Page 51 - General Epistles (James through Jude) Textbook

it resides and began to belong to the heavenly world in which it is already now but not yet fully residing.
For it to continue persevering, there is the greatest need to live out those stamps of a health Christian
community.
First, this community (or Peter’s audience) needed to be like-minded. Like-mindedness would
demonstrate the sharing of same religious and moral beliefs. In the end, unity of purpose would come
out as an obvious result. Second, they needed to be sympathetic. That is, Peter’s recipients, while
experiencing suffering of various kinds, still they were requested to live out compassion for one another.
They were required to walk with their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in their struggles, offering
comfort just as God continued to offer them comfort (cf. 2 Cor. 1:3-5). If they would show compassion
of that quality, unity of purpose would be achieved. Third, they need to love one another. Paul
categorizes love as the first fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Showing deep love for one another, thus,
would reinforce the claim that Peter’s audience, despite the presence of sufferings among them,
belonged to the Holy Spirit. In other ways, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Fourth, that called out assembly were required to be living out compassion. If sympathy and compassion
are similar in meaning, why did Peter use both at the same time? He could have used them for
emphasis. “This unique vocabulary stresses the importance of these Christian virtues which keep one
from deceitful (cf. 1 Peter 2:1, 22) speech.” Fifth, they needed to be humble. Karen H. Jobes noted
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that humility was scorned among the “first-century Roman society” because it expressed “weakness.”
For and to Jesus, humility expressed His willingness to serve others (and that through death) but not His
weakness because He is Omnipotent from eternity to eternity. Therefore, there is zero fear in Him to
lose anything through His humility as “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created
through him and for him” (cf. Col. 1:16).

Peter continued to encourage his audience to exercise non-repayment of
evil but only a blessing for two reasons. First, that was the nature of their
calling. They needed to take this seriously and of most importance because
the reason behind being given new birth based on God’s great mercy (cf. 1
Pet. 1:3) was for them not to be able to repay evil with evil but repay evil
with a blessing. How does that look like? First of all, it is good to leave the
responsibility of retaliation to God (cf. Deut. 32:35; Heb. 10:30). Further, the
use of the words like insult reinforces the claim that Peter’s audience were
probably living in a hostile atmosphere where they were exposed to some
abuses like foul languages, etc. But even if those were hurting, they needed to bless instead of
retaliating. The “blessing” undoubtedly includes hope for their salvation as in 2:12, that they might “give
honor to God when he judges the world.”
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Second, if they succeeded in replacing a possible retaliation with a blessing, they would inherit a
blessing. “Thus, the blessing referred to in 3:9 is a final blessing that will be received when Christ
returns.” This is “the idea of reward for returning blessing for insult” (Best, Marshall). To prove that
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there is a blessing to those who do not repay evil, Peter quoted Psalms 34:12-16. In that passage, David
is praising the LORD for His goodness, He is describing the reasons for praising Him, and the results that
come out of turning to the LORD. Simply, Peter is saying that Just like David who enjoyed God’s blessings
for turning away from evil to God, so would Peter’s audience if they continued to exercise non-
retaliation to those who would insult them. If we do good by means of turning away from evil, God
would turn toward us and would deliver us at His own time from various afflictions. Not only will part of
God’s involvement be involved in our situations but the full total involvement of God among us.

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