"For 'Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are one the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.'"
1 Peter 3: 10-12

IN the previous two verses the apostle outlined for us the sort of life and living all the Lord's people should express in their lives and living. In our last sermon we sought to understand this in some depth. However we must not feel we have no more to do, but rather appreciate that this teaching must be constantly in our thoughts, seeking from the Lord further depth of understanding so that we grow in living in harmony.

But we must not stop our dwelling on this subject but realise that it is not sufficient just to understand the teaching, but also to apply the teaching, or act upon the teaching so that it may be reflected in our daily lives. Further this acting must not be simply outward but reaching down into our hearts so that it becomes an integral part of our being. Peter understands this and so in the verses that follow, up to verse 17, he gives explanation and argument to press this home to us who are believers in Jesus as our Saviour. Peter understands that we must glorify Christ in our living, and this living in harmony with each other is what glorifies Christ, and shows the nature of Christ in the spiritual family of God's people.

In the first place Peter brings before us a cogent argument for such living which is that it is the teaching of God in his Holy and infallible word expressed in the whole of the Bible. For this Peter brings to us two verses from the Old Testament which illustrate and express this mind of God. The passage quoted is from the Psalms - Psalm 34: 12-16. These verses are quoted by the apostle to press us to action in this expression of life as believers.

As we come to this argument for action to holy living we face the question which is pressed upon us by the prevalent attitude to the Bible expressed in the visible church today. In days gone by, that is before a century ago or so, the church upheld the Bible as God's word, his speaking in written form, where God has made his will and purpose known, and has spoken, so that the Bible contains the actual speaking of God in written form, which he has given to the church as the foundation of all belief and living. In other words, because it was accepted that the Bible expressed in words the mind and revelation of God, the Bible was and is the true teaching and command of the Lord, which Christians must believe, obey and accept as God expressing his mind in commands and saving love, and all issues in the Christian life and living found their answer from the Bible in its plain and obvious meaning. In a word it was accepted that the Bible was and is the infallible and inerrant word of God, from which we are able to know salvation and be taught and understand the way God seeks that we may live our lives to his glory in this world in which live.

Since the teaching of Darwin in the late 19th century there has grown up, and enforced by the pontificating of science as popularly understood, the idea that the Bible has errors, and from this over time there has grown up the belief that the Bible has errors which are exposed by science, and so the Bible cannot now be accepted as God's infallible words written, but simply a collection of the inspired seeking of Christians in the past that contains spiritual truth but also errors. Under this belief it is felt axiomatic that the way we must approach the Bible is to asses its revelation and teaching by our own fallible and corrupt human wisdom. Of course this leads to the idea that people may believe whatever they want to believe, and draw out of the Bible what pleases their conception of God and his ways. Of course such attitude to the Bible destroys all real authority, and leaves people in life at what can be described as the moving sands of changing human opinion, without any sure anchor of truth on which to build and live their lives. To such opinion the argument for living based on the teaching and revelation in the Bible has little authority, and so the arguments from the teaching and revelation given in the Bible can easily be rejected or interpreted to suit human opinion.

Such a foundation for living really is impossible. It is what Jesus, at the application of his sermon on the mount in Matthew's Gospel, called building our house on the sands, which has no sure foundation. Let it be said here that this attitude to the Bible is indeed sinking sands, and no foundation for faith. On the other hand the claims of the Bible itself that it is God speaking and expresses God's infallible and inerrant truth is the only way forward, and when accepted as such is found never to be anything less than the rock foundation of God on which we may safely build our life and thinking, and when we do so we find that we enjoy the comfort and assurance of God which brings eternal life to all who believe.

I have written all this in order that we who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus as our sin-bearer and Saviour may have confidence in God's word, and accept the authority of God's written word as expressed by Peter in this quotation from Psalm 34.

This quotation from Psalm 34 commences with assuring words from God through the medium of David who was inspired by the Spirit of God to express the mind of God in this Psalm. This first sentence of this quotation from Psalm 34 tells us the way to live and enjoy a happy and fruitful and long life. Let us dwell on this teaching for our joy and strength. David says that 'Whoever would love life and see good days ...'. His argument is that if we would experience a long, happy and satisfying life this is the way it is achieved, which David expresses in the rest of the quotation.

This is totally different from what the world teaches. There is an advertisement on the television at the moment which tells us that whatever we want to do never let 'no' be the answer, except with regard to sex. It is good that forcing a woman in to sexual intercourse against her will is a no go area, but for some in the world, even though this would be rape, even 'no' is unacceptable. This expresses the belief of human wisdom that happiness is found in doing anything and everything we want to do. An honest observation of life today tells us that this attitude is only a recipe for unhappiness and shortening life. In contrast to this the Bible show that what is the way of true happiness and long life, which is described by David in the following words of this quotation.

As we read on in this quotation given to us by David we have the secret of long and happy living. The way is so simple and direct, but so true. The thinking of the world is unable to accept this way, but for us who believe in Jesus and seek to obey him as our Lord, these words are gold. Not only that, because through faith in Jesus, we are not only forgiven all our sins, but are raised to new life through faith, and have been united to Christ by faith in his death and resurrection to enter a new realm of the kingdom of God, and so in this life have been created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4: 24). By this new life and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have this new holy principle of life by which the instructions of God's word quoted by Peter are words of truth and desirable so that they are a delight to us which we embrace.

The instruction is first an instruction concerning our speech and conversation. We are exhorted by God's word to keep our tongue from evil and our lips from deceitful speech. The tongue, that is our speaking, reflects our inner being. For the Christian the words of exhortation here in the quotation resinate loudly, because we know how easily Satan trips us up by exciting our old nature, which causes us in our thinking, which is expressed in our speaking, thoughts and feelings which are evil, and to express thoughts and attitudes which are sinful and not righteous. The apostle James speaks about this evil in the 3rd chapter of his letter in verses 1-12.

So the Psalmist instructs us as believers in Jesus and servants of God in what we must do, which is to keep our tongue from evil and our lips from deceitful speech. How wide and extensive is the expression of evil which we so easily fall into. There is gossip, boasting, half truths, jesting, cursing, speaking evil of others and much more. We need to be alert to this propensity, and guard against it, and seek the aid of the Holy Spirit to combat it, and repent immediately we are overcome in this way. There is an expulsive power to this evil when we feed our minds with the word of God, and live close to Jesus so that his thoughts and ways become ours more and more. This is expressed so clearly and powerfully in verse 11, which is turning from evil to doing good, and seeking peace and pursuing it, and by this pursuit we will crowd out the sinful suggestion and motivations of our sinful nature by replacing them by Christlike thoughts and motivations.

The next argument that is forced upon our understanding and conscience to live in harmony with one another, is in verse 12 of this quotation from the Psalms which reads 'For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.'

What this verse is expressing is the fact that the Lord is watching over us all the time. Salvation through faith in Jesus as Saviour has brought the faithful into the kingdom of God, and to know God as our heavenly Father. We are his children and as a perfect Father we are never out of his sight or care. The verse expresses two sides of this relationship - one good and the other corrective.

When the child of God is turning from evil and doing good, seeking peace and pursuing it, then the eyes of the Lord are on us for good. The meaning of God's eyes upon us is that he is watching over us all the time to keep us in his love and living in accordance with his loving purpose for us. This means we are under his guidance and protection all the time, keeping us from harm, and blessing us in our lives with the necessities of life, and for the blessing of our service for him.

The great blessing given in this verse 12 is that God is attentive to our prayers. It is the glorious privilege of the believer in Jesus as Saviour that we have boldness to enter the holiest of all through the washing of the blood of Jesus. There is no time when this privilege is not available. Our Father in heaven delights to receive our prayers whenever we seek to speak to him. He is attentive to all our prayers even those which seem too small to mention. He is the almighty king who is all wise and all powerful, so nothing we bring before him is beyond his power and wisdom to answer. As a good, perfect and loving Father, he answers our prayers always, but with the good purpose he has for us. His purpose is to protect us from evil, and keep us in his love, and eventually bring us to be with him in his eternal kingdom. This may mean that we may imagine he is not attentive to us because we do not receive exactly what we ask. However in love he does answer all our prayers according to his great love for us in Jesus, but only according to love which seeks our very best according to his good purpose for us.

Prayer is so great a blessing. At any time there is nothing we are unable to bring before the attention of our heavenly Father. God has also promised that the Holy Spirit will attend our praying, so that it is brought before the Father in an appropriate way. This is expressed by the apostle Paul in Romans 8: 26, 27. - 'In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.'

But there is a corrective purpose in God's watching over us. For the ungodly who do not receive with faith the salvation of God, God's watching is against them. But there is a further truth which we who are believers need to take to heart. When we fail in living in harmony with others by our weakness, and are quick to repent then God's grace abounds towards us. However if a believer persists in some thought or action which they know to be wrong then this Scripture warns us that the Lord is against us until we repent. This is God's chastisement, which we read of in Hebrews 12: 5-6 'My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as sons.' The Lord does this because he is against those who do evil. The way forward is to renounce the evil in true repentance, and then the Lord's face will be on us in love.

We return to the teaching of how to live harmony with each other next time when we will consider the teaching in the verses that follow in 1 Peter 3.