Here's another valuable perspective on today's really important passage.
Our Approach to Personal Evangelism
| But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. (1Peter3:15) |
Through this text and within the context of doing Christ's mission in the world, we are reminded of the prerequisites of faith that are required to equip those who go out to evangelise and to pronounce the works of Christ to the world.
Because pilgrims will certainly be confronted with a hostile world that believes in anything but Christ, those who serve the same must be faithful and knowledgeable -- faithful to Christ and knowledgeable with the Scriptures whilst fortified with the resilience to defend their belief in the Gospel.
Sanctification of the Lord in our hearts is the primary requirement for the success of those who are ready to serve his course. Our hearts must be open to Christ and be turned into his home so that whatever we say and do in the world must be for his sake. We are called to preach to the world "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1Corinthians 2:2) and "the stone which was rejected by builders" (Psalm 118:22) and yet the One who defeated sin and death so that "those who belief may not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16).
Within the context of the Mission Month, this teaching constitutes the base of the message to which Peter calls us. It is a teaching that would require of the believers of Christ to pronounce in faith and hope which the world would still question. Yet we are invited to defend that hope in meekness and fear of the Lord so as to disarm "those who will defame you as evildoers" (1Peter 3:16).
Through this text believers of Jesus Christ are left with a high sense of duty and service to the world that is antagonistic to Him and yet the good is found in the tools that are made available to confront such kind of hostility. For believers to present themselves as meek and fearful of the Lord breeds shame on those who resist the Lord.
Finally, let us take cue from Apostle Paul who says, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2Corinthians 12:10)
Amen.
Rev. Mautji Pataki is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament serving the charge of William Mpamba Memorial Congregation in and around Solomondale Mission within the bounds of the Presbytery of Limpopo.
