The First Letter of Peter- 15

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 7

1 Peter 3:13-17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 1, 2026.

The verses leading up to this section were a quote from Psalm 34 which declares that God is against evildoers and on the side of the righteous.  This was written by David expressing his faith in the midst of a time of persecution and suffering.  In other words, it was written in a time when he could easily have doubted this truth.

This begs the question of why righteous people suffer.  Peter doesn’t approach the issue this way, but it is at the back of all that he says about it.

Let’s look at our passage.

You may suffer for doing what is good and right (13-17)

When I say that you “may” suffer for doing what is good and right, I am keying off of the conditional words that Peter gives in this section.  The clincher is in verse 17.  There Peter uses the phrase “if God should will it.”

Of course, there are levels of suffering and different kinds of suffering. Yet Peter is preparing believers for whatever levels they may face.

There is a cognitive dissonance that occurs when we recognize that, though God is on the side of the righteous, He often allows the righteous to suffer at the hands of the wicked.  How can this be?

Whether we can answer this or not, Peter makes it clear that God does allow believers to suffer for doing what is good (verse 13) and right (verse 14).  He does have a reason, but we do not always know specifically what that is.

Of course, we are talking about good and right as God defines it and not as society defines it.  This is what marks a Christian.  We have stopped defining these things for ourselves or using society’s definition.  We are following the thinking and mind of Christ.

Even a society that was built upon the foundation of God’s definitions of good and right can drift away from them.  Eventually this becomes all out rebellion to the Word of God and to the Spirit of Christ.  We see this in the Bible with Israel, and we see it today in these united States of America.  An example is how our culture has been accusing Christians of not showing love when they do not approve of homosexuality or the transgender craze that happening.  The world makes a “moral” accusation that is equivalent to saying, “You are bad, even evil!”

Yet the truth is this.  There is nothing more loving than to protect your child against this wicked persuasion that has taken over our land.  It is fundamentally God’s will for parents to shield their kids from this.  It is an age-old problem.  Society’s love to call evil what God calls good and to call good what God calls bad.

In verse 13, Peter opens with this question.  Who would harm you for doing what is right?  Some translations use the word zealous for what is right and others have for following what is right.  Regardless of which of these is the right word, they both are saying the same thing.  Zeal refers to an internal drive for what is right.  The phrase “following good” (or imitating good) focuses on the external act that flows out of an internal zeal.  Yet the main point is about who would harm you for this.

We can approach this question like Paul does in Romans 8:31. “If God be for us who can be against us?”  The answer in one respect is, “No one of any consequence.”  Thus, Paul states that nothing (no one) can separate us from the love of God.  This is true even when God allows them to persecute us (harm us for doing good). 

Both Paul in the Romans 8 passage and Peter in this passage immediately bring up what God has done through Jesus and his suffering.  When we think about the suffering of Christ, we are reminded that he endured this for the sake of saving those who are lost.  Thus, we can contemplate this question of who might harm us for doing good in the sense that it would only be a person who is lost and under the judgment of God.  This is a judgment that God does not desire for them.  If my persecutors don’t repent, then they are going to face a judgment that they will not survive.

Whether we think of them as having no real power to affect our actions or we think of them as lost humans that Jesus wants to save, the Christian can face persecution without yielding to the temptation to be angry with God and even stop believing in His love for them.

In verse 14, Peter says, “even if you should suffer…”  The experience of suffering in the first century and in the twenty first century is not uniform.  On one hand, we are all guaranteed some level of suffering if we follow Christ.  Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  You are going to pay a price.  But, on the other hand, the suffering of one person may be quite light compared to another.  The level of persecution is not the issue.  Rather, it is how we respond to it.

Peter challenges us to see that we are blessed even if we should suffer for the sake of righteousness.  He is using words from the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.  Matthew 5:10 reads, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”  Those these people are blessed because God speaks on their behalf, this word for blessing emphasizes the happy experience of a life that is lived in right relationship with God.  How can a person be “happy in Jesus” when they are persecuted for doing the right thing?  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continually points to what God is going to do for such people.  The kingdom will be theirs.  They have a great reward in heaven.  You will be like the prophets (and Christ) before you.  You will be comforted.  You will see God!  He ended with Matthew 5:12. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad!  How can a person rejoice when they are being persecuted?  They have to trust in their heavenly Father greatly.

Peter then quotes a part of Isaiah 8:12. “Do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled.”  In the context of Isaiah, God is counseling Isaiah on how to respond to the fear and craziness of a society that is in rebellion to God.  He even tells Isaiah not to call a conspiracy the things his people called a conspiracy.  This is not to say that there is no truth to their fears.  Rather, they are only afraid of those things because they don’t know God.  The one who trusts in God should not fear the things that the godless fear.  When you have no fear of God and you walk away from Him, you feel exposed to everything.  You fear anything and everything because God is not with you.

Threats can even come from people claiming to know God.  Following the resurrection, the apostles were told by the religious leaders to quit preaching about Jesus.  If they didn’t quit, they would be thrown in prison.  Yet Christians are told by a man who faced such threats not to fear those who threaten us.

Think about David.  Saul sought his life and called him a traitor.  David could have let fear move him to protect himself.  He could have killed Saul several times.  Each time David refused to do so.  Saul was a man in rebellion to God, and so he was afraid of things he didn’t have to fear.  David was not a traitor, and even if he was, God called Saul and could protect him.  It was Saul’s awareness that God was not on his side that caused fear.

Instead of fearing their threats and actions of persecution, we should do like David.  He feared God too much to respond to Saul in like manner.  We too should fear God too much to respond to people like the world around us is doing. Jesus is our example and guide.

Peter then lists two things we should do (verse 15) in lieu of fear.  First, we are to set apart Christ as Lord.  To sanctify or set apart means to make this one thing more important than anything else.  Christ as my Lord must mean more to me than a perfect life of comfort and ease.  I would be willing to give up anything even suffer anything before I would give up Christ as Lord.  This is what Paul is driving home in Romans 8.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.  Yet I can let fears cause me to shrink back.  We are to guard our heart from such things.

The second thing we are to do is to be always ready to defend the reason for the hope that is in us.  People will be perplexed at the way you cling to Christ in the face of persecution and suffering.  How can you go through this suffering and not rant and rave against God?  How can you cling to Christ as your Lord when he doesn’t protect you from my torture?

They may never ask this question out loud, but we need to be ready to give a reason why we would have such faith in the face of such adversity.

Essentially, Peter is talking about testifying to your persecutors, your enemies.  In fact, the persecution of the righteous is one of the ways that God pricks the heart of those who do evil.  In those moments, we must not be overcome by their evil and return evil back to them.  This is our finest hour, our opportunity to slip the Gospel past their spiritual defenses.

Our great hope in Christ is still held in these weak, mortal frames.  It is easy for us to fear and balk under the threat of suffering.  However, we need to double down on trusting God.  When we are weak, the Spirit of God will be strong through us.  We can testify for Jesus and about Jesus to those who do us wrong.  This is the will and the mind of Christ.

Peter adds three descriptors to how we are to give our defense.  We are to do so with meekness, fear, and a good conscience. 

Meekness is strength under control.  It is hard to keep your composure when you are unjustly persecuted.  The Christian is called to control their flesh and follow the path of Christ.  Instead of letting anger cause us to rage, we are to let the Holy Spirit give us the words to say.  We are to trust God.

The fear (reverence) cannot be towards men.  He has just told us not to fear those intimidating us.  This is the fear of the Lord.  As I mentioned David earlier, he feared God too much to touch King Saul.  He would let God remove Saul.  When we give an answer to the ungodly, we are to know that we are to give the answer that God wants us to give.  It will be an answer that pleads with them to turn from their wickedness and turn towards the love of God that is even now extended to them through you.  Jesus is their judge, but he is also mine.  I must trust his judgments, whether with my own persecution or my ultimate judgment in eternity.

Finally, Peter mentions that we should have a good conscience.  This is also before God.  If I have done what I know God wants me to do (the good and the right as He defines it), then my heart and mind will have a simplicity (no ulterior motive) and the peace that comes from it.  David was no traitor.  He had a clean conscience before God.  Yet Saul still hunted him.  David didn’t understand why this was going on, but he knew that he was following God.  He didn’t deserve the things Saul was doing.  We may often struggle with the why of life, but there is a peace that can be found in having a clean conscience.  “I am following Jesus, and he will help me all the way.  He will be attentive to my prayer and against those who try to do me evil.”  I don’t have to know why; I just need to know Who.

Verse 16 ends with the challenge to do this in such a way that those who are slandering us (calling our good evil) will be put to shame.  All who falsely accuse the righteous of doing evil will one day face the shame of what they have done before God.  They may rail against your good conduct in Christ now, but they will be silent when they stand before God.  God will not be intimidated by the power and authority they had in this life.

Yet this can also go another way.  There is a certain public spectacle that happens when people given to righteousness are persecuted and slandered.  The person doing so may have their conscience pricked by the realization of what they are doing.  However, even if they don’t feel the shame of their actions, others watching may see the shame of it.  At the cross Jesus was truly paying the price for our sins.  Yet he was also pricking the conscience of everyone who ever hears the story of what was done to him and why.

Shame is real whether a person feels it or not.  Ultimately, we are challenged to live in such a way that those who do persecute us will only become a clarion call to the world around us drawing attention to the Lord we serve.

Verse 17 makes it clear, if it isn’t already, that God sometimes wills that we suffer for the good that we do.  This sounds strange, but Peter has laid the groundwork for the reasons He would do such things.  We are the goads in the hands of Jesus, pricking the dull conscience of this world.  We don’t do this just through our suffering, but also through how we suffer.

In these times, we must not lose sight of the purpose of God.  We must not let the enemy convince us that God doesn’t care about us.  We must not let the enemy separate our heart from the love of God, both for ourselves and for those who persecute us.

It was God’s will that Jesus suffer because it would make salvation possible, and it would draw people to that salvation.  Why do we tend to flee from suffering?  This is precisely what God uses to testify through us to others.  Perhaps we have fled too much, so much that there is no longer a testimony of Christ in our sphere of influence.

Peter ends with the encouragement that it is better to suffer for doing what is right than to suffer for doing what is wrong.  To suffer for doing wrong is not great feat.  You deserve it.  However, enduring undeserved punishments is a mark of someone who knows Jesus.  It is great righteousness.  We can only do this if we have a close relationship with Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  It is his vision, and it is what saved our soul.  He gave mercy to me and you through people who could have written us off.  If he did such for us, how can we not be his mercy in the lives of others, even those who persecute us for doing good?  We can’t, or better we shouldn’t.  We should say with Jesus, “Nevertheless, Your will be done!”

Our Witness 7 audio