A Better Default
Blog post based on 1 Peter 3:13-22
“Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits — to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”
Our Salvation Works for the Better
We all have a default document.
You know the one. It's the invisible rulebook buried somewhere deep in our instincts that activates the moment someone wrongs us. Get even. Fight back. Gossip just enough to relieve the pressure. Withdraw. Pout. Destroy them before they destroy you first.
We didn't write it. We inherited it from Adam and Eve, passed down through every generation since. And if we're honest, most of us consult it more than we'd like to admit.
The Unlikely Teacher
Before we listen to what Peter has to say about all of this, we need to remember who Peter is.
This is the man who told Jesus the Messiah should never have to suffer and die and got rebuked for it. This is the man who pulled out a sword in the garden of Gethsemane, convinced that fighting back was the right move. This is the man who, when everything fell apart, denied even knowing Jesus . . . three times.
Peter didn't learn the better way in a classroom. He learned it the hard way, through catastrophic failure, and through a resurrected Savior who sought him out, forgave him, and reinstated him anyway.
So when Peter talks about choosing love over retaliation, he's not offering theory. He's offering real-life advice for every believer who has ever felt the pull of that default reaction.
How Do You Know You Can Do This?
Here's where most of us get stuck. It sounds beautiful in theory. But when someone actually hurts us - when the wound is fresh and the anger is real - gentleness feels impossible.
Peter knows that. And so he doesn't just tell us to try harder. He points us to something far more solid than our own resolve or feelings.
He points us to baptism.
We understand baptism the way Peter and the whole of Scripture present it. Not as a mere symbol or a memory of something we once did, but as a holy act instituted by God Himself. Using water and God's Word, baptism offers and gives the forgiveness of sins, spiritual life, and eternal salvation. It is the Holy Spirit working through a tangible promise, creating and sustaining faith where there was none.
Peter makes the connection through Noah's flood. Just as the floodwaters lifted the ark and carried God's people safely through judgment, the waters of baptism carry us through death to life. Not by removing physical dirt, but by delivering the pledge of a clear conscience before God, won entirely by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is why Peter can say with such confidence: you can do this. Not because you're strong enough. Not because you feel it on a good day. But because the Holy Spirit has been at work in you through Word and Sacrament, and that work does not depend on your feelings or your track record.
You can't always trust your feelings. But you can trust what God has promised and delivered in your baptism.
Dust Yourself Off
Will we get it right every time? Absolutely not. We will consult the default document. We will say the thing we shouldn't. We will choose getting even over showing grace.
But that's not the end of the story, because our “standing” before God has never depended on our performance. We are declared righteous entirely on the basis of Christ's redemptive work, received through faith created and sustained by the Holy Spirit. The same Jesus who sought out Peter after three denials, who said "feed my sheep" when Peter deserved nothing. That Jesus is yours.
Dust yourself off. Return to God's Word. Remember your baptism. And go be the light of Christ's love to the very people who tempt you most to be anything but.
