Now may I encourage you to turn
in your Bibles with me to the book of 1 Peter, and I shall
read in your hearing 1 Peter 2, verses 11 and 12, and then
chapter 3, verses 8 through 12. 1 Peter 2 and verse 11. Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners
and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against
the soul, having your behavior honorable among the Gentiles,
that wherein they speak against you as evildoers, they may by
your good works which they behold glorify God in the day of visitation."
Chapter 3 and verse 8. Finally, be ye all like-minded
compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, humble-minded,
not rendering evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but contrary
wise blessing. For hereunto were you called
that you should inherit a blessing. For he that would love life and
see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his
lips that they speak no guile. and let him turn away from evil
and seek good. Let him seek peace and pursue
it. For the eyes of the Lord are
upon the righteous and his ears unto their supplication, but
the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil. Now let us pray and ask God's
help and blessing as we come to the study of his word together. Our Father, we thank you that
again we are privileged to draw near to you, and that we may
do so in the confidence that you are not weary of our coming.
For as best we know our hearts, we do not come as a matter of
empty, repetitious mouthing of words, but out of the matrix
of our felt sense of need for present grace. O Lord, at the
throne of we ask for grace to help in this our time of need,
and we seek in expectation to obtain it from you. Amen. In writing to the Christians
at Rome, the Apostle Paul said, in words familiar to many of
us, Let not your good be evil spoken of. In giving this directive,
it's clear that the apostle was deeply concerned that the people
of God raise no unnecessary prejudice at the Christian community by
the way in which they conducted themselves, even in matters of
moral indifference. Now this concern is clearly shared
by the Apostle Peter as he writes from Rome to the people of God
scattered in the churches of Asia Minor, those whom he addresses
in the opening words of this epistle. As Peter begins his
second series of pastoral exhortations, verses 11 and 12 of chapter He
makes this concern abundantly clear when he writes in verse
12, having your behavior honorable among the Gentiles. He is conscious
that the people of God are not living in a cocoon. They are
living under the scrutinizing eye of the Gentiles, those who
are not believers. those who in many cases, with
respect to these believers, were hostile to the people of God. And he is passionately concerned
that they so walk before God and man that they validate the
power of the gospel and give no legitimate occasion of prejudice
against the gospel. Having then focused upon how
these believers are to commend the gospel with respect to the
whole issue of human authority, and that begins in verse 13 and
goes all the way down to verse 7 of chapter 3, the apostle is
now concerned to give some general directives to all of the people
of God. In giving those specific directives
with relationship to the various structures of human authority,
he addressed very specifically servants in verse 18 of chapter
2, wives in verse 1 of chapter 3, husbands in verse 7 of chapter
3. But when we come to verse 8,
we note immediately the words, finally, be all. like-minded,
compassionate, etc. What he is doing here in this
section is to turn from specific directives to specific segments
of the church and giving a generic directive to all of the members
of the church. And basically what we have in
verses 8 through 12, I trust was even initially clear to you
in the reading of the passage. In verse 8, Peter highlights
the graces that are to mark the believers primarily in their
relationships one to another. And then in verse 9, he lays
out the manner in which believers are to respond to the ill treatment
received primarily at the hands of unbelievers. And then in verses
10 to 12 he gives a biblical reinforcement of these directives
based upon an excerpt from Psalm 34. So that's the basic overall
structure of this section of the Word of God. Now this morning
we're going to focus our attention upon verse 8. And as we take
up the text, we should understand that Peter was guided by the
Spirit of God to identify the graces which should make the
way in which we relate one to another a matter of constant
validation of the gospel which we claim to believe. After that
call to a radically different Christian lifestyle, a call that
gets specific by the constant use of participles, these verbal
forms used in differing ways. Now when Peter comes to these
descriptions of the graces that are to mark the people of God,
he does a strange thing. And those of you who have any
acquaintance with your Greek text will know this when you
look at the passage. For no longer do we find participles,
these verbal constructions, but we find Peter stringing together
five adjectives. There is no verb in verse 8.
That's why if you have an older translation, the words be or
the word be is in italics. Literally, he says, finally,
at this point, now as a concluding word in this present series of
exhortations, not finally with respect to the letter, not finally
with respect to the full gamut of his pastoral concerns, But
finally, with reference to this series of exhortations beginning
in verse 11, going down through verse 12, he then simply says,
all, finally all, no longer servants specifically, no longer wives
specifically, no longer husbands specifically, but finally all,
and then there's no verb. He just hangs together five adjectives. one after another, without any
comment, finally all. And it's as though by this very
method of writing, the Spirit of God is guiding Peter to impress
upon these believers that if people from the outside look
in upon you, they ought to stand back and exclaim with these five
adjectives that this is what characterizes your life together
like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted,
humble-minded. That's become the very essence
of what you are in your life together. Looking upon the community
of God's people, rather than be stumbled with respect to a
contradiction in their corporate lifestyle and the ethos of their
relationship together, They should see them as a people who are
same-minded, sympathetic, brotherly-loving, tender-hearted, humble-minded
people. Now, when we come to expound
these five adjectives, it's not an easy task, because again,
Peter is considered the ignorant fisherman, but when you start
taking seriously the Greek in which he wrote, you realize he
wasn't so ignorant. Four of these five adjectives
are found only once in the New Testament and they're here in
this verse. One of them is found twice. The other four are found
nowhere else in the New Testament. Thankfully, most of them are
found in a noun or verbal form, the same stem of the word, and
we can compare scripture with scripture and we are not left
to simply dig out of secular literature some sense of the
meaning of the word or be thrown back merely upon etymology. So we come this morning to consider
these five graces that are to mark the relationship of the
people of God primarily viewed as a community interacting one
with another. And as I wrestled with how to
lay them out in some kind of orderly manner, with some kind
of homiletical structure, The only thing I could come up with
is to think of these as five pearls in the beautiful necklace
of grace, and we're going to take them up one pearl at a time. All right? Pearl number one,
like-minded or sane-minded. Now, this quality that is to
mark the people of God is again and again brought forward by
the Apostle Paul in his letters using a verbal construction,
but the stuff of the basic words is such that it is evident that
the Spirit of God is pointing precisely to the same thing. What is to characterize the people
of God, namely this like-minded or same-mindedness, receives
constant emphasis in the letters of the Apostle Paul. Note with
me quickly an overview of those emphases or of that emphasis
and of those texts. In Romans chapter 12, as the
Apostle is stringing together various pastoral directives to
the Roman Christians, He writes in verse 15 and 16 of Romans
12, Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep, be
of the same mind one toward another. be of the same mind one toward
another. Chapter 15 in verse 5. Now the
God of patience and comfort grant you to be of the same mind one
with another according to Christ Jesus. First Corinthians 1 in
verse 10. Now I beseech you, brethren,
through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak
the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but
that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 11. 2 Corinthians 13, 11. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfected. Be comforted. be of the same mind." As Paul
is thinking of the things that he wants to linger in their ears
and in their consciousness as he brings his letter to a close,
same-mindedness is brought forward along with comfort and living
in peace. And then in Philippians 2 and
verse 2, Philippians 2 and verse 2, make full my joy that you
be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord,
of one mind. So though Peter, under the guidance
of the Spirit, uses an adjective found only here in the New Testament,
he is pointing to something with which all of the churches eventually
in the Greco-Roman world would have known was a central concern
of apostolic directive in teaching all things that Christ had commanded
And so Peter envisions the people of God in their life together
so living as to validate the power of the gospel as people
see them like-minded or same-minded. Now that brings us to a very
simple and necessary question. What lies at the heart of this
like-mindedness, this same-mindedness? Well, as I wrestled with that
and read much and pondered and conjugated, I found most helpful
to me was the little phrase that Paul brings into play when he
addresses the subject in Romans chapter 15 and verse 5. The God
of patience and comfort grants you to be of the same mind, one
with another, according to Christ Jesus. is urging a sane-mindedness
that takes its point of reference from Christ Jesus. And that brings us immediately
to what we have emphasized again and again in the exposition of
this epistle, that these Christians have in common the great and
glorious salvation in Christ already described in this letter.
So that when Peter says, finally all of you like-minded. He's not shooting that adjective
into a vacuum. He has already described the
things that they possess in Christ Jesus that become the standard
and the reference point for their like-mindedness. He began in
chapter 1 in describing their identity as elect sojourners,
as those who were foreknown, chosen by God, washed in the
blood of Christ, renewed by the Spirit, participants in that
great salvation rooted in the redemptive work of Christ, climaxing
in his resurrection from the dead. They are bound together
in their common inheritance that is reserved in heaven for them.
They are redeemed by the same blood. They are born of the same
Spirit. They have been quickened from
the state of being dead stones to living stones, brought in
to that living temple of which Christ himself is cornerstone,
and by the Spirit, the very life of that temple. And now he says
to such people, who have a common salvation, with a common hope,
with a common commitment, to a common standard of holiness,
in pursuit of a common calling, he says to them, all of you like-minded. And it is these gospel realities
presently believed and nurturing the soul and filling the mind
that lie at the very basis of any true like-mindedness or same-mindedness
among any congregation of God's people. And so when Peter says
to them, This is to mark your life together, like-mindedness,
same-mindedness. He knows that the foundation
and the basis and the life for that like-mindedness is there
in the provisions of the gospel, in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus. The apostle says, be of one mind
according to Christ Jesus. And as I was thinking of a way
to illustrate this, I could not help but think of a documentary
that I saw a few weeks ago. It caught my eye in the TV guide
that, I think the title of it was, A B-24 Bomber Crew Something
or Other. It caught my eye. It was taking
me back to the Second World War. And it was a fascinating documentary.
They gathered together the living members of the crew of a B-24
Liberator bomber. And this was one of the bombers
that was greatly useful in the Second World War, a lumbering
four-engine bomber precursor to the B-17 and other larger
bombers. And all they did, basically,
interspersed with a few clips of various actual flights of
these bombers, was to interview the living members of that crew. Where are you from? How did you
happen to come onto the crew? What was your place? I was a
gunner, I was the navigator, etc. And each of these men was
given the opportunity to give a little mini biography of himself,
his background, his education, where he came from. And it soon
became evident as they interviewed one after another, I think all
told they interviewed seven or eight, I don't remember the exact
number, that they came from a tremendous diversity of backgrounds. There
was one Jewish young man, There was a Swedish man, there were
a couple of Hispanics, someone was from a rural place in the
Midwest, some from large cities, some Southerners, some Northerners,
some Midwesterners. And then the interviewer asked
the captain this question. He said, now it's evident from
what we've heard that you came from a tremendous diversity of
backgrounds, religious, ethnic, social, cultural, big city, little
city, northerners, southerners, did these differences ever get
in the way? You know what his answer was?
To my knowledge, never. Because we were all taken up
in a cause that was bigger than our differences. They were of one mind. Why? not because someone sat
them down and gave them lectures on the evils of the self-consciousness
of ethnicity in the midst of a war. It's because they all
were captured with a cause bigger than their differences. You get
the point of my illustration? When Peter says, In this series
of exhortations, as I now seek to move your attention away from
the subject of what it means to be a validation of the gospel
in the way you relate as citizens to the state, slaves to their
masters, Wives to their husbands, husbands to their wives, as I
now think of you as communities there in Asia Minor, living together
before the scrutinizing eye of the Gentiles. Finally, all of
you like-minded, same-minded. Peter understands that the stuff
for the same-mindedness has been laid in all of their hearts by
the power and grace of God in Jesus Christ. and that all they
must do is to continue to feed their minds and hearts upon those
things which originally constituted them as one people. Is it not
true that to the extent that any community of God's people
cling closely to and to the realities of what they are and possess
in virtue of the salvation of Christ, they find themselves
of one mind. Of one mind. It's when they move
from that greater concern to matters of lesser concern that
they find a fragmentation of mind, a loss of unity of aim
and commitment as well as affection and the consciousness of being
one body in Jesus Christ. So we need constantly to remember
that it is the will of God as revealed through his servant
Peter that we, as his people, seeking soul to live before the
Gentiles, that we glorify God and give no unnecessary occasion
of prejudice to the gospel, that we are to be described as a like-minded,
a same-minded people. not a pseudo-unity based upon
an agreement to believe nothing, but a true unity bound together
by truth, the center of which is Christ himself. Then he moves
on to the second pearl, and that is sympathetic. Now again, a
little word study. The word etymologically, and
in its common usage, means to share the same feelings. We get our English word sympathetic
by transliterating the Greek word. Sympathetic means to share
the same feelings. Now generally we use it when
we share a feeling of grief with another. We say of a given person,
he's a very sympathetic person. Generally what we mean is when
someone's going through trouble and expressing grief and hardship
and sorrow, this person has an unusual ability to draw near
and enter in with them and sympathize. But there's nothing in the word
itself, nor in its usage, that demands that we limit sympathy
to sharing only the feelings of grief and of pain and of sorrow. Just as sharing in the painful
emotions of another shows that we are liberated from self-centeredness
and hardness of heart, so entering into the joys of another shows
that we are free from the wretched sins of envy and jealousy. And
there are some who seem to be apparently free enough to sympathize
with others' grief, but they find it very difficult to sympathize
with another's joy. Because the very thing that makes
that brother or sister joyful is the thing concerning which
you have an unmortified, covetous spirit. But you see the pattern
of the Word of God, and here we have two other texts that
help throw light on this adjective, sympathetic. What does that mean
in specific things? We go back to Romans 12 and verse
15. Romans 12 and verse 15. Rejoice
with them that rejoice. Weep with them that weep. What's
it mean to be characterized as a sympathetic people? It means
simply this. Most of us live our lives on
the plateau of the ordinary. Is that where you live most of
your life? How many of you had something
so extraordinary you were tempted to call a staff reporter of the
Star-Ledger or the New York Times and report it as a news item
this week? Are any of you tempted to call in to Channel 2 or Channel
9 and say, hey, something amazing? No, most of us lived this past
week on the plateau of the very ordinary. You don't even know
what sock you put on first every morning, but you put the same
sock, not the same one, I hope, morning after morning, but whatever
socks you pull out, you put it on the same foot. You don't even
know where you put on your left or right foot. Start checking yourself.
Hold on the same way. When you guys start to shave,
you always start to shave exactly in the same place. You try to
start shaving on the other side, it'll unhinge you. Our lives
are lived out in the plateau of the ordinary, the routine.
That's the way most of us live. That's the way life is. But there
are those mountain peaks when in the providence of God, God
so showers certain gifts and graces upon us that we are raised
above the plateau measure of our joy in the Holy Ghost. The
fruit of the Spirit is joy, and anyone full of the Spirit and
walking in the Spirit will have this plateau measure of joy. But when the scripture says the
disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost, there
was an unusual effusion of divine joy upon them. Now the text says,
when our brethren are brought to that place, we are to be sympathetic. We're to enter in to their joy,
so that when they're on that mountain peak of joy, they've
got companions to share their joy. Because if they're Christians,
They know that that which is brought them joy has come from
the hand of their God. And they want to share the beneficent
heart of God as manifested in what he's done for them. Peter
says, all of you, sympathetic, rejoice with those who rejoice.
But then the text says, weep with those who weep. Not only
are we ordinarily on the plateau of the ordinary, but There are
times we go down into the valley of the extraordinary, that which
brings us to weeping, to brokenness of heart and of spirit, when
for whatever reason the thing providence has brought into our
lives crushes us. And we may have to say with the
psalmist, our tears have been our meat day and night. The scripture says weeping may
endure for the night. There is a night of weeping for
the child of God. And we are commanded as the people
of God to weep with those who weep, to be sympathetic so that
while we live out most of our lives on the plateau of the ordinary,
we're never alone on the mountain peak of joy or alone in the valley
of crushing grief. And people looking in upon us
are astounded. Why? What's the attitude of the
world? It's a world filled with selfishness
and indifference. A world that doesn't care what
breaks the heart of another, or what brings delight and joy
and exhilaration to another. And when the world sees a people
expressing not feigned sympathy as a means to get something from
someone, But genuine, unfamed sympathy, rejoicing with another
in things that I would rejoice in had God given them to me.
But in his wisdom he's withheld them from me. The world sees
genuine rejoicing and it can't figure this out. Why aren't you
green with envy? Why aren't you gritting your
teeth with cynicism? Because I'm not what I once was. There was a time when I would
have been green with envy. I would have found something
to say to cut off the keen edge of another's joy in what he had
received. But now there is genuine, what
the old writers would call disinterested joy, that is joy for the sheer
joy of rejoicing with another, not seeking anything in return.
Disinterested grief in sharing with the pain and the grief of
another. Now that assumes, does it not,
that as Peter sits down and ponders what he's going to write, and
the Spirit of God guides him to write this adjective, sympathetic,
he views those saints out there in those five provinces of Asia
Minor as a people who have growing personal intimacy with one another. You can't be sympathetic with
another's mountain peaks and valleys. if you're so far removed
in the geography of interpersonal relationships that you don't
know when they're on the mountain or in the valley. Peter's assuming
that the people of God have growing personal intimacy, that they
have growing comfortableness in being open and honest with
one another. How in the world can I be sympathetic
if sympathetic means to share the same feelings of another
If the one whose feelings I'm seeking to share is one who wears
the plastic face and never lets his heart get out to where I
can enter into it, how can we? We're not God. We can't read
into the heart of a man and see that there in his heart he's
groveling in the valley or he's dancing on the mountain. It means
we've got to get over this cynicism about opening our hearts at a
deep level one to another. I know it's not popular and I
know the world looks upon it with suspicion and well they
might, but dear people of God, We have this one-mindedness,
this same-mindedness in the dynamics and in the power of the gospel,
and cannot those dynamics keep us from profaning the sacred
trust of an open heart from a brother or sister? Peter assumes that
there is growing personal intimacy, growing openness with each other,
growing honesty in our dealings one with another. How can we
be characterized as a people who are sympathetic unless there
is this growing openness of heart and of mind? Ah, you say, but
Pastor Martin, that's just your personality. It has nothing to
do with my personality. It has to do with the Word of
God. And if you have things in your
personality that tend to make you carnally reserved, take them
to a place called Calvary and see the nail to that cross. And if you have a tendency to
be too open and too effusive, take your lack of self-control
to that cross. But it works both ways. This
is not a matter of personality emphasis, dear brethren. It's
a matter of biblical norms. What is it to have our behavior
becoming among the Gentiles? It's to be a community of one-minded
followers of Christ, bound together in the truths and realities of
the gospel. It's to be a sympathetic people. It's to be like our Lord Jesus.
The verb form of this word is used of Him in Hebrews 4.15.
We have not a high priest who cannot be, here's our word, touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. We have not an unsympathetic
high priest. We have one who feels with us.
He that saith he abideth in him ought to walk even as he walked. Now we come quickly to our third
pearl. In this string of the pearl of graces that is to be
hung about the neck of God's people, as it is worked into
their hearts by the Spirit of God, loving as brothers." Now
here again we face the problem of language. How do you take
a Greek word that is an adjective and bring it over into an English?
We just don't have an English word. The Greek word philadelphoi,
the best we can do is come up with a hyphenated English two
words it would be brotherly affectionate. Brotherly affectionate. That
is, maintain and manifest that special love that exists among
you because you are members of the same spiritual family. Now, Peter already addressed
this in chapter 1 and verse 22. He wrote, seeing you have purified
your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love
of the brethren. He says you've purified your
soul in the end result of that initial purification in God's
initial impartation of grace that as it puts you in a posture
where you can now genuinely love your brethren. Therefore in chapter
2 and verse 17 he gives a mandate, honor all men, love the brotherhood. The same root word is used here,
brotherhood. Now he comes along and says,
this is what is to characterize you as the people of God, since
you have purified your souls, and in the dynamics of the impartation
of grace are in a place where you can love with unfeigned love,
and since I've commanded you to love the brotherhood, you
ought as God's people to have as one of your dominant characteristics
when anyone looks upon you this adjective, you are brotherly
affectionate. Now, Peter is not saying love
as brothers love, but the use of this word points in another
direction. Rather, you love because you
are brothers. It's what you have been made
as Christ's family, of which he is the elder brother. And
according to Hebrews 2, 11 and 12, unashamedly calls us his
brethren. Think of it. brought by Christ,
incorporated into the family of Christ, called the brotherhood
of Christ. That's what grace has done. Now
Peter says, let an onlooking world see you to be what God
in grace has made you, brotherly, affectionate. Now again, this
is not an isolated issue. You know your Bibles well enough,
many of you. By this, Jesus said, shall all men know that you are
my disciples. if you have love one to another.
Obviously, it is not a love that simply courses through our hearts. How can the world know if they're
not seeing the manifestations of that love? That's a fair question,
isn't it? By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. The
assumption is that love will not be a dormant feeling in the
heart, but an active principle regulating the life so that when
Peter says, let your lifestyle be one that validates the gospel,
let it be honorable so that though they speak against you as evildoers,
they may, in beholding your good works, glorify God in the day
of visitation, here is one of the characteristics that will
fit that directive. Loving as brethren by this we
know we've passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. He that loves not abides in death. The whole book of 1 John filled
with such constant reiteration. And here again, dear people,
with all the diversity of background that was there among these to
whom Peter was writing, different temperaments, different tastes,
different stages of growth and development, differences in matters
of indifference, something fostered by the apostolic writings. There's
nothing in the apostolic writings that moves toward an artificial
wooden sameness of personality type, of taste and interest in
matters indifferent. The constant emphasis is let
each man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Do nothing that
impedes your spiritual progress. Do nothing that will hinder the
progress of another or the progress of the gospel. But there's no
legislation on a broad spectrum of matters where we have individual
liberty before God. Yet in the midst of all of that,
it is to be evident that we are marked as those who are brotherly
affectionate. that we are able to rise above
the recognition of differences on matters indifferent and to
express in the most concrete and evident ways that we relate
to one another. In the consciousness we are part
of a blood-brotherhood of which Christ is the elder brother. Then very quickly, pearl number
four, tender-hearted. This is the one word of the five
found elsewhere in the New Testament. And it's found in Ephesians 4
in verse 32. Be kind one to another. Here's
our word, tender-hearted, forgiving one another even as God, for
Christ's sake, has forgiven you. And the root of this word comes
from the word you would use if you were going to describe your
viscera, your internal organs. And it has deep tap roots in
the Hebrew concept carried over into the New Testament. When
it's used in its verbal form, Jesus was moved with compassion,
Matthew 9, 36, when he saw the multitudes. Mark 8, in verse
2, he's moved with compassion when he sees the crowd that's
been following him. I have compassion upon the multitude.
They've gone three days and they've eaten nothing. It's what the
father felt when he saw the son returning from the hog pens in
the far country. Luke 15, 20 says he was moved
with compassion. His bowels, his viscera, we say
in our day, I feel it at the gut level. That's the closest
English contemporary approximate to the Greek concept. Now, Peter
says, you are to be compassionately tender. That's to mark you in
your relationship one to another. hearted. It's very interesting
that the same root word is used when John says in 1 John 3 and
verse 17, if you see your brother have need and shut up your compassion. The old author I says your bowels
of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in you. You see
it's an inward thing, but John assumes if it's there inward
it's going to work its way outward into your head. You see your
brother have need. You shut up. You stop up. You put a blockage to your compassion. How does John assume that blockage
would be manifested? You don't stretch out your hand
to meet the need of your brother when it is in the power of your
hand to do it. He that sees his brother in need and shuts up
his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My children, let us not love in word only, but in deed and
truth. You see, the assumption is that
bound up in this compassionate tenderness is not only the inward
ability to be moved in the presence of perceived need in another,
but to be moved to the point that I'm prepared to do something
to relieve that need. And Peter says, it is that which
will cause an onlooking world to see in you the validation
of the gospel, because that's a reflection of the very God
who in Christ has redeemed you. He is a tender-hearted, compassionate
God, who not only was moved in the face of human need, but he
so loved as to give his only begotten Son. You see, the world
is a world of crass self-centeredness. Its motto is, you made your bed,
lie in it. There's no skin off my teeth. You made the mistake, live with
it. You made your choice, that's
your problem, not mine. It's a world described in Titus
3.3 as marked by living in malice and envy. and hating one another. What a validation of the gospel
to see a compassionately tender people formed into such a people
by the saving power of a compassionately tender Savior. Then very quickly, humble-minded.
Those of you who have the old authorized and the new King James,
you have the word courteous. Why? Well, it's a matter of a
certain class of manuscripts have a word that could be translated
courteous, but a better manuscript collection points to the word
that is translated humble-minded. And the word again is used only
here in the New Testament, but the noun form is found in several
other places. Paul says in Acts 20 in verse
19, you know how from the first day I came among you, I served
the Lord, literally serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind. In Ephesians 4 in verse 2, after
Paul exhorts the believers to strive to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace, he emphasizes this particular
grace with all lowliness and meekness. The same in Philippians
2 in verse 3. Colossians in 3.12, and then
again in this very epistle in chapter 5 and verse 5, likewise
you younger be subject to the elder, all of you gird yourselves,
here's our word, with humility, with lowliness of mind. Now this was a word despised
in the Greek world. To be lowly minded was to be
something less than a noble Greek. But it's one of those words sanctified
by the grace and power of God in the Christian community. It's
the opposite of being haughty or high-minded or proud. Turn
to Proverbs 29, 23, where this is made very, very clear. Proverbs
29, verse 23. Notice the contrast. A man's
pride shall bring him low, but he that is of a lowly spirit
shall obtain honor. And in that Greek translation
of the Hebrew Scriptures, that's the word that is chosen by the
translators. Our word, humble-minded. It's the opposite of pride. It is averse to bragging and
pushing oneself forward, jostling and jockeying for position. According
to Ephesians 4.2 and Philippians 2.3, it is a characteristic crucial
in the life of a church committed to the maintenance of peace,
and unity. Solomon said in Proverbs 13.10,
by pride comes only contention. What lies at the root of contention? It's pride. My wish, my desire,
my perspective, my opinion, everyone make way for it. And if I must
fracture unity in the course of making way for it, too bad.
My perspective, my wish, my desire, my feelings are supreme. Well,
who made you God? No, humble-mindedness is that
which is to mark the community of God's people. It is one of
the adjectives that constitutes pearl number five in that string
of pearls that is to grace the life of God's people. And surely
as those who claim to be saved by the Christ of the towel and
the basin, it ought to mark us. You know what I mean by the towel
and the basin? The very night before he's betrayed, Jesus takes
the place of the servant, girds himself with a towel, takes a
basin, and stoops to wash the feet of the very disciples for
whom he would die the next day. The Christ of Gabbatha, shamefully
spat upon and falsely accused and struck with blows and dressed
in mock royal honor. The Christ of Golgotha, immolated,
naked, shamed, beaten, bruised, mocked, taunted, plunged into
the abyss of darkness. How in the world can anybody
strut? who said Jesus washed his feet,
who knows something of Jesus wrestling unto great drops of
blood in Gethsemane. If I have taken my place not
only as a creature whose very breath is given by God, But as
a sinner whose only hope of averting the judgment of God is found
in the self-humbling of the incarnate second person of the Godhead,
how in the world can there be strut? Now here's a community. Many of them scattered throughout
Asia Minor. They claim to be the community
of those redeemed by the blood of Christ. Chapter 1, verses
18 and following. What a horrible anomaly for there
to be strut and arrogance and pushing and shoving for one's
rights and one's way and one's opinion, making one's feelings
the arbiter of all that's right and wrong. Peter says, no, humble-mindedness
is to be that pearl that in a very real sense is the central pearl. and the other two flanking each
side of it. You see, pride leads to the self-seeking
that leads people to seek novel opinions and destroys one-mindedness
among God's people. At the root of all heresy is
pride. That's why the translators of
our New Testament find troubled rendering one or two words, shall
it be called divisive or heretical? Well, the very concept of heresy
is that there is a fracturing from that body of truth in which
we are united. Someone gets so proud that he's
living under the shadow of truth, he's got to come out into the
light. And so he creates a spotlight of his own error on which to
shine upon himself. And likewise with sympathy. I'm
too important to make my brother's joys my joy. I'm too important
to make his grief my grief. You see how humble-mindedness
in the very real sense feeds sane-mindedness and feeds true
sympathy. And flanked on the other side,
it will also feed and nourish and help to develop true brotherly
affection. Because I do regard my brother
as better than myself, Philippians chapter 2. Each regarding not
the things of his own, but the things of another. Only a humble-minded
man will do that. And such a one will be tender-hearted,
knowing that that which I perceive in the need of another is worthy
of my concern and of my involvement. One commentator has written in
very helpfully, Christians are not to think of themselves highly
but soberly. If they are Christians, they
must believe their insignificance as creatures and their demerit
as sinners. They must believe they are in
their natural state, thoroughly depraved, deeply inexcusably
guilty, righteously condemned, hopelessly wretched, and that
if their state is altered, if their characters are transformed,
if their prospects are improved, it's all owing to the sovereign
divine kindness operating through the mediation of Christ. and
the influence of the Holy Spirit. The native tendency of such views
is to make a man humble and lowly in spirit, to make him feel that
pride was not made for him. This should be the habitual temper
of the Christian, and should give a decided character to his
habitual demeanor and behavior. He should be clothed with humility,
in lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than himself. He
should certainly and carefully avoid all kinds of pride as absurd
and criminal. That's strong language, isn't
it? But as I've so often said, if we've taken our place in Eden,
chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, if we've stood our ground in
Eden, chapter 3 of Genesis, And if we stood our ground at God,
for where in the name of all rationality is there room for
pride? All man has in his pristine glory
as created is given by God. What he becomes as fallen is
shameful before God. What his sin demanded of God
is horrific. God-immolated, God-forsaken by
God. Where in the world is there room
for strife? This is a community of God's
people in Asia Minor who say this is the stuff of their life,
their faith. Peter says, is it wrong then
to expect that this would be that adjective that describes
your life as you interact one with another, humble-minded. Well, I've attempted to at least
point in the direction of the significance of these five adjectives. We come around full circle to
where we began, after addressing servants, wives, husbands, now
all the people of God, the dominant characteristic of their life
together. is to be like-minded, sympathetic,
brother-loving, tender-hearted, lowly-minded. Let me say these
brief words in summary and in application. I want to state
it as plainly as I know how. I sat at my desk no considerable
length of time saying, Lord, I want to state it so plainly
none will miss it. I don't want to insult anyone's
intelligence. Please don't be insulted. But
I want to be faithful to your soul. If we learn anything from
this study this morning, surely we ought to learn this. To acquire
these graces, you must be in Christ. To acquire these graces,
you must be in Christ. I've tried to show you in opening
up each one of them, that each of them has its tap roots in
the realities of Christ and His gospel, and in the dynamics of
the work of grace in the heart of a sinner. Peter does not expect
these people to somehow pull out these graces, create them,
and hang them about their necks. He is assuming that all the great
gospel realities of the first two chapters have been operative
in their lives. Jesus said it plainly. He said,
make the tree good and its fruit good, or the tree corrupt and
its fruit corrupt. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. An evil tree cannot bring forth
good fruit. My dear friend, You can't know
these graces unless you're in Christ. You must be in Christ. You've got to make the true good.
That is what you are as a man, woman, boy or girl must be made
good. Good in the gospel way, the way
of repentance and faith and fleeing to and clinging and casting your
soul upon Christ. You will have a welcome in Christ.
And by the enabling grace of the Spirit of Christ, then you
can begin to know what it is to be like-minded, sympathetic,
brotherly, affectionate. You can begin to know what it
is to be empathetic, tender-hearted, and humble-minded. To acquire
these graces, you must be in Christ. Secondly, to grow in
these graces, you must abide in Christ. John 50? Without me,
you can do nothing. You cannot of yourself produce
these graces, but you've been united to Christ. He is the vine,
you are branches. Abide in him, feed upon him in
the ways of his appointment, by a living faith, by feeding
upon his word, by calling upon his name. To be able to say with
Paul, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith
in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And
my final word of application is to say, to manifest these
graces in our life together, each one of us must take upon
ourselves the responsibility before God to cultivate them
individually. We'll not be like-minded as a
people unless you are like-minded as one of the members of this
body. And ask yourself every time you've got an itch to take
the minority opinion and the minority way and the minority
judgment, ask yourself, is it obsession with Christ and the
great issues of the gospel that gives me this itch to be always
the one in the minority opinion? Or do I find the closer I am
to Jesus, the more I find myself of one mind with my brethren?
That's a good little litmus test. How long has it been since you've
been on a mountain dancing with someone who's dancing? How long
since you've been in a valley with your arm around a weeping
brother or sister? Ask yourself, do you open yourself
up so that others can dance with you and weep with you? You see,
dear people, it will not do to sit and say, oh, that was helpful.
You've got to leave this place this morning determined to say,
if it all rested upon me, that string of pearls would be manifested
in this particular member of this assembly by the grace of
God. May God make it so for his glory. Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we praise you that it is
a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. We pray that
you would take this portion of your word and write it upon our
hearts. Have deep and lasting dealings
with every one of us. Oh Lord, we beg of you that we
as a people may be marked by these five gracious pearls that
your spirit alone can manufacture. and sustain and cause to grow. Oh, we pray, seal your word to
our prophet and have mercy upon those who have had to face the
fact that they don't have the stuff to manifest these graces. May that not discourage them,
but may it drive them to Christ, that in him they may be furnished
with all that is needful for life and godliness. Hear us,
we plead, in his name. Amen.