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"All of you be of one mind"

Text: 1 Peter 3:8

ONENESS IN THE LORD

One of the most challenging things to achieve is “oneness”. It was something the Lord Jesus taught and prayed for (John 17:11, 23). The Apostle Peter understood its importance and sought to encourage “oneness”.

“Finally, all of you be of one mind,
having compassion for one another;
love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous.”
1 Peter 3:8

1. “Finally”

a) This word needs to be understood carefully.

b) Peter had not come to the end of his epistle just yet.

c) The word is better understood as “the end goal”

(In Greek this is called “to telos”).

2. Five things were highlighted as a worthy “end goal”

a) “Be of one mind”

i) Families need not become broken up.

ii) Believers can have the same mindset.

b) “Having compassion for one another”

i) The word “compassion” is where we get the English word “sympathy”.

ii) The challenge is to practise being sympathetic to one another.

c) “Love as brothers”

i) This is better understood as a descriptive term.

ii) We are to practise “brotherly love”.

d) “Be tenderhearted”

i) This word means to have “good compassion”.

ii) It is good to remember how Jesus showed compassion (Mark 1:41; 6:34).

e) “Be courteous”

i) The root of this word is actually “humility”.

ii) Humility is expressed well when we show appropriate courtesy to one another.

iii) The strong must show courtesy to the weak.