The First Letter of Peter- 14

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 6

1 Peter 3:8-12. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 22, 2026.

Peter has been looking at specific relationships that Christians would have in those days.  In each one, he gives specific instructions. Today’s passage sums all of this up.

Let’s look at our passage.

All of you should be of one mind (v. 8-12)

Peter uses a phrase that is generally translated as “to sum up” or “finally.”  Having reached the end of the relationships he wanted to address specifically, Peter now gives advice on how, as believers in Jesus, we ought to approach our relationships regardless of whether or not we are in the strong or the weak position.  This would include our relationships with other believers and those who are unbelievers.  However, unbelievers are not going to be hearing Peter’s instructions much less adhering to them.

The first thing we run into is to be “harmonious” (NASB).  The word is literally “same-minded” and has the sense of operating from the same thinking.  Though it is not specifically stated in this verse, it is the mind of Christ and the example that came from it that Peter has in mind (see 2:21-25).  To further support this, Peter will use some phrases in this section that were used earlier regarding Jesus.  Thus, it is particularly the mind of Christ that we are to have.

Our approach in our relationships needs to start with the question, “What would Jesus have me do?”  “Jesus, how can I be a boss, an employee, a husband, a wife, etc. that is following your mind?”

Paul says it this way in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…”  Relationships are better when both parties are thinking like Jesus.  We should be focused on the purposes of God rather than on the purposes of our natural desires.

To be clear, we are not talking about trying to be a good boss as defined by lazy employees, nor are we trying to be a good employee as defined by harsh employers who expect all of your time, even when you are off the clock.  It is defined by Jesus and the trusted Word that we have written down for us in Scripture.

I can have the mind of Christ even when the other person doesn’t.  God will help us to be a witness for Jesus to them by how we act and respond.  No matter what people may do to get ahead of you and push you down, we can entrust ourselves to God.  Will they get away with it?  It may look like it to us, but they haven’t gotten away with it.  God is our defense and reward.

Let’s be clear.  What Jesus experienced was bad.  You too will go through things that are not right.  It is not that God wants these bad things to happen to us but that He promises to work them to the good for us and others.  This is what it means to have the mind of Christ.  It means that we cease using the sin of others to justify our own sin.  Rather, we choose to honor the righteousness of God in the situation and entrust our future into His hands.

Peter continues with a list that describes what it means to have the mind of Christ.  “Having compassion for one another” involves being able to identify with the suffering of another person.  It touches us deeply.  The opposite would be to have a hard and insensitive approach to others.

He then mentions “loving as brothers.”  This refers to the familial love that we should have for one another.  This is best understood within the family of believers.  Of course, familial love has lots of ups and downs, especially in our spiritual infancy.  Brothers will get on each other’s nerves, step on each other’s toes.  Yet we are family.  You don’t kick people out of the family.  You work to reconcile.  Thus, spiritual parents are important.  Mature believers have a duty to help immature believers embrace the righteous path of asking for forgiveness and giving forgiveness.  Yet, in the end, our Heavenly Father will ultimately hold us to the reality of learning to love our brothers and sisters.

We are to be “tender-hearted.”  Similar to compassion, this has the idea of having deep feelings toward one another.  Our love should come from the depths of our heart.

With the last description, we have a manuscript issue.  Some of the early manuscripts have “humble in spirit” and others have “friendly.”  We won’t go into the details of all of that.  I think we can agree that both could be attached to this list without inserting error.  Whether Peter meant humility or friendliness, I would say that they are both good.  The humble person approaches others without arrogance or thinking of yourself as more important than others.

Peter then moves to a couple of negative issues, i.e., things from which to refrain.   He uses the wording about Jesus from 2:22-23.  Jesus did not respond with evil for evil, nor did he revile those who reviled him.  We mentioned back then that reviling has the sense of strong verbal abuse to it.  We are quickly becoming a society that is treating verbal abuse as more and more acceptable.  A Christian must refrain from this activity, even if the other person is abusing us.

In fact, even Christians can have misunderstandings or see things differently from one another.  We are to restrain ourselves from the natural inclinations of our flesh and take hold of the same mind that Christ had when he restrained himself.

Instead of returning evil for evil and reviling for reviling, we are to return a blessing to them.  This a clear allusion to the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:44. “Love your enemies and bless those who curse us, pray for those who spitefully use you…”

Yes, this may seem unfair, but unless the other person repents, they will be in a world of hurt in the Judgment.  Don’t let the tragedy of another person’s spiritual destruction pull you down into that destruction as well.

So how can I bless someone who is “cursing” me?  Ultimately, we are seeking to be a good thing in their life, whether they see it as that or not.  We should start by praying for them.  “Lord, I know that you don’t like what they are doing.  I pray that you help me to speak your words, draw them away from their sin and towards you.”  If done well, we can be a good thing in their life by warning them of the judgment that hangs over their actions.  Lastly, we can find something that is tangible to do for them.  In all of this, we need to ask for the wisdom and leading of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot do this in a fake and superficial way.  It must be real and sacrificial.  It must come from the heart of God.

Peter mentions that those who do this “will inherit a blessing.”  He basically says, “If you want to inherit a blessing, then live your life in such a way as to be a blessing to others.”

There is a certain inheritance in this life.  It is up to us how much like Jesus we want to be and therefore the ways He will bless us in this life.  Yet our full inheritance will not come until the Resurrection.  Any blessing in this life is only a bitter-sweet foretaste of something that will have all the bitterness removed in the future!  To dwell with God and His goodness for eternity in immortal, imperishable, bodies is a great inheritance indeed!

Peter then quotes Psalm 34:12-16.  He is essentially showing us that Scripture backs up what he has been saying.

This psalm was written by David when he pretended to be insane in front of the Philistine king in order to save his life.  What was David doing in the Philistine territory?  King Saul of Israel accused David of disloyalty and sought to kill him.  This eventually drove David out of Israel into the enemy’s territory.  This isn’t just about people, but about the devil and his angels too.

It was the fear of the Lord and the desire to be blessed by God that helped David to restrain himself.  Yes, David was not as good as Jesus, but he would be an example from the Old Testament that they could remember.  More than an example, the words of David (the lessons that he discovered in this time) are instructive to us going through something similar.

This section challenges those who want the truth.  Do you desire life, to love and see good days?  If you do, then you must restrain yourself from doing evil and choose to do good, seeking and pursuing peace with others.  Why?  God is watching all that happens.  He will ultimately judge our actions in these things.

God’s eyes are depicted as being towards the righteous.  This is a reference to being favorable to Him.  He is watching us and hearing our prayers in order to “attend” to them.  However, the face of God is against those who do evil.

David simply trusted God.  Saul’s evil actions meant to kill David.  They even pushed David into dangerous territory.  It would be easy for David to justify evil actions toward Saul.  However, David had the mind of Christ (at least in this situation).  David knew that he could not kill Saul and remain guiltless.  God had raised up and anointed Saul, and therefore, God would remove Saul in a way that David could remain pure (see 1 Samuel 26:8-12).

It is difficult to trust God and wait upon Him.  God is far more gracious than we would be.  King Saul didn’t deserve all the grace that God gave him, but David recognized that God would eventually deal with him.

This brings up a powerful question in all of our relationships.  God is watching me and the other person.  The way we treat one another is making a case to God for good or for bad.  We are choosing to be on the side of the righteous or on the side of the wicked.

It is better for us to do what is right (even if the evil continues to be poured out on us) and receive the blessing of God, then to come under the curse and judgment of God.  We all need His grace.  God’s delay of judgment with the wicked is a grace to them.  They may even yet repent.

Perhaps you repented at one point and chose to follow Jesus.  That is great!  Yet repentance needs to be a present attitude with you and me.  We are continually ready to judge when God is not.  It is not just the external enemies who threaten to pull us away from Christ.  It is the internal enemy of our own sinful nature that really threatens to pull us down.

Can we simply be a repenting people who sacrifice themselves in order to pursue peace with others?  Can I serve the purpose of God in the situation rather than the purpose of me?

Others may think that you are foolish, but it is never foolish to stand with Jesus and live out his righteousness.  Of course, we can only do this by the help of the Holy Spirit, through keeping our faith in the mind of Christ, and when we entrust ourselves to the truth that God is our vindication.  Our greatest times of witnessing to the greatness of Christ is when we lay down our desires and pick up his.  This is when the world truly sees Jesus in us!

Our Witness 6 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 13

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 5

1 Peter 3:7. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 15, 2026.

We continue in this section that focuses on the way that a Christian should use their relationships to demonstrate the love and wisdom of Jesus to the world around them.

There is a greater concern here in that we are also desiring to be pleasing in God’s sight.  He is currently offering terms of peace to this world.  As we cooperate with this purpose, we can rest in the assurance that God will help us and reward us.

Today, we will wrap up the specific relationships that Peter has been addressing by looking at husbands.

Let’s look at our verse.

Husbands should live with their wives in understanding (v. 7)

In all of our relationships, it is our natural tendency to worry about what the other person is or isn’t doing.  We can be overly concerned with God’s Word to them, yet, overlooking His Word to us.

Peter begins this command to husbands with the phrase, “in the same way.”  This is exactly what he did with his instruction to wives in verses 1-6.  Again, this phrase is pointing husbands back to the example of Jesus written about in 1 Peter 2:21-25.  In the same way that Jesus sacrificed his rights in order to serve God the Father and humanity, so a husband needs to choose to serve God the Father and their wife.  Jesus needs to be their example and help in this.

Peter’s main imperative is for husbands to live with their wives in understanding.  The word translated as “live with” is a special word that highlights the cohabiting nature of the marital relationship.  They are not just doing life together.  They dwell in a home together, and that home becomes an extension of their relationship.  This life and home that a husband is making with his wife needs to be done with understanding.

Before we delve further into that, I will say that a husband and wife can seem to be one thing in public but be something quite different at home.  What goes on in the home, in private, is important to God, and so it should be important to me.

So, what does it mean for a husband to understand his wife?  Part of it is understanding her situation in general as a woman.  Genesis 1-2

 describes the intent of God for marriage.  A man and a woman are intended to become one before God.  That unity is also intended to image God.  Paul describes this specifically as being a picture of the relationship between Christ and His Church. 

A husband also needs to gain the understanding of what his wife has been through particularly.  What has she experienced both bad and good?  How can I care for her as if she were a part of my own body?

That last question may seem strange, but it is the perspective the Apostle Paul calls husbands to have in Ephesians 5:8. “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.”

It is common in our culture to sacrifice marital relationships to get something we want.  We end up undermining the relationship in a multitude of ways.  This is why Paul refers to a wife as being a part of her husband.  This connects back to the oneness of Genesis 1-2.  He is challenging husbands in this area.

Our culture has many pressures upon marriages.  Many decry marriage as the problem because it “goes against our human nature,” “monogamy is unnatural.”  They even project that there would be no guilt in relationships (a kind of sexual Utopia) if we could just drop this Christian notion.  Of course, I wouldn’t hold my breath for any proof that lack of commitment rids people of guilt and creates something good in this area.

Paul’s challenge to a husband is this.  To abuse your wife is to abuse yourself.  To reject this wisdom is to reject the wisdom of Christ.  Thus, a Christian husband really has no choice if he wants to remain a follower of Christ.  Live with your wife with even the understanding of how God has connected her to you.  Of course, we should have a nobler purpose in taking good care of our spouse than caring for ourselves.  We need to do it because it is right, and it is what Jesus wants us to do.

God’s purpose in marriage is not the problem.  It is not restricting us.  It is our own sin that is the problem.

Peter uses the phrase “as with someone weaker.”  In another version, it refers to her as “a weaker vessel.”  The body as a vessel for our spirits is a metaphor that was quite common in those days.  Paul uses it in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4.  “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion…”

A woman listening to this might be offended at being called a weaker vessel, but it is not exactly spelled out in which ways she is weaker.  The obvious place to start is to recognize that women in general are physically weaker than men.  However, I don’t think this is the only thing Peter is referencing.  The physical weakness of women has been a source of much pain for them.  Husbands need to understand how this physical weakness has shaped the psyche of wives, the way they think, and the desires they have.

Of course, weakness does not necessarily have a negative connotation.  In 1 Corinthians 12:22, Paul mentions that “those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.”  His use of “seem” implies that things may look to us as weak in one sense, but their weakness makes them strong for the necessary purpose they have.  An example in life would be fine China.  China is not used for everyday dining especially with children.  It is not physically capable of being used all the time without being chipped.  Yet its weakness for everyday wear is a part of its honorable usage at special events.

Peter likely also has in mind the weaker social position that women had.  I’ve mentioned before that a woman generally did not have the right of divorcing her husband for any reason.  There was a huge disparity in the area of unfaithfulness.  If a woman was caught in an adulterous affair, the husband could have her executed.  However, if a man was caught in an adulterous affair, there was little a woman could do about it.

A husband’s understanding of his wife needs to incorporate these things.  Her weakness physically (or even socially) does not say anything about her value.  What is a wife’s value?  Is it in how much money she can bring to the home?  Is it in how many sons she can birth?  Is her value in what she can do to satisfy her husband’s desires?

A wife’s value begins with the design and intention of God.  She was made by God to unite with her husband and help him.  This help is not necessarily in the ways the man would dictate.  Rather, it is in the ways that the wisdom of God has discerned that husbands need.

A wife forces a young husband to face the issues of growing up.  It challenges a young man to see strength in that which may look weak to him.  It challenges him to learn to unify with someone who thinks differently than him.  It challenges him to come out of himself and choose to be intimate with another person in every way.

Will marriage fix the world?  No.  It can only challenge the world in the ways that God knows we need challenged.

All of this is to say that a wife has value before she does a single thing.  Part of living with one’s wife with understanding is valuing her as God does.  A good husband will not just patronize his wife but rather understand her total situation with grace and understanding as he builds a home with her.

A husband cannot change the culture surrounding him and his wife, but he can change the culture inside the home.

This leads well into the next point.  Peter calls husbands honor their wives as fellow heirs of the grace of life.  This clearly means to honor, or to value, them highly.  Your wife is a fellow heir (a joint-heir or co-heir).  Peter does not explain this fully.  We know that wives have an inheritance in God’s Church just as much as husbands.  Peter may be speaking of this in these general terms.  However, he may even see a further connection between a particular husband and his wife with what they will inherit both in this life and in the life to come.

Regardless, the challenge for husbands is to recognize that their future inheritance is impacted by how they treat their wives.

He says that they are heirs of the “grace of life.”  We can be too quick to jump to the understanding of this as eternal life, something that is in the future.  Yet Scripture tells us that God’s eternal life is even now pouring into the life of every Christian.  We can experience a kind of down payment on the grace of God.  The reality of our future inheritance ought to be affecting our present attitudes in marriage.

Finally, Peter challenges husbands that their relationship with their wife can affect their relationship with God.  Prayer is the mainstay of our relationship with God.  A man may be very religious in many ways.  However, failure in this area can hinder his prayers.  It doesn’t matter what people think about your marriage.  It matters what God thinks.

This reminds me of the instructions of Jesus regarding forgiveness in Matthew 5:24. If you go to sacrifice at the altar of God and remember that your brother has something against you, you should leave your gift at the altar and go your way.  First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.  If we have been abusing people in our relationships, or they at least believe they have been sinned against, we should not approach God in prayer without first dealing with it.  Of course, we can pray for wisdom in talking with them, asking forgiveness.  I believe this is what Peter is describing here.  If you are ignoring the plight and suffering of your wife, don’t expect God to be answering your prayers except for the prayer of repentance.

It is the things we do in private that make the public things of any value.  May God help us to see that He is not looking at the public personae we project.  He sees our private lives, our home life.  He sees the heart of our spouse and challenges us to live with them in understanding.

Witness 5 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 12

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 4

1 Peter 3:1-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 8, 2026.

Today, we will once again visit this area of husband-and-wife relationships.  We dealt with this when we were going through the letter to the Colossians (See Weekly Word October 12, 2025).  There Paul told women to submit to their own husbands.

We talked then about two very different approaches to passages like this: Complementarian and Egalitarian.  Essentially, we are asking what God’s original intention was in the Garden of Eden.  Was God setting up a hierarchal union or a horizontal union of two people?  A picturesque way to think about it is to use the idea of a team.  Is Eve given to Team Adam so that he would have a better chance of winning (“Go, Adam, Go!”).  Or is God asking Adam and Eve to unite in one purpose for the sake of Team Husband and Wife?  If you think the hierarchy is baked into God’s design, then you will be complementarian.  If you think it is a result of the fall, then you will be egalitarian.

Throughout history, women have found themselves in cultures that had a varying degree of respect for them from much to little.  Yet, wives, just like all believers, need to let Jesus be the Lord and focus of their relationships.

We are going to deal with men next week so hang in there, ladies, and hold your peace, men.  Let’s look at our passage.

Wives should submit themselves to their husbands (v. 1-2)

Some translations will say “be submissive,” but I don’t think this is as good as “submit yourself.”  God is asking women to choose something for themselves called submission.  The culture of that day had the husband as the ruler of his home.  Depending upon the husband, a woman could chafe severely under this expectation or be happy to do so because he was a wonderful husband.  We do have some differences between Roman and Jewish culture, but both of them saw the man as the head of the home.

Peter’s emphasis is on the way a wife can be a witness for Jesus.  This is why he follows up this challenge for women with a phrase of purpose, “so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives.”

Not all Christian women had believing husbands.  Peter asks her to submit herself to her husband in order to win him over to Christ.  He speaks of these men as being “disobedient to the word.”  This is talking about the Scriptures, but more specifically, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Paul states it this way in Acts 17:30-31.  “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.  He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

If your husband is a believer, then this whole area will take on a completely different complexion.  This is not an adversarial thing where we are fighting for dominance, but a mutual submission for the sake of modeling the relationship between Christ and the Church.  We should work together to glorify Jesus to a lost world.

However, sometimes that lost person is your spouse.  It is somewhat idyllic to think of laying your desires down in order to save another person, especially your spouse.  However, what if he never believes in Jesus?  Can I do it for God in order to glorify Jesus?  Is He worth it?

Peter speaks of the “behavior” of wives.  This conduct or behavior of submission is like the conduct of Jesus.  Notice that the verse opens with the phrase, “in the same way.”  This is referring to the section right before this passage that describes the example of Jesus laying himself down in order to save us!  Peter had given this as an example to household slaves, but he is now pointing wives back to that same example.  These slaves could be suffering under oppressive masters, just as some of these women could be suffering under oppressive husbands.

This may seem unfair and even evil to some.  However, there is nothing evil in choosing to follow Jesus Christ who sacrificed all that he could be in his mortal life in order to save us (while we were yet sinners even).

Wives need to look to Jesus as an example and as a source of strength particularly in situations where the husband is not reasonable. 

Peter gives two words describing this behavior.  “Chaste” is a word that is similar to holy.  It emphasizes purity.  Her life is not defiled with ulterior motives, ill intentions, and selfishness.  Rather, she is trying to serve God.

He also describes this good behavior as “with respect.”  An unreasonable husband who does not want to believe in Jesus may not be worthy of respect.  However, we can still respect the purpose of God in trying to turn his heart away from sin and towards the Lord Jesus.

Let me just give a caution.  God does not intend for women to be physically abused or even killed.  Peter is not talking about physical abuse.  In those days, there would be very little that a woman could do about physical abuse because the society around marriages gave little power to her.  Two thousand years ago a woman could not divorce a man.  If she was caught having an adulterous affair, he could have her killed.  On the other hand, if she caught him having an adulterous affair, there was little that she could do.  Yes, she could make his life miserable, but then that would make her life even more miserable.

In this unfair situation, God is asking wives to serve His greater purpose in the same way that Jesus did.  Women can only do this by entrusting themselves to the One who judges righteously!  God will make all our sacrifices worth it in the end!

Wives should adorn themselves with virtue (v. 3-4)

In verse three, Peter speaks about how a wife adorns herself.  She needs to adorn herself with virtue more than the external things that an ungodly world uses.  Peter lists three areas that were common for those days.  Though they come across as complete prohibitions, it is clear from other passages (see 1 Timothy 2:9) that this is not a prohibition but a call to modesty and proper focus on your internal spirit. 

Paul in 1 Timothy 2:9 speaks of adorning with “proper clothing, modestly and discreetly…”  The problem of objectifying oneself is often a self-preservation mechanism.  It is the one area in which women have power over men (to some degree).  Yet, this is the world’s answer, not God’s.

It was common for the upper-class women to copy the hairstyles of the nobles, seeking out extremely costly garments with costly jewelry.  Clothing could overtly accentuate sexual features.

This hasn’t changed all that much today.  Definitely the styles have changed, but the dynamics have not.  Sometimes we can be dressing as a means of elevating ourselves above other women in the group or community.  There can be class distinctions that purposefully keep poorer women in their place.  We should avoid outward adornments that focus on making ourselves the envy of others.

Of course, there are times when a woman can be dressing to feel powerful over men who seem to be unable to keep themselves from slobbering over a seductive woman.  The line of what is too sexy for public changes with the times.  However, the art of stepping over that line just enough to excite others but not be looked down upon has been practiced in every age.

Peter calls for wives not to focus on complex hair braids, gold jewelry and dress (expensive/seductive).  Instead, they should let it be the internal imperishable things. 

It has been said that beauty is only skin deep.  However, Peter is calling for wives to be beautiful all the way to the core of their hearts (“the hidden person of the heart”).  No one knows what is exactly in your heart, but our speech and actions demonstrate what is on the inside to some degree,

What is my inner life like?  Am I focused on being like Christ, or am I focused on me?

Peter particularly emphasizes two virtues: gentle (meek) and a quiet spirit.

Gentleness is the sense of strength under control.  It is not about being weak but being controlled. 

A quiet spirit is the idea of a person who is peaceful inside.  This person is not a raging sea of anger, ambition, and strong desires.  It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t say what you think.  It is talking about the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling within you and knowing that God is pleased with the way you are choosing to serve Him.

This kind of adornment is imperishable because it never grows old (the beautiful spend a lot of money trying to stay beautiful), and it never goes out of style.  This contrasts with the constant changing of trying to keep up with current fashion trends.  Instead, let Christ in you be your beauty.

The example of holy women in the past (v.5-6)

Peter then reminds wives of the godly women in the Old Testament who “hoped in God,” as opposed to their husbands or the things of life.  Their hopes were not in things, “I must have this or that!”  Their hopes were not in their husbands, “He must be this or that!”  Instead, they were looking to God to be their help in the present and reward in the future.

Peter describes them as doing what he has been saying, submitting to their husbands.  He then turns to Sarah and Abraham as his example.

Did Sarah and Abraham ever have any friction in their marriage?  Yes, they did.  Yet she is being used as an example of submitting herself.    This ought to make it clear to us that submitting oneself does not mean you can never put your foot down.

Peter doesn’t explain what he is thinking about when he says that she “obeyed Abraham.”  However, from the story, we know that she followed him into a foreign land.  She trusted that he was hearing from God.  She pretended to be his sister before Pharaoh.  So, we see that she followed Abraham’s lead even when he was being a blockhead.

Peter refers to her calling him, “lord.”  This is probably a reference to Genesis 18:12. This was actually an internal thought that she had when the man eating with her husband said that she would have a child.  Of course, that man was the LORD, and she was very old and couldn’t have children.  “Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord [Abraham] being old also?”

The point is not about the title, but about how Sarah is even internally respecting her husband.  Lord was a term of respect for a man of Abraham’s standing.

Peter declares that wives who follow the example of Jesus will be like Sarah, doing what is good (virtuous).  Such a woman need not be frightened by any fear on this earth (external or internal) because she is living for the Lord Jesus.

Wives can be a light to their husbands, to other women, and a light to the world around them.  In such a light, Jesus can be seen by those who are blind to truth.  May God strengthen all wives as they seek to serve Him.

Witness 4 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 11

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 3

1 Peter 2:21-25. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 1, 2026.

In his instructions to household slaves leading up to this passage, Peter makes this point.  If you suffer for doing what is right and patiently endure it, there is favor with God.  He now points them (us) to Jesus as a great example of what he is talking about.  Jesus suffered for doing what was right, and he righteously endured it.

Jesus is not just an example to household slaves.  He is also an example to all of us in our situations that may have differences but are essentially the same dynamic spiritually.  We are going to see through the rest of the letter that Peter continually points us back to this example he lays out here.

No matter what relationship may bring us suffering, God’s purpose is to create millions of examples (exhibits) of those who suffered for doing what was right, and yet, patiently endured it.

Let’s look at our passage.

Christ is our example (v. 21-25)

Verse 21 adds the phrase “leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  Think of all the steps that Jesus made in which he could have turned back, but he kept going forward. 

Peter is doing this when he asks to step out of the boat.  Peter made a choice to ask, and then he chose to step out of the boat.  Notice that there is a point at which the results of our decision carry us along, for good or for bad.  It is not that there are no more choices to be made, but that there are tidal forces carrying us.  We tend to warn about the power of consequences, but we should also see that there is a good in it.  The choice to step out of the boat created a scenario in which there was no going back.  He would either walk or sink.  There is a certain good in this.  When we steel our courage and follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we find ourselves in scary places, yes.  But we also find ourselves in places where God shows up to help us through it.  Just that first step to follow his example is often the opening of a whole river of God’s help.

Jesus chose to care the burden of the cross for us, and so we ought to carry our cross for him.  Praise God that He is working in us to help us do this very thing!

Theological liberals love to say that Jesus is only an example of love, i.e., he was not actually paying a price for our sins.  This is an error and contradictory to Scripture.  However, it is also an error to downplay the reality of the example that Jesus has given us.  Of course, this example of trusting the will of God would do us no good if Jesus had not truly atoned for our sin.  But he has made peace between us and God.  He has supplied the Holy Spirit within us to help us do this!

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 53:9, “who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.”  This is a passage describing God’s work through His perfect servant, the Messiah.  Israel had failed to rightly serve God’s purposes.  However, God would bring forth a perfect servant, a suffering servant, who would save Israel and the Gentiles by his righteousness and suffering.

This Old Testament verse uses a word that is generally translated as “violence.”  The word involves doing wrong to someone in a harsh way.  This can be a physically violent act, or metaphorically violent in the sense of brazen and bold wrongs done to another.

When translated into Greek, the translators chose a word that means lawlessness.  Only a lawless person would sin against others in such a bold and harsh way.  The quote in 1 Peter says, “who committed no sin.”  Peter expands the “lawless” translation of the earlier Greek manuscripts to the more general “sin.”  Definitely Christ was revealed to them as not being a violent, lawless man.  However, Jesus was more than this.  He was without sin.  We see Jesus challenging his opponents in John 8:46, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?”  Of course, the only “sin” they could pin on him was that he a man made himself one with God, which is no sin if it was true.  Hebrews 4:15; 7:26, 1 John 3:5, among many other New Testament verses, agree with this statement of Peter.  The Messiah was a sinless man.  The apostles came to see that Jesus was the only perfect imager of God the Father who had ever lived on this planet.

The second part of this Old Testament quote from Isaiah 53 says that he was free of deceit, or treachery.  There is nothing like suffering to bring out the worst in us.  It is often in our desire to avoid difficulty that we choose a path of misleading people or hiding the truth.

Jesus positively did good things to people, but he also refrained from doing wrong to others.  This is the example that we are called to follow, not because it saves us, but because we have been saved.  I can’t follow Jesus perfect enough to save myself, but I can follow Jesus out of perfect thankfulness for his saving grace.

This leads us into the next descriptions of the character and actions of Jesus.  These emphasize what he didn’t do.

Jesus did not respond with reviling to those who reviled him.  To revile someone is about verbal abuse.  It can be translated to rail against someone.  Any time you see someone spitting mad yelling obscenities and accusations at another person, you are seeing this in action.  In fact, this is a perfect example of the metaphorical violence that Isaiah 53:9 references.  How easy it is to become so angry with such people to begin shouting back at them and responding to them in kind.

Jesus was accused of many things in very unkind manners.  During his trial, he is even pictured as being blindfolded, punched, and in a mocking manner, told to prophesy who hit him.  This was both verbally abusive and physically abusive.  Yet, Jesus did not yell back and say hateful things against them.  When we are squeezed by life, the stuff that is deep within us is generally brought to the surface.  You and I have a history of failing in this area when we are in the pressure cooker of suffering.  Yet Jesus went through it without sin.

If you remember the night of his betrayal and arrest, you will also remember that Jesus showed the disciples how they could follow him.  It would require more than a spirit that was willing.  A willing spirit must deal with its weak flesh through prayer, wrestling with God over His purpose in our life and yielding to Him.

1 Peter 2:23 also mentions that he uttered no threats.  Sometimes threats are empty because we have no way of backing them up.  We may be powerless, but Jesus is not.  Jesus has great power and thus shows great restraint.

Of course, don’t get Peter wrong.  There is a great threat looming over those who reject Jesus.  How you treat him will determine your eternity.  However, Jesus doesn’t threaten people.  He only points out the truth.  During his trial, he found it best to generally not respond to their accusations, taunts, and lies.  Yet this doesn’t change the fact that there is a day of judgment for each of us and for this world as a whole.  God will hold us accountable for choosing our sin over the top of the righteousness of Jesus.

The last thing that Peter points out about how Jesus endured suffering is that he entrusted “himself to Him who judges righteously.”  Persecution doesn’t only affect how we treat others.  It can also affect our relationship with God the Father.  Jesus entrusted himself to God the Father even in the face of death by wicked men.  He could do this because His relationship with the Father only knew Him as trustworthy.  Jesus stepped out of the boat of mortality and put himself into the hands of the Father.  “Do with me what you will, Father!”  God could powerfully stop his persecutors or not.  Regardless, Jesus both knew and trusted the decision of the Father.  May God help us to have such a relationship of trust in Him.

Remember that God is never “on the side of sinners.”  If it looks like they are getting ahead and that it pays to be wicked, don’t believe it.  They will eventually stand before God and despise themselves in His presence.  However, God is on the side of sinners in the sense that He is trying to break through their spiritual blindness.  Our righteous suffering may be the only thing that pricks the heart of the wicked and turns them back from sin.  Can I do that for Jesus?  He promises to reward our service for His purposes, but we have to trust Him with our life.  Yes, they may reject the witness we give, but at least God sees me.  He doesn’t like what is being done to me.  However, if I do this rightly, I can have His favor.  I can remain in the place of His favor.

This suffering of Jesus is more than an example of love and trust.  Verse 24 shows us that Jesus was a sacrifice that provides spiritual healing for us.  In Jesus, God is providing a way for sinners to find spiritual healing. 

We sometimes act like we don’t know what God is doing through us, but we do know in general.  He is showing Himself to the world through us.  We don’t have to perfectly understand all the ways that He is doing that in order to say, yes, to Him.  This is what faith (trust) is all about.

In trusting God, Jesus did something for God that needed to be done if any humans were to dwell with God in eternity.  Without Jesus even the best of humans would be stuck in the grave, unable to enter into His presence.  We may be clueless to what God is doing specifically, but we do know that it has to do with showing others who Jesus is.  Jesus provided for our spiritual healing, but then he uses you and me to bring that spiritual healing into the minds and lives of the lost.  We provide opportunities for them to know His spiritual healing.  Verse 24 explains how his sacrifice does this.

“He himself carried our sins in his body on the tree.”  If you approach this from an Old Testament mindset, you will recognize the importance of this word, “tree.”  This whole thing with sin started with some trees in Genesis three.  The Tree of Life was counterposed to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  They chose (we choose) to go after the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than the Tree of Life.  There is something about trees in the word of God that is important.  We see this in Psalm 1.  The perfect Israelite (there was ever only one) would be a Tree of Life that would bring forth fruit rather than chaff.  This ultimate fruitful Israelite would only be the Messiah who is presented in the next psalm.  Blessed are those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 2:12). 

Scripture doesn’t describe the Tree of Life, but the New Testament presents Jesus as the ultimate Psalm One Blessed Man.  Yet the tree on which he provided life for us did not look desirable.  It was a cross.  Everything in our flesh wants to continue to flee to the other tree, but God calls us to embrace this tree of suffering in Jesus.

Jesus took your sins, my sins, in his body (a representative of whomever would believe in him) to the cross.  God’s punishment upon our sin came upon Jesus who was sinless.  Is this fair?  Of course, it is not!  However, it is love.  In Jesus, our sin has been nailed to the cross and punished.

Notice the contrast between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of this age.  Jesus embraces our death upon himself.  He sacrifices his mortal self in the name of God’s purpose in humanity.  The spirit of this age will sacrifice any number (the more the better) of humans for the sake of humanity.  Those who make the decision of just whom will be sacrificed will never be caught making sacrifices themselves.  Which of these hearts will you choose?

Peter than describes that this was “so we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”  Our sins and the guilt that comes with them have been dealt with by God.  He simply asks me to admit my fault, yield to the Lord Jesus Christ, and put my faith in him.  If we do this, our sin and guilt will be completely removed.  The flesh will still battle us, but it cannot change what Jesus has done, once and for all.  By faith, we can die to the sin that we so easily want to do and come alive to the righteousness that He wants to work in us and work through us.  If we claim that His love is working in us, then we will see it working through us to others.

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 53 again (verse 5).  It is the wounding of Christ that provides for our healing.  This is important because Peter is pointing us to this as an example.  Because of Jesus, our suffering and wounds can do some good, both in our lives and in the lives of others.  My wounds and suffering can point others to Jesus and his salvation.

Spiritual healing does involve the removal of the external guilt of our sin that hangs over us.  However, it is the internal guilt of sin that is harder to heal.  We have to let the forgiveness of Christ and the love of God teach us the better way, the way of Christ!

Peter then ends with emphasizing our spiritual condition in verse 25. He breaks this up into two different stages.  Before Jesus, we were continually straying like sheep.  Notice that this is an allusion to Isaiah 53:6. Led by our fears, ignorance, and desires, we stray away from the Good Shepherd and the grace of God.  “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him.”  This was true of Israel, and it was true of the Gentile nations.  It was true of me, and it was true of you.  This is our helpless state before Jesus came and before we came to know about him.

But now, after coming to Jesus, we are something different.  We are now sheep who are returning, coming back, to the Good Shepherd who is also the Overseer of our souls.  Both shepherd and overseer correspond with what later became role titles in the church: pastors and bishops respectively.  I don’t think Peter is giving any sense of religious title here.  Jesus is the good shepherd in every way that a shepherd is good for sheep.  He is the great overseer watching out against our enemies and for our good.

Doesn’t it seem odd that Peter (one of the sheep) is exhorting the rest of the sheep to be more like the Good Shepherd!  May God help us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by the help of His Holy Spirit!

Witness 3 audio