1 Peter 3 v 10 - 16 (14th May 2010)

[You can read the passage here]

In 1 Pet 3 v 10 - 12 we looked at the nature of the life of the righteous person. there are 3 qualities:-

1. how we speak

• he/she keeps his tongue from evil - do not talk bad or let bad things be spoken (see oso James 3v9-12)

• he/she does not speak deceitful things - we dun tell lies no matter what. we speak the truth!

2. seek peace

unlike the response of the people of this world, we try to live at peace with everyone (see Rom 12v18 - if it is possible and as far as it depends on us)

3. turn from evil and do good

we talked about how we can do good and how as a group we can seek to do good too. perhaps to help out in the work among the Burmese people in our chapel?

The righteous will be rewarded with 'good days' - not just wealth and long life, but a life filled with peace, love, joy, etc. But hose who do evil, God's face will be against them - they will not receive any of the said blessings from God even if they may be rich or live long lives.

In 1 Pet 3 v 15 - 16, we could see that in times of suffering, it is a great opportunity to witness for Christ! from the 2 verses, we saw the following points to help us do so:-

• remember the Lordship of Christ - he is still in control even if things seem bad to us

• we should speak out for Christ - in suffering, ppl will expect us to be very negative. but when they see us being positive and filled with joy, they would surely want to know our 'secret'. we should then seize the opportunity to talk about Christ

• when we talk about Christ and out faith, we should do so in gentleness and with respect

• we must 'keep a clear conscience' no matter how difficult it is. when times are hard, tt's when it's all the more important for us to maintain a good witness! our true colours will be revealed - what is our colour?

We ended off by looking at a wonderful illustration by Mary Sullivan - Are we a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? You can read it here.

1 Peter 3 v 8 - 9 (7th May 2010)

[You can read the passage here]

After talking about how to relate to the authorities, the masters, the spouses, peter moved on to talk about how to relate generally to the Christians and the non-christians.

in 1 peter 3v 8 provides that we should relate to fellow believers in the following manner:-

1. live in harmony with each other - be of the same mind, be united

on a simpler level, we should bear with other's differences and accept each other for who we are. however, if they are not behaving in a christian manner, we should point it out in love for the good of everyone and for the glory of God.

2. be sympathetic - feel for each other's sufferings and pain

3. love each other - how to love? the answer is easy - look at 1 cor 13. the application is hard!

4. be compassionate - we spent a bit of time here. it would surely overlap with no. 2. but it is more than just feeling for each other. it is being pitiful and doing something about it.

5. be humble - consider each other better as we all have the same Holy Spirit in us who can empower us to do great things (Phil 2v2-3).

How do we relate to non-christians? 1 pet 3v9 tells us not to seek revenge but to bless them instead. (see Rom 12v14-21).

We spent quite some time on these points, trying to figure out how to apply it in our lives. much easier said than done. we surely need the Holy Spirit to enable us and the support of each other!

finally, we looked at jesus' example - his teachings on this or his actions which reflects these points. I ran thru the verses quite quickly and so i'll reproduce them here:-

• harmony (John 17:20-23)

• love (John 13:34-35; 15:9-17)

• compassion (Matt. 14:14)

• humility (Luke 14:7-11)

• treatment of enemies (Matt. 5:43-48)

we can see that the reasons why we behave like this is to bring glory to God, to bear a testimony that we God's ppl, and to reach out to others. this is how christians are to behave in a 'hostile' world - just like how we are to behave in today's world.

interestingly, those who came for 2nd service on sunday, our elder min choon talked about the church being used by God to teach even the angels. in the john 17 passage above, we can see that we are to be united as a reflection of the relationship between God the father and God the son - and we are the object lessons of that wonderful truth!

how wonderful God's words are to us - just 2 verses and so rich and so many things to learn and apply!