Let me try to describe a hypothetical scenario that fits with Peter’s description of how we as Christians are to respond to people who, although hostile to us personally, express a measure of curiosity about our faith and hope in Christ.
Debbie has been a Christian for quite some time. She has grown a lot in her relationship with God and has discovered an almost surprising boldness in her faith. She is especially zealous to align her life with the Scriptures. When she hears the words “righteousness” and “good” she never thinks of them in legalistic terms, as if she’s supposed to work hard to be “holier than thou” and by doing so merit God’s favor. For her, righteousness and goodness simply means living in accordance with the Scriptures and doing all she can by God’s grace to resist the temptations of sin. It’s not been easy, but Debbie is unwavering in her commitment.
Others have noticed this about her, especially the people in the office where she works. The other day it was obvious that the conversation in the lunch room quickly changed when she walked in. She later heard from a friend that everyone had been talking about a going-away party for a co-worker who was taking a new job in another city. As it turned out, Debbie was never invited.
There was another instance when the office manager was home sick for three days. Virtually everyone else slacked off and wasted a lot of time, coming to work late and leaving early, but at least doing enough that the manager wasn’t likely to notice any drop off in productivity. Debbie, on the other hand, never missed a beat. Her efforts were the same as they typically are when the office manager is looking over her shoulder. A few of her co-workers began to call her “DDG” or “Debbie-do-gooder” while some snidely accused her of spiritual snobbery and thinking that she’s better than everyone else.
Debbie put up with all this pretty well until the end of the year. Her Christmas bonus was half what the others received and she was the only one in the office that didn’t get a raise in pay. She didn’t even have to ask why, as her boss called her into his office and chewed her out about her “elitist” attitude. He was satisfied with her work, but he didn’t hesitate to tell her that several of her co-workers had complained that she brought her religion into the office and was making everyone else feel pretty uncomfortable. “If you want to keep your job,” he said, “you’d better work hard at fitting in. I won’t stand for someone who makes everyone else reluctant to come into work.”
Debbie wanted to respond and defend herself, especially given the fact that nothing her boss said was true. Everything he had heard was a distortion of the facts and had been twisted in a way that put her in a bad light. But something in her spirit said, “No. Keep your mouth shut.”
Although Debbie refused to compromise, it wasn’t easy. Her running conversation with the Lord went something like this:
“God, I don’t get it. I don’t cheat on my time card. I do more work than virtually anyone else in the office. I’ve kept my mouth shut when the language gets obscene and I’ve never tried to undermine anyone just so that I could get ahead in my career. So what’s with the persecution? I know they’re not throwing rocks at me or anything like that. But it’s still pretty rough. Lord, I have to be honest, I’m scared where this may lead. If I get laid off I’m going to be in trouble. There aren’t many jobs out there for someone like me. It would be one thing if I deserved all this horrible stuff about me. I mean, I can take my medicine when I’m the one who messed up. But they gossip about me and slander me for no other reason than that I’m a Christian. It’s only when I obey your Word that they make up jokes about me and talk about me behind my back and ridicule my belief in you and the supernatural world.”
After praying about it, Debbie decides to attend the office Christmas party. She went last year and was about the only person there who didn’t get hammered. She ended up driving half a dozen of her co-workers home.
But there she was, in her usual position, standing alone trying not to look hurt. Then Megan walked over. She’d always gotten along pretty well with Megan, even though she was pretty vocal about her atheism. Debbie noticed the other day that during a break at work Megan was reading Christopher Hitchens’ book, “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”
“So, tell me why you’re a Christian,” Megan blurted out.
Wow! Debbie couldn’t believe it. I mean, just like that. I’ve heard of “open doors” to evangelism, Debbie thought to herself, but this is too good to be true.
“I’d be happy to,” said Debbie, “but do you mind if I ask why you asked?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” mumbled Megan. “I guess I couldn’t help but notice how you respond to all the ridicule at the office, or maybe I should say how you never seem to respond to the ridicule. I could never do that. If people had said to me the things they say to you I would have killed someone by now. Doesn’t that stuff bother you?”
“Sure it does,” Debbie replied. “I’m human. It hurts. But I know in my heart that as long as I continue to yield my life to Jesus Christ as Lord, nothing anyone says or does can ever do any lasting or eternal harm to me.”
“Are you kidding me,” Megan asked in disbelief? “Harm? Good grief, they could really make your life miserable. They could fire you. They could ruin your reputation if they wanted to.”
“Yeah, but the Lord has always provided for me and I’m sure he’d do it again. And honestly, his opinion of me is the only one that really matters.”
“Huh, what makes you believe this Jesus is, what did you call him, ‘Lord’? What does that mean? I just don’t understand how you can remain so calm and collected. When everyone else freaks out about the economy, you’re unmoved. When we heard that Richard had come down with swine flu, everyone got worried except you. And you’ve been passed over for that corner office with the big window at least six times and you never seem to mind. What’s with all this?”
“Would you like to sit down somewhere else where it’s quiet? If you really want an answer I’d be happy to give you one.”
“Yeah,” said Megan. “I’m sort of interested in what you have to say.”
For the next two hours Debbie and Megan ignored all the festivities around them. Debbie told her about Jesus and why her hope was in him and not the economy, why her hope was in his love for her and not what other people thought, why her hope couldn’t be shaken by the threat of terrorism or swine flu or unemployment.
In a nutshell, Debbie was doing what the Spirit of God through the Apostle Peter commanded her to do here in 1 Peter 3:13-17.
In fact, Debbie will never forget the day she came upon 1 Peter 3 in her scheduled Bible reading. She remembers talking to herself and to the Lord something like this:
“V. 13 - ’Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?’ Come on God, you’ve got to be kidding me! They can take away my livelihood. They can destroy my reputation. They can spread vicious lies about me. They cut me off from any meaningful relationships in the office. And I’m sure a few of them would love nothing better than to see me sick and dying.
That’s when Debbie suddenly remembered Isaiah 41:10-13 – “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. . . . For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”
And again she remembered Romans 8:31b-34. She also remembered what she had read only a few days earlier as she was working her way through the NT. In Hebrews 13:5-6, she read this.
So let me get this straight, God. People can do a lot of really rotten and unfair things to me. They can steal my money, destroy my health, take my job, slander my name, maybe even take my life. But no one can touch my soul. No one can jeopardize my eternal relationship with you. No one can rob me of my redemption and the forgiveness of my sins. No one can separate me from the love you have for me in Christ Jesus. Is that it, Lord? ‘That’s it,’ she heard in her heart.
O.K., said Debbie under breath. Let’s see what else Peter has for me here. She read vv. 14-15. It seems I’ve got two choices. If I continue to follow Christ and his ways and suffer anyway, I can either be afraid of those people or I can honor Christ as Lord and take advantage of their treatment of me to tell them why I’m a Christian. ‘That’s it,’ she once again heard the Lord speak in her heart.
She continued reading vv. 16-17. ‘O.K. O.K. I get it. Those people at work may revile me and slander me, but in the end, on the day of judgment, they are the ones who will be put to shame, not me. And if I’m going to suffer, better that it is for doing what is right than for what is wrong.’ ‘That’s it,’ said the Lord. ‘That’s it.’”
I suppose I could stop at this point and say about this passage, ‘That’s it!’ But let’s explore in just a bit more depth what it means to “honor Christ the Lord as holy.”
By the way, I don’t often disagree with the translation of the ESV, but here is one place that I don’t like the way they’ve rendered the text. Better to translate: “Honor Christ as Lord,” or “Treat as holy the fact that Christ is Lord.”
To honor Christ as Lord means really and truly and honestly to believe that Christ alone is indeed Lord and your enemies aren’t! It means to sincerely embrace Christ alone as Lord and not your employer or anyone else no matter how much power and authority they may wield.
The ESV has provided us with an interesting translation of what is, in the original Greek text, only one word. They render this word, “honor . . . as holy.” The word is actually the same verb that Jesus used in the Lord’s Prayer when he exhorted his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” It’s that word “hallowed.”
This is the word that is also used throughout the NT in the sense of “to sanctify”. It is occasionally translated, “set apart” or “consecrate” or “treat as holy.” All of these are perfectly appropriate.
So what is Peter telling Debbie to do when he commands her to “hallow” Christ as Lord or to “set apart” in her heart Christ as Lord or to “honor as holy” Christ as Lord? What is he telling US to do?
In one sense he is telling all of us who embrace Jesus as Savior to regard him as utterly unique in all the universe. It means to elevate and exalt him in our minds and our hearts and in our daily experience as altogether different. It means to live life knowing that he is one of a kind, in a class all by himself. It means to breath and to speak and to make choices always conscious of the fact that in him we live and move and have our being.
It means to get up in the morning and live throughout the day and to go to bed at night always and ever conscious of the fact that he has no peers or rivals or competitors when it comes to power and glory and strength and holiness and knowledge and goodness.
It means to make choices throughout the day based on the undeniable fact that he is more precious than anything we can purchase; that he is more valuable than anything we can own; that he is to be cherished above all lovers and loves.
It means to interact with friends and co-workers and family members and neighbors with the conscious conviction that he is of infinite worth and the greatest treasure and the most prized possession that any soul can obtain.
It means to let your unbridled admiration for his sovereign lordship shine through. Stand in awe of his lordship over the universe. Bow before his sovereign rule. Tremble with joy and gladness at the majesty of the Lord.
Let the reality of his supremacy take a dominant position in your thinking and feeling.
Concentrate often on the centrality of Christ for all of life.
Elevate Christ in your mind and heart so that who he is affects everything you do and what he says changes everything you believe.
Give Jesus preeminence in all things.
Acknowledge him alone as Lord over all.
Celebrate his sovereign rule over nature and nations and human beings and angels.
Consciously fix your thoughts on the fact that Christ is over all, that everything exists for him, and that everything exists through him.
Strive to make everything in your life reflect his greatness.
Live in such a way that when people see you or listen to you they will instantly be made aware that Jesus is truly Lord.
Honor him. Reverence him. Hold him high. Put his opinion of you above the opinions men may have. Trust in him and his promises and not in others or their empty claims. Let your hope be in him alone and live in such a way that others can see that it is so.
Whatever else you do, never, ever treat Christ as common. Never think of him as just another man. Never, ever respond to him as if he were simply one of many in history who has claimed to be God.
Peter’s point is that this truth ought to echo loudly in our hearts. This glorious reality concerning Jesus ought to reverberate in our minds. Take whatever steps necessary, says Peter, to see that when you think of Christ as Lord it has a bone-shattering, breath-taking, awe-inspiring, mind-bending affect on you. Labor to insure that it never becomes a mundane truth or one that you simply take for granted. Don’t become presumptuous or indifferent toward it.
Christ alone is Lord! Not Buddha. Christ alone is Lord. Not Mohammad. Not Washington or Lincoln or Kennedy or Bush or Obama. Christ alone is Lord! No one in history is his rival. No one can compare. No one can compete.
Should you ever find yourself thinking casually of Christ, stop and repent! Should you ever discover that he has slipped a notch or two in your estimation, stop and repent! Should you ever feel diminished amazement or anything less than all-consuming wonder at who he is, stop and repent!
And it isn’t just the idea of Christ Jesus that is to reign in your heart, it is Christ as Lord! As sovereign, king, ruler, and leader. It is Christ in his capacity as the one from whom all things have proceeded and through whom all things continue to exist and for whom all things exist and to whom all glory must be given.
It is Christ as Lord over your life: your body, your mind, your soul, affections, time, gifts, money, talents, family, future, eternal destiny . . .
It is Christ as Lord over sub-atomic particles like atoms and quarks and protons and neutrons . . .
It is Christ as Lord over the birds of the air and the beasts of the field and the fish of the sea . . .
It is Christ as Lord over all angelic beings, whether holy or demonic . . .
It is Christ as Lord over all of humanity, over rulers and peasants and kings and princes and men and women of every color and race and size and significance . . .
It is Christ as Lord over the heavens above, over galaxies and neutron stars and super novae and comets and stars and everything that exists.
When you get up in the morning, is this how you think of him? Is this how you begin your day? Is this what falls freely from your lips when his name is mentioned at lunch with a co-worker or a unsaved friend?
And note that it is in our “hearts” where this hallowing of Christ as Lord is to occur, where this honoring of Christ as holy is to find its expression. Not just in our minds, but surely there. Not just in our affections, but surely there. Not just in our wills, but surely there. Not just in our statement of faith, but surely there. Not just in our deeds, but surely there. Yes, in all these places and in all these ways, which is to say in our “hearts,” that is, in and at the center and core of the totality of our being.
And all this, says Peter, is the alternative to being afraid of other humans and what they say and what they can do.
In other words, sanctifying or hallowing or honoring Jesus as Lord is what you do instead of being afraid of other people.
When you live in such a way and speak in such a way that other people see that your hope and confidence is in Christ and not in the stuff of this world, he is honored, he is magnified, his name is exalted.
Christ is honored and elevated when he is seen as the focus of our hope rather than the praise of people. When we give honor to Christ rather than seeking it from men, Christ is hallowed. When others see that we refuse to trust in money or promotions or earthly perks and props but instead trust in Christ for our present and our future, he is exalted, he is magnified.
Where is your hope? Is your hope for people to start treating you better? Is your hope that your financial woes will disappear? Is your hope that others will recognize your efforts and reward you accordingly? Is your hope in the government and all its efforts to turn around the economy? Is your hope in a 401(k)? Is your hope in continued good health? Is your hope in the faithfulness of other people?
If you’ve answered yes to any of those questions, then Christ will not be honored or sanctified or hallowed as Lord in your life. He is honored as Lord only to the extent that he alone is your hope, that his promises are the anchor of your soul, that his love is your insurance against all devastation and tragedy.
To the extent that you live in fear of other people you are not honoring Christ as Lord.
To what extent is your hope in you? I know that sounds calloused and obscene, but many of you today have placed your hope in your own skills, in your own cleverness, in your own will power to get done what needs to be done, in your creativity and ingenuity, in your own gifts, abilities, personality, money-making power, charisma, etc.
To whatever extent that is the case, Christ is not honored as Lord.
Now we can see the connection between fearlessness and honoring Christ as Lord. Peter says (vv. 14b–15a), “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but [rather] in your hearts honor Christ as Lord.” Fearlessness honors Christ as Lord because it shows that our hope is unshakable. Fearlessness is a declaration to others that our hope is real. And since Christ is the ground and the goal of our hope, fearlessness honors him, sanctifies him, hallows him, shows his unique worth and strength in our lives.
To sum up in the words of John Piper: Christ is hallowed in our hearts when our hearts are hopeful in him.
By the way, isn’t it amazing and reassuring to know that unlike all other religions and philosophies in the world, Christianity is unique in that God is glorified not primarily by what we do for him but by putting our hope in what he does for us?
Jesus is honored as Lord not so much by us serving him but by our posturing our lives in such a way that he is revealed as the one who lovingly and graciously serves us! That is why Peter puts Jesus at the center of our faith. He is exalted when he is trusted. He is honored when he is hoped in. He is praised when he is prized.
There are two final points that need to be made. They relate to what we are to do and how we are to do it.
(1) What: We are always to be ready and prepared to make a defense or to give reasons that people can understand as to why we honor Christ alone as Lord.
Peter isn’t thinking of the scholarly apologist who has fifteen arguments ready at hand to counter every point made by an unbeliever. After all, the people to whom he originally wrote this had no access to books or the Internet and many, if not most, of them were largely illiterate!
Neither does he envision you standing in a court of law, accused of being a Christian, under pressure to present a defense of why you made the decision to follow Jesus. He has in view informal circumstances in the course of every day life when unbelievers ask you about your religious convictions.
This verse does raise the question of whether or not you could provide an articulate explanation of the reasons why you believe in Christ, an explanation that non-Christians could understand. It’s one thing for you to give your testimony here on Sunday morning in the presence of other Christians. Here you can use all the Christian lingo you learned in Sunday School. But would people who’ve never read a Bible or attended a church be able to understand your defense of your hope?
What do you say when people ask you for reasons why you are a Christian? Do you say, “Well, that’s the way I was raised. My folks were Christians and I’ve always been in church, so it was pretty hard for me to escape and try anything else.” Do you say, “I don’t have any reasons. I just took a leap of faith into the dark and happened to land in the lap of Christianity.” Do you say, “Well, I’m a Christian because most of my friends are and I really like the sense of community and fun we have together.” Or, God forbid, do you say, “I’m a Christian because I’m an American!”
First, don’t ever think that you have to provide a perfectly constructed, cogent, and altogether persuasive answer to every question that comes your way. In the first place, no one can. In the second place, that’s not what Peter is asking you to do. He’s telling us always to be ready to tell others why Jesus as Lord is our hope and not someone or something else.
So let me ask you: Why do you believe in Jesus? Why do you hope in him?
It may be that you came to your Christian faith through intellectual reasoning. Perhaps you evaluated the various religions of the world and weighed their respective arguments and concluded that Christianity makes more sense than anything else.
Perhaps you were in the gutter, whether morally or physically or both and Jesus Christ delivered you and set you free from your addictions.
Perhaps you simply read the Gospels and were awestruck by the beauty of Jesus of Nazareth; you simply couldn’t deny or avoid the inherent truthfulness of his words.
Perhaps you spent time studying the historical and logical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
Perhaps you were wallowing in guilt and shame and self-contempt and the forgiveness that God provides in Christ was so real and joyful and powerful that you can’t escape the clutches of his love.
Perhaps you looked closely at the Bible and found it to be such a beautiful and persuasive book that you felt yourself being irresistibly drawn to the person of Jesus Christ of whom it spoke.
Perhaps you were physically healed or delivered from a demonic power . . .
Or perhaps at this point all you can say is, “He changed my life forever! I could no more live without him as Lord than I can stay alive without breathing.”
Or perhaps you simply can’t give an answer at the moment and you need to take Peter’s exhortation seriously and spend some time with God asking him, “Why do I believe in you? Why do I rejoice in Christ as Lord?”
(2) How: We are to do it with gentleness and respect.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the advice an older, veteran preacher gave to his younger disciple: “When in doubt, yell!”
The idea is that if you are unsure of what you believe, elevate the decibel level of your speech to throw your opponent off-guard. Cover up your ignorance or your lack of conviction by speaking with even greater passion and noise.
Peter disagrees. Explain your hope in Christ as Lord with “gentleness” and “respect.” By “gentleness” he means the absence of arrogance and pride and the presence of humility and calmness. The word “respect” should probably be rendered “fear” and refers not so much to your attitude toward other people but your reverence of God.
Treat those who disagree with you with dignity. Don’t lash out at them or castigate them.