Question: What is better than living in a civil society that respects my Christian values and places no pressure on believers, such as they do in some countries of the world?
Question: What is better than working for a great employer who respects your Christian beliefs and honors you for them?
Question: What is better than being married to a spouse who makes it incredibly easy to be a Christian?
Answer: Suffering in the will of God for the sake of the gospel.
That is the point (in part) of 1 Peter 2:11-3:17. Peter uses all three of these examples (society, work, marriage), along with a "catch-all" of "all of you" in 1 Peter 3:8, to show that suffering because we live the gospel is better than being comfortable by denying the basis of the gospel, which is unjust suffering.
Christ suffered for us when he was not guilty, and he has left us an example that we should suffer for him.
In the midst of suffering, we must believe that at the end, whenever that comes, living the gospel will have been worth it. It may not seem like it now. But if our hope is firmly placed in Jesus, we know that he will make it worth our while to living the gospel, even when it brings suffering.
7 comments:
What about the books of Proverbs that tell us that it's not good to live with a contentious women? Or how about the New Testament where it tells marriage partners to love and honor each other? Or how about the metaphor of the whole Christian life being compared to a marriage?
Are you using satire to get us to think? I agree with the general sentiment that trials produce fruite often mroe than a life of ease and luxuries. But do you seriously think God wants us to dislike our spouse and have a typical relationship where we only stay together for the kids and we're outta here as soon as they grow up? Please tell me you were using poetic license in your latest post and didn't really mean it literally.
Thanks for commenting (and I always prefer names ... it is more helpful than anonymous).
Please note that all I have done is summarize 1 Peter 2:13-3:17. Peter uses these three examples (government, work, and marriage) as examples of unjust suffering, and concludes in 3:17 that "it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong."
So I would argue that God is the one who said it was better. Not me.
To your examples:
1. Proverbs was not written to tell men to leave their contentious wives. It was more likely written to a young man about the type of woman he should marry. It would certainly apply to wives to learn not to be contentious. In no way is it an admonition to leave a wife who is contentious.
2. The NT tells us to honor and love each other. Nothing I have said contradicts that. But love and honor for your spouse doesn't depend on your spouse (note 1 PEter 3:1 ... "even if ..."). It depends on God. I love and honor my spouse because of hte gospel. If she (or he as the case may be) does not pay it back to me with love and honor, I still love and honor her and suffer for the sake of the gospel.
3. I never said or implied anything about God wanting us to dislike our spouse and stay together only for the kids. I think we should love our spouse and stay together for the gospel (with apologies to T4G).
If my spouse doesn't make it easy for me to be a Christian, I must still understand her and honor her because of the gospel.
If I am disobedient to the Word, my spouse my still submit to me for the sake of the gospel.
And that will cause suffering to some degree. And if God wills that I should live that way, it is better than being disobedient and suffering for that.
So everything I said, I meant literally. I just didn't say what you seem to think I said.
Thanks again for reading.
Larry, is that the name of the guy who runs this website? Anway, whoever this Larry guy is, thanks for commenting. Do you think anyone still cares about this post, or is it ancient history since it's well over 24 hours old and on the Internet, that may as well be 100 years ago.
Maybe I took those Scriptures differently than you. Here's an interpretation that I've seen applied: I don't think the Bible is saying it desires that everyone suffer and want us to have a hard life. I think it's saying that we have a CHOICE of how we live and those choices may involve consequences. It's better to live righteously and face the possibility of suffering consequences for that good choice rather than live unrighteously and suffer the consequences of bad choices. I have seen this portion of Scripture as telling us that our choices have consequences rather than telling us that we should actively look for and search for hardship and that it's inevitable.
What do you think about that?
Thanks Bob.
A couple of clarifying comments:
I don't think the Bible teaches that God desires everyone to suffer. A couple of indications of that in 1 Peter are in 1:6 ("if necessary" but it might not be), 2:18 ("not only to good and gentle but also those who are unreasonable" meaning that both kinds exist), 3:1 ("even if they are disobedient" meaning they might not be). Even 3:17, the particular verse under discussion says "if God should will it so," meaning he might not will it so.
I think your point about choices and consequences is well taken, but that is actually the other half of the verse, as well as 2:20 about when you sin and are harshly treated.
My comments are about suffering when we do not sin.
I don't think we should actively look for suffering. We should simply do right and if suffering comes it comes. We should not necessarily try to avoid suffering because we might be avoiding that which God wants to use in our lives for the furtherance of the gospel (either that people will glorify Him in the day of visitation (2:12) or be ashamed (3:16).
I think the point is that if you are going to suffer, make sure it is for doing what is right because it is better than suffering for doing what is wrong. And if you suffer for doing what is right, it is the will of God, not some accident.
Hopefully that makes sense.
Again thanks ...
"Question: What is better than being married to a spouse who makes it incredibly easy to be a Christian?
Answer: Suffering in the will of God for the sake of the gospel."
I'm not sure I posted very well in my previous response, so this time I included your question. I would disagree with you and say that it's actually better to be married to a spouse who is in agreement with your Christianity. Maybe I'm totally misinterpreting it, but I don't see these Scriptures as stating that we are to actively go out and look for affliction and/or that trials and hardships are always God's best and first choice for us. I think the Scripture is saying, at least in this context, that hardships are part of life that sometimes come invariably, no matter who you are. I think not all of your choices are a correct way to answer the question. God doesn't always want us to have a hard life and always have trials. Sometimes he blesses us with a good marriage and that is much better than being married to someone you can't stand. God seems to imply throughout Scriptures that marriage is a good thing and that it actually was not meant to be a burden to be endured. (And no, I'm not a newlywed anymore and believe it or not I actually enjoy my wife even after a LONG time!...just in case you think I have rose colored glasses on)
It seems to me that what Scripture is saying here is that life is not perfect and we invariably are going to have some trials, no matter who we are. As long as that's the case, it's better to have hardships as a result of living a Christian life as opposed to having hardships as a result of sin. Those are the two choices. I don't think God is saying that he'd always rather we be married to a fat, ugly, obnoxious woman to make us toughen up rather than actually enjoy marriage like he intended.
To me, this question is sort of like "have you stopped beating your wife yet." In my opinion, the question is flawed to begin with. Between the choice to beat up your spouse or not beat up your spouse, obviously it's better not to. But how about if you don't beat them up to begin with?
By the way, I think you just asnwered a post in the middle of while I'm writing this one, so please excuse me if my answers don't make sense in case you just asnwered them.
I don't argue with what you are saying. I agree. It is simply not my point. My point is based off v. 17: If God should will it so.
Let me put it this way and see if this makes sense?
A husband says, "I would be a better Christian if my wife didn't make it so hard on me." Or a wife says, "I would be a better Christian is my husband wasn't such a jerk." Or "I'll be a good Christian so long as I don't have to do it with him or her." I have heard both from people.
So what is better? It is always better to be in God's will, even if that means I suffer for living the gospel in my marriage. Many people try to avoid suffering, and in so doing, take themselves out of God's will (so to speak).
The problem there, I think, is that "better" is too often defined by human experience. You say it would be better to be married to a spouse who makes it easy to be a Christian. But perhaps not. I would say that if that were truly better, that is what God would bring about.
I think we need to be careful determining "better" by human expectation alone.
My point is that God has willed that the gospel be proclaimed by some people in the midst of bad marriage, bad work situations, or bad governments. And that is better than the alternative, if that is the way God has willed it.
This whole argument is ludicrous. If a person really meant it in their heart before God when they made the marriage commitment including “till death do us part”, the circumstances to which they are subjected in the relationship are set regardless of the conditions. There is no out in God’s sight except in the case of adultery (some even question this). It doesn’t matter if a person is happy or sad. They must say in their heart that regardless of the conditions, I will not leave the marriage because I will stand in judgment for my actions and my spouse will too. My obedience to God is much more important than my happiness in this world. It is sad that today so many fail in this regard.
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