1 Peter 3:17 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Peter 3:17

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This is a tremendous statement: it reflects the Lord’s teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. It is far better to say and do the right things – witnessing for Christ, living a life which is honouring to him – than to suffer for wrong doing. It sounds obvious, but it is far better and it is a far happier life, because if you suffer for well doing, you have mounted a witness! Don’t complain at hardship. This is the goal of the Christian life. People may be polite; some people may be friendly but, broadly speaking, people will be against us. We will know antagonism and scorn and resentment on account of our message and what we stand for. Don’t be surprised at that – ‘happy are ye’, because you know you have made an impression; they have recognised where you stand. They are beginning to understand something of your message and their resentment is a result of that. Peter’s emphasis is on the word ‘better’. There is nothing surprising in that a person should have to suffer for doing evil, for the world has a measure of justice, and the authorities carry out their duty to reward doers of good and punish doers of evil. But for the believer, to suffer for doing evil is a miserable affair. What profit does he have from such a life? His testimony to the Lord is spoiled, the respect that his life should earn has been spoiled, and his conscience condemns him as loudly as the voices of unbelievers. He who is supposed to rise above the standard of the world and to set an example to the lost has voluntarily and unnecessarily enslaved himself to sin all over again. He must pray, and he must strive to repent, and struggle with the help of God to regain lost ground. All the sense of progress that gives comfort to his soul has gone. This brings all manner of doubts about whether he will succeed the next time he tries, and yet he dare not stay where he is.The qualifying words, ‘if it is the will of God’, are associated with the phrase ‘to suffer for doing good’, for it is only by God’s permission that any of his children ever suffer, and always for their eternal benefit, otherwise he would not give his consent. The order of words in Greek makes this clear. Satan cannot lay a finger on any believer without permission and God does not grant this permission unless his wisdom has already seen that there is gain in it. When therefore we suffer for doing good, we must not think that God’s government has been overthrown or that Satan has taken us from the Lord’s protection by greater force or skill. We continue to trust in the Lord who works the pleasant and the painful for our profit.

Application

You will get a tremendous reward and blessing, which you could never deserve, because you took a stand for Jesus Christ. Other Scriptures tell us that the preserving power of God is proved. We would go to pieces under persecution and hostility and suffering, but the fact that we don’t is because we know instead the comfort and the preserving power of God in our lives. We know that we are members of God’s kingdom and it sanctifies us.

There is a great deal on the subject of the sanctifying power of hostility in the first letter of Peter. Christian people will suffer setbacks and difficulties by way of hostility – those who are offended by what we stand for and the faith into which we have been drawn by the Lord. Of course, we pray, and sometimes in his kindness the Lord removes or softens those difficulties. But sometimes it's not so, and we have to bear them, perhaps over a long time. How do we cope with hostility? What is our attitude? Is resentment and deep dislike of the perpetrators? The Lord’s words on these subjects in the Gospels are striking (Matthew 5:44-45; Luke 6:22-23; 27, 35). If we are fortunate enough to live in a country where we are protected by certain laws, and we are given free speech, then we may appeal to these things in trouble and in distress, but there are a great many problems that come to us, concerning which we have no recourse to anyone. God commands us to be charitable and patient and kind to our oppressors, and to be a blessing to them, and in the following verses he gives us two examples of this.

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1 Peter 3:17 Commentary and Bible Study