Actions Speak Louder

In the musical movie, The Greatest Showman, young Phineas T. Barnum fights hunger and steals a piece of bread, only to be caught by the shopkeeper. As he sits in a corner, a person with a deformed face offers him an apple, and he takes and eats it with a thankful heart. Years later, he gives hope to several such people by providing them a haven, a place to turn their sorrows into entertainment and fame. One kindness leads to another. Actions speak louder than words.

Peter wanted his congregations to repay evil with good.

“Sanctify the Lord, the Christ, in your hearts by always being ready to defend your word, with gentleness and fear, to anyone who asks you about your hope, while having a good conscience so that those who speak evil of you and mistreat you may be shamed by the good lifestyle you have in Christ since doing good by doing God’s will is greater than suffering for doing evil.” (1 Pet 3:15–17)

When the Lord Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he said, “Let the Father’s name be sanctified” (Matt 6:9 // Luke 11:2). In that culture, “sanctified” (agiazo) meant “to be held in a high honor rather than the rest of them.” God YHWH’s honor and name were to be held higher than the rest of the gods of other nations. Elsewhere in the NT, the same verb is used for Christians being sanctified by God.

Only in this passage did Peter say, “Sanctify the Lord, the Christ.” This meant that his audience’s actions shouldn’t mar Jesus’s name. Instead, his name was to be honored by defending the gospel with gentleness and fear (verbal) and by a godly and good lifestyle (actional). Their defense of the truth and their lifestyle should shame those who spoke evil of them since they were doing good to those who harmed them. Actions spoke louder than words.

When harmed or spoken evil of by others, the Hebrew Christians would have been tempted to retaliate by doing evil to them. But such retaliation would have harmed, not sanctified, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, when they did good to those who harmed them, they would have made the enemies stop and wonder about their actions. Christ would have been sanctified.

But if they suffered for doing evil (such as breaking the law of the land), none of these principles apply. They suffered because they violated the law, misbehaved, or acted contrary to the law and the culture.

We want to retaliate, fight back, seek justice, and defend ourselves when mistreated. But before we do all of those, we must stop and ask, “Would it be better to show kindness and gentleness in this situation?” We’ll surprise our enemies with our kindness than with our meanness, and they would be caught off guard. Peter wanted his audience to do that, and that’s what the Lord Jesus would like us to do. But if we suffer for doing wrong, we must repent and surrender to the governing authorities and God.