Living harmoniously
Peter 3:8-12 · Roger Henderson · May 31, 2015
1 & 2 Peter (2015), No. 21
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492655294247

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK. Like I said, this actually is going to end the section that we've been talking about for the last month or so about submission. It's going to sum up some of the ideas that we've seen across. So it goes all the way back to chapter 2 and verse 13. So this section here is going to sum up 8 through 12. It's going to sum up that section.

And then actually starting next week, if you look in your Bibles, a lot of Bibles will have the verse number be bolded, like in my New American Standard, verse 13, and 3.13 kind of starts a new section, and that's going to be the section that's going to talk about suffering, And Peter is suffering for righteousness sake or suffering for doing what's good.

It's not so much suffering, like Norm is suffering for a physical ailment. But Peter is mostly talking about suffering when you do what's right and someone maligns you or does you wrong. That's the kind of suffering Peter is talking about. So we're going to see that in the last half, last third of Peter. And it's kind of divided into suffering for doing what's good, suffering with Christ, and suffering in service for Christ.

So that's going to be the remainder of the book. But today we're going to kind of sum up the section on submission and kind of look back at a lot of the things we talked about previously. Okay, so I've kind of utilized McCauley's outline here again. So first of all, verses 8 and 9 today are going to talk about some of the qualities of believers. There are going to be some positive qualities and there are going to be some things that we should not do. And then there's really a section that quotes Psalm 34 and talks about some of the aspects we're covered in verses 8 and 9.

And it has an addressing and a formula. I'm not sure. I'm totally like every word that Macaulay has in here, but I was kind of in a... With Bob calling me at the last moment, I kind of had to scurry a little bit. So anyway, if you look through that, see what you think. And as we go through this, you can kind of judge how good. An outline is only as good as it's supposed to be helpful. If the outline isn't helpful, then, you know. So use a map. It's helpful to be a grader.

OK, so let's look at, so could someone read these verses 8 through 12, and you read your Bible or walk over him? Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another. Loveless brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Thanks, Cheryl. OK, so what we're going to see in this passage, we're going to see some qualities here in verse 8. First of all, it says to sum up, and we're going to look at that. And it's going to talk about, basically, be or let be, harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, humble in spirit. And that's kind of the positive. And one thing to think about here. These qualities are qualities that are basically Christ's life. Christ in us. This is his life being lived out through us.

If we attempt this, just like we attempt to be submissive, in our own strength, we don't do very well. We kind of grit our teeth and say, I don't really want to be submissive, but I guess I need to be. It's Christ's life. As He was submissive to the Father, we are submissive to His plan for us.

And this kind of goes along with that idea, too, of being harmonious and sympathetic. It's Christ's life being lived out through us. And our part in that is faith and trusting that He created us, and he knows what he's doing. And this is his plan, that his life is to be lived out and display these qualities.

And then he has some warnings in nine, not returning evil for evil. That's kind of the world's way, getting back, right? How many movies have you seen about, or stories about, well, I finally got back, and I got justice. In the world's view, that's what Aha, you finally got the guy who got me. Well, God's way is totally backwards from that.

He comes down here and says, we're talking about a blessing here. And we say, how in the world do I do that? Well, that's where Christ's life is in view, not our life. or insult for insult, but give me a blessing instead, for you are called, that's part of the Christian's calling, for you are called to this very purpose that you might inherit a blessing, and then basically in the Psalm 34 quote, which is pretty close to nothing, but we're going to compare it. And it kind of goes along with this Hebrew poetry pattern that Ernie talks about a lot, where it states one thing and then repeats the statement again with a little bit different twist.

So we're going to see that. OK, so let's just kind of get into the first part. OK, to sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, humble in spirit. So to sum up, so what do you think? I actually kind of told you already. So basically, it's literally now to come to a conclusion. Or you could say, now the summary. So this is the summary of what's gone before. And I kind of looked at it. So what's gone before, right? We've talked about. I'm just going to ask the question and answer myself. What's gone before is talking about submission.

We're supposed to be submissive to every human authority. Then we are supposed to be submissive to our masters. Then it came down to Christ's submission. He was submissive to the Father as an example for us. Then it came down to, in the last couple of weeks, a husband and wife relationship. The wife is submissive to the husband. And then it talks about the husband's role. So you could say this conclusion or summing up is that. It's going all the way back to the human institutions. But we're going to see some, I kind of wondered if this is maybe more focused.

If you look back to verse, if you have your Bibles, look back to verse 7. And verse 3-7 says, you husbands likewise live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman, and grant her honor as a fellow heir, a brace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. In the immediate context, this speaks of a relationship between a husband and wife that is godly. And I thought it really had application almost to the immediate context area.

You could go back farther, but boy, I liked looking at this. This is what a Christ-like marriage is to look like, that you're harmonious, you're sympathetic. You're brotherly, kind-hearted, humble in spirit. And that's sort of like, wow, that really fit better in the immediate context. So I like that. I think you can make a case for either, either the immediate context, so husband and wife are going back to authorities and servants and masters and that kind of thing. So I kind of like that. So this is to sum up or in conclusion, all of you be harmonious. be all of you like-minded. So I have some verses here, or at least a verse.

Let's look at Romans. So what you find here is that you're going to see Peter's going to state these things, and you're going to see that Paul, and even James, will say a very similar thing. So let's look at Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Someone can read Romans chapter 12, verse 16. don't try to act big, don't try to get into the good graces of important people, but enjoy the company of ordinary folks and don't think you know it all. Well, I can bring a standard of renders that be of the same mind toward one another, not be haughty in mind, be associated with the lowly, do not be wise in your own estimation. So basically, harmoniously, you're the same mind.

If you think about that, and that's why I like the immediate context, because the immediate context in a Christian marriage that you have the Lord Jesus as your Savior. So you have a starting point. You can be in the same mind. And that's such a wonderful thing. When that doesn't exist, as was pointed out earlier, you have this mixed marriage, and you can't be in the same mind. One knows the Lord, one doesn't. How can you be in the same mind?

Well, here he's talking about, be harmonious, be like-minded. And that really fits well with the husband and wife relationship. So we see Paul here saying the same thing. So that's the first one, be harmonious, be like-minded. The next one would be sympathetic, where we're having compassion. I have a couple of verses for this one. And this is also in Paul. So let's look at this day in Romans. Go to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. And look at verse 15. Does someone read 9.15 in Romans?

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and they will have compassion on whom I have compassion. OK. So this is the same word talking about this. Of course, this is God speaking. And this demonstrates even more. This is a characteristic of God that the believer has. And the only way that is visible is that it's Christ's life.

I don't know how many more. The point is, go over to Galatians. Let's try Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. How about 6.2? Galatians 6.2.

Share each other's troubles and problems, and so obey our Lord's command. OK. Great. Thank you. So basically this is bear one another's burdens. And burdens are these heavy things that weigh one down. So that's having compassion, having sympathy for one another. You support one another. And that's even more, I think if we go back to the marriage situation, that's even more applicable now. The husband and wife are to support one another. That's sympathetic.

And then brotherly, having a brotherly affection for one another. And I have a little asterisk, one of the asterisks appear, that's from the Wiest translation. So the verse I have for that one is for brotherly, and it's actually a verse earlier in Peter we looked at. So how about 1st Peter chapter 1, 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 22. Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. So basically this idea is sincere love for the brethren, loving a brotherly affection, sincerely loving your brother.

It goes on to kind hearted or to be tender hearted. And I have that in the Ephesians. Go back to Ephesians. I may not go ahead and read this one this time. Ephesians chapter 4, the last verse, Ephesians 4, verse 32. It says, Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ Jesus has also forgiven you. We see that a lot in scripture. Christ has done this for you, and you're so thankful for that. That's part of the motivating force. It's this personal understanding of what Christ has done for you that's to be a motivating force.

The last one is humble in spirit, humble minded, If you are still in Ephesians, go back to Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. It says, I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of a calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love. So all those words that describe that, if you endeavor to do that, if you endeavor to live that, it's going to be hard. In fact, it's going to be impossible.

But if you, by faith, trust the Lord that that's the kind of life that He displayed, that's His life, and your part in that is to trust Him. Lord, I trust you that as I walk with you, walk by faith, that these characteristics of my life will be displayed. And it's not that we're keeping score. more that we're allowing him to live his life through us. Christ in me, the hope of glory. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live not I, but Christ lives in me, and so on.

So here's all the positive things. Harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, humble in spirit. So this is kind of, we talked about, we just have all these several weeks that are talking about being submissive. And this is kind of summing up this relationship or this, what's being displayed as you're submissive. And it's basically Christ-like.

OK, so now we're going to go to verse 9. And now it's going to kind of switch to the negative. Here's some things that the sin nature is going to display, something that's going to. And we have a hard time sometimes not reacting. I find someone said that the real test of a Christian is how he reacts.

And you can act. You can plan, oh, I'll act a certain way. I'm going to go to church. I'm going to act a certain way. I'm going to act. clothes on, my Sunday best on, so to speak. I have my Sunday disposition on. But what happens when you're driving in the car and somebody cuts you off? Or somebody goes so slow, and they're on their cell phone, and you say, oh my goodness, I'm late. How do you react, right? So somebody said, it's how you react that really shows how the Lord's working in your life. So that's kind of interesting. Actually, that's kind of true.

Because I don't react well sometimes. Why I contested that. She's not allowed to speak right now. First of all, I'm not returning evil for evil. It's actually giving back. It's just like this thing. You know, we see in the world, I've got to get back, he got at me, I'm going to get back at him. Well, Lord says that's not the way Christ's life works. In fact, we see that's exactly the opposite of the way Christ, when he was here on this earth, he did the absolute opposite of that. He never returned evil for evil, or like for like. So here's again, we're going to see this truth. Paul's going to give you this truth as well. So let's look at Romans 12 again. And this time it's Romans 12, 17. Could someone read that for me?

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. So this is in the section, remember, Paul's epistles are divided up into, you know, a lot of times there are truths that are positional truths and then it comes to the practical truths. So here we see Paul saying the same thing. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. So it wouldn't be A person's done wrong to you. If you do it back, you got doubly wrong, right? So how does that help? So they do it wrong, so you do it wrong back. So you might get two wrongs.

That makes no sense for a believer. In a way, you want to see justice rendered. Maybe it's a very serious evil thing that's happened and you want to see justice. I mean, we think of terrible things that happen in the world. You'd like to see justice right now. I'd like to see those people.

And actually, our government is supposed to do that, right? A government operating right under God is supposed to punish in this right now. But many times, even our government is not doing its job. They are not punishing. So a fallen world is a pretty sad situation. When the government is supposed to take care of that, it's not doing their job either. They're not taking care of the evil that's happening. This is such a simple thing here as a way to respond on that last thing where it says don't repay evil for evil.

Instead, pray for God's help for them. Exactly. Actually, that's really good. And that's something you could really try to remember and practice one week or so. Actually, that's what tells us to pray for our leaders. Maybe you don't think of a lot of our leaders. Maybe you have a problem with our leaders. God says you should pray for him. And that's something we can do. That's something we can practically do. I have another verse here along this line in 1 Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 5.15.

Does someone read that verse? See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another. It almost seems like our role in this, when evil happens, we're to seek what is good. I can't think of a good example that's offhand, but it's a situation where evil has been committed, and so to seek after that which is good for one another and for all men. Actually, this expands it beyond just using one another as fellow believers many times. So this seems like we're looking, you know, if evil is committed, you look for something that, you know, a good aspect of it. Like I said, I'm kind of struggling with finding an example of this right at the moment. So there are some things that scripture gives you an alternative. You don't look to the repayment aspect, you look to...

Tom? Well, kind of an example in nature, it's backed up by scripture, wind will reap the whirlwind. In other words, it's almost like God knew how tornado genesis works, and he's replying it right there to people who are just acting in the flesh and decide, oh yeah, you're going to play this game, I can play right back at you, or something like that.

It just makes things worse. Okay. What does make things worse, when you commit an evil, evil's been committed, and in your anger, you compound the problem. Now I'm just going to go on here and go to the verbal aspect of this. Our insult for insult are literally verbal abuse in exchange for verbal abuse. Now this is one that's a, you know, I find myself sometimes, you know, if I'm verbally abused, I'm going to come back with some zinger to zing them back.

I mean, that's just, you know, and sometimes I'm very quick to do that. And then afterwards I think, well, why did I say that? That didn't help. It didn't help at all. I mean, maybe I got the satisfaction for a couple seconds here. But then I was convicted that why did it happen?

Even if it's not a real, maybe it's just a little under the radar scope. Maybe it's not a real zingerback. It's just a mild zinger. The Lord knows your heart, right? So I get convicted of that. Rather than just saying, well, maybe you're right. Maybe I was. Well, whatever it is. Maybe you agree with the person. You could have been whatever they said. You say, oh, maybe you're right, brother. I don't know. Maybe you're right. Rather than saying, well, defend yourself. And I have a hard time. I want to defend myself all the time.

So I have some verses for that one. OK. How about 1 Corinthians 4? And we toil, working with When we are reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. Yeah, well, that's two parts of that. I think it's just dynamite. So what happens when we're reviled or we're insulted? We bless. I mean, it's just the absolute opposite of that. Now, the question you're going to ask is, well, Roger, how do we bless?

And I'll give you my thoughts here in just a second. And I like the last part of that. It says, when we are persecuted, we endure. Think of Christ's enduring. He endured the harsh treatment of man beyond what we can imagine. He endured that patiently. That's Christ's life, basically. We're going to get on the blessing here. That's kind of the flip side. Something happens to us, So we are to bless. That's an interesting one. Actually, let's look at 1 Peter. This is the example we saw of Christ earlier.

So 1 Peter 2.21. Someone can read that? This suffering is all part of the work God has given you.

While being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. So that's kind of our, if you think about what we're to do, we're to, by faith, trust that what is happening, God is aware of what's happening, right? So we're not to get moved away or moved to react from our sinful nature. We're to trust that God knows what he's doing. Says, he left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. Right, exactly. And that's where we're to leave our, I'm not saying that's easy, but sometimes you feel, well, maybe God forgot this time. Let's see what's going on here. This is pretty bad. And I got to step in here and get my point in.

OK, so now we're going to switch over to this thing about giving a blessing instead. So not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. So there are several verses that talk about giving a blessing. And the first one is going to be from what the Lord quoted. Let's look at it. Let's look at Luke chapter 6. Have you seen Luke chapter 6? Luke chapter 6 verse 28.

Let us then curse you and pray for them which despitefully grieve you. That was the point we mentioned earlier about our part of that. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you. So God does have a plan, has a part for us to do. Prayer is a good part of that. And then if you look in Romans 12. Romans 12 locked it in.

Romans 12.14 this time. Bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse. So the opposite response is blessing. And I was just kind of thinking here, what do you think? I've heard some people, do we say, bless your brother, bless your sister? Is that what blessing is about? Or is it more than that? Let me just digress for a second. The word bless literally is to speak well of.

So you might say, well that's a pretty tall order. Here's a person that maybe has insulted you, and you're going to speak well of them? That's a tall order. But I think it has to go beyond just the simple thing. I've heard people say, well, a person mistreats you. You say, well, bless you, brother. Bless you, sister. Well, that sounds kind of almost tacky. I'm just going to say, bless you.

It's kind of curled over. I didn't really explore this. I'm kind of throwing this out for thought. I think it has to do more with looking at the person and thinking, and where does it came to mind? In that light, where you look beyond the situation, you look to the person that has insulted you, and the ultimate example of that is Christ on the cross. So let's look at Luke, this is where it came. Go ahead. Just paraphrase, just says pray that God will bless him. That's interesting. OK. OK. Well, that's not bad. I like that.

Because the thing is, I think I've heard believers say, well, I'll just say, bless you, brother. Bless you, sister. And they insult you. To me, that sounds, I don't know. This doesn't sound right. It sounds like I'm just going to put a little covering over it. And I've done my obligation. I'm not supposed to insult him back.

Bless you, brother. He zings you with some zinger, some verbal zinger. And you go, bless you, brother. Bless you, sister. That doesn't sound right to me. Maybe that's all you could do at that moment. It's kind of hard. Then you can do something later on. Bless you and then leave. This is what struck me. Our Lord demonstrated this perfectly. Luke 23 on the cross. This mindset is just amazing. Luke 23. Luke 23.

I'll start reading in Luke 23 verse 33 chapter 23 of Luke verse 33 and when they came to the place called the skull There they crucified him, and the criminals one on his right and one on his left. But Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they cast lots, dividing up his garments among themselves.

So I thought, you know, it's sometimes maybe having a competitive, so something happened. Let's take a verbal situation. Something happened. And maybe you realize that the person doesn't know the Lord. And so you think, well, Lord, this person needs to know you. His future is... is awful and maybe you just accept whatever whatever it was and but you look to the situation so you're blessing him by maybe praying for him saying Lord this man needs you So that's just kind of me.

I may have other thoughts along that line. Just thinking about blessing is more than just saying the word, bless you, brother or bless you, sister. I've heard people use that. And it's always kind of bothered me. So I thought the deeper there, you care about the person.

And you look at the person. And the Lord Jesus demonstrated that perfectly. They don't know what they're doing. They don't really conceive of the magnitude of what they've done. So I thought that was really, you know, kind of smoking point. OK. I actually have to reset it, but instead on the contrary, it actually died.

What's interesting here is actually calling out here to the. This puts you on the hook even more. This is not just an occasion. This is something that is a lifestyle. The lifestyle that you have is that this is a continuous action verb. That your response to this whole situation of evil for evil is constantly is constantly blessing. So I thought of constantly praying for those situations. And they will probably be there already. Probably in a situation where you are asking the Lord to help you get through this. take you through this.

What was the definition for blessing again? To speak well of. Literally to speak well of. Actually the word eulogized seems right. I'm going to eulogize my insulters. Literally to speak well of. It's a blessing. It's the word blessing. So how are you going to find something to speak well of those who do that to you?

That's challenging. But I think realizing their condition, like the Lord did on the cross, he realized man's condition. They don't know what they're doing. So maybe we look to whatever happens, they don't understand what they've done. That might be good though if somebody insulted you and you said well that could be true.

Right now I'm trying to think of how I can speak well of you. I'm trying to think of something good about you. I'm thinking of just being able to say to the Lord Or to turn this evil into good for your sake, not for anybody else's. That's good. I like that. I like that. We're looking at what is good. Our focus is on what's good and what's right and what's true. Not on the insults of man. That's good. That's great. I like that. OK, so now that ends these two verses. Now we're going to go to the last part of the verse. It talks about, basically, this is the believer's lifestyle or his calling for you to call for this very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

And I apologize, I didn't really Dealing with this real well, what occurred to me is this other verse here in 1 Peter that we covered earlier, which says, For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, in fact we actually read this earlier, this is the second time around in this verse, 1 Peter 2.21, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps. So this is part of our calling, to be those who bless and not curse. So that ends these two verses right here. So now we're going to go into this quotation from Psalm 34.

So basically, if you look at it carefully at this point, it really follows. If you look, it starts off, for the one who desires life to love and to see good days. If you look at verse 12 in Psalms 34, it says, who is a man who desires life and loves and link them as numeric standards? It's been added. So it's, in love's days, your life may see good.

So part of the thought here is, I think, that is he asking for a long life here? Is that kind of the idea here? Or is there something maybe deeper here? It says, the one who desires life In fact, let's just go to the other chart. It might be a little easier to see here.

So it seems like the first part of this quotation somewhere is desire. The A part of kin is the one who desires life. And this is what Verne calls the Hebrew poetic pattern, or what is the Hebrew poetic pattern. It says the one who desires life. And then it has a restatement of that fact. to love and to see good days. So it's kind of restating that idea.

So life here seems to be more maybe a quality of life. And it seems like this is a life that God would have for us. We desire to have the life that God has for us. And I was thinking about the fact Christ has said, I've come that they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly.

And I was thinking about how people have taken that verse. And along this line, we desire to have a wonderful life for the Lord. And what we envision in that life, if we're careful with Scripture, we see the whole view. But sometimes we think, well, this life in the Lord is just going to be And some people will teach us, it's just going to be blessing after blessing, I'm going to have wealth, I'm going to have a family. And they have this wonderful picture painted. But scripture says this abundant life in the Lord involves suffering and trials.

And that's part of the whole picture. So you think, wow, when Christ says I've come, they might have life and have it more abundantly. How is that abundance? How does that abundance fit in with the total picture we see in scripture that says, you know your life?

Christ suffered, you're going to suffer with him because you're fellowshipping with him. So that abundant life in the Lord involves suffering and things that aren't pleasant. But it's still called the abundant life. And I think we sometimes, some people, they focus so much on, well it's got to be an abundant life, I've got to have all this wonderful happy, happy, happy, joy, joy, joy, and if you don't have that, something's wrong with you, you're, you know, you're having a faint, blah, blah, blah, blah, but scripture says no, no, your life Christ suffered, you're going to suffer. And that's going to be part of the experience of abundant life, that you're in fellowship with your Savior. And that's what the abundant life is about.

So I think this life here, the one who desires life, is focusing on the life of Christ and to see good days. And good days may involve difficulties. And I think that's what we see. If we're honest about ourselves, the Christian life is trials and sufferings as well as many blessings. Tom? It's kind of ironic, but in a way magnifies the meaning of this verse, even though it's not our tradition.

The Greek Orthodox see the name Good Friday is OK, but Great Friday is what they officially called it, because that was a good day for all of us. OK, I like that. I always like that name, Good Friday, because I think, how is that good? Our Savior was crucified on that day, but it was a good day. That's a Tony the Tiger flip on it.

So, out of Christ's suffering, wonderful blessing occurred. And you could argue that out, just like with our brother Norm, I mean, we look at our brother Norm and our brother Hal we had for so many years. Out of other believers' suffering, we benefit greatly. We see great blessing in that, even though suffering has evolved. So we shouldn't be We're too surprised that suffering is an intimate part of the Christian life, and that there's blessing in that. Blessing for us, and blessing for the Lord, too, as we patiently endure that. Now, sometimes we don't patiently endure it. I'm not saying here that I can patiently endure every suffering I have. I don't. But I know that's what the Lord has in mind, that we do that. And we trust him for that. So this song is another look at some of these pencils we're talking about here. OK, so now the next part is, and these titles I kind of found as I was going through this.

Demanding Activity. I'm sure demanding is that good. So here we have this pattern again. Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceit. So it's kind of the same idea of your tongue is not to be speaking evil. Or to seek, basically. It restates that idea. He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. So that's what's called the Hebrew Prophetic.

It states one thing, then restates it slightly differently. So here are qualities, again, that, in a negative sense, that we're not to be involved in. We're not. And we just restate some of what we saw in 8 and 9. Evil and deceit, turning away from evil.

You must speak peace, but this is a blessing part, you could argue. And then the last part is God's response. And this is kind of interesting. This part here kind of talks about God has a relationship with his own, basically. He says, for the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. The righteous are those who have been made righteous by knowing Christ. We have the righteousness of Christ. And the ears are attentive to their prayers. And then it says, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So God, our relationship with Him, we have a relationship. And His eyes are toward His own. And His ears are attentive to our prayers. Are all our prayers answered?

No. Yes. Well, they're all heard and they're all answer. I guess that's true. Thank you. Thank you. It's not the way I answer it. Right. They say yes. This is a yes. Yes. Yes. No. Or not yet. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, And the Lord doesn't send us an e-mail.

Here's the status of our prayers. Here's the status of your prayers. That would be good. I was on hold for a while. That one is a no. It's actually quite shocking, I think. Whoa. It's an e-mail from the Lord. Here's the status of your prayers. Anyway. OK, well, that's actually all I have. So any last thoughts or comments?

So like I said, this ends this section on submission and the Christian life and how we're to put ourselves under what God has. And if you think about this, allowing yourself to be insulted and reviled, all those things are not pleasant. There's not one thing pleasant about that. But when you see that as God's plan, his purpose, That's to help you to relax and settle down and to trust Him. Say, OK, Lord, I don't enjoy this, what I'm going through, but that's something that has happened to me, and I'm your child, and you tell me to by faith accept this and bless the person.

I mean, that seems totally helpful. I like Marty's idea. I'm thinking of a way to bless you. That's good. Any last thoughts? We'll close in prayer. We thank you, Father. We thank you so much, Lord, for your plans and your purposes, Lord. You tell us, my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your ways. My thoughts are higher than your ways. My thoughts, should I quote it all right? We just thank you so much, Lord, for your plans and your purposes, Lord. We thank you, our Savior, who demonstrated those perfectly. We thank you that we have his very life, and you ask us by faith and trust in him to live that life for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.