{"id":661,"date":"2009-01-20T21:32:25","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T03:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=661"},"modified":"2009-01-20T21:32:25","modified_gmt":"2009-01-21T03:32:25","slug":"1-peter-312-blessing-eyes-condemning-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/1-peter-312-blessing-eyes-condemning-face\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Peter 3:12 – Blessing Eyes, Condemning Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

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1 Peter 3:12<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For the eyes of the lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the lord is against those who do evil.”<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

God is watching over and listening to His righteous children, but He frowns on those who aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEyes<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word ophthalmos<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201ceye.\u201d It is derived from the verb optanomai<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Greek word epi<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201con, over, or upon\u201d appears twice in this verse. The first time it is translated \u201con<\/span>\u201d and the second time it is translated \u201cagainst<\/span>.\u201d The reason for this is explained below.<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201crighteous<\/span>\u201d is dikaios<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cone who does right\u201d or \u201cone who is just.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPrayers<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word d\u0113omai<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto make known one’s particular need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word \u201cface<\/span>\u201d is translated from pros\u014dpon<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of pros<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201ctoward\u201d and \u014dps<\/span><\/em> (derived from optanomai<\/span><\/em>, \u201cto see\u201d), referring to the area of the face around the eyes. Prosopon<\/span><\/em> is nearly always translated \u201cface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s verse and the previous two verses are taken from the book of Psalms where it says:<\/p>\n

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; the face of the LORD is against those who do evil \u2026 (<\/span>Psalms 34:12-16a<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

This demonstrates that even this common fisherman (Peter) had studied and memorized the scriptures of his day. Let us not use the excuse that the Bible is too complicated or too difficult to understand as our reason for not studying and memorizing it, since this common, uneducated fisherman was able to do it!<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it interesting that the Greek translation of this Old Testament passage used the same word (epi<\/span><\/em>) for the eyes of the Lord being \u201con<\/span>\u201d the righteous and the face of the Lord being \u201cagainst<\/span>\u201d evil doers. Here\u2019s why. The Hebrews of that day believed that having God\u2019s eyes on you indicated the presence of His blessing whereas having God\u2019s face on (or over) you was an indication of His condemnation and coming wrath.<\/p>\n

If you study the book of Romans, you will find that it is because of our faith in the blood of Jesus that we have been declared righteous by God. We have this righteousness credited to us the same way Abraham was declared righteous, because he believed God. Because we believe God\u2019s message about His Son (He died in the cross to pay for our sins, and He arose from the grave), His eyes of blessing are on us. But those who reject God\u2019s message regarding His Son will suffer His wrath because His face is over them watching all their faithless sin.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Are God\u2019s eyes on you or is his face against you? It all depends on your position in Christ. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, His eyes are on you. Otherwise \u2026<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2009 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the lord is against those who do evil.” Truth to Learn God is watching over and listening to His righteous children, but He frowns on those who aren\u2019t. Behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,65,66,67,68],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blessing-eyes","tag-condemning-face","tag-eyes","tag-face","tag-righteous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-aF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}