“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12. Having your conversation (conduct) honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (Or “glorify God on the day He visits us.”)
Does it matter what people think about us or say about us? The answer is “yes” and “no.” If we are always worried about what people think about us or say about us no matter whether what we are doing is good or bad, the answer is “no.” If we are concerned that our behavior reflects the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, then the answer is “yes.” It does matter what people think or say about us if our behavior is beneath the behavior of a child of God. Look at what Peter advised: Peter refers to us as “strangers and pilgrims.” Christians are citizens of two dimensions. We are citizens of our country, subject to the laws of our country, but we also have a heavenly citizenship, which means that we are citizens of the kingdom of God. In that sense, we are “strangers and pilgrims.” While it is important that we be good citizens in the earthly realm, and that we reflect the best of the values of this realm; it is even more important that our lives reflect the best of the values of the heavenly realm. Sometimes, we just have to be “strangers and pilgrims” in our behavior. This might bring us into conflict with earthly values. When that happens so be it. Our Christian witness is all-important to God, and should be for us as well. Peter demands that we “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” There are things that we, obviously, should not do. When we give in to “fleshly lusts,” which we will if we aren’t careful, we give a bad example to the world. The world is super-critical of us when we do not “abstain from fleshly lusts.” In the 80’s when several televangelists were caught not abstaining from their fleshly lusts, they brought derision to the Christian faith as a whole. We want to be careful that we do not do this, for in God’s eyes, it is just as bad when we do it as it was for those famous evangelists. We were admonished by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 to “abstain from all appearance of evil.” I would add here that it is counted as evil when we are self-righteous and “look down our noses” at other people whom we do not consider as righteous as we are. That’s why Jesus was harder on the Pharisees in the gospels than He was on “tax collectors and sinners.” It is not self-righteous, however, to live a clean Christian life and to help others do this as well. In verse 12, Peter wrote that our conduct should be “honest among the Gentiles (in this case, pagans): that, whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God on the day of visitation.” While people might not be impressed with our Christian lifestyles, they will be impressed when the demands of this lifestyle make us trustworthy in all of our dealings with people. If people are going to say bad things about us, it should be about our stand for Christ, with which they disagree, but not about our trustworthiness as Christians. It is certain that people do watch what we say and do, and if we are outspoken Christians and we are not careful about what we say and do; it not only brings derision on us but on Christ as well. I am not suggesting that we lay awake at night and worry about what other people think of us. I am suggesting that we should be careful that what we say and do will reflect our commitment to Christ. To me, this is just good old Christian common sense. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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