Overcoming evil with good
Warm-up: Can you remember having been discriminated against for one reason or another? How do you feel when being treated unjustly?
Read: 1 Peter 2:11-25
1) v11: Addressing ‘Christian behavior’, what problem did Peter single out first?
- What are (literally) “carnal desires”? What did Peter say earlier about ‘desires’? cf 1Pet 1:14; 2:2
- In 1:14-17, the logic was: If you call the impartial God and judge your Father (v17), then also live like obedient children (i.e. not like rebellious ones). What has obedience to do with desires? Why does it not suffice to directly discuss ‘good behavior‘? cf Col 3:1-5*
2) vv9-11: How did Peter explain the logic for Christians why they should abstain from ‘sinful desires’?
- Has it anything to do with identity? vv9-10
- Is it about your identity, or about the identity of the Christian community?
- What difference does it make? Why did Peter want Christians to regard their war (!) with indwelling sin as a collective effort?
- And is it in order to do something “for God”? Why or why not? =>
- In what ways is this a war for our own soul? cf Gal 5:17
- How much sinful desire are believers allowed to tolerate in their heart?
- Is this realistic? What is the result of more “tolerance” in this area?
3) Read again v12: When believers (plural) live above reproach, how will Gentiles as a result glorify God?
- Hint: What is “the day of His visitation”? Considering the context, is Peter having in mind the day of judgement (Ex 32:34), or a time of awakening and repentance (of Gentiles)? 1Pet 3:1; cf Gen 50:24-25; Ps 65:7-9; Jer 27:22; 29:10
4) How is ‘doing good’ defined by vv13-17?
- What may the original recipients of the letter have considered as an alternative acceptable behavior?
- v16: Why did Peter not refer to the Ten Commandments as a standard for what it means to ‘do good’? Did he set the bar below or above that?
- v15: What is the purpose of doing good: The well-being of only your own soul, or that of others?
5) vv18-20: Christianity was born into a culture where slavery was the rule, not the exception. What do you think of Peter’s instructions here to slaves?
- Did Peter preach to slaves to simply ‘do nothing’ against being abused?
- Or were slaves made the heroes and standard bearers of Christianity in showing how to overcome rampant evil with good?
- Did (or does) the preaching of such submissiveness prevent a change in the status quo that slaves were regularly abused?
- Instead of demanding to abolish slavery altogether, the Bible “only” set boundaries by warning slaveholders of God’s justice (e.g. Col 4:1), and by appealing to voluntary changes (Phm 1:14). Do you think it can thus be blamed for the persistence (or resurgence) of that evil in America in the 18th and 19th century? Or do we owe it to the Bible that abolition of slavery became possible at all?
6) In vv21-25, v24 quotes from Isa 53:5, one of the better known prophecies in the OT. How did Peter (v25) interpret what Isaiah meant when he said ‘by his wounds you have been healed’?
- In what ways did Jesus set the ultimate example of submissiveness and how to overcome evil with good?
- Why does this description of the Shepherd offering up his life inspire others to follow him and his example?
- What hinders you to follow his example?
* The question whether this is about “identity” is more conclusively answered by the parallel text in Col 3:1-11.
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