How do bad people keep praying together?

You and I are bad people who have been forgiven. That’s been our message throughout Lent and Easter. And it’s the message of the apostle Peter, in his first letter.

Because, naturally, we are all self-righteous people. And in this life, we all suffer, and that creates pressure to justify ourselves.

Back in chapter 2 verse 1, Peter told us to:

put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Because when people want to prove that they are right and just in front of other people—this is how they behave. We don’t come to church because we think we’re good. We come to church because we recognise we aren’t—but we know we’re already forgiven.

But how can people like us—who naturally want to justify ourselves—be a community together? How can we build real relationships with each other?

How do bad people keep praying together?

That is what Peter now answers in chapter 4 of his letter, by saying this:

1) Cover other people’s sins now.
2) Because Christ will soon show everyone that he’s covered yours already.

First, Cover other people’s sins now. Look at what Peter tells us to do in v. 7:

be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

Self-controlled, means you are in control. Sober-minded, means your need to justify yourself is not. Peter explains more in v. 8:

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Christ has loved you. He covered over your sins. You have nothing to pay for them. Nothing to atone for.

The opposite of love is displaying people’s sins. Publishing people’s errors. Demanding compensation.

That is how self-justifying people behave. “Well, I’m just, now they need to come up to my standard.” “I’m the judge and I want this other person to satisfy my need for justice.”

But this kind of attitude, kills relationships and communities. It is the reason our lives are so dysfunctional.

By nature we are self-justifying people, but we will not be able to continue praying together if we are defined by that instinct inside each of us.

We can’t be a community together, praying for forgiveness together, when we are attacking and accusing and trying to get even with each other.

In Galatians 5:15, the Apostle Paul warns us not to forget grace:

if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

When we are exposing and displaying each other’s mistakes, then we can’t pray together, marriages can’t survive, friendships can’t continue, working relationships can’t function.

Either I cover my own sin—which I do by exposing yours.

Or, Jesus has already covered my sin—so I have not need to put yours on display.

Forgiveness is the only thing that can make a praying community function.

We don’t need to be a certain type of people.
We don’t need to be experts in social dynamics.
We don’t need to be all from the same cultural background.
We just need to be a people who have been justified by Jesus, not people who need to justify themselves.

Vese 9 tells us what that looks like in practice:

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Self-justifying hospitality works like this: it keeps scores. I show you kindness, and I start feeling resentful:
—because you don’t reciprocate;
—you don’t understand what it cost me;
—you don’t see how you’re now in my debt.

But I’m forgiven. Everything I have is given to me by grace. In fact, that’s exactly what Peter says next in v. 10:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

I don’t need to keep score. I don’t need to keep a ledger. Because nobody else is keeping score with me. Everything I have is a free gift of grace.

God puts gifts in your mouth, v. 11:

whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God;

If I need to justify myself, then I speak to get what I’m owed. …to paint myself as a victim who deserves your sympathy, …or as a hero who deserves your praise.

But I’m justified, forgiven—I have no need to prove my worth. And I can speak this gift to others.

Tell your spouse they’re forgiven. Tell your children they’re unconditionally loved. Encourage each other with positive words at my flat after church.

And God puts gifts in your hands, v. 11 again:

whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies

If I need to justify myself, then I do things for others to get one up on them. To be better, be right, be good.

But if everything I have is a gift, I don’t need to prove I’m better than them. Cover other people’s sins now.

Because, Peter’s second point, Christ will soon show everyone he’s covered your sin already. Verse 7:

The end of all things is at hand;

And that is terrifying IF your life depends on proving yourself righteous.

If you have to cover your own sins. If you have to earn your place in heaven through your hospitality. If every word you speak and every deed you perform will be weighed, and tested, and your motives probed—that is truly terrifying indeed.

For bad people—self-justifying people—the end of all things being at hand is a horrifying thought.

But you and I are bad people who have been forgiven. Peter’s been sowing that seed throughout verses 10 and 11:

As each has received a gift… speak [the] oracles of God… by the strength that God supplies

Jesus is coming back. It won’t be long now. And when he does, he will vindicate you in front of everyone.

He will point to you and say: “This one is mine. This one’s sins are already covered.”

God doesn’t need you to perform well to make that happen. You don’t need to meet a certain standard to secure it.

Your life is not about performance. You are not on trial. This is not a test.

And that means: you do not need to spend your life covering your own sins by exposing everybody else’s.

You can finally stop keeping score. You can stop building your case. You can stop replaying the prosecution in your head.

Because Jesus Christ already knows every sin you have committed. And he has already chosen to claim you as his own.

That is how bad people keep praying together.

Not because their sins are small. Not because they stop being selfish sufferers. Not because they become naturally loving people.

But because Christ has already covered the sins that separate us, and he’s coming back soon, to show everyone that is true.

And so, we cover each other’s sins now.

in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.