Finally, all of you have the unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
– 1 Peter 3:8
What a great expectation for you and me today from God!
1 Peter 3:8 encourages us to cultivate unity in the community of believers.
This is God saying to all of us, as followers of Jesus, one, have unity of mind. This language, very similar to Philippians 2, to have the mind of Christ, to have the attitude of Christ toward each other, toward the world around you as a servant who wants to, “Look not only to your own interest,” Philippians 2 says, “but to the interests of others.” Have unity of mind around the mind of Jesus. Have sympathy and look for opportunities you have today to express sympathy, to step into others’ burdens and trials, and things they’re going through, and to serve them, to help them, to pray for them, to express compassion for them, to comfort them, all of that, in sympathy and brotherly love.
And love, especially sisters and brothers in Christ, as your family today. And just think about other brothers and sisters in Christ that you’ll be around today or tomorrow. How can you express love for them as your family member, brotherly love, a tender heart? When people who are closest to you describe your heart as tender. This is not just for women, not just for men either. This is for all of us. God is calling all of us, no matter what our personality might be. God calls all of us to have a tender heart and a humble mind.
1 Peter 3:8 leads us to foster a spirit of humility.
Even just that phrase, we could meditate just on that one, a humble mind. What does it mean to have a humble mind? Certainly, it means to be teachable, to approach others with humility, and to walk in this world with humility. For those of you who are students, to live today with a humble mind. For all of us, no matter what type of work we might do, if we’re in the workplace, of us to do it today with a humble mind.
God, we pray for all of these things based on your Word. We praise you for all the ways your Word leads us to pray. And specifically today in 1 Peter 3:8, we pray over our lives. We pray for a unity of mind in Christ. God, we pray that you would help us to have the attitude of Jesus today, in ways that draw us into greater unity with other followers of Jesus. We pray for sympathy. God, we pray that you give us sympathetic hearts today. Help us to step into other’s suffering, and to bear burdens with them. We pray for brotherly love to mark our lives, and specifically our relationships in the Church today. Help us to be a family that honors you as our Father with the way we love one another.
This verse encourages us to build a community founded on love.
God, we pray for tender hearts, and we pray for soft hearts. Help us not to have hard hearts toward you, hard hearts toward others. Free us from stubborn, cold, callous hearts. Help us to have tender, soft, moldable hearts before you and humble minds.
God, we pray that you would teach us today. Teach us through your Word, by your Spirit, instruct and teach us in the way we should go, and that you would teach us through others. Help us to approach others with humility today, to learn from others, to be sharpened by others today. God, we pray for humility. We pray for your deliverance from prideful minds. We have so much to learn. Oh God, help us to learn today. We pray, 1 Peter 3:8 over our lives. And God, we pray that the fruit of our lives would be the character of Christ on display through us, in the world around us today.
Prayer for the Mirasi People
And God, we pray specifically today for the Mirasi people, this tiny Punjabi-speaking, seek people group in India with no known followers of Jesus. God, we pray that the Mirasi, people whose name means inheritance, God, we pray that you would draw them into their eternal inheritance in Jesus that you’ve made possible for every people group in the world. God, bring the Punjabi-speaking Mirasi into your Kingdom, into your inheritance. We pray, we intercede for them now with one mind, with sympathy. We’d love for them, we want to see them brought into the family with tender hearts and humble minds. God, please draw the Mirasi to yourself. We pray all this according to your Word in 1 Peter 3:8, in Jesus’s name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
