Sharing our faith with others can be one of the most exciting things we do, yet also one of the most frightening things we do. As we share the Gospel with others we have to be prepared for the ways people might respond. They might accept what we say and become a believer. They might think about our message but not accept it. They might reject what we offer and reject us in the process.
Sharing our faith is difficult. I don’t know about you, but it seems harder for me than people often describe. One pastor I used to work for would say, “If you invite five people to church, then one will likely come.” That ratio has not been valid for me. In my experience it seems like one person comes for every fifty invitations I give to people.
I used to go to lunch with a friend named Andrew who seemed to talk about Jesus with everyone we saw when we were at lunch. He was always able to talk about God with the waitress, busboys, or the people sitting at the tables near us. (Yes, I mean “always”!) For me, I often struggle to talk about my faith with strangers and struggle to know how to bring up the topic.
I share those two examples because we want to share our faith, and we all know we should share our faith. Today we are looking at 1 Peter 3:15-16 as part of our series of articles I’ve titled: “Portraits of an Authentic Disciple: First Century Direction for Twenty-First Century Disciples.” Thus far we’ve learned that disciples of Jesus Christ embrace God’s word (2 Tim 3:16–17), embody God’s kingdom (Phil 3:17–21), and encourage one another (Heb 10:23–25). Today we learn from 1 Peter 3:15-16 that an authentic disciple of Jesus evangelizes others.
The letter we have in our Bibles called “1 Peter” was written by “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:1a, NASB).[1] There’s only one person in the New Testament with the name Peter. It’s the Peter that was personally called (Matt 10:1-4) and commissioned by Christ (Jn 20:19-23). He spent three years with Jesus Christ and another thirty years as an apostle leading the church. As an apostle, the church was built on his teaching (Acts 2:42; Eph 2:20).
The letter we have in our Bibles called “1 Peter” was written to “those who reside as aliens” (1 Pet 1:1b). The people are described as “aliens” which means they were spiritual sojourners, exiles, and foreign residents. They are spiritual aliens on earth because their citizenship is heavenly.
The letter we have in our Bibles called “1 Peter” was written to the people who lived in “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Pet 1:1c). These were provinces of Asia Minor located north of the Taurus Mountains. This is in modern Turkey. These people were experiencing unofficial, unjust suffering because of their Christian faith.
First Peter 3:15–16 is part of an extended teaching on the life of suffering that Christians face (1 Peter 3:13—4:19). With that backdrop of suffering, I want us to look at 1 Peter 3:15–16 and what it teaches us about sharing our faith with others.
“But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and 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” (1 Pet 3:15–16). Peter teaches us that believers who experience unjust and unofficial suffering dedicate Jesus in their hearts, defend Jesus with their words, and describe Jesus with their behavior. This means that every believer is called to be an apologist. We’ll explore more about what that looks like in the coming weeks.
[1] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.