"Let's Harmonize"

Let’s Harmonize

Read 1 Peter 3:8-12 (NIV):

A pastor friend of mine tells a story of a successful big city businessman named Mr. B., who ends up being late to work one day because of traffic. In the process, he misses an important phone call. Irritated at traffic, Mr. B. calls in one of his managers into his office and yells at him about some missing reports he needed yesterday! And guess what… the manager leaves the office noticeably upset.

Then, Mr. B stomps right past his secretary and closes the door. She rings into his office and tells him she has an urgent message. He snarls at her, “My door was closed! Can’t you see I’m busy? Leave me alone.” The secretary doesn’t know what hit her. Now she is upset, and she spends the rest of the day stewing about it, wondering what she did that was so wrong.

When she gets home, she is still upset. She passes her 16-year-old son’s bedroom. It is a grand mess. She hunts him down and finds him planted in front of the television set, playing a video game. And she snaps. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you 1000 times, clean your room. You’re grounded from electronics until your room is spotless.”

The teenager storms upstairs and heads to his bedroom. And guess who should cross his path but the family pet, “Fluffy” the cat. Without warning, the teenager swings his foot back and lets’ fly. He gives Fluffy the cat a swift kick across the room. Fur flies as the cat slides under the table, wondering what it did that was so wrong.

Has this scene ever played out in your home? In this world, bad feelings tend to transfer. If you are like me, you have also been guilty of kicking the proverbial pet. I think it’s human nature that when things go from bad to worse, we want someone to share in the experience with us. And if someone else needs to feel bad in the process, so be it. So, we each kick the family pet.

As we continue our series on Unity, the apostle Peter seems concerned about this tendency. As we look at 1 Peter 3:8-12, we explore what we should do about it. Let’s look at the context of Peter’s letter. Peter is writing to a group of Christians living in Asia Minor who have fled government-sponsored persecution in Rome. They have lost family members, homes, and livelihoods. To put it succinctly, they have had the mother of bad days. And Peter urges them, “Don’t kick the pet.”

Listen to what he writes in verse 3:8: “Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.”

Illustration

When I hear, “In harmony,” I think of car trips with my family when I was younger. My mother and sisters liked to sing. And God had blessed them with beautiful voices. Sometimes when they sang, one will keep the melody while the other drops to harmonize. It was great to hear. If you are like me, songs with harmony blended in are so much better than the melody alone. Two voices are better than one. But this isn’t always the case.

On our basketball trips, we had six teenagers in the car. Six people could have made a beautiful praise and worship team. But there were several different songs being sung. Rather than beautiful harmony, voices conflicted as different people vied for their song to be heard.

Peter is urging the believers in Asia Minor to live in harmony with one another. Don’t be different voices fighting for the airwaves. Instead, blend your voices together in a beautiful song. Good harmony requires those participating to know where the other singers have been and where they are going.

Peter isn’t talking about worship music though. A study of the original language reveals that the word “harmony” combines two words in the original language. The first word means “the same.” The second part means, “Understanding on an emotional level”

Peter is urging the church to have the same understanding of one another on an emotional level. It’s not a choice to simply try and get along. This interpretation only scratches the surface of what Peter is imploring the church in Asia Minor to do. Peter is urging Christians to be of one feeling toward one another. It’s not just a mind thing, although understanding is involved. He wants us each to understand the emotion or purpose behind the thought.

Illustration

Fathers, have you ever had one of your daughter’s have a bad day? She comes home from school distraught or crying. As a good father you listen, and you gather all the facts, and when you think you have heard enough of the facts you interject your sagely advice. You think to yourself, “This advice is REALLY GOOD!”

But then your daughter turns to you and stares and finally says, “Dad, you don’t get it. You still don’t understand.”

Fathers, let me assure you, your daughter is not talking about facts.

What she wants you to understand is her emotions, how she feels. She is reminding you that you need to try to understand where she is, not factually, but emotionally.

It’s the same urging that Paul is giving to a church in Asia Minor. Share the same emotional understanding. I suppose that’s why Peter uses feeling words after he says live in harmony with one another. Be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate. These feeling words protect the rich harmony and fellowship of the church. That fellowship is important.

Peter wants the church in Asia Minor that is hurting from outside pressure and persecution to draw together in understanding and purpose. The church is having a bad day. He doesn’t want church members kicking the proverbial pet. So he urges them, “Be sympathetic” – Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Make yourself stand in their place.

I know from my own life that in the midst of personal conflict and trouble, it’s easy to throw our hands up in surrender and to say, “I don’t care”; “I don’t care about you”; “I don’t care what happens when ____________” And yet I think we all hope and pray that when the day is going bad that someone will understand and care about us, don’t we? Do we see the conflict?

As the church in a world that’s suffering, we are called to care for one another and understand one another on a deep intimate level as family.

Peter says to a congregation of believers “All of you” and that pretty much covers everyone, doesn’t it? No one can say I’m exempt. Or it doesn’t apply to me. This instruction applies to all of us because conflict is inevitable for all of us, even Christians. Even the disciples, who walked in Jesus’ shadow and learned at his feet got into disputes.

When two or more people come together the potential for friction is heightened. Too much friction causes heat. Too much heat results in fire. Fire brings about destruction. Ironically, the people we are the closest to are the people with whom we have the greatest conflict. In friendships, it seems that we are off again and on again. In marriage, it seems that before marriage opposites attract each other, but after marriage opposites attack each other. Church life can get messy and divisive.