I Peter 3:8-9

This passage begins with “therefore,” so it is a conclusion to what came before. To identify the “same mind” Peter mentions, we must look back to I Peter 3:8. It says,

This describes aspects of the “one mind” we should be of, and we understand that this reflects Christ’s mind. Now, this does not tell us how to resolve a doctrinal difference, but it does set the pattern for how to conduct ourselves when there is a difference. The mind of Christ compels us to respond with compassion, brotherly love, and courtesy rather than with reviling. Reviling, which is verbal abuse, is a sign that the flesh holds more sway than the mind of Christ. In fact, verbal abuse and vilification is so contrary to the mind of Christ that He says revilers will not inherit His Kingdom (I Corinthians 6:10). He even tells us not to keep company with a reviler (I Corinthians 5:11). Reviling is so commonplace these days that we may have acclimated to it and not think much of it, but reviling repels Christ’s mind.

Peter then goes on in chapter 3 to discuss suffering. This is another aspect of the mind of Christ, one which humbles us when we consider how He demonstrated it. The Creator, who embodied righteousness, suffered horrifically at the hands of His creation, and He did so without defense or protest. He answered not a word, which seems to be impossible these days. Instead, Jesus committed Himself to the One who judges righteously. Yet the Father did not defend Him at the end of His mortal life, and Christ accepted that as well. He knew that something far greater was being worked out than the immediate righting of wrongs. That’s the mind of Christ, and it puts us all to shame.

So, coming back to I Peter 4, Peter says to arm ourselves with this same mind, the mind that works to build up relationships, and to follow Christ’s example in suffering for the sake of future oneness.

I Peter 3:1-12

Brethren, the virtuous, trustworthy wife of Christ, relying on the excellency and strength that only comes from God, will only be those who have already learned faithfully, have been following the preparation manual of the wife of Christ that God has set before us to do the work and build the character of the virtuous wife that only does good to complement, with an E and compliment with an I, Christ for eternity.