1 Peter 3:11 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Peter 3:11

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Then the passage goes on: ‘Let him eschew evil’ – a very old-fashioned English word, which means, deliberately avoid it. There is a deliberate stopping of words and deeds, it has to be a determination – ‘I will not.’ Then we pray for help. Never relax. Never take your hands off the steering wheel of life. Never think you can go through the afternoon not thinking about resisting temptation. The Greek literally means shun, decline. Let him shun evil and do good. Negatively we have to be determined not to do evil and at the same time to do good. The first on its own is not enough. The one follows the other. It is not enough simply to try to put out of my life things that are wrong, because that leaves a void and sooner or later, the wrong will come back, probably quite quickly. So I refuse to do the wrong, but I put in some work on the positive side; fill that void with something good. If I substitute a good reaction then I am more likely to succeed by the help of God, than if I simply do the negative side on its own.‘Seek peace’, search for peace. We need to use our minds to figure out a peaceful resolution to potentially confrontational situations. If we are in an eggshell type of relationship, then we must be careful to maintain peace, and not do anything inflammatory. There is enough hostility stacked up on the other side to set off an incident: our job is to see that that does not happen.You could read through a dozen counselling books, but look how the Holy Spirit inspires Peter to put it in so few words: ‘Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.’ Another old-fashioned word, follow after, the Greek is literally run after, pursue. Let him seek peace and pursue it. The particular good thing which is picked out is peace-making in relationships. Run after good, particularly, peaceful relationships, as peaceful, sincerely so, as possible.

Application

We are all so busy, especially parents with families, there is so much to do, so much to think about but somehow we must make time to be just alone, even if it’s in odd moments, to think, ‘What am I going to do? What am I going to say? Surely there is some good I should be doing today. There are some needs I should meet. I should be thinking about helping about this person or that person, or speaking spiritually to this one or to that one. We must give some time to planning good, because if you haven’t got good to do, all you will be doing is negatively fighting off the wrong that you are tempted to do and it’s hard to do that by itself, but if you can switch off the wrong and immediately implement something better, something that you have prepared or thought about beforehand, that is so much better. There are very few people who naturally can just speak out, and almost without having to think about it, say gracious things. That’s a very unusual gift. Most people have to formulate and think of things. ‘Now I'm going into work today. I'm going to have some moments in conversation with this one and with that one. Do I have the slightest idea what useful thing I could raise, or topic I could embark on? I'm going to see a friend. Have I the slightest idea what will take place when I do, what the line of our conversation might be? Have I got anything in my hand to take with me?’ Many people just don't think of this, and so everything is on autopilot. They take every conversation as it comes, and they end up saying very little which is profitable or useful or edifying. We all of us have to think and formulate and plan.

Seek peace and pursue it, because peace is always running away. Always there are silly little irritations or grievances which we are likely to respond to. Seek peace, harmony, as much as you can. Seek it positively. Don't just expect it to happen. Seek it, promote it, and pursue it, because it tries to run away from you.

Questions

What if someone is coming at me with a knife or a gun, or with an awful verbal lashing? Are we pacifists? Do we take everything like doormats? Or do we pick up a chain to ward off a knife? No, there are bounds to what we how far we go. We are not total pacifists. ‘As much as lieth in you’, says Paul (Romans 12:18). This is our policy. We make a righteous, kind, reasonable response.

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Introduction

1 Peter 3:11 Commentary and Bible Study