Posted: 4/13/07
Explore the Bible Series for April 22
Christians should exude Christ when squeezed
• 1 Peter 4:7-19
First Baptist Church, Duncanville
The world places a lot of stock in our intelligence quotient (IQ), but as Christians, we must place more value in our attitudes, especially our attitude toward difficulties. Take a short quiz and see how your suffering quotient (SQ) rates.
The questions are purely hypothetical. Try to imagine what you would do if you were in such a situation. Remember, you must choose the answer that reveals how you would react in a similar situation, not how you ought to act. There may be more than one answer.
1. Your best friend publicly insults you … loudly. You immediately
a. Write off the relationship and vow never to speak to him again.
b. Take offence and respond rudely … and loudly.
c. Try to communicate that he is being rude by your facial expressions and tone of voice, but otherwise let it slide.
d. Quietly take him aside and address the issue.
2. Someone at work or church continually talks about you behind your back. You
a. Pray that God will bless them.
b. Try to find out what they are saying about you so you can defend yourself.
c. Blackmail them.
d. Confront them and tell them you don’t like what they are doing.
3. Your family borrows money from you and never pays it back. You
a. Demand they repay it and then disown them.
b. Plan on buying them smaller Christmas gifts this year.
c. Decide to make it a gift and pray they’ll make good use of it.
d. Pray for God to bless you for your generosity.
4. The promotion you deserve was given to the coworker who rarely pulls his own weight. He is rewarded for work you did to make up for his laziness. You
a. Tell everyone the truth, that your coworker was lazy and the promotion should be yours.
b. Forgive him.
c. Decide to work harder for the next promotion.
d. Sabotage his next project by refusing to do your share of the work.
5. Your supervisor gives you a bad review because you refuse to help cover one of his mistakes. You
a. Speak to his supervisor to appeal your review.
b. Expose him.
c. Work half-heartedly while looking for another job.
d. Pray for him and keep silent.
As we discussed last week, we too often react to life’s circumstances rather than respond to them. As we grow in maturity in our faith, we must learn to see life through Jesus’ eyes and respond as he would.
The Apostle Peter is the perfect person to teach us this lesson. He, too, tended to react to life. It wasn’t until his rashness caused him to reject Jesus that Peter began to learn his lesson. Now he wants us to learn from his mistakes and shares with us his method in verses 7 and 8: “Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Learning to respond instead of react
Every Christian principle we learn must be applied to our lives, because unless it changes the way we do things, we haven’t really learned it. Trouble is, the process is never easy. First, we must recognize the need to change. Then, we must begin to examine our past behavior and how it differs from God’s ways. And finally, we must go through the grueling process of changing our behavior.
That’s the part where most of us stall out. If we ever are going to reach maturity in our faith, we must make the hard decisions that lead to change.
In this case, we must grasp the difference between reacting and responding during stressful situations. When we are under attack, we must be able to step back and look at the situation through Jesus’ eyes, weigh all the options and choose the one Jesus would choose. All this in the blink of an eye.
Knowing God’s principles well enough to discuss them during a Sunday school class isn’t enough, because in the heat of the moment, we’re likely to forget our religion and react emotionally to difficulties. No, when the heat of the moment arrives, we must have already chosen our preferred behavior.
Of course, you would think making the decision would be enough, but it never is. Though Peter reminds us not to be surprised at the trials we suffer, we always are. And in that moment of surprise, we’ll all too often revert back to old behaviors.
Accepting the truth about suffering
Somehow we still carry with us the idea that life should be fair. To accept the truth would mean giving up this expectation of fairness, something we tend to resist. But Jesus never promised an easy life. Although he tells us his “yoke is easy” and his “burden is light” (Matthew 11:30), he also teaches he “did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34).
The fact is, life is hard. It is full of hard decisions and bad consequences for right choices. It isn’t fair, and it isn’t supposed to be. We forget Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, something we pay the price for today. If God were really fair, we would have no hope for heaven. But because God is merciful, we know we will be rewarded someday for making the hard decisions we face every day.
Commit and continue
We can’t simply talk about right and wrong. We have to make a decision. Somewhere deep inside ourselves, we have to commit to God that we’ll do things his way whether it hurts or not, no matter how hard it may be. And then, having made that commitment, we must stand by it. That’s what Peter is telling us in verse 19: “So, then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”
We couldn’t ask for a better teacher than Peter. If we lack self-control, he had less. If we behave rashly, he did more. If he can learn this lesson, so can we. But hopefully we can learn from his mistakes.
The secret to responding rather than reacting to life, he tells us, is in our minds. We must be clear minded and self-controlled. Rather than cluttering our mind with the things of this world, we must fill it with the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Notice Peter tells us to develop self-control so we can pray. Prayer isn’t the reaction that comes naturally when difficulties arise. We must gain control over our wild nature so we will remember to call on our Strength in times of trouble. It’s a discipline that must be learned and practiced.
So what’s your SQ? The quiz may give you an idea. But the true test is how you react to real situations in your own life. If you choose to do right when everyone else is doing wrong, if you respond with compassion and kindness to cruelty, if you forgive the unforgivable, your SQ is high. But if you’re still reacting to life, you need to stop talking about how to act and make the hard decision to control your actions.
Discussion questions
• On a scale of 1 to 10, what would you say your SQ is?
• Do you identify more with Peter before or after he learned his lesson about self-control?
• Are you willing to respond as Christ would no matter what the cost?
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