Seeds for 05/14/2024 - 1 Peter 3:8-9
Scripture:
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
Observation:
Peter has covered the household codes in which he addresses each persons’ specific roles. Now, he seems to be widening his lens back out to address them as members of the church in their relationships with one another and together toward the pagan world.
He aims this exhortation at “all of you,” seeming to mean, “all of the people I’ve just been speaking too—slaves, wives, husbands.”
A negative perspective might criticize Peter for putting everyone on a level plane in the church community (in these verses) while keeping them stratefied in the household codes (the previous verses).
I can’t help but come at it from a positive angle. Peter seems to be working within their stratefied reality on the ground at present, injecting the particulars of their current situation with ways to understand and approach their roles with Christian perspective.
The text for today emphasizes such a common ground for members of the Christian community, the church, that it cannot help but subvert any injustices of the pagan world over time. Everyone from male head of household (the pagan paterfamilias) to wife to slave are regarded as together responsible to offer and possessing the dignity to receive sympathy, love, and compassion. They are equally capable of being like-minded—sharing common moral perspective and imitating the character of Christ. They are all expected to practice humility in order to value others and their contributions appropriately.
This all culminates in his command to refrain from responding to insults and curses in like manner, but to return blessings for evil. We can practically hear Jesus speaking from the Sermon on the Mount, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
Application:
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, help me to honor and dignify all in the fellowship of your Church as I practice sympathy, love, compassion, and humility, and receive the same from others. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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