Scripture: 1 Peter 2:11-12
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Insights: Our final verses for the week give us a glimpse from our vantage point regarding our divisive worship. We are aliens and strangers living here in this temporal world. Our citizenship is with the Lord our God in eternity. As a result, our conduct and behavior is different than this world. We no longer fall prey to the fleshly lusts which wages war against our souls. I do not mean that we do not sin, but we are no longer slaves to the bidding and commands of our flesh. When we choose rebellion it is not because we did not have the power to resist, but rather we were selfish and self-centered and wanted to please ourselves. We had the power to resist the temptation, but we surrendered to the urges of our flesh. The distinction is the lost world did not and does not have access to the Spirit of the living God to resist such impulses. So, here is how it gets played out. The lost world hates themselves for their powerless situation, yet they do not want to have an abiding love relationship with the only One that can save them, Jesus Christ. When they observe us living victorious lives, they despise us and begin to slander us as evildoers. This attack is their only option for their self-hatred. The problem for these poor lost souls is that they do recognize the imputed righteousness of our new citizenship. As a result of their recognition of our holy lives, they must declare on their day of judgment that our deeds, in Christ, were indeed good. This admittance will validate the sentence of eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire. So, our worship is divisive in the sense that it is a reminder to a lost world were their eternity is going to be spent and they hate it, but are unwilling to repent. The hope for us in Christ is that some will see our lives and hear our message and they will repent. These individuals are the ones for whom we share and live out the gospel.
Questions:
1. Are you often slandered for your faith?
2. If you are not, is it possible nobody knows you are born again because your worship is not distinctive and divisive enough?
Prayer: Father, I am a citizen of Your country; and therefore, am slandered and persecuted here. Help me to bring You honor as I perform my good deeds in Your power before a world that does not desire You. May some of them see my example and repent and become Your children. Amen.
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