The Real Battle
1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted
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What if I told you this morning that we were at war. I think you could agree with that. But who would you say the enemy is? I think we might have several possible answers to that. Just pull out a newspaper or go on a news website or turn on talk radio or one of the 24/7 news stations on TV. They will all tell you we are at war. And they’ll all speak of a different enemy.
I wonder if we asked that question of the folks the apostle Peter is writing to? They were being falsely accused by their neighbors. They were losing jobs. Losing status. They were definitely minorities. If we said to them, “you’re at war” what would they have thought the battle was all about?
You are in war with the pagans in Rome?
You are at war for your reputation? You are at war to keep from being oppressed and marginalized and to become nothing in society?
Let’s see if we can find God’s answer to that question:
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
The two things that Peter is concerned with in this passage is the salvation of our souls and the glory of God. That’s the war. That’s the battle. And that shows how much it is true believers in Jesus are aliens and exiles, because these two things are most certainly not on our news stations. This does not dominate the national conversation. It’s not even mentioned. And friends, I would argue that even if it is mentioned it’s likely not driven by the same motivation as the Bible. It’s often more driven by the fear of losing a particular way of life. When was the last time you heard someone say, “We need X to happen because the glory of God is being defamed?”
But we shouldn’t be surprised that the story of the world—the narrative of the world—is different than the story God is telling. This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. “Did God really say…?” “Is this really the character of God?” We’ve been questioning God’s story and weaving our own from the beginning.
Notice though what has happened. In Genesis we have a serpent in the garden and sin is an invader.Sin should be alien, ungodly passions should be alien. But sin has so hijacked the world that holiness is now alien. They—we—are aliens and strangers because of faith in Jesus Christ.
Now there is some debate as to whether this phrase “aliens” and “strangers” refers to an actual political class within the Roman Empire. Perhaps Peter’s audience is really those of immigrants into the Roman Empire. That wouldn’t have been uncommon. But I don’t think that’s his main point. I think he is using something real—what it feels like, what reality is, for one who is an immigrant and then he’s applying that to a believer in Jesus. They could very well be actual real true to life minority immigrants in the Roman Empire. But Peter’s main point isn’t that—it’s that their status as believers in Jesus makes them not one with the world.
I think in the coming days we’ll perhaps be able to apply these verses a little better. Keep in mind this was written before Constantine. This was before Christianity was a national religion. Christians were tiny. They were not influential. They did not hold any political power. Nobody cared what they thought. As one commentator said, “It was precisely the precarious legal status of foreigners that provided the closest analogy to the kind of treatment Christians could expect from the hostile culture in which they lived.”
Now there is always going to be a temptation when you are being oppressed by the culture around you. And I think that temptation might even be heightened for those who are living in a “post-Christian” world. It might be even more difficult to have had power and lost it than to have never had power at all. There will be a strong pull to try to grab that power back. And so the temptation they faced we likely do as well...
And that temptation is to view the war as “out there”. But Peter doesn’t do that with these sojourners and aliens. He says there is a war in here…in our hearts. He didn’t blame the culture for their problems. There is a war—within our own hearts for two things. Our passions and our witness.
Our Passions
In verse 11 we are told to “abstain from the passions of the flesh”. What are these passions? It’s likely the same thing that the apostle Paul means when he talks about the works of the flesh. These are natural desires which human beings have apart from the Spirit’s work.
I think when we meet these passions and desires we tend to treat them a little nicer than we should. We think they are kind of like a cute little puppy that on occasion will pee on the carpet or eat your shoes. All they really need is just a little discipline and a little training and they will learn to stop using the carpet as their potty and use the chew toys instead of your shoes.
But in reality every sin aims to destroy you and to dethrone God. That’s what Peter is saying here. “wage war against your soul”. That’s an angry pit bull wanting to rip at your jugular.
But we don’t see that angry, frothing at the mouth dog, do we? We see the cute little puppy. But these passions of the flesh are definitely our enemies, relentless and filled with hate. Their desire is most definitely our destruction. At times we see their teeth. We feel the full weight of temptation to lust, greed, pride, hatred. But more often than not their battle—their war against us—is a bit more like the cold war. It’s subtle. It’s covert.
Our passions rather than a full on frontal assault just lie to us. They promise life and give death. They lure us with bait and hide the hook. They give you those cute puppy dog eyes and then bite you.
I like how one other pastor put this:
They lie to us about where peace, where rest can be found. Don’t they? They lure us into a deadly trap. They offer us satisfaction and they deliver only death. They sometimes point to good things - the good things with which God has blessed us in His grace, and then they carefully, slowly train us to love the gift more than the Giver and to assign meaning and find identity in possessing the gifts rather than in knowing and being known by the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever the strategy, whether direct and overt or subtle and covert, the point is our hearts are battlefields. If we’re believers in Jesus, our hearts are battlefields and the combat never ceases.
The battle never ceases. Think about that for a moment. And connect that with our newspapers. Everything in the world is going to be saying to you, “the battle is over here. Fight this thing. This is our destroyer. This is where the enemy is!” And we spend our lives gathering fodder for our cannons to destroy a perceived enemy—meanwhile we get consumed by the enemy within. The one that was always raging—quietly, imperceptibly, to shipwreck our souls.
The Puritan, John Owen, is correct:
He that stands still and allows his enemies to double blows upon him without resistance will undoubtedly be conquered in the [battle]. If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in battling it, then can we expect a good outcome? There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so while we live in this world.
Peter says here to “abstain”. That doesn’t just mean to say no. It means to get a good distance away from. It means to kill it. To starve it. To not feed it one bit. Not give it an inch, because if you do then it’s going to take a mile. That is what Peter is saying. He’s saying don’t feed your enemy—cut off it’s supply.
But let me show you what this looks like.
When we lived in Southern Indiana our house had a beautiful magnolia tree on one of the corners of the house. But this posed a problem for us because magnolia roots like to take over everything. We noticed in that corner of our basement we started developing those stair case cracks, that indicates a bit of a foundation issue. Uh oh. The tree had to go.
So I figured, I have an ax, a beard, and a flannel shirt and I’m a man. I can handle this. And so I, like a complete goon with an ax, chopped down this tree. But the problem didn’t go away. I had to call somebody to help with the next part. Killing the root system.
Sin is like this. At times we’ve got to grab an ax and chop down the visible tree. If you’re looking at porn you need to stop it. If you’re cheating on your taxes you need to stop it. If you’re getting angry and going off on these angry outbursts, you need to stop it. Get the picture.
Sometimes you’ve got to kill the visible tree (the presenting sin problem) before you can start digging out the roots (idolatry). I fear that sometimes, with all of our talk of gospel-motivated obedience, we miss something crucial; namely, actual obedience. I like the way Kevin DeYoung put it:
Without [the biblical emphasis of effort], we’ll be confused, wondering why sanctification isn’t automatically flowing from a heartfelt commitment to a gospel-drenched justification. We’ll be waiting around for enough faith to really ‘get the gospel’ when God wants us to get up and get to work (Phil 2:12-13). Because when it comes to growth in godliness, trusting does not put an end to trying. (Deyoung, The Hole in Our Holiness)
You aren’t denying the gospel by grabbing the axe of effort and chopping down the tree of lust. At this point you might not even be dealing with root issues or motivations, all you know is that this sin is bringing guilt and pain and you want it to stop. Don’t overcomplicate sanctification, grab the axe and start chopping.
But the other end of the pendulum, the Pharisee, is just as deadly. The pharisaical approach to killing sin chops down the visible without dealing with the root system. I’m not an expert on trees but I believe it is correct that if I don’t also sever the roots they will continue to grow (maybe even eventually sprouting another tree out of my stump).
You cannot just chop down the tree, leave a stump, and assume that the job is done. You’ve got to dig and get to the root of the issue. Otherwise you might outwardly tackle your sin problem but your misplaced identity will lead you to bow to some other god.
Here is my point. If you and I are sinning we need to grab an axe and deal with it. The gospel is what causes us to grab an axe and get to work. And the gospel also causes us to grab a shovel and start digging out roots. But we must never confuse the gospel’s axe work with gospel’s root work. They aren’t the same but they are both necessary to our sanctification.
Why?
Because sin always aims at the utmost. Again I turn to Owen, “Every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind…there is not the best saint in the world, but, if he should give over this duty of killing sin, would fall into as many cursed sins as ever any did of his kind.”
And so we must be killing sin or it will be killing us.
But there is another reason why sin must be killed—why we abstain from the passions of the flesh. And that is what we find in verse 12.
2. Our witness
Notice the “so that”. We keep our conduct honorable (that is in accordance with the true honor that is given to us by God) SO THAT others may see our good deeds and glorify God. The glory of God is at stake here.
This is something that is especially true when you are in a minority position as Peter’s original audience would have been. Or in a place where you don’t have power. This is a point that I’ve made often with teenagers who come to know Jesus and their parents are Christians. They really want mom and dad to come and know Jesus. And so I explain to them that when we share the gospel we must do so with our life and with our lips. Both are vital but at some points one will be emphasized over the other.
If I’m on a plane with someone and God gives me an opportunity to share Jesus I don’t really have much time to display my lifestyle, do I? Certainly the way I interact with others and such will shine forth. And I could do things which would do damage. But in that moment I probably need to emphasize the “lips” part of sharing the gospel. I need to speak the gospel.
But if I’m a teenager probably the most gospel appealing thing I can do is take out the trash. If we major on “life” in our gospel presentation then as a minority we are going to gain a hearing. That’s something that we see happening in 1 Peter 3:15
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
I like how Piper explains that verse:
What Peter is saying here is that when people look at you, what they see expressed in your actions is what you hope in. So they see a certain way of acting—some humble act of love (Galatians 5:6) or some righteous act of courage (Hebrews 10:34) or some self-denying act of generosity (2 Corinthians 8:1-2)—and they notice that you must not be hoping in what people usually hope in—self-exaltation, safety, money—and they are puzzled as to where your hope is. So they ask about your hope: where do you get your confidence, your contentment, your satisfaction when you act that way?
But what would happen if we didn’t listen to verse 11 and we didn’t abstain from passions of the flesh? Listen to what Paul calls works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Let’s bring out some of those that might hit a bit closer to home:
Strife. Do you have a tendency to quarrel. “Oh, that’s just my personality. That’s just who I am. I like to rile people up." Or having a tendency to always say bad things about one another…or never having a good word to say to one another.” This isn’t a personality trait, this is a work of the flesh that must be killed.
And what story does this tell about God and our relationship with God if this is what we are known by?
Fits of anger. Do you fly off the handle? This word originally referred to the violent movement of something. A tornado. A raging river. Bent on destruction. I have intense emotions I have to get it out and I don’t care what damage I cause along the way.
So what does it say about the glory of God if this defines me? What does it communicate about the greatness of God? What does it say that I think about how God is ordering His world?
Rivalries, dissensions, divisions. Do you view the world through the lens of parties and tribes and groups of people. What does that communicate about the value you place on the gospel of God. If God views the world as those who are in Christ and those who are not in Christ and we grab a knife and further divide men—and we do this diametrically opposed to the work of the gospel in places like Epheians 2…what is this communicating?
Sensuality. Lacking in moral restraint. Dictated by lust and pleasure. No self-control. If that’s me. What am I communicating about the goodness of God. If I say taste and see that the Lord is good---and I’m consumed by OTHER stuff then it calls into question my profession.
None of us like hypocrites but we’re all hypocrites in some way. None of us perfectly model this. None of us can fully accomplish what Peter is saying here. We all blow it.
But the question is this. Do you battle? Is there a war raging. We know that these things are doing battle with us—but are we doing battle with them? That’s the question. That’s how you can discern a believer from an unbeliever.
If there isn’t a battle. If these passions of the flesh are defining you and you are okay with that and not battling this, then there is likelihood that you don’t have a relationship with Jesus—that your heart hasn’t been changed—that you haven’t experienced the new birth. Because that battle is evidence of a changed heart, a changed life.
I want to show you one more cool thing in this passage and then we’ll close. Notice in verse 12 how Peter says, “keep your conduct AMONG THE GENTILES honorable”. Who is he talking to? He’s talking to Gentiles. Non-Jews. But he refers to Gentiles as “they”…when “they” speak against you as evildoers. Why does he do this? Look back at verse 9, “but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.” These are all things said of the people of God in the OT. These are all Israelite words. And so what is Peter saying here…he is saying that God has changed your identity.
And THAT is why there is a battle. If there is no battle then there is no identity change.
And this is also important because it helps us to see not only why we battle but how we battle. Wait, one more cool thing. Verse 11. It’s how Peter starts a whole new section. These verses are massive and the implication of them will stretch all the way into chapter 4. These two verses will impact how
Christians relate to government, How Christians relate to their masters/employers, How Christians relate to one another in their marriage, How Christians relate to one another in their local church.
But there is one word which begins the whole thing and is a word that informs every other word in these passages. Beloved.
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 25.45 ἀγαπητός, ή, όν
pertaining to one who or that which is loved—‘object of one’s affection, one who is loved, beloved, dear
You are loved by God. Especially loved by God. This isn’t just a “God loves everybody as Creator because that is what he does and who He is”. No this word beloved is a reminder that God has chosen to set his affection upon those who are in Christ Jesus. God loves you. He is dedicated to you. He is dedicated to securing your greatest joy. He is dedicated to spending an eternity in deep relationship with you. Nothing will stop him in this. And so that is why even though our passions wage war against our soul—it is great news that God Almighty is waging war FOR our soul.
Consider this prayer from John Owen:
“I am a poor, weak creature; unstable as water, I cannot excel. This corruption is too hard for me, and is at the very door of ruining my soul; and what to do I know not. My soul is become as parched ground, and an habitation of dragons. I have made promises and broken them; vows and engagements have been as a thing of naught. Many persuasions have I had that I had got the victory and should be delivered, but I am deceived; so that I plainly see, that without some eminent succor and assistance, I am lost, and shall be prevailed on to an utter relinquishment of God. But yet, though this be my state and condition, let the hands that hang down be lifted up, and the feeble knees be strengthened. Behold, the Lord Christ, that has all fullness of grace in his heart [John 1:16], all fullness of power in his hand [Matt. 28:18], he is able to slay all these his enemies. There is sufficient provision in him for my relief and assistance. He can take my drooping, dying soul and make me more than a conqueror [Rom. 8:37].
“Why do you say, O my soul, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Have you not known, have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:27-31).
“He can make the ‘dry, parched ground of my soul to become a pool, and my thirsty, barren heart as springs of water’; yea, he can make this ‘habitation of dragons,’ this heart, so full of abominable lusts and fiery temptations, to be a place for ‘grass’ and fruit to himself (Isa. 35:7)”
Are you to be found in Christ?