{"id":664,"date":"2009-01-21T22:22:32","date_gmt":"2009-01-22T04:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=664"},"modified":"2009-01-21T22:22:32","modified_gmt":"2009-01-22T04:22:32","slug":"1-peter-313-zealous-followers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/1-peter-313-zealous-followers\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Peter 3:13 – Zealous Followers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 Peter 3:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And who<\/span> is<\/span><\/em> he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

The real lesson for today is, let us live our lives as examples of the goodness of God, knowing that He is watching over us. In doing so, we can truly give God the glory for anything<\/strong> that happens to us knowing that our future is secure!<\/p>\n

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

The King James translation of today\u2019s verse is: \u201cAnd who is<\/span> he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?\u201d<\/span> The word translated \u201cfollowers<\/span>\u201d is mim\u0113tai<\/span><\/em>, from which we get our English word \u201cmimic.\u201d It means \u201csomeone who is an imitator or follower.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New International translation of this verse is: \u201cWho is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?\u201d<\/span> The word translated \u201ceager<\/span>\u201d is dz\u0113l\u014dtai<\/span><\/em>, from which we get our English word \u201czealous.\u201d This is what is called a transliteration, a word that is transferred literally from one language to another. It means \u201cardently active, devoted, or diligent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only difference in the Greek text for these two translations of today\u2019s verse is this one word. But, no matter which translation you prefer, the meaning is essentially the same.<\/p>\n

The verb translated \u201charm<\/span>\u201d comes from the Greek kaku\u014d<\/span><\/em>. Sound familiar? It comes from the same root as a word we looked at in verse eleven, the word kakos<\/span><\/em>, which means general badness or evil.<\/p>\n

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

Peter is saying that if you are zealous about doing good (or if you are followers of doing good), who is there that will harm you for this?<\/p>\n

The answer to this question in not<\/strong> \u201cno one!\u201d (Excuse the double negative.) That is, Peter is not saying nothing bad (as we see it) will ever happen to those who are benevolent and keep their tongue under control. What he said in the previous verse is that God will watch over and listen to those who live their life in such a manner. God is a good God, one who truly loves us. Peter is telling us that since God is watching over us when we are zealous for good or when we follow goodness, who can really do anything bad to us without God allowing it for His eternal purpose.<\/p>\n

Let us look at Christ as our supreme example. He surely was zealous for good, He was the epitome of goodness, and yet, at least from a human perspective, bad things were done to Him. These bad things, however, resulted in glorious goodness for all who believe, so they weren\u2019t really bad in God\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

The other way to look at this is to realize that we already have been declared righteous in God\u2019s book (if we have truly been saved). And, we have already been adopted into His family, which includes the promise of spending eternity with Him in heaven. Therefore, if we behave the way His children should, there is no permanent badness that can be done to us!<\/p>\n

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

Are you a follower of what is good? Are you zealous to do good things? If not, then you are not behaving like a child of God. If you are, no real, eternal harm can possible happen to you. You\u2019re in good hands!<\/p>\n

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

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Peter 3:13 And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? Truth to Learn The real lesson for today is, let us live our lives as examples of the goodness of God, knowing that He is watching over us. In doing so, we can truly give God […]<\/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":[69,70,71],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-follower","tag-no-harm","tag-zealous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-aI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","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=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}