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Do Good People Get Hurt? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Do what's right and nobody gets hurt. That may sound
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  Speaker 1: like a scene from a bank heist movie, but if
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  Speaker 1: you do what's right, you will not feel pain. That's
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  Speaker 1: kind of the message that we're given all the time
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  Speaker 1: from the world around us. It drives a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the social conformity, the virtue signaling, even do what's right.
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  Speaker 1: You say what's right. You conform to an expectation and
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  Speaker 1: you won't get hurt. But is that equation true for Christians?
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  Speaker 1: We're reading 1 Peter together in the second half of
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  Speaker 1: this month. It's a gritty, practical book that answers a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the challenges of the Christian life. And there
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  Speaker 1: Peter says, if you do good, no one will harm you,
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  Speaker 1: which is great news. Until a few verses later, when
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  Speaker 1: he completely reverses this and says the exact opposite. You
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  Speaker 1: will be harmed for doing good. So which is it?
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  Speaker 1: Today on Ask Pastor John, do good people get hurt?
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  Speaker 1: It's the thoughtful question from Matthew in Charlotte. Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for the Ask Pastor John podcast. Several verses
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  Speaker 1: in 1 Peter don't make sense to me when I
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  Speaker 1: place them side by side. The big problem text for
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  Speaker 1: me is 1 Peter 3.13, where Peter asks a rhetorical question. Now,
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  Speaker 1: who is there to harm you if you are zealous
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  Speaker 1: for what is good? On the face of it, this
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  Speaker 1: seems to promise that nobody in society will harm us
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  Speaker 1: if we pursue goodness. However, Peter repeatedly contradicts this. In
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  Speaker 1: 1 Peter 2.20 says, if when you do good and
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  Speaker 1: suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing
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  Speaker 1: in the sight of God. And he says, even if
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  Speaker 1: you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed
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  Speaker 1: in 1 Peter 3.14. A couple of verses later, he
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  Speaker 1: warns that people will revile your good behavior, 1 Peter 3.16.
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  Speaker 1: And in 1 Peter 4.19, he explicitly commands believers to
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  Speaker 1: suffer according to God's will while doing good. So how
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  Speaker 1: do you reconcile all of this with 1 Peter 3.13?
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  Speaker 1: And the bigger question in my mind, does Peter affirm
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  Speaker 1: or deny that this world is more inclined to harm
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  Speaker 1: us precisely because we pursue righteousness?
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  Speaker 2: This is an incredibly good example of what to do
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  Speaker 2: when you're reading along in the Bible and you think
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  Speaker 2: you've caught the drift of an author's meaning, and suddenly
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  Speaker 2: you bump into a sentence that seems utterly out of
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  Speaker 2: step with almost everything you've been reading. So what do
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  Speaker 2: you do? I suppose if you are a brand new,
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  Speaker 2: maybe nominal believer or just bumping into the Bible for
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  Speaker 2: the first time and you have zero confidence in the
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  Speaker 2: biblical authors that they're inspired or even that they're reasonable,
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  Speaker 2: you might just throw up your hands and say, these
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  Speaker 2: guys can't think straight. I'm done with the Bible. You
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  Speaker 2: might do that. I think that would be like a
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  Speaker 2: novice mountain climber hiring a 30-year veteran Sherpa to help
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  Speaker 2: him climb Mount Everest. And after two hours, Into the
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  Speaker 2: first day, the path leads smack into a sheer vertical
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  Speaker 2: rock face, and the beginner concludes, well, I guess this
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  Speaker 2: guy doesn't know how to find his way up the mountain.
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  Speaker 2: As if a beginner should pass judgment on a 30-year
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  Speaker 2: veteran two hours into the first climb. That's not wise.
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  Speaker 2: So what do you do? Because we just ran into
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  Speaker 2: a vertical rock face. I mean, this is a smack
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  Speaker 2: dab obstacle. 1 Peter 3.13 says, now who is there
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  Speaker 2: to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Now,
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  Speaker 2: that's a rhetorical question, meaning it expects the reader to
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  Speaker 2: give the answer. And what answer would you give? Well,
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  Speaker 2: it sure sounds like the answer should be nobody. Who
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  Speaker 2: is there to harm you if you're zealous for what
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  Speaker 2: is good? It sounds like the answer should be nobody.
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  Speaker 2: But the very next verse, I mean, not like two
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  Speaker 2: chapters away, but a half an inch, the very next
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  Speaker 2: verse says, but even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake,
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  Speaker 2: you will be blessed. Now, maybe a sharp-eyed reader would say, oh,
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  Speaker 2: I see, you won't suffer for doing good. but you
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  Speaker 2: might suffer for being righteous. Because that's the distinction between
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  Speaker 2: those two verses. There might be a difference between being good,
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  Speaker 2: you won't suffer for being good, and being righteous. You
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  Speaker 2: might suffer for being righteous. Because in Romans 5, 7,
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  Speaker 2: Paul makes that distinction. He says, one will scarcely die
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  Speaker 2: for a righteous person, but perhaps for a good person,
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  Speaker 2: one might dare even to die. So maybe Peter is saying,
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  Speaker 2: if you're a good person, nobody will harm you. And
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  Speaker 2: if you're just a righteous rule keeper, then they might
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  Speaker 2: harm you. That won't work. Because two verses later, Peter says,
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  Speaker 2: those who revile your good behavior might be put to shame.
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  Speaker 2: People do revile good behavior, not just righteous behavior. They
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  Speaker 2: persecute Not just righteous people, but good people. People with good, heartfelt,
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  Speaker 2: kindly behavior. Same in chapter 2, verse 20. When you
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  Speaker 2: do good and suffer for it, he says. So Peter's
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  Speaker 2: not just saying you might get persecuted for being righteous.
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  Speaker 2: You won't get persecuted for being good. Yes, you will.
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  Speaker 2: You will. So here's what do you do? Well, here's
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  Speaker 2: my suggestion. for how to get close to Peter's intention
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  Speaker 2: in verse 13. Who is there to harm you if
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  Speaker 2: you are zealous for what is good? I want to
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  Speaker 2: pay really close attention to the immediate context. And in
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  Speaker 2: the immediate context, first, the preceding three verses, verses 10
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  Speaker 2: to 12, Peter quotes Psalm 34. And this is what
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  Speaker 2: leads up to verse 13. Who's going to harm you?
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  Speaker 2: Here's what it says. Whoever desires to love life and
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  Speaker 2: see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil
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  Speaker 2: and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away
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  Speaker 2: from evil and do good. Now that's the link. There's
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  Speaker 2: the phrase. Let him do good. Let him seek peace
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  Speaker 2: and pursue it. Why? Here comes the ground. Verse 12.
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  Speaker 2: For The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
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  Speaker 2: and the ears of the Lord are open to their prayer,
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  Speaker 2: and the face of the Lord is against those who
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  Speaker 2: do evil. So just before verse 13, Peter reminds us,
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  Speaker 2: when you do good, God's eyes are on you. His
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  Speaker 2: ears are open to your prayer. His face is against
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  Speaker 2: your adversaries. He is totally for you. He is against
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  Speaker 2: those who would oppose you. And he is God. Now,
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  Speaker 2: what would follow more naturally from that assurance of God's
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  Speaker 2: being for you as you do good? What would be
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  Speaker 2: more natural than to say, so no one can harm you?
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  Speaker 2: And the basis for that confidence is is not that
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  Speaker 2: people are kept from harming you because they're so touched
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  Speaker 2: by your goodness. They're kept from harming you because you
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  Speaker 2: have a sovereign God who is against them, who's for you.
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  Speaker 2: Goodness doesn't make them like you. God keeps them from
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  Speaker 2: harming you. That's the argument. But once you've shifted from
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  Speaker 2: focusing on the psychology of your enemy as if your
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  Speaker 2: goodness might make him nice to you, and now your
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  Speaker 2: focus is on the sovereignty of your God, that puts
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  Speaker 2: everything in his hands, which means ultimately it's God, not
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  Speaker 2: my goodness, who decides how my enemies treat me, which
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  Speaker 2: also means he may have his good reasons for why
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  Speaker 2: he would indeed let my enemies harm me in the
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  Speaker 2: short run sometimes in order to bless me in the
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  Speaker 2: long run. Now, if we're on the right track here,
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  Speaker 2: getting things in God's hands and his sovereign wisdom, if
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  Speaker 2: we're on the right track, then a good paraphrase of
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  Speaker 2: verse 13 would be, nobody is going to harm you
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  Speaker 2: if you are zealous for what is good. Unless your
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  Speaker 2: all-controlling Father in heaven wills that it should be so.
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  Speaker 2: And if he wills for you to be harmed for
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  Speaker 2: doing good, it's only temporary. And will, in fact, prove
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  Speaker 2: to be better for you, for your benefit in the end.
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  Speaker 2: And what surprises us, maybe, is that my venture at
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  Speaker 2: a paraphrase like that is exactly what verse 17 says.
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  Speaker 2: It says, it is better to suffer for doing good,
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  Speaker 2: if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.
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  Speaker 2: That's just four verses later. Your goodness does not decide
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  Speaker 2: whether you get persecuted or not. God decides whether you
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  Speaker 2: get persecuted or not, and that would be better. That
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  Speaker 2: word better is simply amazing in verse 17. It is better,
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  Speaker 2: he says, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
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  Speaker 2: If that should be God's will, which he claims, says
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  Speaker 2: it will be sometimes. That's why you suffer for doing good.
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  Speaker 2: And if it's better, it can't be ultimately harmful to you.
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  Speaker 2: So verse 13 is really profoundly true. Nobody can ultimately
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  Speaker 2: harm you if you do good, because God's eye is
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  Speaker 2: on you. God's ear is open to you. His face
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  Speaker 2: is against the evildoer. Nothing happens but what is good
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  Speaker 2: for God's children. No harm, no ultimate harm comes to
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  Speaker 2: those who trust him and do good. So I think
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  Speaker 2: the key when you bump into a sheer vertical rock
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  Speaker 2: face of an obstacle in reading the Bible, is to
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  Speaker 2: very carefully look around you in the context. And if
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  Speaker 2: you're patient and pray, you may see there's a crack here.
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  Speaker 2: There's a crack here in this wall, and you can
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  Speaker 2: walk right through it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: The best Bible commentary is a Bible text context. a
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  Speaker 1: key Bible reading principle you've demonstrated for us all the time,
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  Speaker 1: and a great tool to resolve seeming conflicting texts like
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  Speaker 1: those in 1 Peter. Your goodness, your goodness does not
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  Speaker 1: decide whether you get persecuted or not. God decides whether
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  Speaker 1: you get persecuted or not. Praise be to him, our
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  Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, in whose care the hardest conflicts and pains
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  Speaker 1: in this life that we get, he's using those sufferings
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  Speaker 1: for our eternal good. So if God is this sovereign
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  Speaker 1: over whether or not I suffer, does he ever use
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  Speaker 1: pain in my life to punish me for past sins?
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  Speaker 1: This is a super common question over the years. Is
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  Speaker 1: my present pain punishment for my past sins? If you're
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  Speaker 1: asking that question, it has been covered on the podcast
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  Speaker 1: in the past. See the Ask Pastor John book on
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  Speaker 1: that section on trials, sorrow, and chronic pain. And particularly
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  Speaker 1: that subsection on pages 379 to 381, did my sin
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  Speaker 1: cause my suffering? There's a lot to glean there as well.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John. Thanks for joining us today. If
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  Speaker 1: you have a great Bible question to ask Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: find a link to email us and find our complete
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  Speaker 1: episode archive at the same place, askpastorjohn.com. I'm Tony Reinke.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see you back here on Thursday.