by Rev. K. D. MacLeod
Some thoughts on 1 Peter 3: 13: “And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?”
We live in a world where everyone, to one extent or another, suffers harm and damage; it is a world which, to a tremendous degree, is given over to violence. But even those, who in God’s kindness are spared suffering from the actions of criminals and the effects of war, will certainly not have a perfectly smooth passage through life. Yet the greatest harm that can ever befall anyone is not the catastrophe and the suffering that are so common in this world. Greater and more awful by far is what lies before the ungodly in a lost eternity, which is the result of remaining unreconciled to God. We are accordingly told by the Saviour, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10: 28).
In giving this warning Christ doubtless had in mind times of persecution before His people, and Peter wrote this epistle to those whose troubles certainly included persecution. Peter in effect said, “Do not be afraid of what man can do, as long as you are followers of what is good.” Persecutors may indeed harm the bodies of God’s children, but that is not real harm for they cannot damage their souls; their souls are under God’s special protection. But what awful suffering God will at last bring on sinners who will not turn to Him! Paul clearly announced man’s duty when he said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16: 31).
Those who thus believe will be safe from going, body and soul, into hell to endure the pain which ungodly sinners must experience throughout eternity. Thus it is obvious that sinners are doing tremendous harm to themselves when they reject the gospel, when they refuse to close in with Him who came into the world to die for the ungodly. Even for this life itself sinners are doing themselves harm when they continue in their sins, for “the face of God is against them that do evil” (v12b). Although the ungodly would have as much of the good things of life as those whom Asaph described in Psalm 73, who had “more than heart could wish” (v7), yet they would not have God’s blessing with these temporal benefits. Nobody has any real blessing, if everything that they have is for this life and they have nothing of spiritual substance for the next. Those in that sad position must at death pass to their long home of agony and despair.
We are repeatedly commanded in the Bible to fear God. This is not the terror which the wicked will have after death. Hatred to sin is the real expression of the fear of God — “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Pro 8: 13). We can look at the matter from the opposite direction and say, The fear of the Lord is to follow after what is good. To hate evil is something more than to keep away from outward sin. Those who hate evil will indeed strive to keep away from sin, but this fear of God is more than something outward. It goes along with what is outward, but at the same time there is in the soul an inward holy reverence for a great and a glorious God, a God whose law is holy and just and good and who is consistently offended by sin. And there is love in that fear. There is no love in the terror of the wicked, and especially in the terror of the wicked on the day of judgement. But the souls of God’s children are open to the law of God, and are all the more desirous of forsaking sin because they love God as a good God; they see that God has given us His law because He is good and gracious.
In this world they will get no further than following after good. Attaining to good is only for the world to come; it can only be reached at death. Perfection is out of the question in this world, but it is something that is ahead of every child of God. Where there is the fear of the Lord in this world, there will be perfect obedience in the next; then there will be a complete capacity to obey God perfectly, however weak and feeble they may be in this world. Believers may feel that their sins are standing against them before a perfect God. But, because they are believers, God has cast behind His back the sins of their unconverted days, and He casts their continuing sins behind His back also, for He imputes none of these sins to their account.
Yet it is the highest description of the child of God in this world — as far as sin is concerned — that he is fleeing from sin. And if we look at the same individual from the opposite point of view — he is following after what is good. Certainly there is sinful imperfection in everything he does in this world, though he will not use this imperfection as a pillow to put under his head. It has been described as the hypocrite’s pillow but the child of God’s burden. And that great and gracious child of God, the Apostle Paul, was very conscious that his running of the Christian life was only a following after. “Not as though I had already attained”, he acknowledged, “either were already perfect, but I follow after” (Phil 3: 12). And, however far anyone today may feel himself behind Paul, who can harm him if he is a follower of that which is good? “I follow after”, Paul went on, “if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” He had the resurrection of the dead before him — and by the grace of God he expected to attain to it.
Who then could harm Paul, as one who was following after what is good? No, nothing could harm him, for he had cast in his lot with the great Saviour who was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem. Christ had revealed Himself to Paul, and Paul had closed in with Him by faith. He was therefore united to Christ. And all those who are followers of that which is good make it clear that they likewise are united to Christ by faith.
Was Paul, to take him again as an example, a sinner who deserved to die eternally? Of course he was but, because Paul was united to Christ by faith, the death which Christ accomplished at Calvary was accounted Paul’s death. The wages of Paul’s sin, which was eternal death, had been borne by his Saviour. It was thus impossible for Paul to suffer eternally, and he could say, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2: 20). the union between Paul and Christ was as close as that. And the union between Christ and all who follow after that which is good is just as close, although they may not have advanced in grace to the same extent, or be able to give their Master the same degree of service, as Paul did. If they have the same degree of assurance, they too can say with the same confidence, “I am crucified with Christ . . . who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
The believer is a new creature, for “if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5: 17). He has been renewed in every part of his soul by the Holy Spirit, but he is by no means perfect. There is much room for growth in grace — much room for his love, his faith and all his other graces to grow. And grow they will until the very moment of death, when the work of God in the soul will be brought to absolute perfection.
Paul could also speak of how Christ “gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works” (Titus 2: 14), which is just to describe God’s redeemed ones as enthusiastic followers of that which is good. By way of example we might note how Peter exhorts everyone “that will love life and see good days: Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him eschew evil and do good; let him seek peace and ensue it” (1 Pet 3: 10f). Truthfulness is called for, but there are many ways of giving one’s tongue to evil without directly breaking the Ninth Commandment, which states, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”. Peter thus exhorts all to keep their tongues from what will do evil and from what is in any way polluted, and at the same time to be free from guile — to be simple, honest and straightforward.
To eschew evil and to do good is a complete summary of the life God directs us to live. Job was a man commended by God Himself as someone who eschewed evil. He fled from evil; he had such a hatred to evil that he got as far away from it as he possibly could. He would not loiter near evil, he would not stay as near it as he dared without actually getting involved in it. It is true that there is sin in every soul — the believer’s included, but Peter’s exhortation is to let the sin in ourselves have as little opportunity as possible to meet with temptation, which can so easily set on fire the evil within. Can we do that in our strength? It is impossible; only by the strength of divine grace can we do so. And those who eschew evil not only seek to flee from outward sins, but from heart sins also, for they have the fear of God in their souls.
Peter, however, acknowledges that such believers may suffer considerably in this world. “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake”, he says, “happy are ye” (v14). What did he mean? Was it not harm to Paul if he should be beheaded? Was it not harm to Peter if he too should suffer a violent death? Was it not harm to Peter and Paul and multitudes more that they should suffer the hardships of imprisonment? Undoubtedly it was, if we look no further than the thing itself.
But let us read Peter’s question in the light of that other truth: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom 8: 28). Who then is he that can harm those who are followers of that which is good? If they suffer for righteousness’ sake the Lord will more than make it up. There may be outward harm, there may be pain and suffering, there may be many difficulties in providence, but if the sufferer is one who hates evil all things will work together for his or her good. Grace will be given, and God’s favour will be increasingly shown, to that soul.
To take the extreme case, what was it for Paul to have his life taken violently from him? Where did it take him, but into the immediate presence of the Lord to reign with Him for ever? He knew “that if the early house of this tabernacle were dissolved” there was before him “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5: 1). Could Paul then be harmed when he had borne a good testimony for his Master before Nero? Death could only take him into the house of many mansions. And Paul, gracious man that he was, was encouraged, even when there was such an unnatural death in prospect, by the crown of righteousness that was laid up for him.
If we turn our attention to God’s control of providence, what we see is that “the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers” (v12a). That is why no one can harm them. God is watching over them; He recognises their needs and He will supply them all — as He understands them, which is infinitely better than the way they understand their needs. He has promised never to leave or forsake His children. They are His, and they will be His for ever. Accordingly they will at last be brought without spot into the presence of God. So, as Paul sums up his thoughts on the safety of God’s children, he puts the matter very positively: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8: 38). Who then — on earth or in hell — is able to harm anyone that is united to Christ, when nothing whatever can separate them from the love of God?
We have the promise of God, but it may be another matter to lean on the promise. But how can the distance be bridged which seems to lie between the soul and the promise, except by faith? And where can that faith come from, but from God Himself? Should God’s children then not seek grace to lay hold more and more on this, and on every other, promise. Christ still calls to His children — whatever their trouble and whatever their sorrow — “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11: 28).