Inside Rome’s Sistine Chapel hangs Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment. Painted in the 1530s, while the Reformation was spreading light, Michelangelo’s work captures a Roman Catholic vision of judgement. In the bottom right, among generic faces of the damned, one portrait stands out: Biagio da Cesena. Biagio was the Pope’s Master of Ceremonies. He’d been giving Michelangelo a hard time with complaints about his work. In response, Michelangelo painted him in hell, with donkey’s ears and a snake wrapped around him, biting him. When he complained to the Pope, the pope joked that his jurisdiction didn’t extend to hell, and so the painting Biagio’s portrait remains in The Last Judgment to this day. That was Michelangelo’s payback.

The interesting question for us today, is how that story makes us feel. Over the dinner table, as I shared the story with my wife, we laughed. Yet Jesus said, ‘Bless those who curse you’, and, ‘Do not take revenge.’ Revenge tastes sweet to our sinful hearts. This idea that it is sweet is found everywhere in our culture, captured in phrases like, ‘I don’t get mad; I get even’ and ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold.’ When you are entertained by people getting revenge, at the root is the reality that payback appeals to your flesh.

In 1 Peter 3:8-9, Peter has been teaching us about church as it should be. After calling us in the church to unity, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind, in verse 9 Peter says, ‘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.’

Peter is very clear: Christians must not do payback; instead, we must bless back (see last week’s article). How are you doing with this? Have you tried to do this for even one day with one other Christian who hurts you? To do this can feel like dying. Yet no matter how countercultural and hard it may be, this is basic Christian teaching. It’s a part of our calling. And to implement it, we need help!

Peter gives us help by giving us two major thoughts from the rest of verse 9 through to verse 12: calling and blessing. In this article we’ll just consider the first idea, calling, and come to the idea of blessing next time. First let’s focus on the word called.

I. Calling (for to this you were called)

A. It Is a Basic Idea

The idea of calling is basic to Christianity. In the Gospels in particular, consider Mark 1, where Jesus sees Simon and Andrew and says, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ They leave their nets and follow. In Mark 2, he says to Levi the tax collector, ‘Follow me’, and Levi rises and follows, leaving his life of sin to respond to Christ’s call. The calling is Jesus saying, ‘Follow me.’ Responding is following him. This is elementary Christian teaching! Calling is a basic idea in the Bible.

B. It Is a Big Idea

Not only is calling a basic idea in the Bible, but it’s also a big idea. It’s everywhere! In 1 Peter alone, we’ve already seen that God ‘called’ us (1 Peter 1:15). In 2:9, he ‘called you out of darkness into his marvellous light’. In 2:21, ‘to this you have been called’ — to follow Christ’s example of suffering for others. In 5:10, Peter says the God of grace has ‘called you to his eternal glory’.

If you have some spare time, you could look up the many other places it shows up: 1 Corinthians 1:2, 1:9, 1:24, 7:15, 7:17; Galatians 1:6, 1:15, 5:8, 5:13; Ephesians 1:18, 4:1, 4:4; Colossians 3:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:7, 5:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 1:9; 2 Peter 1:10; Hebrews 9:15.

Calling is a clearly a big idea in the Bible—but is it a big idea for you? Do you thank God for your calling? Do you think about it? Peter points to it because it matters. It’s basic, but it’s also a big deal, and changes how you live.

C. It Is a Bounded Idea

Calling is biblically defined and specific. It’s bounded. It’s not the case that any old sense of being called is OK. To be truly called you must have heard and responded to the biblical gospel call.

In his Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem helpfully notes three elements of the gospel call:

1. The biblical gospel includes an explanation of the facts of salvation. The biblical gospel includes the realities that all have sinned (Romans 3:23) and that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift is eternal life through Christ (Romans 6:23). The biblical gospel teaches that Christ died in the place of the ungodly (Romans 5:8), which is what theologians call ‘penal substitution’.

2. The calling involves an invitation to respond with repentance and faith. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’ This is an invitation from Jesus to come to him for salvation.

3. The gospel call must also include a promise of forgiveness and eternal life. John 3:16 promises that ‘whoever believes shall not perish but have eternal life’.

2 Thessalonians 2:14 says God called you through the gospel. That means the call is not a vague feeling disconnected from the truth. Merely to feel that you are called does not necessarily mean you have been called. The call must be understood according to the bounded idea the Bible gives us. If someone offered you a different gospel in which you’d receive good health, more wealth, and your best life now; a gospel without the message about sin, judgment or repentance—you were not called; you were duped by a counterfeit.

I recently heard the story of a man listening to his daughter’s phone ring in the other room. When she answered, she finished her call with, ‘Okay, Dad.’ However, he wasn’t the one calling her! Thankfully he quickly intervened, and when he investigated it, it turned out that someone using AI had cloned his voice. Not only that but the caller had told his daughter to get up and come outside to help him with the groceries. Had he not stepped in, she was about to comply. After that, they set up a secret code word so that she could always tell whether it was really him calling.

To be able to tell whether the call you received is fake or authentic, it must be the message of Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23), calling you to repent and believe for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38, Mark 1:15). If the gospel call leaves out the message about sin, repentance and judgement, or fails to proclaim the good news of free forgiveness through the cross, it is a counterfeit. So, have you heard, understood and responded to that biblically bounded call of the gospel?

D. It Is a Bi-Level Idea

Not only is the call a bounded idea, it’s also a bi-level idea. There are two levels on which the calling operates.

Firstly, there’s the external call. This is also known as the ‘general call’. This is the call, as the name suggests, that goes out to all — Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy-laden’ (Matthew 11:28).

Secondly, there’s the effectual call. This call comes with power (Romans 8:30). Wayne Grudem says the effectual call ‘is rather a kind of summons from the King of the universe, and it has such power that it brings about the response that it asks for in people’s hearts. It is an act of God that guarantees a response, because Paul specifies in Romans 8:30 that all who were called were also justified.’ Those who are effectually called will respond. When God calls in this way, you will follow. The call comes with the power to bring the desired response.

E. It Is a Binary Idea

When some people learn that the call of God is effectual, they begin to worry about how they can know whether they are one of those who are the called. But that kind of thinking is a trap. The idea of calling that we need to be concerned about is binary, in as much that you have either been called or you have not. If you have heard the Biblical gospel, including the realities about sin and judgment, with the good news of Christ’s death for sinners on the cross; if you have been invited to repent and believe, and promised forgiveness, you have been called. That’s a fact. It’s binary.

Now if you know you’ve been called, the only question you need to answer is whether you’ve responded. Have you responded to the call? When Paul preached to the Greeks in Athens he told them God was commanding all men everywhere to repent because judgment is coming (Acts 17:30-31). Jesus invited anyone who labours and is heavy laden to come to him (Matthew 11:28). Jesus is saying to you right now through the gospel, ‘You come, follow me.’ Will you?

F. It Is a Budget Idea

You’ve heard the invitation, ‘Come, follow me.’ But one final question is ‘Have you counted the cost?’ The cost is a cross. Jesus said, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross (daily!) and follow me.’ The cross is an instrument of torture and death, so it’s not an exaggeration to say that a willingness to suffer for Christ is part of the call. Did you do your budgeting? Have you counted the cost?

Having considered the word called, now let’s focus on what we are called to.

II. To what were you called? (for to this you were called)

This is why I have taken time to think about how calling includes the idea of budgeting! You must have counted the cost, because we are called to suffer to in order to bless-back. Peter is describing church life at this point, church as it should be, amongst believers, and yet even fellow Christians are going to do you evil sometimes. The church is composed of sinners just like you! And so when Peter says, ‘Don’t pay back, but bless back,’ this is part of the suffering for others to which you were called (1 Peter 2:21). Someone might object by saying, ‘You’ve got no idea how hard that is! You don’t know my wife. When my wife speaks like that to me, I can’t just sit there and say nothing in return! I have to do something about it!’ Right—you do have to do something about it! You have to bless her back! But you’re only going to do that if you understand your calling, and you’ve budgeted to suffer for Christ. It’s helpful to have realistic expectations.

All that’s left now is for us to see the connection between this and what Peter has been saying previously.

III. Seeing Your Calling As a Reason to Bless Back (For to this you were called)

Asking what the ‘for’ is there for makes all the difference. This is Peter giving us a reason. The word ‘for’ introduces the reason why you should bless-back rather than payback. You were supposed to have counted the cost! Christ called you to follow him and following him means taking up your cross and suffering for the sake of others. He prayed, ‘Father, forgive them’, while being crucified. He died on the cross to bless others! And he said, ‘Follow me.’ When you say, ‘But it is so hard!’ Peter is reminding you that this is what you signed up for along with your calling. To complain about the calling being difficult is a soldier complaining that he didn’t expect army-life to be hard, or like complaining that it is hot in a sauna. This is the life you chose when you accepted Jesus’ call to follow him.

Conclusion

Many churches still have a culture of payback. The church is made up of saved sinners who still sin against each other. Our responsibility, when sinned against, is not to bite back but to bless back. Part of what’s going to help you do that is thinking about your calling. Did you count the cost when you signed up to follow Jesus? Have you really responded to the real gospel? Are you all-in for some suffering for the sake of others? Church as it should be is a church full of people saying, ‘Yes, Jesus, I am following you no matter the cost!’