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." (1 Peter 3:8-12 ESV)
I love watching Survivor. I find the group dynamics so
entertaining – seeing the way people act and interact with the group and how
that helps or hurts them when it comes time for challenges and tribal councils.
Each season can be drastically different. Sometimes the people who make it to
the end win because they were everyone's friend or they had the best strategy
or they just kept winning everything.
There are quite a variety of people who have won the game.
There are also certain people who will never win the game one of the most
notorious villains to play Survivor was Russell Hantz. He ruthlessly made it to
the end but had no chance of winning because he manipulated and mistreated
people so badly.
It was also extremely entertaining to watch CBC and GBC play
Survivor. I had a lot of fun watching the challenges and seeing what went down
tribal Council. Early on in Survivor Hawaii , it became obvious that Stephen had
become this season's Russell Hantz. He was doing everything right as far as
playing the game was concerned, but he took the blame for the decisions and
liked to talk way too much. Bushy made a smart decision taking Stephen to the
final two.
What does that have to do with this passage in 1 Peter though? In these verses, we read about characteristics that explain why Bushy won, not Stephen.
As the game was being played, Bushy, Spencer and Stephen had unity of mind – they had the same goal in mind, stick with their alliance and make it to the merge. At the merge, they stayed unified and they eliminated bigger, stronger players.
However, Bushy and Spencer made decisions with sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. They were playing to win, but weren't cocky and boastful as they did so. They kept their tongues from evil and their lips away from speaking deceit.
Survivor relies on the people voted out to determine the winner. Natural human tendency is to repay evil with evil. When Stephen was cocky about those he voted out, he burned those bridges and in doing so, lost their votes at the end because they repaid evil for evil.
Moral of the story: when developing your Survivor strategy for next season, keep in mind that although you must vote people off, the way in which you do so makes a difference. More importantly, this is true in life outside of Survivor too. As you interact with others you need to do so with unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Peter tells us this is necessary if we desire to love life and see good days.
What does that have to do with this passage in 1 Peter though? In these verses, we read about characteristics that explain why Bushy won, not Stephen.
As the game was being played, Bushy, Spencer and Stephen had unity of mind – they had the same goal in mind, stick with their alliance and make it to the merge. At the merge, they stayed unified and they eliminated bigger, stronger players.
However, Bushy and Spencer made decisions with sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. They were playing to win, but weren't cocky and boastful as they did so. They kept their tongues from evil and their lips away from speaking deceit.
Survivor relies on the people voted out to determine the winner. Natural human tendency is to repay evil with evil. When Stephen was cocky about those he voted out, he burned those bridges and in doing so, lost their votes at the end because they repaid evil for evil.
Moral of the story: when developing your Survivor strategy for next season, keep in mind that although you must vote people off, the way in which you do so makes a difference. More importantly, this is true in life outside of Survivor too. As you interact with others you need to do so with unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Peter tells us this is necessary if we desire to love life and see good days.
Answer This:
1) In what ways does your life show that you are
sympathetic? Loving? Tender-hearted? Humble?
2) What can you do to overcome the tendency to want to repay
evil with evil?
3) Do you seek peace and honor God with your life? If so,
how? If not, what needs to change?
4) Take some time to pray and journal about this passage.
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