About This Guide: This weekly groups guide, “Living Hope: Words of Life for Challenging Days — Eight Weeks in First Peter,” is designed as a companion to Living Hope, our Fall 2021 teaching series, fostering discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting. Join a group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

Reasons for hope in a life of resistance

Teaching Text: 1 Peter 3:13–22, 4:1–11

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.

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

Some reasons why we suffer
Christ’s suffering and our hope
The attitude of Jesus
Perspective on the pain of the world

Presence

Being present often means first getting rid of the distractions that keep our minds occupied. Take two minutes of silence and notice your surroundings. The people around you. Notice your body… all the pains you are aware of. Notice the condition of your heart. Name all the things that grab at your attention. Now offer it all of it to God and ask him to meet with you in this moment.

Formation

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

We are called to suffer well
The long and short of this is that Christ suffered unjustly and suffered with grace and truth and his unjust suffering was redemptive for us. So, we may be called to do something similar. Peter is saying, be ready for that and be ready to tell anyone who asks how it’s possible.
In suffering, it matters what we believe about God
Quite literally the oldest sin in the book is Eve in the garden. The snake is chatting with her, questioning her about what God actually said and she lets in doubt about God’s good plan for her life. You can almost read thoughts that would have been in her head—Will I really die?? What is God holding back from me? Why doesn’t he want me to have this? It looks good. Why doesn’t he want me to have good things? How can God be good if he doesn’t want me to have this good thing?We live in the brokenness and aftermath of that fall and it’s something we have to confront.
In suffering, love, community, and joy matter
Depending on how you grew up, suffering might have played a big role or small role in your theology. For me, growing up in an all-black church in the American south, suffering is a reality. You suffer here, and at the end you get a crown and you get to see your savior face to face. So I had a really sobering understanding of suffering on this side of eternity, but what I could not have accounted for then and what I am just beginning to account for now is the immense joy that we get to experience when God floods our lives with his goodness and his grace. And so we’re going to talk about that.
John Newton
Everything is needful that he sends; nothing can be needful that he withholds.
Tim Keller
God will only give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.
Robert Stolorow
Trauma is when severe emotional pain cannot find a relational home in which it can be held.

Consider these questions:

Recall a moment of suffering you have experienced that has been significant in your life.
How do you respond to suffering? Anger, frustration, distraction, avoidance, doubt, unbelief?
How do the scriptures require we relate to suffering?
Who do you go to to find a “relational home” when you experience suffering?
What gain is there for suffering for doing good?