“Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary bless for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing.”
– 1 Peter 3:8–9
What a word from God, to us as his church to hear what God is calling us to as his sons and daughters, as his family, to a unity of mind.
Obviously, we know that in this world we’ll have different thoughts and different perspectives on different things. So what is this unity of mind? Clearly, it’s around who God is and who Jesus is and how Jesus saves us. This is the gospel that unites us together. Over and above every other thing we think the truth about who Jesus is, unity of mine around Jesus, sympathy for each other, brotherly love, love for each other, like family, a tender heart.
1 Peter 3:8–9 Leads Us to Live with Humility
What does it look like to interact with others in the church with a tender heart and a humble mind, realizing none of us has it all figured out. And to be careful not to repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling. When you are reviled on the contrary, God says, bless. Bless people who revile you. Bless and do good to people who do evil to you. That you may obtain a blessing. This is good for you to live in this way and good for others. God help us to obey 1 Peter 3:8–9. God, we pray for a unity of mind as your children. In our local churches, we pray for unity of mind around the gospel, around the goodness of your word, your character. God, do we pray for unity of mind across our churches, in your church we pray for a unity of mind.
We pray for sympathy toward each other. God, we pray for brotherly love toward each other. We pray for tender hearts toward each other, for humble minds with each other. God, we pray bring these things about in your church today. We need all these things in 1 Peter 3:8–9, God, we pray that you would help us to return evil toward us with good toward others. That when reviled you would help us to bless others. For you have called us to this for their good and for our own good that we may obtain a blessing. God, we pray you would help us to do 1 Peter 3:8–9, when treated with evil or slander.
This Calls Us to Pray for the Church in Afghanistan
And God, as we pray these things for our lives, we continue to pray for the church in Afghanistan. God, we pray you to help them to do this. We pray for 1 Peter 3:8-9 to be a reality in the church there, for unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, humble minds, and you would help them to repay evil and you would help them to respond to evil with good.
God, we pray for the church there. We pray specifically today for all those who are being displaced by the Taliban. God, we pray, especially for unbelievers that they would come in contact with churches. They would come in contact with the gospel. They would come in contact with your children and see the gospel in ways that draw them to Jesus. God, we pray this over. God, we pray 1 Peter 3:8–9 over our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan even as we pray these things over our own lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
