1 Peter 3
Psalm 119:1-24
But in your hearts revere 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…
1 Peter 3:15
The opening seven verses of 1 Peter 3 give instructions to wives to live in a way that would draw their unbelieving husbands to Christ. Wives are to display an inner beauty as a result of their relationship with God. Wives are to show that their devotion to the Lord is beneficial to the marriage relationship, and to present Jesus as being so attractive that their husbands would seek to know more and hopefully come to a saving relationship. Similarly, husbands are to show consideration and respect to their wives, their relationship with their wives should be loving and kind. The marriage relationship should be strong so that both partners can encourage their primary relationship, i.e. their relationship with God.
Peter continues the chapter by reinforcing godly living despite the sufferings that we face. A verse that is often referred to in evangelism studies or training is verse 15. We looked at this verse in the recent Living Proof series. Our daily living should be loving, compassionate and humble, strong in the face of trials so that non-believers should be interested as to what motivates us to live as we do. The call is to be prepared when God gives us these opportunities of sharing our faith with enquirers. This preparedness should be that we are clear in our own minds what we believe as Christians, why we believe what we do and how we came to a saving faith in Jesus. This preparedness may mean that we write out a short testimony so that we have some idea of what we say when asked how we became a Christian.
When we are given the opportunity to share our faith we need to do so sensitively. We should not be arrogant or boastful but humbly talk about God’s work in our lives. As Christians, we are being watched and our actions and speech need to be consistent with God’s call upon our lives. We should be praying daily for strength to live righteously and as a result, that God will give us opportunities to present the gospel to non-believers.