Verse 14 says this, "If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you." I don't know about you but when I'm insulted, I don't first think, "Wow, what a blessing this is. I am so blessed right now. I wish I were insulted more." But there are sometimes when being insulted is a blessing. I think the title for 1 Peter 4:14 should be "Blessed Insults."
Perhaps there is something that Peter is exposing here. Perhaps all of us live too much in fear of man. Perhaps all of us work too hard for human approval. Do you ever have a negative comment by somebody just wreck your day? Because after you walk away, you rehearse that over and over again. Or somebody vehemently disagrees with something that you thought was one of your best insights, and you carry on that argument the rest of the day even though they're not with you, and you mount better arguments for your opinion. Of course, you have! We've all done that.
Peter is flipping the script to us, and saying, "There are moments when mockery and insult is a sign of blessing." What does he say? "If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and God rest upon you." Imagine that person who is insulting you doesn't understand it, but they are recognizing glory. They are recognizing the presence of the Spirit of God in you. They're recognizing that you have been lifted out of the mass of humanity and drawn to God's presence and filled with His Spirit and had His glory poured in on you. That's why you're different. That's why you make the choices that you make. They're recognizing something beautiful; they don't understand that, but that's what's happening. And that's why their insults are actually a blessing because it's another indication of the work of God in you.
Have you ever wondered, "Is God with me? Is He really in me? Does He really care for me? Has He really done for me what He says He's done?" This is a bit strange but maybe the insults of the world are God saying, "Yes, yes, yes, I am with you, I am in you. My glory does rest on you. That's why this person can't handle you. They can't handle how different you've become because of My grace!" Blessed insults.
Eternal honor-this kind of eternal honor is only ever yours by grace; it never ever comes by the result of human effort. So, here's the spiritual faultline. Will we live for present, always temporary, human approval, the glory of human respect and human acceptance? Will that be what we treasure? Will that be what we work for? Or for the eternal glory of living for the honor of our Savior and knowing every time we're maligned, every time we're rejected, every time we're insulted, it's just another sign of the blessing that's been poured in on us by God's amazing grace; I'm going to say it again that we could have never earned, achieved, or deserved. Sometimes being assaulted is just a huge, glorious blessing!
