John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Providence.

Audio Transcript

How do we live fearlessly? That’s how our week begins. The question today comes from a listener named David. Here’s his email: “Pastor John, hello. My question is about 1 Peter 3:15. Various translations say things like this: ‘In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.’ That’s the ESV, and it’s pretty much the same as the HCSB, which calls us to honor Christ with our hearts. But the KJV translates it, ‘Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.’ The NLT says, ‘Worship Christ as Lord of your life.’ The NIV, ‘In your hearts revere Christ as Lord.’ So, honor, sanctify, worship, revere. What does this Greek lemma, hagiázō, mean? And how would you apply it to our lives?”

This passage, 1 Peter 3:14–16, has a special place in my heart because I can remember preaching on it during my very first months in the pastoral ministry at Bethlehem in 1980. And the insight that I got then, when I was preparing for that message, I had never seen before. It was so significant to me that when I saw this question, I said, “I want to do that. I want to go back there and retell this story — retell this exegesis,” because what I saw there I’ve never forgotten. It relates directly to David’s question about how to translate verse 15, which in the ESV goes, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.” And David wants to know what that phrase means in this context and then in our lives.

So, let’s put the text in front of us. I’ll start with verse 14.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 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.

Three kinds of observations bring clarity to the meaning of verse 15 — the first part, which David is asking about: “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.”

Sanctify Christ?

The first observation is about the words themselves and how to translate them. Here’s the most literal rendering I can give: “The Lord Christ sanctify in your hearts.” So, sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts.

The word sanctify is the word that’s behind all these translations — worship Christ, revere Christ, honor Christ as holy — and all of them are trying to avoid the word sanctify in English, probably because we usually think of sanctify as overcoming sin and becoming more Christlike. That won’t work when we’re talking about sanctifying God. It’s just an odd sound, and so other words are chosen to try to make it more clear.

But the word sanctify, at root, means “set apart for some sacred purpose” or “consecrate.” And in God’s case, it certainly involves revering, honoring, worshiping, recognizing his holiness — his transcendent purity — and feeling the beauty and greatness and preciousness of that holiness. So all of these translations have elements of truth in them. And I think “honor Christ as holy” comes as close as we can get to sanctifying Christ — that is, recognizing God as supremely, transcendently pure and beautiful and valuable and (we’re going to see) dreadful in a good way. I’ll come back to that in a minute.

Fearless and Hopeful

Here’s the second way we get clarity with this phrase in verse 15, “honor Christ the Lord as holy.” Let’s see what’s on either side of it: what comes just before, in front, and what comes just after it, behind. So, just before are these words: “Have no fear of them,” referring to persecutors. Have no fear of them. Then comes, “but honor the Lord Christ as holy.” So, “honor the Lord Christ as holy” is somehow an alternative to being afraid, having fear of those who persecute.

Then after them, in verse 16, come these words: “. . . always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” So, it seems that in Peter’s mind the instruction to honor Christ the Lord as holy would be a means to helping you be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you.

So in front of the words, he says, “Have no fear of your persecutors,” behind the words, he says, “Be ready to tell why you are hopeful.” And in between, he says, “Honor Christ the Lord as holy.” So now, let’s hold on to that, and you’ll see why that fearlessness in the front and hopefulness in the back are significant.

Isaiah’s Key

So, here’s the third observation. And this was what in 1980 was new to me. I’d never made these connections, and they’ve stuck with me ever since. The key that I had never seen before when I was reading this text was that it’s a quotation from Isaiah 8:12–13. So, here’s what Peter read in Isaiah that was so relevant to his situation that he adapted it in this context. Here’s what Isaiah 8:12 says: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.”

Now in the Septuagint, in the Greek Old Testament, those last words are the exact words that Peter uses to tell his readers not to be afraid or troubled by your persecutors. So that’s a direct quote there. In verse 13 in Isaiah 8, “But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy,” we see the same word hagiasate in the Greek Old Testament. “Sanctify the Lord, Yahweh” — not Jesus, but Yahweh, which he’s going to apply to Jesus. “Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary.”

Now, Peter takes these words, “do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread,” and he quotes them in verse 14. “Have no fear of these vaunted persecutors around you.” And then he sees that the solution that Isaiah gives to fearing man is a holy fear of God: “The Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” And in place of honoring the Lord Yahweh as holy, Peter says to honor the Lord Christ as holy.

“When you dread distrusting Christ more than you dread your enemies, he will be a hope-filled sanctuary for you.”

This is what the New Testament writers do repeatedly. Christ becomes the fulfillment, the incarnation of Yahweh, and what was true of Yahweh then is true of Christ now. And by implication, let Christ be your fear, and let Christ be your dread, as you regard him as holy.

Our Dread and Sanctuary

Now, that may seem a very odd way to combat the fear of man — replace it with the fear of God. But the next phrase, in Isaiah 8:14, just blew me away then, and it still does. It explains how this works. It says, “Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary.” Amazing. It’s amazing. God becomes a safe, hope-filled sanctuary from his own wrath and from our enemies when he becomes our dread. Now, how does that work? I think it works like this.

When it becomes more fearful, more dreadful to us to dishonor God by failing to trust his promises — when that’s more dreadful to us than being persecuted by our enemies — then those very promises of God become a sanctuary for us. They become our hope. So now the words “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy” include the meaning, “Let him be your fear. Let him be your dread” — not your persecutors — “and he will become your sanctuary,” your solid place of hope.

“Don’t let men be your dread; let God be your dread.”

So, both the words in front of verse 15 and afterward get their meaning from the meat in the middle of the sandwich. The bread on top, the words in front, say, “Don’t be afraid of your persecutors,” and the meat in the middle explains, because when you honor Christ as holy — that is, when you dread distrusting Christ more than you dread your enemies — he will be a hope-filled sanctuary for you. And you don’t need to be afraid. And then the slice of bread that’s on the bottom of the sandwich — the words following, which say, “Always be ready to give a reason for your hope” — is explained again by the meat in the middle of the sandwich. When we honor Christ as holy, when we dread distrusting him more than we dread our adversaries, he is a reason for our hope that we can give to anybody.

I’ve never forgotten that key from Isaiah 8:12: don’t let men be your dread; let God be your dread — which at first doesn’t sound like a happy solution. Oh, but it is! Dreading distrusting God turns God into a sanctuary. He becomes a sanctuary. He will become your reason for hope, and he will become the ground of your fearlessness before your adversaries.

Let’s be honest: Revelation can be an intimidating book. Because of that, some of us have avoided Revelation, deeming it to be too difficult to interpret and understand, too controversial, or too scary. Perhaps we’ve ignored it because we have assumed the book is only about the future, with nothing “practical” for us today.

The truth is, while the apocalyptic prophecy of Revelation presents some challenges to us as modern readers, it also provides gifts of insight and understanding to those who are willing to engage with it. Revelation is a letter written to gird us for faithful allegiance to Christ as we wait for his return. And that is encouragement we all need!

“I want to invite you to study Revelation for the joy of it.”

I want to invite you to study Revelation for the joy of it. And since Revelation is full of sevens (seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, and many more sevens), it seems appropriate to provide seven reasons Revelation is a joy to study.

1. Revelation is a message from God sent to us.

It is amazing that the God who made the world has condescended to speak to us in human language. In the Bible, the God of the universe tells us what we most need to know. And there is something special about the way his message in the book of Revelation is delivered to us. At the outset, we’re given its specific chain of delivery:

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. (Revelation 1:1–2)

What John wrote down in the book of Revelation came from God the Father, to Jesus Christ, to his angel, to John, who then wrote it down — first for the seven churches who originally received it, and also for all who were then or would become partners in the “the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus” (Revelation 1:9). God has a message for you in the book of Revelation that you don’t want to miss!

2. Revelation opens our eyes to see the risen and glorified Christ.

Most of our mental pictures of Jesus have been shaped by the Gospels. In our mind’s eye, we see him as a baby in a manger, standing on the hillside teaching, hanging on the cross. But in the book of Revelation, John is given a vision of Jesus as he is, right now, today. As John was suffering imprisonment on the island called Patmos, he heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him, felt Jesus reach out and touch him, and saw Jesus in all his resurrected, ascended glory (Revelation 1:9–20).

We don’t want our understanding of Jesus to be confined to the years of his earthly humanity — glorious as those Gospel pictures are. The Jesus we call out to and commune with day by day is the risen and glorified Jesus. Seeing him as he is now, through John’s vivid record of his vision, builds our trust in him, heightens our attention to him, and expands our joy in him.

3. Revelation provides a picture of Jesus’s presence with us.

In Revelation 1, John sees Jesus “in the midst of the lampstands” (verse 13). We’re told that the lampstands represent the churches (verse 20). When those who first received this letter gathered to hear it read to them, it must have deeply encouraged them that Jesus was not standing off at a distance while his followers suffered for him. He was right there with them, walking in the midst of them, keeping their fire for the gospel burning, correcting them, watching over them, strengthening them.

We need these same reminders, don’t we? What a joy to have this picture Revelation provides of Jesus standing in the midst of his people. In the midst of suffering for our allegiance to him, as we face temptation to be unfaithful to him, we can be assured that he is with us, providing what we need for patient endurance.

4. Revelation enables us to see this world from heaven’s perspective.

In Revelation 4:1, John records being invited to “come up” into heaven and to come into an open door to see something. In a visionary state, John peers into the heavenly throne room of God and sees the thunderous worship taking place around the throne. But from this vantage point, he is also enabled to see what is taking place on earth from heaven’s perspective.

We sometimes foolishly assume we have all the data we need to evaluate what is happening in our world. But we don’t. Our perspectives are limited by our humanity and our earthly vantage point. But as we take in what John recorded about what he saw, we find that we are better able to see the true nature of our present reality. This is perspective we need. Rather than seeing this world’s offerings as attractive, from heaven’s perspective we can see how ugly and unsatisfying they are. Rather than seeing the persecution of faithful believers as tragic defeat, we’re able to see it as glorious victory.

5. Revelation assures us that God will deal with the evil in this world.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). He delivers us day by day, and Revelation shows us that one day he will deliver us in an ultimate and final way. His pouring out of wrath will be the answer to our prayers. You and I don’t want to live forever in a world tainted by evil, rebellion, idolatry, and immorality. And we won’t have to. The day is coming when God will cleanse away all the ugliness and evil from his creation, making it fit for us to live in as our forever home.

6. Revelation shows us what our eternal future will be like.

Sometimes the notion of “heaven” or “eternity” can seem so vague. We want details. And while the Bible might not give us all the details we’d like, the final chapters of Revelation uniquely provide us with beautiful images that give us a sense of our eternal future.

As we take in the book’s imagery of marriage, we can smile, sensing the intimacy we’re going to enjoy in face-to-face communion with God. As we read through its imagery of a city, we find ourselves anticipating the richness of being part of a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Its imagery of a temple causes us to imagine what it will be like to bask forever in the radiant glory of God. And as we take in the imagery of a garden, we exhale as we anticipate what it will be like to live in an atmosphere of healing, wholeness, and complete satisfaction for all eternity. Can you almost feel the joy of this marriage, this city, this temple, this garden?

7. Revelation promises blessedness.

When we think of beatitudes, most of us likely think of the “Blessed are . . .” statements from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–12). But did you know that Revelation has its own beatitudes? Within its pages are seven statements about the person who is blessed. As we survey Revelation’s seven beatitudes, it becomes immediately obvious that the blessedness God promises is nothing like the modern social-media version of #blessed.

Who will be blessed, according to Revelation? Those who hear and keep what is written in the book of Revelation (Revelation 1:3; 22:7). Those who refuse to compromise with the world (Revelation 19:9). Those who die in the Lord (Revelation 14:13). Those who stay awake, watching for the return of Christ (Revelation 16:15). Those who reign with Christ (Revelation 20:6). Those who have had their robes washed in the blood of the Lamb and have the right to eat from the tree of life (Revelation 22:14).

“Revelation sets before us true and lasting rather than false and fleeting blessedness.”

Revelation sets before us true and lasting rather than false and fleeting blessedness. This is the blessedness around which we want to orient our lives. This is the blessedness of eternal Sabbath rest that Adam failed to lead humanity into. We can be sure that Jesus, the last Adam, will not fail to lead us into it. Revelation shows us how he will do it. Anticipation of this blessedness is what fills us with genuine joy now.

My friend, don’t be intimidated by the book of Revelation. Don’t ignore it. Dive into it. Explore it. Have your perspective changed by it. Find joy in it. Experience the blessedness promised in it.