Is Doing Good Enough?

I Peter 3:13-22

What a challenging passage of scripture!  Peter doesn't mince words, does he?  "Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? (v. 13).  "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, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously again your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.  For it is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil" (vs. 15-17).

Peter knows what it is like to suffer for NOT doing good (remember the Garden of Gethsemane?  He denied Christ three times.)  He speaks from personal experience.  And I bet that everyone reading today's Bible Blast, yours truly included, knows the awful feeling of being called out for a mistake.

How much harder, then, is it to suffer when we do the right thing?  Ah, but we have a perfect example of that in the person of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Peter continues in verse 18, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit."

Jesus did good.  Always.  And he paid the ultimate price - for our sins.  And now he sits at God's right hand in the heavens, and he intercedes for us.  What a glorious picture of grace and forgiveness that is!

Do you have 'an answer for the reason for the hope you have?'  And can you deliver that answer 'with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience?'  What a privilege it is to share our faith!

Lord, thank you for the opportunities we have to do good, and to share the hope we have in You.  Help me to recognize those moments when I can speak with gentleness and respect and share the Good News.  Amen.