Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 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. (1 Peter 3:8, 9 ESV)
So at risk of getting repetitive, verses 8 and 9 stuck out to me as well, but for specific reasons. Verse 8 I think really focuses on this call to love and have compassion on others rather than condemn. We are not the one judge but rather an instrument that God can use to show his love to other sinners that can potentially bring them back to him. He has the power to change lives completely, and I pray that he can use us to do that. I think this is especially important because people who don't know God may only see rules to follow and know that they don't meet those and think it's not for them. I've had people say to me before that religion isn't for them just because they realize that they are sinful and think that they aren't good enough. But that thinking just just makes me think of 2 Corithians 5:17 and Galatians 2:20. And in order to do that instrument of God's to other people, sympathy and a tender heart are necessary so that we don't just ignore or condemn (both verbally and mentally) the people in our lives already and others who are deep in sin.
At the same time, I often struggle with how best to integrate love while still convicting others and not coming off as indifferent to sin. Because it's quite safe to say that Jesus often called those out on their sin when they were wrong and directed many parables at the Pharisees and others, but he also died for us even though we are sinners and died to make us right with God even though we often turn from him in sin.
The last thing that this made me think of is the call to love our enemies. Not just loving those who are easy to love and are nice to us, but also loving your enemy and praying and even blessing those who persecute you. Those are incredible heavy commands to ask God to bless someone who is opposing you for you faith, but they are the ones who truly need God's power to work in their lives if they are that opposed to him.
Anyways, these were some of the convictions that came to me reading this. The Bible is such a good resource for just that teaching and reminding us of the power and mercy of God but still convicting and correcting us to a closer talk with him.
The first half is a great example of what a Godly woman should be like, and is something we should always be mindful of when thinking about our relationships with women. However, the second half stuck out to me more as a general reminder of the golden rule.
ReplyDelete"Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 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." 1 Peter 3:8-9
We are called to be greater than the world. Though the ways of the world may seem logical and fair, they are not the ways of God. Our calling is higher. We should always be the ones who want to go the extra mile and do what it takes to make a difference. This convicted me, because it is something I do not keep in mind, or live out nearly as often as I should. We should be living out Christ's example and operating on a different mentality than the rest of the world.
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 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.
ReplyDelete- 1 Peter 3:8-9 -
This chapter is convicting because I feel like I have failed to follow all these things God has called us to do. Like Alex said, we are living in this world but we should not be the same. We should be different because of our faith and the Holy Spirit that God has given us. It might get difficult to be different and hold our faith but we need to persevere and follow God's will as Jesus Christ did to take away our sin. In John 18, Jesus steps forward and proclaims that He is Jesus when the Roman soldiers come to take him away. He knows what is going to happen but follows the soldiers because that is what God has called Him to do. I pray that we would have the same kind of confidence and belief when we face tough decisions in our lives. I pray that we would be the embodiment of Christ's sympathy, brotherly love, tender heart, and humble mind.
"Now this looks like a job for me
ReplyDeleteso everybody just follow me
cuz we need a little controversy,
cuz it feels so empty without me"
Not exactly the quote you were expecting, but I thought it was appropriate for what I'm about to say. So I read the first two verses of the chapter and even though its come up before in other chapters I never said anything about it. Here's what I think. I don't like it. I've heard all about how men are supposed to lay down their lives for their wives and in return wives should be submissive to their husbands, seems like an OK trade, but I still don't like it. In my view, women that will simply "accept the authority of their husbands" or that are submissive and obey everything their husband says are not really attractive. I find them quite boring, actually. To me, the idea of a fun marriage is a power struggle. Where there is a give and take. You can't have everything your way but they can't either. Now, I'm aware that love and affection can be shown in many different ways and its different for everyone, but still, the ideas presented by the bible in this respect just don't seem appealing to me. Does it mean that women who don't follow the pattern laid in the bible are bad? I don't think so. Is this what you should look for in a wife? I hope not. Everyone has wildly different opinions on this topic as well and in my experience no one seems to challenge it that much. Most guys seem to like it and are content with what it says.
Interestingly enough, this is the second time I find my ideas on some things to be opposite of what the bible says. The other instance is exemplified in a previous post about how I find always doing the right thing to be boring (Just to clarify, its not doing the right thing thats boring, its always doing the right thing). While this one is much easier to see what's wrong with my view, both seem to include the word boring. So that's something for me to think about. Peace.
Omar,
DeleteI agree that a woman who submits for everything is a little boring. I also don't think that the Bible tells women to do that. Looking at Adam and Eve, God created Eve for Adam to be his partner. The original Greek word for this is "ezer" or "ezer kenegdo." "Ezer kenegdo" literally means "the help that opposes." This word implies that the woman is an equal power to her husband. She is there to be his strength when he needs it. The opposes part does not necessarily mean a struggle but more implies that her strength is complementary to his. Its sort of like Yin and Yang.
The submissive part does not mean that a wife has no personality. It does not mean that she does not express her opinion. It means that ultimately she recognizes that her husband is the head of the household and agrees to follow his decisions in the end even if she disagrees.
Ultimately Omar, I think that the Bible's picture of a wife is very different from a slave waiting on her husband hand and foot. God planned for a wife to complement her husband, to provide balance to his views by expressing different opinions, and to provide strength for the husband to lean on. For this Proverbs says that "He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD." (Proverbs 18:22 ESV)
Well, more than a little, I find it really boring and obnoxious- to the point where I wouldn't marry that person. And if indeed they are meant to be equal in power then why does the husband become the authority? If she can express her opinion, but its only secondary to his, and she has to go with it even if she disagrees, then its not really an equal sharing of power. And I don't think they're supposed to be akin to slaves, but as i understand it, the bible says they're supposed to be subordinates or more of supporting characters. I think its inefficient.
DeleteI'm a little late to this discussion, but I would encourage both of you to look into Theology of the Body. It is a set of 129 lectures given by Pope John Paul II and they cover a range of materials mostly focused around the differences between man and female, marriage, sex, and the good news about all of those things. The lectures are pretty academic in nature, but there are several books that summarize the ideas very well.
DeleteThe fact is that marriage is modeled off of God's relationship with the Church. Husbands are called to sacrificially love their wives like Jesus did the Church and wives are called to be submissive to their Husbands like the Church is submissive to Christ. Why does it seem unjust for women to be submissive toward husbands who have the best interest of their wives at heart, who are willing to die for their wives? To me, that sounds beautiful. I know that as a Church of believers, we are called to love Christ and be submissive to the will of God because we want to be with God. We want to be loved and protected and cherished by God. Likewise, wives should be loved, protected and cherished by their Husbands.
I feel like the way that you two have talked about marriage, you are imagining a man doing whatever he pleases and that the bible says that no matter what he does, his wife has to oblige. Instead, I challenge you to look at the marriage as an exchange of sacrificial love. The man loves his wife and is willing to lay down his life for his wife. Likewise, the women sets an example for the man; an example of how to be reverent and chaste and freely loving of her husband. We, both man and woman, are joint heirs of the gift of life.
If biblical marriage seems boring, you may want to take a deeper look and see the true joy and happiness that comes from being able to love and be loved as well as becoming one with each other and with God. Two individuals, made one, serving God and building each other up to be the most perfect versions of themselves so that each, as a child of God, can enter into heaven for eternity.