| Giving An Answer For Our Hope, Part 7: The End in View |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, June 16 2008 00:00 |
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“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Pet. 3:15-17). As we conclude our analysis of Peter’s instructions to persecuted Christians on how to respond to those who ask them about their belief in their hope, he concludes with the above underlined goal. Our goal in defending our beliefs is not to win an argument or defeat another person. We are not trying to illustrate how clever and knowledgeable we are. We are not trying to build up our own pride by deflating someone we see as an opponent. Peter is not calling on us to engage in religious debate. The end in view is not that we, of ourselves, by our carefully framed answer will win someone to Christ. Of course, we want to do that. Of course, the Christians of Peter’s day wanted to win their pagan neighbors to Christ. But remember, we know that God does not hold us responsible for the outcome, but only for sharing the good news. Only the Holy Spirit can change hearts and create faith. We can pray that the Holy Spirit will use our answer in regenerating a pagan heart, but that is not our responsibility in giving our defense. Our responsibility in giving an answer is to remove from our pagan neighbor any basis of legitimate condemnation of us. He may well be slandering us as Peter states that these opponents of Christianity were doing. But if our lives and our answer present such an example of Christ like conduct and attitude that these people respect and admire us for that conduct, they will be made to be ashamed of their slander, and that is a good first step toward their conversion! It is my prayer that these devotional studies on 1 Pet 3:15 will be a blessing and help to all our readers. |
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