Conduct in suffering - part 2

We actually had two lessons on 1 Peter 3, 13-17. Last week I took the opportunity to go through and do a little survey of different discussions about suffering and different types. We just briefly covered 13 and 14. Today we are going to recover 13 and 14 and finish out through 17. And that will kind of finish this one little section here. Can I get someone to read these verses 13-17? You can read them off the overhead or from your Bible.

Now who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? For even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled. But thank the Father, the Lord, in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give them account of the hope that is in you with gentleness and reverence. You keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than doing what is wrong.

Thank you. So there are a lot of interesting things in this passage. Once again I borrowed some things from McCauley here, just his little outline of this section. So this section 313-46 has been titled Suffering for Righteousness and we definitely see that in this passage. We're doing good. And so today, there's actually three parts to this section. What's called the Benefits of Suffering, which are the verses we'll cover today. And you might say, this is a benefit? Being slandered and being all these things. These are benefits?

Well, we're going to see God's perspective on that. And then we have what we'll label the perfect example of undeserved suffering. And of course, you realize that's our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then a proper attitude in suffering. And then the following two sections we will cover in the days to come. Sufferings with Christ and suffering in service for Christ. So as you see, as we pointed out last week, this whole remaining section of 1 Peter is going to talk about suffering. And it largely is going to focus on what the first section talks about. Suffering for doing good and having a good testimony and a good conscience. during the testimony. And that was what Peter was facing.

They weren't necessarily suffering. I mean, apparently they were okay. They had enough food. We didn't talk about that, but they were suffering for being the oppression of Nero and all that go with that. And their lives were in jeopardy much of the time.

And so that's the focus that Peter comes to in this book. Okay. So from last week, we had the verse, This is a pretty amazing verse. Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? You look at that, and I think we were talking before the class started. One thought is, I can't be harmed, I'm Superman. Untouchable. What does he mean in that?

Well, I think last week when we looked at first of all, the source of what is good. What's the source of what is good? This shouldn't be too hard. What? Well, it's obviously God. Remember, I mentioned this brother who always would greet me in the hall, and I would say, he would say, how is it?

I would say, I'm good. And he said, there's only one that's good. He would remind me of a passage in Mark about where they ask Christ about being good. And he says, there's only one that's good, and that's God. So God is the source of good. So that's kind of point one in this, because it says, proving zealous for what is good. So it's going to be God's standard, who God is. And then the second point, Christ's work on the cross enabled people to be zealous for good works.

Let's just look at Titus. We did this last week. Titus chapter 2. Titus 2.14.

Can someone read that? To beg himself for us that he might redeem us. from all iniquity and purity unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Thank you. So you see that Christ's death on the cross provided the ability for us to be zealous for good works. So you don't think of yourself as being zealous. You think about some guy running down the street, running and just a wild man. You think of negative things for people who are zealous. Terrorists are zealous in a sense. But this says that we are zealous for good works and good works as we defined before have a source in God. And the third point, there should be a bullet there.

As we abide and walk in him, even the harm that happens can be viewed for our growth and proof of our faith. And we saw that earlier in the very first part of 1 Peter, we saw that he talks about the proving of your faith. So the harm that will come to you is As we abide and walk in the Lord, that can be viewed as something that can grow you up. So from that sense, I think this verse is true.

Who is there that can harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? And Christ has already provided that Christ's life is a zealous life. You don't think of it that way often, but that's what people say. Zealous for good works. Works that match up with who Christ is.

So that's verse 13. And verse 14, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear their intimidation, nor be troubled. So the first point is that when you suffer for doing good, you're blessed. And this seems tough. You think, wow, I'm going to be blessed? You're blessed because you know as you do that, first of all you know that many times that can't be you. Because if you're like me, I don't want to suffer. I realize that I'm going to suffer. And I realize maybe retrospective benefits of suffering after the fact. But as you're going through it many times, it's hard to have that perspective.

But he clearly says, and this is not the only scripture, that when you suffer for doing good, you're blessed. That's a natural outcome. And when you're doing good, and since good is from God's standard, you're doing the will of God. And it all hangs together there. But Roger, this isn't an intellectual exercise, right? I'm suffering for doing good. I'm going to try to do this. Am I getting credit for this? It's a life. And that's true. And that's why it goes back to the source of what is good.

You can't achieve what's good outside of the life of Christ. But we have to look at the verses and see what they say, and we have to fit that in to the whole body of scripture. You can read this, a person that comes along illegally says, oh hey, no problem, I'm going to check off the checklist. But when we see it's Christ's life, and he's the only life that's good, then we see it. The only way that suffering for doing good can be a blessing is Christ living that life, not you. You can't do it gritting your teeth. No, absolutely not. I see that with people all the time who are, I'm doing this good, and I'm going to do this good, even though they're not happy doing it. That's no blessing.

If you don't see that Christ is your life, if you don't see the context of who we are in Christ, then you're going to miss what Peter is saying here, or you're going to interpret it a different way. Well, I was just thinking of Don Mabry. He's just a wonderful example. He is. He is. What a man. He's suffered all of his life like that.

And we can think of other believers that we've known that we see in their suffering. In fact, in their suffering we see Christ's life being lived out through them. So we can see that. But we're going to see a lot of... In fact, we're going to see about... It's going to sound very legalist. We're going to see about watching your conscience. Having a good conscience. Having a pure conscience. And all of this could be taken in the sense of a checklist. I have to have a good conscience for that.

I can take it that way, but that's not the way the body of scripture presents the life of Christ. Well, if you're not grounded in what Paul has already taught us, That's why these verses, when they're taught in other bodies, they are taken weakly, because they're not grounded in what Paul has already said. This is who you are. Reckon it to be true. Yeah. If we don't get that, you're right. It's all illegal. Right. And that's why they highlight Peter as a good dude. That's exactly right.

No, not again. It's tired. It's tired. I don't know, is it worth pulling with it or should I just go on? We have our hand out. It's not the last time I tried that, it died. Can't you turn it off and let it cool off? Sometimes that works, just turn it off. It's actually already turned off. It turns itself off? Yeah, I think that's what it is. I was just going to share a New York part the other day. You know how much I travel and too much. Anyway, I pre-checked so I'd go through quickly.

So the alarm went off, it went off again, it went off again. Basically after 25 more minutes of personal shake down and everything in a private room, I was just going out of my mind. They never discovered what it was. All that aside, I'm not doing anything good. I'm not doing anything harmful, but here I'm kind of losing it. The flesh showed up. I almost missed my plane. Anyway, the flesh is always there.

That's hardly what you call suffering. Well, actually what we are going to see is he is going to compare it a little bit later on here. Peter is focused that you are suffering for doing good. If you are suffering for not doing good, you have kind of missed the point. I am not trying to. It is a small thing, but anyway, it is just a matter of being on the intellectual end and saying gee you are supposed to just stand back. And I told him I know you have a job to do. Suffering is relative. It is relative. It depends on a self-serving perspective. You know at some point they're probably going to let you go. Hopefully. They did. But it's a life. It's not working at it. Put that flash under control.

On chart four, which is on page two of your handout, When you suffer for doing good, you are blessed. The second point is, actually there are two points. Do not be fearful of the ones causing you to fear. Do not become troubled or agitated. Maybe I should quit teaching. Don't forget, in this context, these people were after believers. Believers were their target. He's telling them not to be fearful.

It reminded me of the verse in Matthew 10. which talks about what can man do? He can only operate in his body. He can kill your body. He can wipe your body out. But he can't touch your soul and spirit. And God says, be fearful of me. I have the control over your soul and spirit. I can put your soul and spirit into hell. the paraphrased version of that. Be fearful of the God who has control over your life and eternity. Don't be fearful of the person that can just harm your body. And of course that's another hard perspective to have. When somebody is hurting your body, it's hard to back off and say, well, go ahead and have at it. It's hard to say that.

But that's kind of the message. understanding who God is and what he's done and where we fit into that picture and we're his children and we're blessed by when we do good and suffer for it and we're not to be fearful of those who try to make us fearful. Okay, so let's go on to the next stuff on 5. So now we start in our verses for today.

But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks to you to give account for the hope that is in you with gentleness and reverence. Okay, so the first phrase there is, but sanctify the Lord in your heart. I apologize, I'm still coming, so I have a cough here. Sanctify is a word to set apart.

If you think about this, you could basically render it, but set apart Christ as Lord in your heart. So the question is, what does that mean? So what does it mean to set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts? Is this something that we have to work at? No, just count it as true, deal with it as a truth, and the Lord is blessing through that truth.

And then when other people see that in your life, they ask, What's different about you? And that's when the opening is there to share. Not beating it down their throats to try to tell them, let the door be open. And they're going to see that just like Tom said. Good, good. What I found here, you have to be a little careful. You have to think about the fact that that every believer is sanctified.

So let's just look at a couple of verses here. Let's look at 1 Corinthians. Could someone read 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2. So I just want to kind of distinguish here between our being sanctified and then this. This actually is a command. A command for us to sanctify the Lord in our hearts. I want to kind of differentiate between those two ideas.

1 Corinthians chapter 1. in verse 2. It's introduction to 1 Corinthians there. So it's that phrase, my mind has, have been, it's a truth, it's a factual truth, it's a truth of every believer They've been set apart in Christ Jesus. They've been set apart for a purpose. So we've been sanctified. So that's one part of it. So that's our position.

I had the question here, is this talking about position or condition? This verse is really a conditional command. Which verse? The one you read? Basically the one I read is positional. But this verse here, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, that's conditional. So it's been said, actually I have a quote here from a book I'm using occasionally to help out.

It says, when the Lord sanctifies us, he makes us holy. That's kind of what was talked about here. When we sanctify the Lord, we set him apart as the Holy One. So we're focused on who Christ is and what he's done. Let's just read another verse, a very familiar verse.

Galatians 2.20. It's going to talk about a couple of things. Our position and then basically a conditional aspect to Galatians.

It says, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me. So basically here it says, but Christ lives in me. So that's our position. We've been set apart to Christ, so Christ lives in me. That's that part of it. That's a positional statement. Then it talks about our life. How do we live our life? The last part. I now live in the flesh. I live by faith. That's our part. Faith in the Son of God. So our part is to And I think that's what kind of ties into this verse here about sanctifying Christ as Lord in our hearts.

We're recognizing who Christ is, we already have him, he's already there, but we're acknowledging that, we're acknowledging what we have in our position in Christ. And then another aspect might be here about it says, in 1 Peter it talks about Christ is called our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, if you look in 1 Peter there, He is already our Lord Jesus Christ. He is already our life. So it is not necessarily saying we are trying to make Him our Lord. We are acknowledging that He is our Lord.

And then maybe the last point is, can you think of some similar ideas, and I hadn't thought about this until I started saying this first. this word sanctifying the Lord in our hearts. Are there other words and phrases that are used in scripture that you can think about that maybe are similar commands that the Lord gives us? And I'll drag it out here. The thing about this, if you look in John 15, he says, abide in me and I in you. Abiding is hanging out, recognizing who Christ is and what he's done. So I see that as a similar idea to sanctifying Christ as Lord in your hearts. This is something you're abiding, you're hanging out with the Lord.

And the other one that occurred to me was the idea of walking in 1 John 1.7. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Christ, and so on. So, I think abide and walk are similar, and I would not have thought about that until I had. Similar idea is sanctifying Christ as Lord in our hearts. You're acknowledging what you already have. You have already been sanctified, and you're acknowledging that truth.

Thoughts on that or comments? I spent probably more time on this verse and that first phrase than the rest of this lesson. Because I said, what does it mean to sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts? And Bob's point, there's a danger here of just going in and taking these statements. Well, I'll just write down in your notepad, sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts.

I'll do that today. Let me work on that. Well, that's not, that can't be it. It has to be, the Christian life, He only has us doing one thing, it's an operation of faith. If you find yourself doing something else, you're off the track. It has to come back to a simple faith, and that's expressed in various ways. A Christian walk, a body, hanging out with him, the idea of faith.

In this case, amazingly enough, the word sanctify is kind of used in here, which I would never have thought of before. Does that seem puzzling to some people? Hopefully that hangs together. I would not have thought that without putting time into this verse.

Think on that. We can ask questions down the road if you have more thoughts about that. So then the next part of the verse. I'm going to rest for a while. Which verse is this? Say again? Which verse is this? That's verse 15. The first part of 15. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. It's coming back on again there. The next part of the verse is on page 6.

This is always being ready to make a defense. Always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you an account of the hope that is in you with gentleness and reverence. We're going to look at the next part. Always be ready to make a defense. This word ready is the idea of being prepared.

It is interesting that he talks about two things, about being ready, and we are ready to do something, we are ready to make a defense, and the word defense is this word, it is actually the word apology, which is meaning it is kind of changing in current times, it is the word apologetic we would hear, so you are ready to give you're ready to give the reason why you're a Christian. Why am I a Christian? And I ask the question at the bottom of page six here. Why should this defense fall in setting apart Christ in our hearts? Why should our defense, our being ready in defense, follow that? Should we have that before or after?

And maybe it's not a big point to you guys, but it just kind of occurred to me that we want to be walking with the Lord, abiding with the Lord as we defend ourselves being a Christian. We're in fellowship with the Lord. If we're doing it as a checklist, well I've got these five checklists and that's why I'm a Christian. You're doing it because you're expressing Christ's life and people are seeing that life and you're defending it from that perspective, not from necessarily a checklist. Roger, you're going to continue I'm sure. The defense is in the hope that's within us.

We're talking about citizenship here. this is a great great verse. This verse is so so special. It is. Maybe it's just to me, but this is a very very special verse. So we got a huge hope within us. And if somebody is saying, where are you coming from? Boy, I'll tell you, there's no better opportunity to share the Lord Jesus Christ. No, absolutely. And it's a wonderful verse. It is a wonderful verse.

We're defending our hope. We're not defending, gee, I'm kind of a weird guy because I'm a believer, you know. It's a defense of the hope Right. Right. But what's so interesting is that they see the hope. They see that something is different about you. Right. And what they observe just from what they observe. Exactly.

And that's where that question comes. or here's this trial or here's this suffering or whatever. So how are you able to do this? How are you able to have this kind of attitude when what we've seen is we wouldn't have that attitude and that's why that's the question and boy that's all you need.

The door is open to share. I got delayed yesterday boarding the plane to come back last night and I went through not quite as extensive I mean, the Lord showed up. You learn from your experiences too. That wasn't an act of the will, it was an act of somebody else showing up. So, quick learning experience. Actually, there was a verse that talks about being ready for every good deed. The fact that we're ready is because we're walking with the Lord, we're abiding with the Lord.

I don't necessarily think that we have to prep for this, like prepping for an exam, I think actually that would probably be the wrong approach. I'm going to carry my little defense card here. I'm going to pull that card out, and whenever a person asks me, I'm going to read the points in the card. I think that's actually the wrong approach, and I think Bob's pointing out it.

The approach is that you're talking about the life you have in Him. And that's why the first part has to be true, that you set apart Christ as Lord in your heart. Because then you're operating from a faith perspective based upon who Christ is. And maybe you won't remember the verses perfectly, maybe you won't explain it perfectly, But it's not you that's going to save the person anyway.

You're expressing your life and who you are. And that's what it is. I think the checklist that you pull out to remember all the points about the gospel might be the wrong thing to do. You're expressing a life. You're communicating a life. And you're communicating a hope as well. We're going to see shortly here. Roger? Yeah, go ahead. On a negative viewpoint, you can't properly defend anything Unless you know something about what you're defending. I agree. So any any good lawyer knows that. Right. Well, and that's true.

You could be very excited and not explain it very well, but what I'm pointing out is that you're expressing your relationship. It's like me telling you about Lonnie. I could tell you, I could make a list of things, but it would be much better if I just explained to you our relationship and what we have. And that's what I think is in view here. You're explaining this relationship you have with your Savior. And maybe you won't exactly get every point right, and I don't think the Lord is, you know, I don't think He's after the life and the hope that's in you. That's what he's looking for.

You're communicating what Christ means to you. It doesn't necessarily say present the gospel here, which is interesting. It doesn't say defend the gospel and tell them all the points of the gospel. It doesn't say that. It talks about the hope that's within you. It talks about sanctifying the Lord in your heart. It talks about your relationship, which is kind of interesting.

I never thought of it that way. These are interesting verses and they are used a lot. Bob is one of my favorite verses too. I'm looking at actually going through this study I begin to see, well I looked at it the wrong way. I looked at it, well okay, this is the time, now I can talk about the Lord. Okay, let's open our Bibles now and we'll start with point one, two, three, four.

I don't think that's what he's talking about. I think he's talking about you telling him about the most wonderful person in your life. And the hope that you have, you know, I'm going to be with him forever, in eternity. I don't have to fear. That's what he's looking for.

But the hope is also temporal in that the life that Christ has within us by faith is ultimately going to show up increasingly. And it's a hope that we all have, that we're walking in grace and truth, rather than just by the power of the intellect. Yeah, and I think, hopefully I've answered the question. I feel that, you know, the fact that you're right with the Lord, you're abiding in Him, walking with Him, precedes the beginning of the defense.

I think it's critical for that to happen. Then we're going to go on to this fact. To everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. And this is kind of the critical middle part of this. It's literally to give an account, to give a word. And Wiese renders it to everyone who asks you for a logical explanation. It should be logical.

I'm expressing your life, but if I tell you about Bonnie, I just don't tell you she's wonderful. I tell you things that really are special about her. I say this is why she's special. I don't just tell her all this wildness. I tell you things that would make you want to meet Bonnie. I don't want to meet your wife.

OK, so what does this verse tell us about timing? Actually, Bonnie's reminded us many times. I'm sometimes too anxious about that. What does this tell you about your timing? Should you have your. The gospel in your pocket, ready to just, you know... Ah! There's Tom! Okay! Read this! So, it'll get you saved, Tom! Should I be ready to... Is that what this word says? But that's what people do! Oh, I know! But what does this say? What's one of the key words here? To everyone who asks! They have to ask you! Right! Right, this is what Bob was saying. When they ask you, you go, Thank you, Lord, for asking! It's like the Lord opened... Here he is, Bob. Exactly.

So when they ask you, it's not that you put the sign in front of them at the Broncos game. Not that I'm opposed to putting up a scripture. I'm not opposed to any of that. I'm just saying that if you think you're winning souls that way, it may make people interested possibly. But this verse says if you want to have a discussion about who Christ is to you, it's going to be when they ask you. They're going to ask you about what the hole was. And it says, with gentleness and reverence. I know, I know. And it's not like... He's not that far either. You know, where in the middle of the two-by-four? So our timing is when they ask you, and I think that's critical. But you know what you said a minute ago was so true.

It's not up to us to save these people. It is not up to us. We plant the seed when we are asked. Sometimes that time that we spend with that person is just that time that our paths cross. We have that conversation. Most of the time. We don't have any idea what happens later. We have no idea what happens. But that's not our job. I know.

It reminds me of a time when Bonnie was writing a letter to a dear friend of ours. And she wrote it and rewrote it. And she tried to explain the gospel and rewrote it and rewrote it. And I said, Bonnie, you're not going to... I don't care how many times you rewrite that.

The Lord is the one that's going to do it. He's opened that door for us and we share that. But then that person goes on and we go on and maybe the Lord then has somebody else down the road that ministers to them again. But it's not our job. I think that's the hardest part for people. By God's grace we put the ball into the fairway and somebody else does the next stroke.

The concept is proclamation of citizenship. The Nigerian captain thinks America is the greatest place in the world. He's from Nigeria. you know, someone thinking America is a great place to live, which he did and came here in a different country. They're in a different country and have seen what America offers. So we're from a different country.

Right. And what we're talking about, and actually that's excellent Bob, and we're talking about what we offer. And we offer, perfect Bob, we offer a hope, right? We offer this hope. Actually there's several verses there. We offer the hope, you know, it says Christ in you, the hope of glory. You're born again to a living hope. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that's 1 Peter 1.

Then Titus 2.13 it says, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. So just talking about the hope and the wonderful verses about that, that ought to get people, and other people have pointed out the fact that he doesn't talk about faith here, he talks about hope. And people have kind of scratched their heads, why is he talking about hope and not about faith? He doesn't talk about the gospel, he doesn't talk about faith, he talks about hope.

It's interesting. And so, people have argued, well, okay, Peter, these people were in dire need. They're hurting, and a person comes to a Christian, and this Christian's life may be in jeopardy tomorrow, and they say, I don't understand about you. And he tells them, well, I have this hope. I have this hope to be with the Lord forever. I have a living hope. And he explains the hope he has. And the next step after that is, he explains about, well, how do I get that living hope? So, I think we should take this verse for what it says. that we're explaining about the Lord Jesus Christ and the hope that's in him.

The world has no hope. That's what they have nothing of. It's hope. And the Christian has all the hope. He has a steadfast hope and a sure hope. And that's what's being communicated here, I believe. And then the last part is in gentleness, reverence, Gentleness is the fruit of the spirit. I didn't realize that initially.

If you go to Galatians 5.23, we have love, joy, peace, gentleness, and so on. It's the fruit of the spirit. It's translated meekness in some context. I typically use either Zodiates or Vine for the word definition. So this is inward wrought grace of the soul and the expression of the primordial word God. May I should have gotten a little bit better one. He's trying to describe meekness.

And there's some neat verses that go along with that. I Paul myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. And then there's another verse in Timothy talking about with gentleness, interacting with your opposition. And then this idea of reverence. So you're telling them about your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ with gentleness.

And since it's the fruit of the Spirit, the Spirit has to be totally involved in this and with reverence. And then we talked about this earlier in the class, if you address as father the one who impartially judges to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear or as a referential fear during your time to stay on the earth. Right. So that references. It's the same word. God. Exactly. Exactly. It's interesting that that he would say, you're going to talk about you're going to talk about your hope with gentleness and you're giving reverence to God as you do.

And this is where it's always context, because that word Phobos is translated real fear. As they say in scripture in terms of finding out what it means, the context is critical. Because if you take that as being a fearfulness of God, that's going to give the wrong idea. This is a reverential fear. And you have to deal with the context. I like the definition I've heard That's I think a very apropos definition of gentleness. Christian gentleness. Right, exactly. Okay, good. Alright. Hey, it's staying on. Well, right on count my chickens here. Okay,

16. Okay.

And keep a good conscience so that in the things in which you are slandered, Those who value good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. So, we've seen the pattern here. You've come down through what's been happening here. We've come down to the fact that we started off with who is there to harm you and you will suffer for righteousness sake and then we came down to sanctify the Lord in your hearts.

And now we're coming down to the fact that we keep a good conscience. So now Peter's going to talk about our conscience. It's interesting, Peter spends a lot of time on the believer's conscience. He's concerned that our conscience, that we're thinking properly, basically.

We said, having a conscious unimpaired, so conscience is a definition from I believe this is Vine or Zodiac so I'm not sure. A knowing of oneself's consciousness, hence consciousness the faculty of the soul which distinguishes between right and wrong and prompts one to choose the former and avoid the latter. Consciousness, that could be a study unto itself.

So I obviously didn't do that. What I did want to do is look at some of these verses here and kind of see what in the context of what we're talking about. Timothy talks a lot about this. It says, let's look at 1 Timothy 1.5. And the word good is attached many times to this idea of consciousness.

1 Timothy 1.5. If someone gets there they can go ahead and read it. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Okay. So we're going to see good conscience and then we're going to see either clear or pure conscience.

And then in 1 Timothy 1.19 it talks about you fight the good fight keeping the faith and a good conscience. And then down in chapter 3 it talks about holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience, or a pure conscience. And then Paul in 2nd Timothy talks about, I serve with a clear conscience, my God, basically. So conscience, Peter wants us to There shouldn't be a conflict as we present who Christ is to us and the hope that we have. He wants us to see that with a conscience.

What's going to happen here? Keep a good conscience so that In the things which you are slandered, those who revile you, your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. So, you don't want in the back of your mind to be thinking, well, this person really has a point here. And maybe he does. We aren't able to operate and live perfectly walking in the Lord Jesus.

There may be some points that this person coming to us may have. Well, I saw you and you you got an extra pop out of the pop machine. Two pops dropped out and you took both of them and you didn't pay for the extra one. I'm just making up something here.

He may have some legitimate claims about you, but maybe he has no claim about you that you're living for Christ and you're being persecuted. He may have no claims against that, but he may bring up something else. So Peter seems to be addressing As we walk in the Christian life, don't have something that is going to cause you to be agitated or moved away from the Lord.

Because you think, well that guy really does have a point. Maybe I am guilty. And the old man will do that. He's trying to guard you against not being caught up in your conscience and rethinking it and having it affect your walk basically. He wants you to be, if you're going to be persecuted, it's going to be for what is good. This is the same thing we kind of saw before.

So that the things which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. He wants you to have a clear mind about that. But isn't it also just recognizing who you are in Christ and what your position really is. what it is. Stand firm in who you are. That's really I think what when it says keep a good conscience. Stand firm in who you are. Don't be swayed by thinking that's not who you are.

So you do sin. So you do have a transgression. And an unbeliever or whoever this is points it out to you. Sure. Well, you can say, brother, I'm not brother, whoever it is, you're right. But you know what's a wonderful thing is? Christ's death on the cross provided and that has been paid for.

Even though I did that, I shouldn't have done that. You admit that, that's going to blow his mind. He's going to think, wow, wait a minute, this guy's admitted to it. life conscience unimpaired. You've fallen short which I did the other day. Take it to the Lord and ultimately ask those guys to forgive me for my impatience with what was going on. The point is I don't take credit for that. Take it to the Lord and ultimately I think asking forgiveness from an unsafe world is important. No, I do too. When we fall short. And admitting to your guilt right away. If you've done wrong, admitting to it.

It actually clears your mind. I think he wants you to have a clear conscience. It gets off your shoulders. I really can't share about it because I have this thing I didn't talk about. I can't talk freely about the Lord because I'm worried about this thing that I did that might hurt my testimony. Well, get that out on the table. Put it out there and say, hey, I did that. I'm not perfect. Was there a question back there? touched on it.

So in our thinking properly and in having a good, clear, pure conscience, isn't our mindset ultimately to be honoring the Lord instead of dishonoring because when we don't carefully consider and we make when we trip up and are a bad example, that is not bringing glory to the Lord. So isn't our job ultimately to be more conscious and careful so that we, trusting in the Holy Spirit to be working through, but isn't all that kind of Certainly the goal is that we would always walk with the Lord, we would always abide in Christ, but as Bob has pointed out, Sometimes we don't do that. Sometimes we fall short of it. Sometimes it doesn't happen, right? So I think Peter is trying to address the case. Have a clear conscience. Don't let those things that you might be thinking of.

Boy, I had a bad testimony there. That's going to hurt me sharing about the Lord. I think you tell them right off the bat. If there's something that's bothering you. You know, I did this and I shouldn't have done that. And you know what's wonderful is that the Lord that I serve, Christ has paid for that. And you tell them right out. Then you can go on and share about the Lord. But if you don't do that, then you're thinking about, well I'm a terrible witness.

I can't share with this person. And it stops you cold in your tracks. You won't do it anymore. And I felt that way sometimes. I felt, well, I did this and I really can't talk to that person about that. But I just did this. Or you lose your temper, you're impatient and you raise your voice or whatever. But the sooner you just say, gosh, I'm really sorry I did that. That's really, you know, I shouldn't have done that. I'm really sorry. And then you are open. Because the world does not apologize for anything.

I mean, you know, whenever I go in. Does that kind of help? I think so. Understanding this in context, it's more about admitting wrongs and keeping our conscience. He's concerned about us having a clear conscience. He's focused on that. Admitting our wrongs first off.

That's kind of implied in that. First you present the hope that was in you. Then he says, oh by the way, make sure you have a clear conscience of it. I think he's trying to, that the logical thing comes up, well what if I've done something that might hurt my testimony, I can't share about the Lord, what do I do then? Well he says, have a clear conscience. And I think that's implied there. So let's just go over, in the interest of time here, let's go over to 11, chart 11, it's on the page, last page, page 5.

Basically talking about the fact that keep a good conscience so that in the things which you are slandered, they may slander you, but that won't be for those things that if you've taken care of that, then you have a good conscience. He wants the fact that your behavior will be so excellent, will be in Christ, he will put them to shame. They'll be ashamed. They won't have a case against you, basically.

There's a parallel verse here at the bottom of page 11 that we covered before. It says, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the things in which you are slandered. It's the same word we had earlier. You as an evildoer. They thought they're trying to make you out to be an evildoer. They may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Then it goes down to verse 15.

For such is the will of God that by doing what is right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. So when you do what is right, when you admit you are wrong, the argument will be diffused. That will be it. They won't have a case against you. If you've admitted any wrong that you had, and you've presented who God is and what he's done, then you're clear. I've done my part, God's going to have to do the rest. I don't have a thing in the back of my mind.

And then the last verse, it says, And this is kind of a reiteration of this whole thing about suffering for righteousness sake. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you should suffer for doing what is right, rather than for doing what is wrong. So the Amplified Bible kind of flips it around in chapter 12 there. The Amplified says, For it is better to suffer unjustly for doing what is right. If God should will it, then to suffer justly for what is wrong. So, glory is brought to God when you suffer for doing right. When you are persecuted for doing that. That's what that verse is saying.

And then we had a verse earlier in our study about, in the very last part of 1 Peter 2.20. For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it patiently and endure it, this finds favor with God. So God wants us to be acting supernaturally or beyond what we are. We are operating as Christ did. reviled and slandered more than any man. So when we act in that way, that brings glory to God.

And we can't do that on our own. Absolutely not. It has to be. And that's why we started this whole chain of verses with the fact of sanctifying the Lord in your heart. Setting Him apart in your heart. And that's just walking in the Lord. That's just another way of looking at that. operation, as operation might be. Alright, well, great discussion. Not so good over yet, but great question. Alright, well let's close it.

Dear Father, we thank you so much Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior, Father. We thank you for the life that we have in our Savior, Lord. And that's a life that that people are to see and that brings glory to you when that life is seen and when people are convicted by that life and they're and it says they're put to shame when they see Christ's life being lived out through us that's when glory is is brought to you father we thank you for that we ask in his name amen