13Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” ¹⁵But 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, ¹⁶keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. ¹⁷It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. ¹⁸For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, ¹⁹through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison ²⁰who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, ²¹and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also— not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand— with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:8-22 – NIV)

Today, as I said, I’m going to talk about verses 15 through 18a. This is a continuation of Peter’s discussion of suffering for doing good. Jesus himself did very much good. He did the ultimate good! He rescued us from death and gave us eternal life through his own suffering and death. I included the end of last week’s part of the passage, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord,” as part of this week’s passage. To set apart means to hallow, as in the Lord’s prayer: “Hallowed be thy name.” The word that’s translated set apart is the same word that’s translated hallow in the Lord’s prayer. In order to put Peter’s teaching into practice—in order to set apart Jesus as Lord—in order to hallow him, we have to know in our hearts who Jesus is—that he is God. Do you believe that Jesus is God? He is God who came in the flesh to live among us for a while—to live a perfect life—and then to die for us. But now he’s alive and is reigning at the right hand of God the Father. He always lives to intercede for us. He is able to completely save those who come to God through him! (Heb. 7:25)

Let’s go on. Peter’s teaching (inspired by the Holy Spirit of God) is, first of all (according to verse 15b), that we are to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have.” What is the hope that we have? This question and the answer to it come up again and again! What is the hope that we have? We have a living hope of not perishing but being raised from the dead to glory, honor and immortality—eternal life. (Romans 2:7, 1 Peter 1:3) We have the hope of an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for us. (1 Peter 1:4) We have the hope of seeing the creation, itself, which was subjected by God to frustration when the first man and woman disobeyed God, being liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:20, 21) And we have much more. And finally, we have the hope of being with Jesus and seeing him as he is—and being like him—being pure and holy and righteous—and having bodies that will never die—bodies that will never even be sick—no more pain or suffering or sorrow. We will be like Jesus. We will see him face-to-face. And incidentally, in case you have forgotten—and it’s easy to forget—when the God of the universe, our Creator and Redeemer, talks about hope, it is not hope as in, “I hope it won’t rain tomorrow (but it probably will),” but rather, it is hope as in, “I am continually looking forward to this with great expectation. I know for certain that it will happen!”

We really do have this living hope. But the question that we will be asked—that people will ask us—is this: “What is the reason for this hope that you have?” The reason we have this hope is that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… (1 Peter 1:3) Jesus died for our sin and was raised from the dead and is reigning at the right hand of God. Job, who lived during the time of Abraham and wrote the oldest book of the Bible, said, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” (Job 19:25) We know that Jesus has already stood upon the earth once and that he is alive and will one day again stand upon the earth. (Very soon, too, maybe! Come Lord Jesus!)

“Always be prepared to give an answer…” The word translated “answer” in Peter’s exhortation to always be prepared to give an answer, is the word from which the English word “apologetics” is derived. Do you know what apologetics means? (It’s not the art or science of saying your sorry or making excuses.) According to the dictionary, apologetics is the branch of theology that deals with proving that the Bible is true. It means to give an explanation or a defense for what you are claiming is true. In this passage, Peter is telling us to always be prepared to defend what we believe. And he is speaking about a defense before people.

But we also have an unseen enemy that regularly questions our hope. He is our enemy the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Peter is going to say more about this later (1 Peter 5:8), but the reason I am bringing it up now is that our enemy gives us an opportunity to practice defending our faith. The devil asks the same sorts of questions that people ask. If fact, it can be said with quite a bit of assurance that it is the devil who suggests the questions people ask in the first place so that they will ask them.

These questions are the “flaming arrows of the evil one” to which the apostle Paul refers in Ephesians 5:16. You extinguish them by taking up the shield of faith. Here’s a sample question: “There are a lot of different religions in the world. Some have hundreds of millions or even more than a billion adherents. Why should you think that your religion is any more likely to be true than any of the others?” To make things even more difficult, the devil will suggest to you that there is no answer, so you might as well give up trying to find one. Don’t believe the lie! He is a liar and a murderer and was from the beginning. (John 8:44) To extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one, you take up the shield of faith. How do you do that? Start with prayer. Ask your Father in heaven to prove this liar and murderer wrong. Expect an answer from the word of God. (And you have to study the word of God, by the way, if you expect to get an answer from it. That’s something you have to do if you expect to be prepared to give an answer.)

Now to get back to what Peter is telling us: “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.” Do this with gentleness and respect. Peter is talking about how we are to relate to people. You don’t need to treat the devil with gentleness. He is the enemy. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12).” People are not the enemy.

Here are a couple of examples of situations where we may be called upon to defend our faith with gentleness and respect. In both cases our good behavior in Christ is spoken maliciously against and slandered. Basically, good is called evil. The first example is the homosexual issue. If we speak against homosexual practices, we are called bigoted and hateful. The reasoning is that we are condemning a person for being the way he was born—or at least because he chose to do something that he claims harms no one. The same arguments are used that are used against racial bigotry even though the situation is quite different.

But God says this: “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9b,10).” God says that neither male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders will inherit the kingdom of God. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. They will be condemned. How can it be hatred or bigotry to not want someone to be condemned to eternal destruction?

Several years ago, my wife went to a “Love Won Out” seminar sponsored by the “Focus on the Family” organization. Outside of the meeting place there were some protesters carrying signs. The news people showed pictures of the protesters, but didn’t say much about the meeting. In the meeting however, some of the issues were presented by various speakers. Eternal salvation, although it would certainly be the most important issue, is not the only issue. There are many other harmful consequences of homosexual practices that come about during this present life, too. (And by the way, I don’t want to imply that our eternal salvation depends upon whether or not we engage in homosexual practices. It doesn’t. Our eternal salvation depends only on faith in Jesus Christ. How we live our lives is a reflection of this faith.)

The “Love Won Out” seminar, in addition to having speakers who talked about the issues, also had some former practicing homosexuals who gave their testimonies. According to what some of them said, the name of the seminar was completely appropriate. Love did win out. Some of these people had come to one of the seminars expecting hostility and condemnation. They had come expecting to prove that the people putting on the seminar were really hateful and bigoted. Instead, they found love and encouragement. That’s what changed their minds. They were proved wrong by an attitude of gentleness and respect. When you confront someone on this issue, Peter says, let it not sound confrontational or like a threat. Instead, let it sound like, “I’m afraid you’re dying and I want to save your life.” Give the reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and respect so that when they see your good behavior, they may be ashamed of their slander. Let love win out! Let the love of Jesus win out!

The second example I have is the result of the terrorist attacks. Because the attacks were perpetrated by radical Muslims, there has been quite a bit of effort to make sure we don’t condemn all Muslims because of the actions of a few. We are told that Islam is a religion of peace—which is something that at least a couple of former Muslims that I know of would disagree with—but we are told that Islam is a religion of peace and that the terrorist were not following the teachings of the Koran any more than the crusaders were following the teachings of the Bible when they slaughtered many people in the Holy Land. So we are told not to say anything bad about Islam.

But, in truth, we know that there is only one way to salvation, only one way to eternal life and it is not through Islam. Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life. No one can come to God except through Jesus. (John 14:6) Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

The Koran teaches directly against this truth. Islam is like poison that destroys the soul in hell. I am not bigoted or hateful in saying these things (except maybe against the devil). If someone were eating or drinking something poisonous that would eventually lead to his death, would you call it bigotry or hatred to warn him? But the way you warn him is important. If it is not with gentleness and respect, he will consider himself to have been proven right when he spoke maliciously against your good behavior in Christ.

To go on, verse 17 says that it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Even in doing good, even with gentleness and respect, we can expect to suffer. Jesus told his disciples, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:20b) The Apostle Paul said the following: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philip. 3:10,11) Paul called suffering for Christ fellowship with him—the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings! We can expect to suffer for Christ!

So then, why should we be ready to give an answer? Why should we be willing to suffer? Because Christ died for sins once for all (that is, once for all time), the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. (verse 18a) He died to bring us eternal life and all the very great and precious promises that we have from him. But most of all, he died to bring us to God. Knowing God and knowing Jesus whom he sent is eternal life (John 17:3).

So in your heart set apart Christ as Lord. Know who he is. Let his name be hallowed. And listen to what the writer of the book of Hebrews says about Jesus: