Blessed to Be a Blessing

June 22, 2025|Blessed to Be a Blessing|1 Peter 3:8-12

JD Cutler

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We have looked at Peter’s instructions for wives and husbands on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day respectively, but as we wrap up looking at this littler section, I wanted us to see his instructions for all Christians.

Young, old, married, single, male, female, new Christian or aged saint.

What is remarkable about Peter’s instructions is how unremarkable they are.

What he says in these verses isn’t new, much of what he says here is first stated by our Lord in the Gospels, teachings Peter heard first hand. Much of it is similarly taught by Paul in his epistles.

All that to say, in terms of Biblical instruction, what we find here is neither novel or isolated. Peter is simply describing what should mark the lives of those who belong to Christ, who name his name and claim to be His.

However, at the same time, when we read his list and contemplate his instructions for us, why does it seem that what we find so often feels impossible or if we are honest, things that we do not even desire for our own lives?

Why does it seem that for many of those who name the name of Christ, it is much easier to play church than to embrace the radical new nature described in the pages of God’s word?

I would propose it is because many of us have not fully understood the call of Christ on our lives, a subject Peter spends much time on in this letter. For instance, in the five chapters of 1st Peter, Peter uses the term called in four out of the five. It seems to be at the forefront of his mind as he writes to these scattered Christians experiencing difficulties and persecution. He wants them to understand their calling in order to live their lives in a way that brings honor to God, witness to the world, and blessing to the individual and the community of faith they belong to, no matter where they are or what they are experiencing.

In chapter 1, Peter tells us, because he who called us is holy, we also should be holy in all your conduct.

In chapter 2, Peter tells us that God has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession

In the same chapter, Peter says we have been called to follow Christ’s example, literally to walk in his steps.

In chapter 3, Peter says we have been called to be a blessing so that we may obtain a blessing.

In chapter 5, Peter says that the God of all grace has called us into the eternal glory in Christ.

We often think of God’s call as his invitation to salvation, to repent and believe, and that is certainly part of it, but it is not all of it. God’s call is not a moment to respond to, but a lifetime of calling us to himself, to be conformed to the image of Christ, to embrace the transformative power of the Holy Spirit to become what we would not be, could not be, and would not want to be apart from his divine grace working in our lives.

I would argue that God’s call is not just an invitation to respond in a moment, but it is an invitation to become something all together different. From Peter’s words here in chapter 3, I want to share with you three key areas that describe what God is calling us to become.

Those words are Unity, Blessing, and Peace.

Our prayer this morning is that you would not only better understand God’s call on your life, but that through His Spirit he would give each of us a greater measure of desire to become what he has called us to be. With that as our aim and our plea, let’s open to 1 Peter 3 and pick up at verse 8.

I. UNITY: The Heart of Community

1 Peter 3:8 “8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”

The Apostle Peter introduces this section with the word finally. Now, this does not introduce his concluding remarks, rather in the context, finally serves as introducing the last in his series of exhortations that began in chapter 2 verse 18, where Peter turns his attention to specific groups of Christians. Prior to that, in verse 13 of the same chapter, Peter introduces the idea of subjection or submission in the Christian life. Then specifically what it looks like for Christian servants, then in verse 1 of chapter 3, what it looks like for Christian wives, and then as we saw last week in verse 7 what it looks like for Christian husbands. Now, finally, he says, all of you. These godly virtues should be modeled by all believers at all times.

Two things I want to point out that I think are helpful as we look into this list.

One, Peter does not use imperatives here. He does not say these are things we are supposed to do, or we may say, commands to we carry out, rather these are descriptions of what we should be, which is why many translations use be instead of have. I think what the translators are trying to get at with have, is that these are characteristics that we should possess, this is the kind of person we are called to be.

Two, while Peter does not issue specific commands, these attributes will produce specific behaviors. Peter seems to be dealing with what we would call our internal life. Our mind, our affections, our thoughts. But make no mistake, what we do stems from who we are. The reason I think many of us struggle with a list like this is that we would much rather have a to-do list rather than a to-be list. To do lists are concrete, they are black and white. We can check boxes and move on. It is not hard to understand why Christianity often gets boiled down to what you can do and what you can’t do.

I think it is in our nature to want easily defined objectives and tasks. Don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t cuss, go to church, tithe, read your Bible and pray. Right? But the reality is, an unbeliever can check off that list pretty easily. Yes, there are things we are called not to do and things we are called to do, but more than that, again and again, we are told in the New Covenant things we are to be, out of which the things we do will flow.

...the most important characteristic of a believers is that we are to be united.

So what does Peter say we are to be?

In essence, he says the most important characteristic of a believers is that we are to be united. If we want to be what God called us to be, we must understand that will never experience it apart from being united with other believers in real, tangible ways. Christianity, although personal, is never individualistic. Let me just spend a few minutes unpacking that statement, because I have seen many people who claim to belong to Christ get tripped up at this point. Yes, Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior. Yes, the Bible says that there is a personal response of repentance and faith that is necessary for salvation. Yes, the Bible talks about God’s election of individuals. Yes, we believe that scripture teaches that every individual who is redeemed is in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. But, equally it describes us as a body, a house, God’s temple, a flock, branches attached to the vine, a dwelling place for God, members of the household of God, God’s field, and on and on. It says in one Spirit we were baptized into one body. No Christian is an island, and no Christian exists outside of the one body of Christ. Period. So listen, the American version of Christianity that says that I can be a Christian and be completely disconnected from the body of Christ is at best mistaken and at worst wicked. You were not saved into an individualistic experience, just you and Jesus, you were saved and brought into a body. Which is why we can say Christianity, although personal, is never individualistic. So these things Peter calls us to be all involve the idea of unity among individuals.

Christianity, although personal, is never individualistic.

Unity pervades each one of these characteristics that Peter gives here. Let’s look at them individually.

First have unity of mind, are be together in one mind. The word Peter chooses to use here is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. It is a combination of two words. The word together and the word mind. Your translation may say ‘one mind’ or ‘like minded’. The idea seems to be a unity of thought and feeling. Although Peter’s choice of word is unique, the idea is not. Romans 12:16 “16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”

Romans 15:5–6 “5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 2:2 “2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” What Peter’s word choice indicates here seems to be more than just our thinking, but our feelings. The word we translated mind here is a word that has to do with diaphragm, the center of your being. This means that we must be united beyond just what we believe to be true. Jesus is the only way to the Father, he is both fully God and fully man, he was born of a virgin, died on a Roman cross, was buried, and was physically raised from the dead, ascended bodily into heaven and he will return physically and bodily again at the end of time. To those truths we all say Amen. Doctrinally united. That is certainly part of it, but that is not all of it. The unity Peter calls us to experience goes beyond the acknowledgement of facts.

Harmony is a good word for it.

Listen to Paul’s description of it again in Romans 15.

Romans 15:5–6 “5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

May God grant you to live in such harmony that together you may with one voice glorify God. That’s unity of desire, purpose, and action all wrapped up into one. No one pulling for their own glory, no one disrupting the purpose of the collective by aiming at another goal, no one using their voice for their own gain but living in such harmony that we are of the same mind having the same love expressing the same worship. This is the heart of the community we are called to be as Christians.

Second, Peter says be sympathetic. Some translations read compassion. We naturally tend to think of sympathy or compassion as one person feeling for another who is suffering or experiencing difficulty. Peter could have used that word, it is used in other places, but the word he chose seems to indicate feeling the same thing as another without regard to whether it is negative or positive. Literally to feel together or to have a fellow-feeling. The idea is probably best captured in Paul’s famous words in Romans 12:15. Romans 12:15 “15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” We are called to be so united that your joy is my joy and your pain is my pain. That which causes your heart to leap for joy in Christ ought to cause mine to leap for joy. What breaks your heart ought to break my heart. This is what Christian community is supposed to look like. Not just niceties and pleasantries, quickly offered ‘I’ll pray for you’s. Our lives are to be so intertwined and our hearts so united that I feel what you feel. This is what we are called to be. If you don’t want that, you don’t want biblical Christian community. Which brings us to Peter’s next description.

Thirdly, Peter says we should possess is brotherly love. Literally ‘loving as brethren’. Again, the way Peter uses the word here is unique in form in the New Testament, but not in thought.

Similarly, Paul says in Romans 12:10 “10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” Jesus instructed his disciples to love one another as he had loved them. The apostle John uses our love for our brother as a test whether we love God or not, when he says 1 John 4:20 “20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” All that to say, that when I look at you as a fellow believer the most important thing that I see is our relation in the family of God. More important than what you can do for me, more important than what I want from you, more important than what you have done to me, more important than what you have said about me. You are my brother in Christ, you are my sister in Christ, worthy of honor and love not because of what you have or have not done, but because of who you belong to.

Fourthly, Peter says we should possess a tender heart, which sounds much better than it’s literal translation, well-boweled or possessing strong bowels. Now, as weird as that is to us, is it really any stranger than saying someone has a big heart? We of course don’t mean to say that they have a literal enlarged heart, but for some reason we have attached feelings like love, compassion, and tenderness to the organ that pumps blood through our bodies. In the same way, the 1st century world used the idea of bowels to indicate the seat of the tenderer affections, esp. kindness, benevolence, compassion; what we would call our heart (tender mercies, affections, etc.) If you can get past the medical function of the bowels, the imagery is pretty spot on. When we see someone we love we say we get butterflies in our stomach, when we experience tragedy or loss, we say it’s like getting kicked in the gut or I feel sick to my stomach. Right? So what is Peter saying we should be here? It seems that he is saying, when we see someone we are called to love in a position of need, pain, suffering, we ought to be so moved in our innermost being that we desire to do whatever we can to alleviate it, or to suffer with them through it, extending kindness and compassion. Not only should it be our natural reaction, we ought to be strong in this area. In the same way an athlete who has strength trained is far superior to the average Joe when performing feats of strength, the Christian should be far superior in his/her ability to extend compassion and kindness to those in need.

Fifthly and finally, Peter says we ought to have a humble mind. I believe this is the thing that undergirds the rest of the list. The literal translation is lowliness of mind. How does this play itself out in the body of Christ? How should I think about myself in relation to those God has placed around me? I’m so glad you asked.

Philippians 2:3-8 (ESV) 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

From Paul’s teaching in Philippians, I think the key to being humble is not thinking less of myself, but thinking more of others. If when I look at you, I realistically count you as more significant than myself, then nothing else on this list is all that hard. Of course I would rejoice when you rejoice, or course I would weep when you wept. Why wouldn’t I love you as a brother or sister, why wouldn’t I want to serve you from a place of affection? Paul says, this is how we should look at one another, Peter simply says we ought to possess a humility of mind. I say, it’s two sides to the same coin.

This unity is the very heart of the community we are called to be in Christ, which Paul says is ours in Christ. The second area that describes what God calls us to become is the word…

II. BLESSING: The Response of the Blessed

Peter now transitions from what we are to how we should react. Let’s pick up in verse 9.

1 Peter 3:9 “9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”

Do not repay- do not return what is given, or what is naturally due

Maybe you are like me, and there is a sense, even going through that list in verse 8, where you think, okay, with God’s help and in a community where this is who everyone is, I can do this. I can be that person. I mean think about it. If everyone in your community of faith exhibited those characteristics, unity, sympathy, brotherly love, tender hearts, and humble minds, it would be pretty easy to return that, wouldn’t it?

But, one, no community of believers is perfectly sanctified and two, there are a whole lot of people we interact with who do not know the Lord and do not act like that. In this life we are bound to experience people who treat us poorly, who act in evil ways against us, or revile us. I mean if they did it to Jesus, who never sinned and had as one of his primary purposes to reveal the Father, who is love, to humanity, how much more are you and I going to experience it? Jesus told us to expect it, and as one wise sage once said in one of the greatest movies ever made, "Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something" Wesley as Dread Pirate Roberts.

You will be mistreated, you will be sinned against, unjustly targeted. People will try to use you and abuse you. Anyone who has been alive for a significant amount of time will attest to this. Christ and the scriptures never promise to protect us from those things, but to see us through them.

So, how are we as believers expected to respond?

Do not repay evil for evil. Evil here is exactly what you think it is. That which is troublesome, injurious, destructive. Generally what we would call bad or hurtful. Do not repay reviling for reviling. While evil seems to be actions taken against us or at least the results of other’s actions against us, reviling has to do with critical, abusive, or insulting speech.

So whether in word or deed, when someone treats us poorly, Peter tells us not to respond in kind.

Again, Peter is not alone in saying this.

Romans 12:17 “17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.”

1 Thessalonians 5:15 “15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.”

Luke 6:27–29 “27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.”

So if we are not to repay evil for evil, reviling for reviling, how are we supposed to respond? This is where Peter’s on the contrary comes in. We are called to do the opposite. Peter says when someone does evil to us, we return blessing, when we are reviled we return blessing.

This is such a radical thought and so counter-cultural, it definitely deserves our attention this morning.

We have to ask a few questions. What does Peter mean by that word bless? A more literal translation of the word and word form is speak a blessing or speak well. So much so that it is where we get the word English word eulogy from. A eulogy is simply- a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, typically someone who has just died. In other words, to speak well. On the surface, it would seem that Peter is calling us to speak well or in praise of someone that has harmed us.

Now, we know we are not to call evil good, so our next question is, how does this work itself out in practical ways?

Peter cannot mean we praise the wicked person who does evil things to us. However, if we take into consideration the parallel passages from both Paul and Jesus, we can begin to understand how we are called to respond. Paul says in Romans we are to give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. In Thessalonians he says we are to seek to do good on everyone. Jesus says do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, give freely to those who take from you.

Let me walk you through the way I understand it and hopefully it will help you as well.

In essence, when someone does something evil to us or reviles us it reveals something about who they are, not something about who we are.

This is in essence what Jesus says in Luke 6. Luke 6:43-45 (ESV) 43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

When then a person produces evil or speaks wickedly, Jesus says it comes from who they are within, what kind of tree they are, if you will. That much seems clear from our Lord. Right?

Follow me then. If someone does evil to us and we return evil for evil or reviling for reviling, are we not displaying that our heart is also full of evil treasure?

Wouldn’t it follow then, if we have been given a new heart and in-dwelt by the Spirit of God, then the most overwhelming evidence of that change would be in the way we respond. That is out of the good treasure of our heart, would we not produce good and not evil?

If someone does evil to us and we return evil for evil or reviling for reviling, are we not displaying that our heart is also full of evil treasure?

Will we always do this perfectly? Of course not.

But to the extent we have surrendered our lives to Christ and his power is operating in our lives, more often than not we should be known for this kind of fruit.

Wouldn’t it follow then, that what Peter says here is not simply formulaic, in the sense that we bless others so that we obtain a blessing from God, but rather also descriptive. As in, the person who lives this way and walks in their calling shows that they will obtain the blessing of everlasting life because they belong to Christ and have had his transformative power working in their lives.

I think linguistically, you can read it as formulaic since Peter literally says since you have been called to this so that you may obtain or inherit a blessing. I think the best understanding, when we take into account everything else he says, particularly in chapter 2 verses 21-25 concerning Christ’s response to the evil done to him and the reviling done to him, is to understand it primarily in the descriptive way, understanding that it is also true that we will more fully experience God’s blessings as we walk in obedience to His word. I say all of that to warn us not to view God’s blessings as simply transactional. To interpret this verse as God will bless me when I bless others, especially without a firm biblical idea of blessing is to open ourselves up to a dangerous line of thinking that we can somehow manipulate God by doing good to others.

The third area that describes what God calls us to become is the word…

III. PEACE: The Pursuit of the Christian

Peter introduces the justification for his instruction by drawing from Psalm 34, quoting ,with a few variations from Psalm 34:12 through the first part of verse 16. He introduces it with the word ‘for’, that is he is providing the OT scriptural background for his admonitions.

Let’s pick up in verse 10.

1 Peter 3:10–12 “10 For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””

Why should we not revile when we are reviled? Why should we use our tongues for blessings and not cursings?

Because we, as recipients of real, abundant life in Christ love that life that he is given us and want to experience the fullness of God’s goodness towards us in the days he has given us.

Why should we not return evil for evil and rather do good to all? For the same reasons.

All of which Peter sums up in let the one who desires to love life and see good days seek peace and pursue it.

First let us deal with the verbs Peter uses. Seek and pursue. They are very close in their definitions, both in the Greek Peter uses and the original Hebrew David used. Now, parallelism is common in the poetry of the Psalms and it could just be a way to emphasize the pursuit of peace, but it could also be a way to instruct us in that pursuit. There is just enough differences in the words, that I think it may be the second. The word seek deals with our aim, our desire, while the word pursue deals with the eagerness and earnestness we seek to accomplish that aim. So peace should both be our aim in life as well as the thing we spend our energy pursuing.

The second thing is what does Peter or David mean by the word peace? The word itself often refers to peace between individuals, i.e. harmony, which would certainly fit with what we have seen so far in Peter’s admonitions, as well as other Biblical instruction.

Romans 14:19 “19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” (in reference to causing our brother to stumble over what we eat)

Hebrews 12:14 “14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” (in reference to growing weary of suffering)

Romans 12:18 “18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (in a very similar passage to what we have here in Peter)

Here is Peter’s application and why we should pursue peace.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to the prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

We seek peace and pursue it because it is what God desires for us.

Think about it this way, we are never more like the Father than when we are seeking peace, especially with those who have mistreated us or spoken ill of us. We pursue peace with others because God not only pursued peace with us but he secured it. We are at peace with God as believers because, although we had rebelled against him, although we had broke his law and rejecting his love, he sent his only begotten son so that we who were far from God might be reconciled to himself.

...we are never more like the Father than when we are seeking peace, especially with those who have mistreated us or spoken ill of us.

The Bible says it this way.

Romans 5:1-11 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Not only have we received reconciliation and peace with God, but Paul says elsewhere we have been given the ministry of reconciliation through the message of reconciliation.

So not only should we be seeking to live peaceable with everyone, but we should be sharing the message of reconciliation so that others may experience peace with God. This is to be our pursuit as Christians who enjoy peace with the Father.

As Christians, Peter’s admonitions help us see who we are to be, how we are to respond to evil, and what we are to pursue with our lives. In his next few words after our text, Peter summarizes what we have been talking about as being zealous for what is good. Earnestly desiring and pursuing what is good. Peter has defined pretty clearly for us what God considers good. Unity among the brethren, people who are a blessing to others, and those who pursue peace.

The question I want to you leave you with this morning is not how well do these describe me right now, but how badly do I desire for these to be true of me at the very core of who I am.

With a clearer picture of who God calls us to be, is that what you want for your life?