To Encourage You

1 Peter 3:15 “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.”

Do you like to argue?  I actually do not, yet I find myself doing it from time to time and more often that I would like to admit.  Perhaps you’re like me in that when you know something about something and someone suggests to you that what you think you know is wrong,  you feel it necessary to defend yourself.  I’m not really sure why I do this?  Maybe it’s fear of finding out that what I thought I knew isn’t true after all, i.e., perhaps it’s a defensive act?  Maybe it’s competitiveness, and I just don’t like the feeling of “losing” an argument.  I’m sure there are other even less noble reasons.  However, what if the issue is one of life and death – one that centers on the very truth of the Word of God? What if it’s about the defense of the faith, a topic called “apologetics” by the theologians?  If someone’s very eternal life depends upon them believing certain things in Scripture, and our motivation for telling them is that we love them and want more than anything that they be saved, how should we “argue” such points when others whom we love, reject them?  It’s to this point that the verse above from 1 Peter speaks.  When Peter writes this statement, he is in the midst of teaching about how a believer, in spite of being well-intentioned and desiring to do good, may face opposition and suffering at the hands of others.  All we need do is look to the example of Jesus Who came only to seek and to save those who were lost with the purest demonstration of love that the human race has ever seen, yet they opposed Him at every turn and, in the end, murdered Him for it. 

Jesus warned His followers that if they persecuted Him, they would also persecute them (and they’ll have much more of a reason to, for our actions, however well-intentioned, are likely to come up well short of the perfect example He set for us).  As Jesus returned to heaven, His last words were these: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). So, to share the gospel with others is obviously a good thing – one every believer should be about.  But what if, in the telling, the message isn’t accepted?  What if in the process of sharing God’s truth, be it with a stranger, a coworker, a neighbor, someone in our own family, or someone in our church, the reaction is opposition, and the seeds of an argument are sown? How should we react?  What should our attitude be? 

The answer that Peter gives us is that we should answer with gentleness and respect.  Paul uses similar language as he writes to his son in the faith, Timothy, about the very same thing.  In 2 Timothy 2:24-26 he says this: “And the Lord’s servantmust not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” 

You see, the Lord knows full well that when we are discussing such a critical subject as His gospel, something of which He,  in one way or another, has fully convinced us is true, that in our humanity and propensity to want to argue, we can defeat the good purpose of what we are doing when we share the Word of God in the wrong way.  We should follow the example of Jesus.  He was direct and showed great courage when He spoke about the kingdom of God, but He wasn’t argumentative, although the words He spoke were always the truth and His knowledge and wisdom about any topic were infinitely greater than that of anyone to whom He spoke.  And we should follow the example of Paul, who “reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there” (Acts 17:17) regarding the awesome truths of the Word of God.

May God help us to faithfully share God’s Word with others, but to do so with gentleness and respect, for it is never the strength of our arguments or the eloquence of our words that will ultimately convince anyone of their truth.  No, it is always the Holy Spirit that will do any true convincing as He wonderfully takes our imperfect attempts to share the Truth of the gospel, and applies it to the hearts of those who hear.