Football isn’t the only place same ol’, same ol’ just won’t work
By Dean Collins
The same ol’, same ol’ won’t work. As football season grinds towards championships, how many football fans have yelled at their coach, “You can’t run that play over and over and get a different result!”? The opposing team already knows what we’re going to do! Then miraculously in the next few minutes, the team does something different and we yell at the screen again with a satisfied and strong voice. “Finally”! A different play led to a different outcome.
Create something different
Peter was a fisherman turned apostle. He wasn’t a football coach and he wasn’t writing the church to offer any football plays for the local high school or college coach to use. His audience was a dispersed church spread over five different geographic locations. Scholars argue some about whether these churches were mostly converted Jews or Gentiles. I think it might be the latter, based on some of the teachings in the first two chapters.
From chapter 2 we learned that followers of Christ have a special calling: We are the royal family carrying the gospel and extending God’s blessing to those around us as we invite them to build their lives on a firm foundation. But we also have learned that as we do our kingdom work, we will face opposition, even to the point of experiencing suffering from the hostility of current culture.
It’s in this context that chapter 3 might be teaching us something important. We can’t approach current culture with the same ol’, same ol’ the church may have found successful in earlier generations.
If we are going to reach our culture for Jesus we will need to create something different. Here are the characteristics of our new community: unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, tender hearts, humility, a different approach to evil, and a focus on bringing blessings more than getting them. As followers of Jesus, according to Peter, the church must look different than the world.
Respond to evil differently
Peter then continues by turning to a passage from Psalm 34. He challenges us to respond to difficulty and opposition differently than our current culture responds. Here is the message: If you want to see good days, then don’t use your voice to speak evil when you receive evil attacks. Sounds a lot like Jesus who told us to turn the other cheek. In fact, the psalmist agreed with Jesus and Peter that we are to love our enemies, even doing good for them. Our different community (the royal priesthood) must respond differently than our culture. If we act the same, we have no distinction.
In the rest of the chapter, Peter reminds us that our eventual outcome and rewards are very different than those of current culture. Culture suggests that wealth, power, and satisfaction in this life are what matters. But in the kingdom of God, our desire is to honor Christ. We honor our King by behaviors that reflect our King. Peter lists a few: gentleness and respect toward others, choosing not to live in fear, giving honor when honor is due, and being able to answer why we live the way we do because of what we believe. These behaviors lead to an outcome blessed by God. They assure that we are living within God’s will and not simply doing whatever we choose.
If we want to show the world that a Savior has been born in us, then we will need to do things differently. The same ol’, same ol’ won’t bring joy to the world.
Your time with God’s Word
1 Peter 3:8-17; Psalm 34:12-16 ESV
Pixabay photo at Pexels.com
To receive daily posts delivered directly to your inbox, complete the form at the bottom of our home page.
To download a printable version of today’s post, click here.