Feeding the Sheep - Blessed Life
Suffering for Doing Good
"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."
1 Peter 3:8-9
[This is the 31st message of this series]
This lesson is intended for mature believers (or adulting believers). For a more orderly study, please go through all the previous messages first, if you haven't yet.
The Apostle Peter gave a rundown on how to live a blessed life. All of us wants a life of blessing. And preachers have often equated God's blessing with wealth and health. It does, but that is not the essence of it and it involves much more than that. It involves things that aren't about earthly riches, possessions, fleeting happiness, earthly fame, influence or power.
Blessing
God's blessing is more about the things that are unseen and things eternal, like God's favor, real peace, real joy, hope and a future.
In Acts 3, Peter stopped to tell a lame beggar who was asking him for some change these words:
“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
The beggar (who was up to that point couldn't walk) didn't seem to know what he really needed. Sure he needed money to feed himself, buy clothes to wear and find a place to stay and other basic necessities. But that is not really his most pressing need.
Essentially God working through Peter gave this beggar a future. Now he has the ability to do something else other than just surviving or making it through another day by asking people for spare change. That is not a blessed life.
Life of Blessing
Peter wrote that as believers we are called to a blessed life and he wrote about it in his letter to the first church in the 1st century.
God's blessing is not all about eating and drinking, and not about the luxuries of life. It actually involves, believe it or not, suffering. Suffering not because of mistakes we have made, but rather suffering for doing good.
In Acts 3, Peter stopped to tell a lame beggar who was asking him for some change these words:
“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
The beggar (who was up to that point couldn't walk) didn't seem to know what he really needed. Sure he needed money to feed himself, buy clothes to wear and find a place to stay and other basic necessities. But that is not really his most pressing need.
Essentially God working through Peter gave this beggar a future. Now he has the ability to do something else other than just surviving or making it through another day by asking people for spare change. That is not a blessed life.
Life of Blessing
Peter wrote that as believers we are called to a blessed life and he wrote about it in his letter to the first church in the 1st century.
God's blessing is not all about eating and drinking, and not about the luxuries of life. It actually involves, believe it or not, suffering. Suffering not because of mistakes we have made, but rather suffering for doing good.
The world we live in is not about doing what is good. It is mostly about doing good only for our own sake, and most times at the expense and detriment of all others. There are very few people who would do good for humanity without anything that will benefit themselves back.
With God's economy, He already gave us the benefit beforehand. We are merely paying it forward. And in so doing, the world will make us suffer for doing this good deed. Such is how the world works. We are no longer a part of this corrupted world order. We are citizens of heaven, but because we are still here on earth (a fallen world), our work is to bless others with the blessing God gave us -- Jesus of Nazareth.
1 Peter
To summarize, Peter told the first Christians that they ought to:
1. Be Like minded
2. Be Sympathetic, Love one another and Be Compassionate
3. Be Humble
4. Do Not Repay Evil with Evil, and
5. Repay Insult with Blessing
Precisely because that is what God has blessed us with, He did all of these for us. And He willingly and lovingly repaid our insults towards Him with blessing us (repaying evil with good).
Christ died for us and gave us eternal life, a life we do not deserve. We have been given a blessing. And we are to bless even those who will do evil towards us or insult us back for doing so.
More on how to live this blessed life on our next lesson.
[This is the 1st of a series within a series]
With God's economy, He already gave us the benefit beforehand. We are merely paying it forward. And in so doing, the world will make us suffer for doing this good deed. Such is how the world works. We are no longer a part of this corrupted world order. We are citizens of heaven, but because we are still here on earth (a fallen world), our work is to bless others with the blessing God gave us -- Jesus of Nazareth.
1 Peter
To summarize, Peter told the first Christians that they ought to:
1. Be Like minded
2. Be Sympathetic, Love one another and Be Compassionate
3. Be Humble
4. Do Not Repay Evil with Evil, and
5. Repay Insult with Blessing
Precisely because that is what God has blessed us with, He did all of these for us. And He willingly and lovingly repaid our insults towards Him with blessing us (repaying evil with good).
Christ died for us and gave us eternal life, a life we do not deserve. We have been given a blessing. And we are to bless even those who will do evil towards us or insult us back for doing so.
More on how to live this blessed life on our next lesson.
[This is the 1st of a series within a series]
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