“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic,
brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or
insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the
very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:8–9, NASB95)
In addition to the charge to be one with each other in mind
and practice, Peter adds several other traits that are to mark us as followers
of Christ. The next on the list is “sympathetic.” The Greek word “sympathies”
means to have compassion for others. It stems from another word meaning to suffer
with or feel the pain of another. This is what our Lord has for us as we read
in passages like Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot
sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as
we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15, NASB95) Looking to the heart of
sympathizing we find inherit in it two things. One of them is understanding.
Jesus being God knows fully the most intimate of details of every single one of
our lives. He not only knows them, but He understands perfectly what it at the
core of each of them and how they affect our lives. When we say that someone
doesn’t understand, that they don’t get it, we frequently do so because they
don’t agree. We cannot say this of God. He knows fully and understands
completely. Adding to this, the Son of God took on the form of man and then as
man He personally experienced the great harshness of man. His understanding
includes compassion. He experienced the things we experience, but He did so
without sin. Hebrews 4:16 continues, “Therefore let us draw near with
confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16, NASB95) Because Jesus knows, we know
that we can come to Him and experience his mercy and grace in our time of need,
which is the heart of compassion.
We are called to have sympathetic hearts toward one another
such that when they struggle we can reach out to them with the heart of Christ
and help them in their time of struggle. This is what family does for one
another. The NAS uses the word “brotherly,” while others use “brotherly love.”
The Greek word here is “philadelphos.” It stems from the word “philos” which
speaks of a friend or being friendly and “adelphos” which is most commonly
translated brother. It is from this that Philidelphia is known as the “city of
brotherly love.” It is this familial love that we are to show to one another in
Christ. As joint heirs, we are called to jointly love, which means even when
things are not going right between us. In Proverbs 18:24 we read, “A man of too
many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a
brother.” (Proverbs 18:24, NASB95) The word “friend” used in the second half of
the verse is the Hebrew word “ahab” which speaks of more than a friend, but
gets to the heart of what a true friend is. It speaks of one who loves. We are
called to love one another and to respond to one another in love with the bond
that we have as brothers (and sisters), united one in Christ.
Next, we read that we are to be “kindhearted.” This word has
the meaning of being kind or doing well toward others from the deepest part of
us, from our bowels, or our passionate core. It is defined as being compassionate
or tender-hearted. It has the meaning of desiring the best for others and
seeking to help them in the process. I think we all know when we have
experienced kindness and when we have met a kindhearted person, just as we know
when we see the opposite. The Word of God says that we are to be marked by our
heart toward others as we know the heart of Christ toward us, even when
people’s hearts do not reciprocate.
Being “humble in spirit” is last on this list of five. Some
translations word this simply “humble” or “humble mind.” At the heart of this
word (tapeinophrones) are two words, “tapeinos” meaning not rising far from the
ground (literally) or a lowly condition, attitude, or spirit (metaphorically),
and “phrones.” We looked briefly at this word in our first word on the list
(harmonious) where we saw it to mean “understanding.” A humble in spirit person
is one who understands himself to be just who He is before our God as one who
has fallen greatly, been forgiven immensely, and enabled generously. Apart from
Christ we are lost, and apart from Christ we can do no good thing. Apart from
Christ there is no righteousness in us and we can do nothing to make it right.
But, in Christ we have been lifted up and become incredibly blessed to be used
by God to accomplish the works that He ordained for us so that we would walk in
them. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may
boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians
2:8–10, NASB95)
As humble-minded followers of Christ we are reminded of His
extreme humility and the example that He set. “Do nothing from selfishness or
empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important
than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but
also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was
also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the
form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and
bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee will bow, of
those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2:3–11, NASB95)
Every single one of these words has at its core
a sober assessment of who we are in relation to our God, a realization of who
we are apart from Him, and a real and a recognition of what we are to do in
response. He created us all as man and He brings those He calls together as one
into His body—the church. He knew our eventual condition from before the
beginning of time, and He set in place out of His great love a compassionate
resolution in His Son. He loves us and He set for us the example of love in His
Son as He then calls us to love particularly those we have been knit together
with in the body of Christ. His kindness, shown in His mercy and grace toward
us, is beyond measure, and He calls us to be this way toward others in
response. And, knowing who we are, we are to live this way in the continual
recognition of who He is and how we are set apart for His glory.
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