Wednesday after Oculi + 1 Peter 3:1-22

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

I think it’s self-evident, to Christians at least, that our day is very similar to the patriarch Noah’s day. Genesis 6:5 says, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We live in an age in which everyone does what is right in their own eyes. They’ve cast off the true God, their Creator, and His will in order to be their own gods, living according the desires and imaginations of their hearts. In the days of Noah the Lord put a time limit on mankind’s wickedness of one hundred and twenty years. That’s how long they had to repent or they would face destruction. Noah, the “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5) proclaimed this to the unbelieving world while building his ark as the Lord had commanded him. His preaching only hardened them all the more. They rejected repentance. They delighted in disobedience. But only for one hundred and twenty years. Then the rains came and the fountains of the deep were opened. The water destroyed the unbelieving masses. But Peter says that Noah and his family, eight souls in all, “were saved through water.”

Peter then plainly says, “There is also an antitype which now saves us -- baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God).” Peter’s point is the flood water is what saved Noah and his family from that wicked and perverse generation. That flood water was a type, or prefiguring of something to come in the New Testament, specifically Holy Baptism. Baptism is like the flood in the days of Noah. In it God drowns the old Adam in each of us. He can’t be reformed. There’s nothing good about him. He can only be killed and drowned. But herein lies our salvation. The Old Adam is drown and the New Man, the man of faith and righteousness, rises from baptismal water. Baptism saves because by it is the “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). It is how God rebirths us and regenerates us as sons of God. He forgives our sins in Holy Baptism. He brings us into His covenant of grace through those waters. He gives us a good conscience that knows that we have a gracious God whom promises to forgive our sins as often as believe His gospel promise. Baptismal water is what separates us from the wicked, evil world, so that as long as we live in our baptism by daily faith, the coming judgment will not touch us, for we are baptized sons of God.

Because we are baptized sons of God, saved by baptism, with a good conscience that knows God forgives our sins, we live differently than the wicked, unbelieving world does. This effects every aspect of our lives. Christian marriage is to be different from marriage between to unbelievers. Wives are to “be submissive to your own husbands.” Wives should adorn themselves not with gold and pearls, but with “the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” The Christian woman’s model is not the feminists on television but Sarah, wife of Abraham, who submitted to Him as the Lord led him to Canaan, even calling him ‘lord.’ This is a bitter pill for the worldling to swallow because they want husband and wife to be equal in every way. But this is not how God has made us. “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.” Women are weaker vessels and usually this means men exploit them and take advantage of them. But this is not to be so among us. Husbands do not submit to their wives. But they dwell with them “with understanding,” that is with gentleness. Husbands are to honor their wives because they are the weaker vessel and care for them and faithfully lead them, because they wives are also heirs of the grace of life and the co-inheritors of every heavenly blessing. The world expects one of the other to dominate. Not so in Christian marriages. The wives submits to the husband. The husband leads the wife with understanding and honor.

Peter the former fishermen then widens the net to include all Christians. “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” Because we have the same Lord and the same doctrine and the same faith, we are called to have compassion on one other. We’re to be tenderhearted and courteous to those with whom we live and work. Not the false courtesy of customer service, which is outwardly courteous but inwardly self-serving. We are also to turn the other cheek. When you are reviled for your beliefs, you are not to revile your naysayer in return. On the contrary, you are called to bless Him. Jesus says in Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” This is a high standard, which we can only begin to live up to in this life of sin. But it is the attitude to which we have been called because we are baptized sons of God who daily put off our sinful nature and daily put on Christ through faith.

But Peter is no Pollyanna. “Who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?” There are plenty of people who seek to do you harm because you follow what is good and Peter knows this. “But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed.” You are blessed because it’s far better to suffer for doing good than it is to suffer for doing evil. The world will do to you what it did to Noah. The world mocked Noah for his faithfulness to the task the Lord had given him, building a boat on dry ground. The world ridiculed Noah for preaching repentance in order to flee from God’s promised wrath. So the world mocks and ridicules Christians for following the good that God has ordained in the things of this life, but especially for placing our hope in Christ Jesus and the life of the world to come. When such suffering comes, from co-workers, acquaintances, or your own family, because of your faith, because you belong to this church which won’t compromise the divine Word, Peter tells you precisely how to bear it.

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.” To sanctify the Lord God in your heart means to make Him the holiest thing and highest good you have. It means to fear God more than men. Too many people reverse that, thinking little, if anything, of what God says in His Word while putting too much weight on what another sinner thinks or says of us. Sanctify the Lord in your hearts and be ready to give a defense of your Christian hope. But that must be given with meekness and fear, that is gentleness toward others and the fear of God. God has given you a good conscience by forgiving your sins, both in Holy Baptism and as often as you confess your sins to Him, trusting His promise to absolve you. Do not fret that you live in a time like Noah’s. Your baptism saves you and sets you apart from this world. Strive to live different because you are different. You are baptized sons of God.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.