Living Good Lives – Part 4

This newest series of messages on Internet Pastor is called “Living Good Lives”.

We are continuing in our series called “Living Good Lives”. This series is built around 1 Peter 2:12 that encourages us to live such good lives among non-believers that they are impacted for the glory of God. The way that we live our lives has an impact on people. One of the things that they are looking at is if our lives match what we say, or, does our walk match our talk. Living this kind of life is what integrity is all about. I like to think of integrity as “doing the next right thing”

Peter gives us some ideas about how to live doing the next right thing, how to live with integrity as we continue on in the 2nd chapter of 1 Peter.

Doing the Next Right Thing

There are three things we need to make a priority if we are going to live doing the next right thing.

1. Avoid temptation
2. Respect authority
3. Trust God in difficult situations

1. Avoid Temptation

1 Peter 2:11 (NIV)
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

Peter challenges us to abstain from sinful desires and then he adds this in verse 16:

1 Peter 2:16 (NIV)
16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.

Here is a question I hear “Can you be a Christian and do [name your favorite vice]“? The question in itself really is saying, “Can I still do whatever I feel like doing” and be a Christian. The answer is actually yes, but integrity demands that you don’t. Ultimately it is not a matter of trying to work the system to your own personal benefit, it is about doing what is right. Integrity says, “My life backs up what I say.”

Another question I hear often is, “What is God’s will for my life?” or “How can I know God’s will?” I usually say that God’s will for us is found by doing the next right thing. I believe that is what Peter is saying in verse 15:

1 Peter 2:15 (NIV)
15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

God’s will for your life is that you live with integrity, that your life matches what you say you believe. That you live doing the next right thing.

2. Respect Authority

Another way that we are to live good lives is demonstrated by how you respond to authority. How you handle that reveals your maturity.

1 Peter 2:13-14 (NIV)
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

The keyword there is submit. Submission. It means to yield. Submission, yielding, is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of self control and maturity. It means I don’t have to have my way all the time. It means that I am comfortable enough in knowing who I am in Christ that I am not insecure. Insecure people have to have their way all the time. An insecure person says, “I have my rights!”

Peter says that people are going to watch you to see how you as a believer respond to authority.

1 Peter 2:17 (NIV)
17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

He says three things here that reveal if you’re a genuine believer or not.

a) Show respect for everybody.

Prejudice and racism are inconceivable in the life of a believer.

b) Love Christians everywhere.

“You may not like everybody in this church but you’ve got to love them.” Why? We’re brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re in the family of God.

c) Fear God and honor the government.

When you think about the fact that Peter was writing this book the Christians were the outcasts of society who were being persecuted and thrown to the lions by the government of Nero this is a pretty shocking statement. Nero wasn’t just a bad emperor; he was an insane emperor, he was an evil emperor. How could the government of an insane evil person be honored? You honor the position not the personality. And you pray for the position and the personality.

What if the government tells me to disobey God? That is a different matter altogether. Submission isn’t mindless compliance. Submission sometimes means being willing to suffer the penalty for doing the right thing. If there’s a law that says “Do this” and you know it’s wrong, God says it’s wrong. If you don’t obey that, submission means at that point being willing to suffer for doing the right thing.

3. Trust God in difficult situations

Nothing reveals your character quicker than problems and pain. As long as you live on this earth, you will experience suffering. You will have problems. You will have pain. Fortunately, God gave us a model of how to handle that suffering with integrity.

1 Peter 2:21 (NIV)
21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

Jesus is our model of how to handle difficulties. How did Jesus handle it?

1 Peter 2:22-23 (NIV)
22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

He didn’t fight back. Is that opposite of our culture? Yes, it is. We live in a fight-back generation. We want to get even. The moment we think our rights are being violated we jump to defend ourselves. Instead it says, Jesus Christ let God the Father defend Him.

So, the question we end with is this, How am I really doing with the whole integrity thing? What areas do In need to improve in so that my walk and talk match? What do I need to do in order to live a life that will have an impact for God?

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