To Encourage You

1 Peter 2:12 “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

One of the characteristics of those who are spiritually blind is to “call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).  We see it every day.  Those who speak the truth about such things as sexual sin are called “homo- “or “transphobic” while those who champion such things are commended for their “courage.” Those who would share the truth that Jesus is the only way to eternal life are mocked as narrow-minded and intolerant by those who hold a multitude of other views.  In so many churches today we see that the response to such criticism is one of compromise.  It’s the refusal to call sin for what it is and to preach the gospel clearly.  And so, in the attempt to refrain from offending those who don’t know God, they become unrecognizable from them.  Others, who may speak the truth, subvert the message in the hateful ways they act towards those to whom they speak!  It is such churches and the so-called “Christians” in such churches that Jesus has warned, “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5). 

Jesus has called us to be different from this world. He’s told us that when we speak what He said and walk like He walked that we will be like salt and light in a world that is decaying and dark.  Listen to His words from the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” 

It’s the same message that Peter speaks in the verse above when He tells us to “keep (our) conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against (us) as evildoers, they may see (our) good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”  For you see, that’s the only way we will ever reach a world that is dying, i.e., by living in a way that demonstrates spiritual life.  And though the unbelievers of this world may mock such believers, God is speaking to them through their lives as only He can by His Spirit. And the result?  Some of them, hopefully many of them, may have their eyes opened to their sin and turn to the only One Who can forgive them.  And so, many who are now at enmity with Him will someday “glorify (him) on the day of visitation.”  That’s what has happened to everyone who is currently following Him. Each and every one of them heard the Truth of the Word of God spoken and saw the effect of that Truth on the lives of those who spoke.  

May God help us to let our light shine in the darkness rather than to hide that light in a misguided attempt to think we have some better way than the one God has clearly told us is the only way to reach an unbelieving world.