How to treat our friends and our enemies

This morning at church the passage is 1 Peter 3:8-14

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8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 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. 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.” 

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 

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The passage is ultimately broken into two parts. The first part is how to treat our friends and fellow believers. The second part is how we, as Christians, should treat our enemies. The main mark of a true believer and a true church is love.

The first point the apostle Peter makes is that we should treat othe friends and believers with love and respect . Unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love , a tender heart and humble mind. Brotherly love is in the middle of list, and one could say it is their on purpose, because it is the centerpiece of a proper love. Still this is one of the hardest to do. When you have someone at work who doesn't do their job, especially one who says they are a Christian, making your life harder, that is one of he times it is so hard to practice this, at least for me.

The second part is how we treat our enemies, and the enemies of Christ. Notice how Peter focuses way more on this, because it is so much harder to do. So what are we as Christians called to do?

1. Do not return evil for evil

        -Private revenge is forbidden to Christians, and this is what we are talking about.

        -Staying with my work analogy, this doesn't mean we don't report improper work, or mistreatment to our bosses, it means we don't do things to deliberately sabotage someone who has undercut us.

 

2. Guard your tongue

This one is the hardest for me, cause I love to talk. It is so easy to complain , to gossip, to brag, to be defensive. Again this is the goal, don't confuse failure with hypocrisy. Christians are only hypocrites with this I'd they expect perfecti obedience to this, well and everything, even while we knowingly disobey.

3. Seek peace and pursue it

We are to seek peace and not conflict. That doesn't mean we sacrifice God's laws or commandments in order to have " peace " though, it means that we don't go looking for a fight.

4. Fear God and suffer hor his righteousness.

All to often we need to treat the Lord like he doesn't matter. If our boss looks over our shoulder , we often act a whole lot different than when we are working by ourselves. Is not doing what is right for God more important than our working boss, and if so should we not act like it? 

The pastor concluded talking our a close friend and elder in the church who recently passed, and noting how that he was fearless in the face of death because he knew where he was going. We should never be in fear.

Keep in mind that failure is not weaknes or a sign of not being a Christian, merely a sign that we have not yet been perfected in Christ. 

-Amen