Introduction – Having exhorted us
as to how we are to live with one another in the previous verses, Peter now
turns to our witness to the rest of the world.
Our lives are to be consistent with our words, and our words outwardly
with our hearts inwardly. Our allegiance
to Christ is to be obvious, as must be our delight and hope in Him and His
promises for us regardless of the circumstances of life.
Your Life, For Better or Worse
– Summing up our life, we are always under the blessing of the Lord God, if we
are His children.
Zealots of Good
(v13) – There is quite a bit of talk about persecution and trials for believers
in this book. Some of that is because of
the time in which Peter is writing. He says
here that the ‘normal’ course of events should be that Christians, being
zealous followers of what is good, would not bring harm to themselves in most
cultural situations. You should be the
best neighbor anyone could ever wish for.
A Blessing in
Either Case (v14a) – And so you are blessed if they receive
you for all your good works, and you are blessed as well even if they do
persecute you because of your faith.
This is what Jesus taught us as well (Matt
Where Your Heart Rests
(vv14b-15a) – God has always acted this way with His people, because God has
always been God.
Isaiah 8:12-13
– is quoted here. This passage is in the
middle of a long prophesy by Isaiah during the reign
of King Ahaz of
Peter’s
Application – Do not fear the terror or threat before you,
but rather set apart Christ in your heart.
Those two commands go together, for together, they keep you from
idols. With childlike confidence that He
will keep His promises, we hope in God and hallow His name as our Deliverer,
Savior and King.
The Heart
– This is not, as we might think, talking about our emotions separate from our
intellect (head and heart). The heart is
the place of all of the inner-man, his intellect and emotions, as opposed to
our outward actions or words (see Gen 6:5, Prov 23:7,
Matt 15:8). To sanctify Christ in our
heart is to declare His Lordship over all of truth and knowledge, which affects
the next command.
And Always Be Ready (vv15b-17) – Having
Christ sanctified in your life and attitude, you are prepared to always be
ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you.
A Defense
– The Greek word is apologia, which is where we get our word apologetics, which
is a reasoned defense against an accusation.
While there are those who make their living in apologetics, this
instruction is to all Christians. You are
to be prepared in all you say and do to be able to give a reason for the hope
that is displayed in your actions and words.
The Reason
– This is not simply a call to be able to give your testimony. Your answer is to be doctrinal, incorporating
the teachings of the gospel, and in the context of
this letter, of Peter’s teaching (1:3-5, 17-21, 2:9-10, 21-25). God is sovereign over all. God has called us out of darkness into His
light to be His people. God has provided
an atonement for our sin in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. God has made us heirs, and all
that occurs in our lives is under His watchful care and blessing.
Where is the
Reason From? – We must reason from the Scriptures. We may not reason to the Scriptures, because
that begs the question. If we have sanctified the Lord God in our
hearts, then there is no room for neutrality in truth. When you defend the faith this way, you are
simply acknowledging what God has said is true; the unbeliever in one sense
knows God and knows the truth (Rom
With Meekness
and Fear – Being that confident of the truth gives us no
license to be arrogant about it. The
truth itself humbles us – we were lost without Christ and without the grace of
God opening our hearts to Him. While we
are not to fear man, our fear before God keeps us from thinking too highly of
ourselves.
Having a Good Conscience… (v16f) – This
phrase generally describes one who knows where he stands before God, inside and
out. It describes the Christian life,
the life of faith and works that flow from that faith. It describes the hope we have in the precious
blood of Christ, His promises placed upon us, His completed work of
forgiveness, and the mark of His hallowed name upon us.
Our life and
lips declare this hope, because this hope has been powerfully placed in us by
God Himself.
Dave
Hatcher –