Thoughts on 1 Peter 2

Today’s reading: Isaiah 17-18; 1 Peter 2

A lot of Christians today, both individually and as churches, are bowing to cultural pressure rather than standing on the clear teaching of the Word. Rather than submitting to the whims of our culture though, we should be looking to Peter’s words here in 1 Peter 2, and seeking to live such honorable, upright lives, and doing such good, that by our lives we “put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”

Maybe this is one of those things that people have always felt throughout history, and this is just the current generation's manifestation of it, but I feel like it is getting scarier and scarier to stand for Biblical truths that our culture doesn't like. I say that because of things like the internet, social media, 24-hour news coverage, etc. In the past, if your Christian faith/values offended someone, it was very unlikely to become a national phenomenon, but that's not true anymore. In the last few years there have been a number of incidents where someone took a stand based on their faith, the story went viral online, and the person received no end of hate, including death threats, from all across the nation, for taking the stand they did.

Now I am very intentionally not going to give examples of the issues I am talking about because those issues are not the point or what is specifically being talked about in this passage. I think it is a huge mistake when a teacher, pastor, or anybody else for that matter, has their pet issue or sin that they bring up and talk about at every opportunity. It gives people the wrong impression that certain things are significantly more prevalent or emphasized in Scripture than they actually are. So while I don't want to shy away from being willing to side with the Lord on important issues, if this passage from today's reading isn't about those issues, I don't want to talk about them as though it were.

What Peter does tell us though is that Jesus was the first one to be rejected for His Godliness. Peter calls Jesus, "a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious." If this was how they treated our master, how much more so should we, His servants, expect the same treatment? This is why Peter then tells his readers, "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." He doesn't tell them to keep a low profile, or to be careful of taking too strong a stand for their faith, or to worry about looking too "radical" in their beliefs, but to go out of their way to live in such a way as boldly contrasts against the accusations leveled against them. Really the rest of chapter 2 is about living in this way and for this purpose, but I really like this as a summary statement, "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people."

Peter says that we, as Christians, both individually and as a community, should be so known for our integrity, goodness, love of others, service to the community, generosity, etc., that the mud slung at us simply cannot stick.

I think of Daniel as a perfect example of what Peter is calling us to here. Daniel operated with such integrity and righteousness that the only thing his enemies could find to use against him was the fact that he prayed daily to Yahweh. Think about that. Daniel was one of the highest ranking members of the government, he would have been surrounded by employees and servants all day every day, and his enemies were other incredibly high ranking members of the government, meaning they had the resources and connections to dig up any and every piece of dirt there was to be found. And despite all of that, the only way they could find to try to undermine him in order to overtake him politically was to trick the king into making it illegal to pray to anyone other than him for a month so that Daniel would get thrown into the lion's den for his faithfulness. He was such a man of integrity and faith that they knew he would continue to live in integrity and faithfulness even to his death! And even then, because of the way he lived and operated, he had such favor with the king that his enemies and their families were all executed for their attempt on Daniel's life.

What about us? Are we living in such a way as puts to silence the ignorance of foolish people, or are we leaving ourselves wide open to the mud slung by the Lord's enemies? And I ask that question both to us each individually, as well as to us as the church, the Body of Christ. What is our impact on those around us? What is our impact on the local community? When we are slandered for standing on the Word of God, who will stand by our side and vouch for our goodness, integrity, and love?

Our love and service to the people around us is not a substitute for boldly proclaiming the truth of God, but the more we are known for our goodness and love, the easier it will be to boldly stand on His truth, no matter how strongly our culture may feel about the issue.