Living Under the Smile of God

I hope at least to make a good effort at getting
through this great passage. We come again, though, in a sense
to a new passage, not to a new context, as we’ve been saying
for the last six or so weeks, the context is the same. When Peter urged in chapter 2,
verse 13, that we all be subject, that we be submitted to those
institutions, most of which we have already
considered, this is the same context this verse falls in,
this stream of thought that Peter began back in chapter 2, verse
13. And there the context was general. The exhortation was general that
we are to be submitted or subject to every human institution. Immediately flowing out of that
was the institution of work, if you will, where we looked
at the work pool of the day, the slaves, the servants that
Peter addressed there initially. But flowing out from that, Peter
then turned to the institution of the home, dealing first with
wives and then with husbands. And so this is a bit of a recoil,
if you will, on Peter’s part when he takes it again generally. And if you have been on the hot
seat the past few weeks, if you were a husband or a wife and
you’ve been on the hot seat the past few weeks, now it’s everybody’s
turn because he turns again to a more general exhortation. If
you would, 1 Peter 3, and we look at beginning with verse
8, where Peter says, to sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic,
brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit. Not returning
evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead.
For you are called for the very purpose that you might inherit
a blessing. For let him who means to love
life and see good days refrain his tongue from evil and his
lips from speaking guile. And let him turn away from evil
and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue
it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his
ears attend to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against
those who do evil. As I said, the context is nothing
new. And even the greater context
is nothing new. Peter’s concern all along is
for our testimony in the world. Those who are watching our lives
and how we live, whether it’s at work or whether it’s at home. How are they going to see us?
That was Peter’s concern there in the first century. when persecution
was the issue. And Peter’s concern there was
that this persecution might bring out something untoward or improper
in God’s people. And so his exhortation is repeated
throughout this epistle. This whole passage before us
this morning is really a beautiful summary of what he’s already
said, isn’t it? He even says to sum up, which
tells us the context remains the same. Now he’s going to lay
these charges at the people in the church in general. It’s a beautiful summary of what
is expected of us. Spiritual qualities required
of the members of God’s church. In their relations, not only
with one another, but their relation with society, their attitude
towards non-Christians, even if they are hostile. Peter says
this applies to you. The church, how it functions,
is there cohesiveness? Are its members meek and gentle
and unprovocative towards one another? Or are they harsh? And
is there constantly the grumblings of an uncompleted battle? The world wants to know. The
world is watching. The world is concerned. I’ve pinned a curious title on
this message this morning, gleaned from one of my favorite Puritans,
as he was commenting upon the passage, he called it living
under the smile of God. Isn’t that a glorious thought? That we can live and that we
can live in such a way that it brings a smile to God’s face.
And that that in and of itself is a blessing and brings blessing
to us, as we’ll see. What I wanted to do this morning
is take us into this passage, but to do so, if you will, piecemeal. I want to look at it somewhat
like pineapple upside down cake. We’re going to look at the bottom
first. Peter essentially gives us the
motivation for righteous living at the end of this passage. He
also tells us that there are going to be benefits for righteous
living, but he begins the passage with some exhortations, characteristics,
if you will, of a righteous life. All of them comprise the observations
that one would make of a righteous person. And I know what you’re
thinking, especially if you’ve been schooled in good, sound
theology, that in us there is no righteousness. And that is
true. There is no inherent righteousness
in us. And when we come to Christ, we
come empty handed. And then when we stand before
God, we stand before God with the righteousness of Christ.
That is true. That immediately upon coming
to Christ, God begins to work in us and begins to work in us
that work of sanctification, the process of making us more
and more Christ like. When you hear righteousness,
don’t shy away from that as if that’s something that if you
embrace that, that somehow you’re thinking that you’ve merited
salvation. It’s not at all what Peter’s
saying here. He’s talking to those who have professed faith
in Christ, who already own the righteousness of Christ. That’s
the only reason they stand before a holy God. They already possess the righteousness
of Christ. But what Peter calls them to
here is practical righteousness, living it out in their day to
day lives. And that’s where so often we fall short. What Peter does here is take
a snapshot. An observation of the life of
a righteous person. And in so doing, he points us
He points us to the means of living out our testimony in the
world, doesn’t he? And it’s no more important, no
more important place to do that than at church. Let’s look at. Peter’s observations
in the lives of the righteous. He begins, first of all, with
the characteristics of the righteous aspects of righteous living,
and I don’t want you to begin to think that these five characteristics
are a complete list. That’s not at all what Peter’s
saying. He’s just saying these are some elements of a righteous
man’s life. First of all, He says, to sum up, in other
words, the sum of his teaching thus far, even beyond chapter
two, verse 13, to sum up, let all everybody in the church be
harmonious. It’s the only place in all of
Scripture the word is used. It literally means to be in agreement
or of one mind, as I said, used only here in all of the New Testament.
And yet the thought is certainly there throughout the New Testament.
Other words used to describe that like mindedness, that oneness
of thought and mind and goal and purpose that ought to characterize
the people in the church. Romans 12, 16, be of the same
mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but
associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation,
own estimation. Romans 15 verse 5. Now, may the
God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be
of the same mind with one another. Second Corinthians 13. Finally,
brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like minded,
live in peace. This is something that is not
only important to the Apostle Peter, but to the Apostle Paul,
even to God. This is crucial that we be like
minded. What does it mean? From the face
of it, simply described, it means peaceable, not factious. When you first read about factions
in the church, if you’re new to church life, you would think
that this is a rare thing. But factiousness is a very popular
activity in the church, isn’t it? When one develops perhaps
a doctrine or a doctrinal perspective, the first thing that he begins
to do is to share that among the church and to try to cultivate
popularity for his viewpoint or his opinion. Factiousness
goes on all the time. That doesn’t mean that we need
to set aside our minds. In fact, I think what Peter is
calling us to here is the same thing Paul calls us to in 1 Corinthians
1.10, that actively engaged oneness of mind that doesn’t park our
brains at the door, but actively thinks through in a brotherly
fashion the doctrines of Scripture. I remember explaining it like this
to one brother. Years ago, you remember the radio
show, The Bible Answer Man. One of the things he used to
say was, his opinion was that if two people don’t agree, how
did he say it? If two people agree about everything,
maybe nobody’s thinking. But I began to think about that.
And you know what? Maybe if people don’t agree, neither one of them
are thinking. Maybe we haven’t even engaged
and we have this tendency to say, let’s just agree to disagree.
And we say that so quickly. We’re so ready to to just throw
up a jump ball and say, act like doctrine doesn’t matter. Instead
of persevering through that, you folks have all had or seen
or perhaps even have in your possession our distinctives brochure. We wrote that before we ever
planted the church, the direction that we were going to take the
church. We wanted an elder led church. We wanted a church that
held to the doctrines of God’s sovereign grace. We wanted a
church that was unified around the word of God preached. And
you know what? Every element of that document
has been challenged, some properly. have challenged it. Some have
engaged in proper discussion and have come out profited from
it, from the discussion. Others improperly. But what happens
to this goal of working through doctrine? What happens to this
desire of being like minded? And that clearly is what’s in
focus here. that they would agree in the matters of faith, as one
said, in the religion of Christ, said the Puritan John Rogers. We are to be united both in faith
and affection. We are to be of a like-minded
people. We are to work through our doctrinal
differences. We are to wrestle with those
things and to come out instructed. I present a lot of times that little
distinctives brochure to people to tell them up front, this is
the way, this is the direction that I’m going to teach. This
is the direction that I’m going to shepherd you. This is the
direction that our church is going. Won’t you go with us?
Won’t you learn along the way? Won’t you sharpen me as I sharpen
you? This agreement that Peter speaks
of here is an agreement not only in doctrine, but also in practical
affection for one another. We’ll talk more about that in
a moment, because some of these things overlap in a number of
different ways. The believers, Christians are
supposed to live in harmony together and it is supposed to be a visible
harmony. It is supposed to be so visible
to the outside world, the affection that we have for one another,
the oneness of mind and purpose that we have with one another
is supposed to be in and of itself a testimony to those outside
the church. We have to maintain a common
commitment to the truth that produces an inward unity of heart,
said one. We can’t afford, can’t afford
to fight. There’s too much at stake. We
can’t afford our own little pet peeves. We cannot afford factions
in the church. One dear old pastor with this
regard expressed this simple, simple check. He said, beware
of two extremes that cause divisions. Are you ready? Captivity to custom
and an affection of novelty. Captivity to custom. Somebody
that says this is the way we’ve always done it. Don’t bother
me with the facts. They’re captive to custom. They can’t give you chapter and
verse on what it is they believe. They don’t want to be burdened
with all this teaching from Scripture. Just let me in my own little
world and travel along ignorantly is essentially what they say.
Not only captivity to custom, but affection of novelty. They
always want something new. They’re always reading the new
latest book that’s out by somebody that you never heard of that
then suddenly becomes suspect. six months down the road by the
way that he lives. Why not go with the tried and
true? Why not stay with Scripture?
As we said several weeks ago, where the Bible speaks, we speak. Where the Bible is silent, we
too are silent. It drives us back to the Word,
doesn’t it? This call for us to be like minded
drives us back to the Word. There’s our touch point. And
if you have somebody coming up with something that is so novel
that he can’t even pin a chapter and verse to it, have nothing
to do with it. Have nothing to do with it. Believers
are called to be one in Christ. We are one in Christ. But that
spiritual reality should be the basis for that visible harmony
that others begin to see. Jesus addressed it repeatedly.
John 13. You’re all one. John 17, Ephesians
4, Paul exhorted his believers, his church there in Ephesus. He said it like this. I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you, I beg you. Walk in a manner
worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Well, what
is that, Paul? with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” It’s an interesting
thing. A lot of people think that they
cultivate peace in the midst of their church. We don’t do
any of that. All we can do is preserve it. It’s the Spirit
who placed it there to begin with. All we can do is mess it
up. This oneness of mind doesn’t
mean that you don’t think. It doesn’t mean that you can’t
suddenly you lose your uniqueness as a child of God. Not at all.
We’re all gifted in many and various ways. We all have different
personalities. But God says that there ought
to be a oneness in the body. One pastor said it this way,
there’s not so much agreement Complacent in views that is intended
is that unanimity of many hearts which springs from a sense of
common origin. We are all one in Christ. From
common relations, common interests, common aims, hopes. We’ve been
rescued from a common ruin and beset by the same enemies. They
are heirs of a common salvation. And so Peter looks out. on the
life of the righteous. And he says, first and foremost,
they are characterized by being harmonious, peaceable people. They want peace in the church. Secondly, sympathetic. It literally is a play on the
Greek word, the English word sympatheo. It means to be affected
by like feelings, eliciting sympathy. And so much of our understanding
of the word is it’s almost negative. When you see something bad happen
to someone, then you have sympathy. We wouldn’t even think of, you
know, somebody winning some prestigious award or having something great.
We wouldn’t think of taking sympathy today on the Pettit’s perhaps
for having a child, perhaps on Susan. Not so much on Brian,
but we use it so much in a negative way that we have sympathy on
someone who is suffering. But the word means here both
positively and negatively. We are, as Paul said, to rejoice
with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. One described it in these terms.
He said, we’ve got into a strange way of thinking about that word
compassion. It seems to apply a sense of
superiority in the person who expresses the emotion. The true
sympathy is to enter into the feeling of oneself and to share
it with the one to whom it properly belongs. The sympathy suggested
by Peter’s word is a comprehensive feeling, not limited to any one
kind of experience. What he says is that we hover
so much on different planets or different orbits, don’t we?
That you really don’t know what I’m going through and I really
don’t know what you’re going through. And that’s unfortunate. What Peter is urging us to is
to get into one another’s lives and to let others in. to let people know where you’re
hurting, to let people know where your heart is, to let people
know how you’re rejoicing so that they can sympathize with
you, that they can rejoice with you. It literally means to share
the same feeling. One pastor said it this way,
he said, Christians are to be united on the truth, but also
ready to sympathize with the pain of others. even of those
they do not know. Like Christ, the sympathetic
High Priest, they must share the feelings of others in their
sorrows as well as their joys. Believers must not be insensitive
or indifferent towards the lost in their pain of struggling anxiously
with the issues of life. There is our moment of opportunity,
isn’t it? Because we know how people feel because we’ve been
there. You’ve been to the low point,
haven’t you? You’ve struggled. You’ve hurt. You’ve rejoiced. What Peter says, in essence,
is that so often, don’t we? You’re on your own orbit. I’m
on mine. We touch base for an hour here. Perhaps we touch base
during the week and some other. But so often we’re not really
truly in each other’s lives. And unfortunately, because of
that, most people only look upon their own concerns, don’t they?
Part of it is humility. They don’t want to burden anybody
else. But the reality is, it’s just comfortable there, isn’t
it? In your own little orbit. There’s an old saying, laugh
and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone. And
how sad, how sad that is to be found true of the church. It’s even sadder when people
pretend to care and really don’t. And what Peter says, one of the
characteristics of a righteous person is that they are sympathetic. They are open with others. Other
people know their lives and they know others. They are interested.
They’re sincere. They genuinely care. All of God’s
church should be so intimately acquainted with others and so
affected with the condition of others, just as if it was their
own. Paul said, when one member suffers,
we all suffer. Right? When one member mourns, we mourn
just as if we were suffering the affliction ourselves. When
one rejoices, we praise God just as if it was us enjoying that. And people, let’s be honest,
that’s sometimes more difficult, isn’t it? When something good
happens to someone, that’s where it draws out envy so often in
us, doesn’t it? There’s a third little aspect
here. Brotherly. Brotherly. Literally means, you know, the
love of brothers. We’ve seen this word repeatedly
throughout Peter’s epistle. And there are a variety of different
kinds of brotherhood. There is blood brotherhood, literal
brotherhood, you’re born into the same family by blood. There is the human brotherhood
of which there are many subsets. In a sense, we are all brothers
by virtue of the fact that we are humans, but there are also
many subsets of that, that you are part of this and that group.
And then there is spiritual brotherhood. And it is more substantial and
deeper and more binding than anything else. It’s longer lasting
than any of the other kinds of brotherhood. And the brotherly
love of Christians to one another is supposed to be more tender
and more loving towards one another than any of the other brotherhoods
can. It is of those who dwell or live
together in a constant and intimate, more confidential love than either
of the other two kinds of brotherhood that we’ve met with. And it crosses all bounds, doesn’t
it? Whatever kind of differences there are among us, male, female,
rich, poor, whether you’re wealthy in spiritual gifts or you’ve
got just a few things that the Lord has entrusted you with,
there should be no issue when it comes to how we treat one
another as brothers in the church. Brothers and sisters in Christ.
Such an affection, such a love for one another. It should surpass
by far any other kind of relationship
in the world. Not only should the righteous
be found to be harmonious and sympathetic, brotherly, but kind
hearted. Kind hearted. It literally means
that you feel it in your gut. That’s literally the true meaning
or flavor of this word. We are supposed to feel affection
so strongly for others that it bubbles out into action. Often times this is described
not only as tender hearted and compassionate, but courteous.
I mean, if Peter was concerned in first century Christianity,
how Christianity was being perceived and what persecution might do
to that church. Courtesy or courteousness would
be the first thing to go, wouldn’t it? Consider it regard to the feelings
of others. True courtesy is built upon this whole principle
of benevolence or goodwill or love towards others. It’s a desire
to promote the happiness of others. We’re called to be courteous
and kind and affable to one another. And when you think when I begin
to think of that mutual submission that we spoke of a couple of
weeks ago, nothing more characterizes it for me than this word. Kind
hearted. submitted mutually to one another,
mutually subject, which in our own small minds brings about
almost chaos. If we’re all submitted to one
another, then there is no leadership. No, it’s just of a different
kind. Courtesy, kindness. A sweet disposition as opposed
to sourness and moroseness, as one person said it. And it too, it’s a lost element
in the church so often, isn’t it? In fact, did you ever think about
the crassness of traffic reports? When they report on the news,
these traffic situations, they’re not reporting them as prayer
items. They don’t say, you know, boy, Pray for this individual
who just ran his car off the road. They’re reporting so that
you don’t have to be caught up in the inconvenience of a traffic
jam. And that seems to be the whole
direction of our life, that it isn’t so much a concern, a kind
hearted concern about others. It’s how can I avoid inconvenience? One pastor said there can be
neither unity, sympathy nor brotherly love among the Lord’s people
unless they have hearts to pity the infirmities of one another
and some proneness of spirit to do good to others, even when
they deserve the contrary. We’re called to kind heartedness. And fifthly, the fifth little
feature in this glimpse into the life of the righteous is
Humble in spirit. Humble in spirit. And it wasn’t
enough for Peter just to lay that out. What he does is color
it. What do you mean by humble in spirit? Because we’re repeatedly
in Scripture exhorted to be humble or humble minded. Ephesians 4.2,
Philippians 2.3, Colossians 3.12. We know that we’re called to
be humble. We don’t really know what it
looks like. And so Peter colors it for us. This characteristic
is perhaps the most important of the five. I can’t hardly feature
any of the other four without this one. Humility. Peter colors
it beginning in verse nine when he says, not returning evil for
evil. You see, a lot of times you’ll
hear that someone they think they’ve been wronged by others
and and so they retaliate in some way, shape or form. And usually it’s explained away
because they have a low self-esteem. Have you heard that argument?
Somebody stepped on them, they reacted and it’s because they
have a low self-esteem. That’s not the problem at all.
We wouldn’t react if we weren’t so proud. We wouldn’t react if
we didn’t have a humility problem in the first place. Why not say,
oh, I didn’t deserve treatment even that good. That’s essentially
what Peter is saying here. That we’re to be humble in spirit,
not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving
a blessing instead. Here’s a lost art. When someone
treats us unkindly, check your heart the next time you drive
down the road. When someone treats you unkindly on the road, do
you respond by praying, Oh Lord, bless them as they go. Bless
them along their way. That blessing, giving a blessing
is literally intercession for enemies. Doing something good
in return for something evil. Speaking well of them. They’re
probably just having a bad day. Probably just in a hurry. They
didn’t mean that. I know them better than that.
It should change our thinking so that we begin to love them
and pray for them and express thanks for them and always forgive
them. That’s how we’re called to live. Just a forgiving person. That’s
how we’re supposed to be. And you say, well, that’s all
great. That’s a nice little descriptive. And at least I have a picture
of what the righteous are supposed to be like. What’s the good? What’s in it for me? What is
the benefit of the righteous? Peter tells us. Peter tells us
right here, to sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly,
kindhearted, humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or
insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. For you are
called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. To live as God has called us
to live elicits a blessing from God. It is the conferring of benefits,
spiritual and material. And again, I’m not meaning to
get crude here and say that if you live in a certain way that
God is somehow obligated to give you things. I love the fact that Peter left
it completely undefined here. At least initially, until he
quotes from the psalm, he left it completely undefined. We just
inherit a blessing. You can’t make God sign a contract
and say, if you live this way, God’s going to do this. He must. But there is a blessing to a
life of righteousness. There are repeated blessings. We have already, just by virtue
of waking up today, received multiple, multiple blessings
from God. God had a purpose, people’s lives and calling them
to such a difficult task and living under the hand of such
an oppressive persecution such as they faced. But God had a purpose in it,
Peter says. God had a purpose in their difficulties. It wasn’t an arbitrary hardship.
It was for the purpose of bestowing a blessing upon them. And God
says the same thing to us. In a very real sense, eternal
life is the greatest blessing and we’ve already received that.
But he also speaks of the good things both. Of rather both lives, not only
in the eternal, but here and now temporal. Spiritual blessings,
eternal mercies, all of those things rolled into one, Peter
says, are God’s response. To a life of righteousness, As
I said, in a very real sense, we’ve already obtained the blessing
of eternal life simply because of the imputed righteousness
that was given to us, the righteousness of Christ. You didn’t do anything
to earn your way to heaven. You can’t. You couldn’t. You
never would. Christ did it and now you enjoy that blessing,
but we also stand to inherit an abundance of additional blessings
because of practical righteousness. Exactly what Peter just enumerated
for us. Now, I want you just to look
down the road here a piece into the psalm that Peter quotes.
Look at verse 10, because he tells us there are going to be
blessings for this practical righteousness. What are some
of them? Loving life. Look at verse 10. Loving life. Seeing good days. Those are practical blessings. And the unfortunate thing is
most people don’t enjoy life. They don’t love life. They don’t
see good days because of sin, because of faithlessness, because
of guilt and anxiety and strife and all those things that essentially
ruin it for them. And they just muddle their way
through life. It’s anything but pleasant. Life in Christ is totally new. It’s totally new. It’s a life
of blessing and a life of enjoyment, a life of seizing hold of every
moment to milk out of that moment all that you can get for the
glory of God. Not only that, not only loving
life and seeing good days, but what about this blessing? The
eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. Verse 12. Well, now,
some people would say, how is that a blessing? I don’t want
God looking at me. You see, that’s how the ungodly live. They live,
they want to be in the dark. They don’t want to be seen. They
don’t want to be watched. They don’t want God knowing their
every deed. But it is a blessing, isn’t it?
For those of you who know Christ, you know it’s a blessing. To
be watched by Him and to be cared for by Him. To be protected and
guided by Him. It is a blessing. There’s another
one, last one there. His ears attend to their prayer.
That’s a blessing, isn’t it? The God, the God of the universe
waits, bows down His ear to listen to what you have to say, to the
cry of your distress, to your pleas. What a blessing. There are blessings
that await the righteous. We’ll look at the third in closing,
the third observation in the life of the righteous, not only
the characteristics of the righteous and the benefits of the righteous,
but the motivation of the righteous. Why do we do what we do? Simply
because, as we just said, God is watching. God loves you and
he’s watching you and he wants you to live for his glory, not
your own. Verse 10, let him who means to
love life and see good days refrain his tongue from evil and his
lips from speaking guile. Let him turn away from evil and
do good. Let him seek peace and pursue
it. Why? For the eyes of the Lord are
upon the righteous. And his ears attend to their
prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. It’s a quote from Psalm 34. And in this psalm, it was the
occasion of one of David’s most perilous seasons. He was living
among an infuriated, heathen population. In fact, if you want
to read about the danger and dread that he was in there, read
Psalm 56. And yet nothing can be brighter
and more uplifting, more peace giving than this psalm. David, he says, had obtained
life and days. And it was all through God’s
confidence, or his confidence in God on the one hand, and this
desire to be inoffensive, this self-submission of David to be
inoffensive to others. Righteous. Peter evidently deemed this psalm
so appropriate to his readers who were so misjudged and watched
by a suspicious, heathen, ungodly people, that Peter judged this
psalm as particularly important to impart to them what he was
implying. That the righteous are watched
by God. And they’re not just watched, but they’re watched
and blessed accordingly. That as they are living and living
for God’s glory, God, God responds to them. As I said a moment ago, characteristic
of the ungodly is that they don’t want to be seen by anyone, especially
not God. They do what they do in the dark,
like thieves. You think even of the first man,
Adam, the very first thing that he tried to do was hide himself. The ungodly man doesn’t want
to be seen by God. An unchristian? By implication, the curse of
the righteous, if the blessing of the righteous is what we saw
above, the curse of the unrighteous is that they are disharmonious,
unsympathetic, unbrotherly, mean and proud. Explicitly stated here in this
psalm, they have an evil tongue. They are profane or slanderous
or impure. They speak guile or lies. They are doers of evil. And all
this before the watching eyes of God, you can’t escape them. That little thought is carried
throughout the pages of Scripture, Old and New Testament, Job 28.
He looks to the ends of the world. He sees everything under the
heavens. I mean, try that one on the next
time that you’re caught in temptation. Second Chronicles 16.9, the eyes
of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth. Isn’t that a fascinating
image? Moving to and fro throughout
the earth so that He may strongly support those whose heart is
completely His. He’s looking for those who are
living out their righteousness. Psalm 11.4, His eyes behold,
His eyelids test the sons of men. Psalm 33, From his dwelling
place he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.” Verse
18, Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him. That
thought carried through Scripture is exactly what Peter says here. We’re called to live out our
righteousness. That we may inherit a blessing.
And all that is motivated by the fact that God is watching
us. and will render to each man according to what is due.” We’re
called to a practical righteousness. Let’s examine our hearts. Our merciful God, so often we have enjoyed and
rested in the fact of Your finished work on the cross. And while
we should, And we’ve loved the fact that now we are able to
stand and to come before a holy God, even to the throne of righteousness
because of what Christ has done and because we possess His righteousness. That, Lord, You do not leave
it there. You call us to a changed life.
You’ve equipped us with Your Word and with Your Spirit. You
convict us of sin that we may confess it. And Lord, You call
us to a life of practical righteousness. Lord God, so examine our hearts. Make us to know that You are
the watcher of souls. That our hearts and our lives
may be pierced and prompted to cry out to you for new grace,
to live and walk as you would have us to. O God, may you be
glorified in our lives, that we may enjoy continued blessings
from you. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray,
Amen. so