08/23/26: "Identity: What We Do or Who We Are?

God’s word first lands with a simple but deep truth: no matter who a person is, what that person has done, or how that person feels in the moment, that person is loved and valued by God. God is aware of every heart and is pushing nobody aside. The practice of blessing teachers and school staff carries that same truth into ordinary life, because classrooms, kitchens, labs, and fields need God’s presence, wisdom, patience, rest, peace, and joy.

Peter’s first letter names Christ followers as “handpicked and unwanted.” Peter writes to churches pushed aside by the culture because they belong to God first. Peter calls them strangers and resident aliens, not because they are odd for the sake of being odd, but because their good conduct should make a watching world see something different and finally praise God.

Peter’s command to “honor everyone” now zooms back out from government, bosses, and spouses to life in general. The question of identity asks whether life is shaped by what someone does or by who someone is. The pictures of teachers, law enforcement, and mechanics show that every role has a culture, a way of thinking, a language, and a set of instincts. Christian life has its own language too, even its own “Christianese,” but Peter is after more than words and jargon.

Peter says God’s people are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and members of God’s kingdom. The Coast Guard picture makes the point plain: basic training gives a person the basics, but maturity comes by learning the mission. New life in Christ starts with surrender, forgiveness, and being made new, but it cannot stop with “I’m saved, I’m going to heaven, we’re good to go.” God has made a new creation, and that new creation must learn how to live.

Peter’s list is not soft or easy. The text calls for like-mindedness, sympathy, love, compassion, humility, and refusing to pay back evil for evil or insult for insult. Blessing means calling down God’s gracious power and love on all people, even people who wish harm or do harm. That is not culture’s way, and it is not flesh’s way, but it is Jesus’ way.

Peter adds both reward and warning. God blesses a community that blesses, honors, encourages, and cares for one another, even when care feels uncomfortable. Psalm 34 calls God’s people to keep the tongue from evil, turn from evil, do good, seek peace, and pursue it. Jesus did not come with the gospel of sin management, but with abundant life, living water, and the real eternal life of knowing God.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Identity comes before behavior [46:31] Peter does not start with a checklist and then hope identity shows up later. The call to honor everyone grows out of belonging to God’s kingdom. Christian behavior becomes hollow when it is detached from the new creation God has actually made. [46:31]
• 2. Different must mean good [45:14] Peter calls God’s people to be different from the watching culture, but not different in a cranky, superior, or weird-for-weird’s-sake way. Good conduct is meant to answer accusation without becoming defensive. The life of God’s people should make slander look foolish and make God look worthy. [45:14]
• 3. Blessing refuses payback instincts [01:03:53] The flesh wants to return insult with insult and evil with evil, especially when the other person seems to deserve it. Peter calls blessing the opposite move: calling down God’s gracious power and love on people who may not return it. That kind of blessing does not approve of evil, but it refuses to let evil set the terms. [63:53]
• 4. Community care can feel uncomfortable [01:08:03] The body of Christ is blessed when people notice, call, show up, and get into each other’s worlds. Independence can become a smokescreen that keeps healing away. Real unity is learned through care, correction, apology, forgiveness, and the awkward work of letting others in. [68:03]
• 5. Jesus offers more than management [01:14:59] Jesus did not come to create a cleaner version of self-rule. Abundant life means being brought back to the Father, filled with living water, and taught to live a new way. Sin management leaves the old person in charge, but new creation learns to put Jesus and his ways first.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [33:12] - Loved and Valued by God
• [34:30] - Blessing Teachers and School Staff
• [39:19] - Giving as Worship and Trust
• [43:46] - Handpicked and Unwanted
• [44:53] - Strangers, Aliens, and Good Conduct
• [46:31] - Identity: Doing or Being
• [47:42] - Job Cultures and Christian Culture
• [55:06] - Called to Be Different
• [57:35] - Peter’s Call to Bless
• [61:01] - Growing Into New Creation
• [63:53] - Blessing Those Who Harm
• [66:22] - A Community That Cares
• [72:44] - Seek Peace and Pursue It
• [74:59] - Abundant Life, Not Sin Management
• [80:09] - Choosing God’s Way Over Payback

Bible Reading

1 Peter 3:8-12
“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For 'Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.'” [57:35]

1 Peter 2:9-10
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” [56:30]

Psalm 34:12-16
“What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.” [01:12:44]

1 Peter 2:11-12
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” [45:14]

Observation questions

1. In 1 Peter 3:8-12, what qualities are believers told to have, and what kinds of responses are they told to avoid?
2. In 1 Peter 2:9-10, what names and descriptions does Peter give to God’s people? [56:30]
3. What are some of the examples of “culture” or shared ways of thinking that show up in different roles like teachers, law enforcement, and mechanics? [47:42]
4. According to Psalm 34 and Peter’s use of it, what actions are tied to loving life and seeing good days? [01:12:44]

Interpretation questions

1. Peter calls believers “sojourners and exiles,” and then tells them to keep their conduct honorable. Why might honorable conduct matter so much for people who already feel pushed aside by the wider culture? [45:14]
2. Peter’s commands about unity, sympathy, humility, and blessing come after he reminds believers who they are in God. How does identity change the way these commands should be understood? [46:31]
3. Blessing is not the same as approving evil. What might it look like to call down God’s grace and love on someone while still being honest that their behavior is wrong? [01:03:53]
4. Jesus offers more than “sin management.” How does that change the goal of Christian growth from simply avoiding bad behavior to actually learning a new way of life? [01:14:59]

Application questions

1. God’s people are called to be different, but different in a good way. Where does that feel hardest right now—in family life, work, school, online conversations, or somewhere else? What would “different in a good way” look like there this week? [45:28]
2. Identity comes before behavior. When life gets pressured, is there a tendency to define identity more by a job, a role, a failure, or a current struggle than by belonging to God? What usually exposes that? [46:31]
3. “Do not repay evil for evil or insult for insult” reaches right into everyday relationships. Is there a person right now who brings out payback instincts—through words, disrespect, gossip, or coldness? What would blessing that person look like in a concrete way without pretending the hurt is not real? [01:03:53]
4. Community care often feels awkward because it requires letting people into real life. What makes it hard to be cared for—pride, fear, independence, past hurt, or something else? What would it look like to take one small step toward openness with other believers? [01:08:03]
5. Seeking peace is more than avoiding conflict; it means pursuing wholeness and healing. Is there a relationship that has been kept “quiet” on the surface but is not actually at peace underneath? What might it look like to pursue real peace there? [01:12:44]
6. New creation has to be learned. What is one part of following Jesus that still feels like basic training right now—speech, forgiveness, compassion, humility, patience, or something else? What would help growth in that area instead of staying stuck at the starting line? [01:01:01]
7. Jesus did not come to help people keep self-rule with a cleaner image; he came to bring abundant life. Where is there still an attempt to run life by personal wisdom first and ask Jesus to bless it afterward? What might surrender look like there now? [01:18:31]