What’s the secret to the good life? No, it’s not having the fastest car or the biggest house or the most attractive spouse. In fact, it’s not about getting anything that we think we want. Instead, Peter tells us in verses 10-12 that the key to the good life is living according to the will of God.

And that, in turn, means focusing not on the self, but on the good of others. In verses 9 and 10, Peter explains it includes speaking honestly, using our words to bless others. In verses 9 and 11 he expands this to include our actions – we must not seek payback when we are wronged, but should instead seek peace even with those who have hurt us.

Is any of this realistic? It is when you remember that verses 10-12 are a quote from Psalm 34. For David wrote that psalm when he was at the lowest point of his life. He was on the run from King Saul, his own father-in-law, who was trying to kill him for no good reason. In his desperation, he fled into the territory of the Philistines, and pretended to be crazy so they would take pity on him and protect him. But his former enemies wanted to have nothing to do with him, so they sent him back into Israelite territory, where Saul could get at him once again.

In other words, David wrote the words of verses 10-12 not from a position of strength and power, but out of the worst sort of fear and isolation. But perhaps that makes sense after all. For only when he literally had no one and nothing else could pleasing God become the most important thing to him. It was only when he had lost everything we think is important – power, popularity, home, family – that he could see that the only thing that mattered was drawing close to God and living according to God’s law of love, even if that meant blessing the very enemies who despised and rejected him.

Peter understood this as well, for he wrote this letter at a time when he and those to whom he was writing were suffering various kinds of persecution. But in fact, these words also reflect the life of Christ, don’t they? Jesus Himself gained no worldly blessings in this life, dying a criminal’s death on a cross even though He had done nothing to deserve it (v. 18). Yet Jesus and Peter and David all experienced the greatest blessing of all – the joy of knowing God. For only that joy will have no end.

So, if we want to be close to God, let’s trust in Christ alone to save us. And let’s live for the glory of God and the good of others, no matter what such righteous living might cost us (v. 14). For that’s really what the good life is all about.

I Peter 3:8-22 (ESV)

8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
9 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.
10 For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
12 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.”
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.