“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; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” 1 Peter 3:15-16
Peter is writing to a group of believers who were trying to figure out the right way to live and the right words to say in a society that was marginalizing them. The truth they held was out of step with what many people wanted to hear. The believers were being accused of many things in an attempt to discredit them.
Peter encourages the believers to ready themselves by honoring Christ as holy in their hearts. As the verses indicate, there is a direct link between the holiness in our hearts and the gospel we are giving: “Honor Christ… be prepared to give a reason.” We can summarize the verses like this: “Be holy…be ready… be gentle.”
Be holy: if we are honoring Christ as both holy and our Lord, then our lives will be like his. We can always say that we are not perfect, and we prove that often. But we should never underestimate the intention of God to make us clean: He will complete the work He has begun. He fully intends to make us eager to do what is good.
According to Titus 2:11-12, grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and yes to godly lives. That godliness leads people to ask us about our hope. Godliness is a means to giving the gospel.
Be ready: We are likely quite sure that unless Christ makes us holy, we won’t be. And we can be ready with that answer: “I was sinking in sin, but Christ died for me, and then resurrected, in part, to make me love what is good. I don’t do that perfectly, but I am not what I once was. Grace saved me and is making me clean.”
A life cleaned by God has some good news to share. A life cluttered by sin, Peter later described, is one that is near-sighted and blind, and has forgotten what grace does (2 Pete 1:9). It is hard to declare the gospel when we have forgotten its power.
Be gentle: If we are being holy, our lives will be different from those around us. But true holiness is always accompanied by deep humility. If we cannot be gentle to sinners, we cannot consider ourselves holy.
Respectful kindness is an identifying mark of all true saints. Too many assume holiness gives license to berate people. But that is only arrogance masquerading as holiness.
So how should we pray about this?
Pray that we will love what is good and hate what is evil. This is a divine work, but one which God himself sets out to accomplish within us. He intends to make us eager to do what is good. Praying for that is praying according to his will.
Pray that we will be delivered from temptation. The simplest way to avoid falling into sin is to never be confronted with it in the first place. Sometimes we fall into what we are playing around with. Praying that God will deliver us from the opportunity to sin is a preemptive strike against the deceit of sin.
Pray that our lives are clean enough to make people wonder. Peter indicates that the cleanliness of our lives causes people to question our motives: a clean life invites people to conversations. Pray that we will be clean, approachable, and ready with good news.
Holiness is not something we adopt as a methodology. It is something we are to be at our core; and when we are, people will wonder at the power of the gospel.
