instead, obviously, we are seeing a different picture than they are seeing. A bigger picture, a more full picture, a picture with hope in it.

And when they see us act differently, some people will ask us for the reason for the hope that is in US. I was in a Bible study years ago, and a friend named James shared about this concept called lifestyle evangelism.

And the idea is that your life is lived in a way that is so incongruent, it is so different from that of the world. Your motivations are just so completely different from theirs that they wonder what is up with you and ask you, “What is going on!?”

You should be a walking advertisement for Jesus. People who spend time with you should be able to tell that you are a Christian without you ever needing to say a word… because your actions and your thoughts are so obviously different.

Evangelism

And then he gives us some actually really useful advice for when we are involved in an evangelism conversation. When we are sharing the gospel (the good news about Jesus) with someone, whether that is a family member, or a friend, or someone we’ve just met on the train, Peter says midway through 1 Peter 3:15 that we should:

“…do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience.”

(It’s worth noting… just before we go on, that Peter is expecting us to be involved in conversations about Jesus with non-Christian people). Anyway… the way that some Christians go about sharing the gospel is not with gentleness and respect, but is instead really quite harsh.

Today there are Christians who, when they talk about Jesus with unbelievers, it is almost like they hate them. They don’t do it with gentleness and respect, but with hatred in their eyes and their voices.

Rather than actually trying to win their hearts and minds for Christ… they just want to have a fight, and prove that their worldview and their religion is better. Motivated by selfishness instead of love.

Peter says, “That is not how you share the gospel!” You do it with gentleness and respect, with love. That’s your motivation when you are sharing the gospel: Love.

Also, we see in 1 Peter 3:15 that he says to, “always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” He says, “Think about it ahead of time!”

Think about what you would say in a gospel situation, an evangelism situation. Make a plan.

Listen to a podcast, read a book. Figure out what you are going to say when God puts you in a situation where you are able to tell someone about the hope that is in you.

Listen to a podcast, or watch a YouTube video. We live in the information age; there is no excuse.

Peter says, “be prepared,” so we need to be prepared. We don’t just need to live lives that are advertisements for Jesus… walking advertisements; we need to be prepared not just for lifestyle evangelism, but for verbal evangelism.

Each of us, whether you are 11 years old in school, or you are 80 years old in a retirement community. I can help you with resources if you talk to me after the service.

And then in 1 Peter 3:17, the last verse that we will look at in detail today because we are running out of time… Peter says:

“For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”

There is SO much richness in this verse that we just don’t have the time to unpack this morning, but we do have time to get at the core of that verse. Peter says that if you are behaving honourably towards everyone, loving both your friends and your enemies, and sharing the gospel (the good news about Jesus) in a respectful and gentle manner… if you are doing all of this, and yet you still suffer, that’s okay.

Don’t worry about it, because you are doing right, and God will bless you in the long run. You have a pure heart, and you can be relaxed.

When I have done wrong, and I’m punished for it, then I suffer internally from it. It is a painful suffering in my conscience.

Particularly for us as Christians when we do wrong, because we are representing our Lord and master and saviour poorly. And that should be the opposite of what we want.

But if God wants us to suffer for doing good, so be it. That’s okay; it really is, and God is allowed to do that.

(1 Corinthians 9:24) We trust him. We know that in the long run we will receive a blessing, we will “win the prize,” so it doesn’t really matter.

(Matthew 5:39) Jesus suffered for doing good, despite the fact that he turned the cheek, right? Despite the fact that he did NOT repay evil for evil, reviling for reviling, cruelty for cruelty, slander for slander.

He did none of that, yet he suffered, AND God blessed him. God raised him to life… placed him at his right hand, and restored Jesus to honour.

That’s what the last 5 verses of our passage are about. Jesus died… but was not defeated.

Rather… even in the time before he was physically resurrected… he was busy and victorious. He was victorious then, and is victorious and powerful and honoured now.

That’s why Peter brings up Jesus. Then he brings up baptism, and says that because of our baptism, we are also saved… and will be honoured and restored and have everything good.

He wants us to know though… lest anyone think that baptism has any power in itself, that it isn’t baptism that saves us. It is the inner spiritual reality that baptism represents.

Baptism represents an appeal to God for a clean conscience through the death of Jesus. It represents an underlying spiritual reality.

We are dirty, but we are hoping and trusting in the blood of Jesus to wash us of our sins. He points out that everyone apart from Noah and his family died in the judgment of God… everyone who wasn’t on the ark… and his point is that there is another judgment coming.

Everyone will be judged. But just like there was an ark for Noah and his family… there is a way to get through the second judgment for us… and it is only through belonging to Jesus, which our baptism represents.

That’s the whole point of the last line of our passage.
Verse 22 says

[Jesus] has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

In other words… if we are united with Christ… if we are on his team, then even though we have fallen short… even though we are sinful sinners… his power and his victory and his love… the love of the everlasting God… will ensure that we aren’t on the losing side of eternity.

That’s the core promise and motivation of this passage. Jesus has won. Stick with him… even when it costs you… and he will share his victory with you.

Let’s pray.