1 Peter 3:8-18, The Message – Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
on those who do evil things.
If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.
“That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless.” What if everyone who was a follower of Jesus just followed this mantra. Just bless. Letting go of everything else, we just looked constantly to how we could bless all those around us. If we did that consistently, we couldn’t stop people from filling our churches. More than that, the Gospel would flatten every barrier everywhere and the Kingdom would spread to the corner of every heart. It would happen in less than one generation.
Instead, what are followers of Christ known for? Recently, I typed the following words into a search engine on the internet: “Why are Christians so. . .” The auto-suggestion feature of the browser suggested several possible ways to finish my question based on millions of other people beginning a search by typing in the same four words. The way the search engine worked, the top suggestions reflect the most searched queries worldwide. So the top 6 queries were:
Why are Christians so mean?
Why are Christians so crazy?
Why are Christians so hypocritical?
Why are Christians so angry and fearful?
Why are Christians so judgmental?
Why are Christians so divided?
I was especially interested by two of the most recent additions to the top 10:
Why are Christians so susceptible to conspiracy theories?
Why are Christians so against science?
Blessing, love, mercy, compassion show up nowhere in the top searches. What that tells us is that we aren’t known for those things worldwide. To be fair, there are particular churches who are known for their blessing ways. But it’s clear to me that we’ve still got some work to do.
Question: What would be the first things people say about you (people who know you but are not Christians)?
Prayer: God, we shudder to think that you hear too many desperate prayers that begin with “Lord, save me from your followers.” May we be a blessing to those who know us but don’t know you. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray for people who have been hurt by Christians and the church today.
Song: Casting Crowns – Does Anybody Hear Her
Weekday Word w/ Eric 
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