Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00011B
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00:01 And we're back.
00:02 We are talking about getting along with those 00:04 who are not nice to you. 00:06 Not returning evil for evil. 00:08 And, Dr. Shepherd, in verse 9, I notice that Peter says, 00:11 "Not returning evil for evil," and then he goes on to say, 00:14 "knowing that you were called to this." 00:17 What is this calling 00:18 he's referring to in verse 9? Yes. 00:22 In verse 9, he is referring back to-- 00:29 there's a parallel to this calling 00:31 that the slaves had back in Chapter 2. 00:33 You know, they were called to follow the example of Jesus. 00:38 They were called to do that which was right. 00:41 In the face of that which was wrong, 00:43 they were supposed to bear suffering. 00:45 So now he reminds us of that parallel. 00:48 And this leads us to note 00:50 how these words are actually parallel 00:52 to the teaching of Jesus. 00:53 Remember, we said that 00:55 there are very strong parallels to Romans Chapter 12 01:00 where the Apostle Paul says things that are almost, 01:04 you know, just almost word for word 01:06 similar to what Peter has said here. 01:09 Well, if we turn to Luke 6, Luke 6:27-31, 01:14 we'll find what we might find-- the some of the roots 01:18 of what both Paul and Peter are talking about 01:23 in the words of Jesus. Luke 6:27-31. 01:28 Jesus says "But I say to you who hear, 01:30 Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 01:33 bless those who curse you and pray for those 01:36 who spitefully use you. 01:39 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, 01:42 offer the other also. 01:43 And from him who takes away your cloak, 01:45 do not withhold your tunic either. 01:48 Give to everyone who asks of you. 01:51 And from him who takes away 01:53 your goods do not ask them back." 01:56 Verse 31 as well. Oh. 01:58 "And just as you want men to do to you, 02:01 you also do to them likewise." All right. 02:05 Now this is Jesus sermon on the-- 02:10 in the Book of Luke if it's a Sermon on the Plain, 02:13 excuse me, in the Gospel of Matthew, 02:15 it's a Sermon on the Mount. 02:16 But similar things are going on in these two passages. 02:20 And here's Jesus words about 02:22 how you're supposed to react to people 02:25 who are rascals, people who hate you. 02:28 And it's very striking. 02:30 I mean, He says, "You are to love your enemies." 02:35 Love your enemies-- 02:37 Which is not always very easy to do. 02:40 It's not easy at all. 02:44 Many of us are surrounded by our friends 02:47 but when you have somebody who is an enemy, 02:51 I mean, a real enemy, 02:52 somebody who really does you wrong 02:54 and does bad things to you, 02:56 our natural reaction is to hate them back. 02:59 And Jesus says, "No, that's not the way of the Christian." 03:03 Now what do you do with the words of Jesus, you see? 03:08 You can tell a lot about a person's theology 03:10 about what they do with the words of Jesus 03:13 in the Sermon on the Mount or the Sermon on the Plain. 03:16 When He says, "When they hit you, 03:18 turn the other cheek." 03:20 When He says, "They take your cloak, 03:22 give them your tunic, too. 03:23 When they borrow things, don't ask them back." 03:25 I mean, these are very strong kind of statements 03:28 and lot of people reading that they'll say, 03:31 "Well, you know, it's kind of, 03:33 it's just kind of giving same nice things, 03:36 metaphoric kind of words, you know. 03:38 Well, according to Paul and to Peter 03:41 it doesn't seem like they understood Jesus that way. 03:44 They understood Jesus to be serious about 03:46 what He was talking about. 03:48 He means what He says. He means what He says, okay? 03:51 So just like you were told to bear present suffering, 03:56 looking forward to the future inheritance, 03:59 okay, that cannot be taken away. 04:01 So here the inheritance 04:03 that you're gonna receive is future 04:06 and He says we can bear present persecution, rejection, slander 04:12 because of our future inheritance 04:15 the blessing that God has given us. 04:17 Again, it's this consciousness of God 04:21 that rules the Christian's life. 04:24 That you're following in the example of Jesus. 04:27 You are conscious of what God's values are 04:30 and you act accordingly and it's striking. 04:36 Well, Dr. Shepherd, after verses10, 11 and 12, 04:40 it seems that Peter is quoting from another book. Yes. 04:45 What book is he quoting from? 04:46 He is quoting from the Book of Psalms. 04:49 And this particular Psalm that he quotes from is Psalm 34. 04:54 Psalm 34 is a Psalm of David which he composed 04:58 when was in the land of the Philistines. 05:01 He feigned madness before Abimelech 05:04 and we think of David's difficulties, 05:07 you know, his hard times that he had there. 05:09 How he felt far away from God and hope he had. 05:12 So let's turn over there to-- we got a moment here. 05:15 Turn over to Psalm 34 and just get the whole context 05:19 and we'll see where Peter draws on for this. 05:23 It's a little bit of a long passage, 05:24 so maybe what we'll do is I'll read part of it 05:27 and then you can read the other part. 05:29 Okay, this is Psalm 34 and we're starting in verse 1. 05:34 Remember, this is the Psalm that David wrote. 05:37 It says, "When he changed his behavior before Abimelech, 05:40 so that he drove him out, and he went away." 05:42 Okay, he says, "I will bless the Lord at all times. 05:45 His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 05:48 My soul makes its boast in the Lord. 05:51 Let the humble hear and be glad. 05:53 O magnify the Lord with me 05:55 and let us exalt His name together. 05:57 I sought the Lord, and He answered me, 06:00 and delivered me from all my fears. 06:02 Those who looked to Him are radiant 06:05 and their faces shall never be ashamed. 06:07 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him 06:10 and saved him out of all his troubles. 06:13 The angel of the Lord encamps round those who fear him, 06:17 and delivers them. 06:18 O taste and see that the Lord is good. 06:20 Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. 06:23 O fear the Lord, you His saints 06:26 for those who fear Him have no lack. 06:28 The young lions suffer want and hunger 06:31 but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 06:36 Come, you children, listen to me. 06:38 I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 06:41 Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, 06:44 that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, 06:47 and your lips from speaking deceit. 06:49 Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. 06:53 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, 06:55 and His ears are open to their cry. 06:57 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, 07:00 to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 07:03 The righteous cry out and the Lord hears, 07:06 and delivers them out of all their troubles. 07:08 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, 07:11 and saves such as have a contrite spirit. 07:15 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, 07:18 but the Lord delivers him out of them all. 07:20 He guards all his bones, not one of them is broken. 07:26 Evil shall slay the wicked, 07:27 and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. 07:31 The Lord redeems the soul of His servants 07:34 and none of those who trust in Him 07:36 shall be condemned." Yes. 07:39 Now in this Psalm, David is in the situation 07:44 where he is in the land of the Philistines 07:47 and the Philistines start to-- they don't trust him. 07:51 And then he acts like he's gone crazy. 07:54 And Abimelech drives him away. 07:57 He says, "I don't need crazy men. 07:58 Why did you bring me this guy?" You know. 08:00 And so David escapes from Hamm. 08:05 He had gone to the land of the Philistines 08:06 where he shouldn't have gone and he escapes Hamm 08:10 and this Psalm is just filled with Thanksgiving that, 08:13 you know, the Lord was gracious to him and saved him. 08:17 And then right at the center of the Psalm 08:19 is where this passage that Peter quotes 08:21 in relationship to how do you relate 08:23 to people who are outsiders what-- 08:25 how should you deal with them and face them. 08:28 And so he says, "If you desire long life, love days, 08:32 you know, you want to live a longtime, 08:34 keep your tongue from evil." There is the central idea. 08:36 "And your lips from speaking deceit. 08:38 Turn away from evil and do good. 08:40 Seek peace and pursue it." 08:42 So it fits right in with what Peter's talking about. 08:46 Now verse 8 earlier you gave a structure on that verse. 08:50 What about verses-- 08:51 these verses 10, 11, 12, do they have a structure? 08:53 There is actually, an interesting structure. 08:55 He says, keep from wrong speech and action 08:59 and do right, wrong and right, seek peace. 09:04 God helps the righteous and God opposes the wrong. 09:08 So it's a chiasm again. 09:11 Wrong and right and right and wrong, okay. 09:15 So if you--you should want to live a longtime, 09:19 what you should do is keep from doing what's wrong. 09:22 You should do what's right, why? 09:24 Because God helps the righteous but God opposes the wicked. 09:30 Okay, so two things get in the way of peace. 09:34 Those things are wrong speech and wrong action 09:37 which we are all too prone to do. 09:39 But we are called to something different. 09:40 See we must do that which is good 09:43 and that which seeks peace. 09:45 And Peter finishes with the reference of how 09:47 God feels about all this. Yes. 09:50 He speaks of God's eyes 09:52 and God's ears and God's face, okay? 09:56 Maybe, well, anthropomorphic here, 09:58 you know, using terminology that we can understand. 10:01 But these were all seen in the ancient world as, 10:04 we might say, zones of the personality, okay? 10:07 All three together would express 10:09 the entire personality of a person, 10:11 their ears and their eyes and their face. 10:14 Thus God is totally in favor of good 10:17 and totally opposes the evil. 10:19 You maybe able to fool men and mistreat them 10:23 but you can never fool God. 10:25 And you have to face Him 10:26 when it comes time for the judgment. 10:28 So this passage is teaching us how we are to 10:34 again follow the patterns that God has set up for us, 10:38 the ways that He has set before us 10:41 and His value system which will bring us 10:44 the greatest blessing in life. 10:47 And I've seen that when I don't retaliate to people 10:50 and I don't, you know, try to hit them back, 10:54 it actually goes better for me 10:55 and makes much more friends and peace in the world. 10:59 Well, Dr. Shepherd, once again, 11:01 we want to thank you for being with us 11:02 in this very interesting Bible study. 11:05 We are studying the books of 1 and 2 Peter, 11:07 and we're not even halfway through the book or just about. 11:12 And we want to encourage you to pickup the Bible, 11:14 ask the Lord for His Holy Spirit to just guide you 11:17 as you read and as you pray, 11:20 think about what you are reading. 11:21 I'm sure that God has a message for you. 11:24 And we invite you to continue join us 11:26 for the next coming programs of "Books of the Book" 11:29 as we continue with Dr. Shepherd. 11:31 He's coming all the way from Andrews University to guide us 11:34 in these very fascinating Bible studies. 11:37 Till next time, God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17