“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 NIV
Peter, in this letter, is encouraging the followers of Jesus who are being persecuted. The followers were having to answer about their new beliefs to their families, neighbors and communities who were steeped in tradition of Mosaic Law. What Jesus taught was removed enough from the ways of old that His teachings were not widely or easily accepted by elders within the communities where He taught them. Therefore after His ascension, the early Christians were persecuted for their beliefs. That is if they didn’t keep it a secret.
We are not to keep our belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior a secret. We are to be telling others the wonderful news of forgiveness, grace, mercy and love that comes from God. Paul is saying in this verse that the early Christians were to always be prepared to give an answer to someone who asked them about their faith. That is good advice for us today as well.
At this time of year there is a lot of focus on the secular way of celebrating Christmas and the secular reason for celebrating Christmas. It is wonderful to be generous and give each other presents to show our affections for each other. It is wonderful to get together with family and celebrate each other and our relationships. However, as Christians, we have an additional reason to celebrate Christmas and that is the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have additional ways of celebrating that event as well. This additional reason and way of celebrating sometimes brings questions from others within our families and from some of our friends about why we are doing things the way we do them.
The enemy is sneaky and will place people in our lives who will ask us questions, especially at this time of year, that may begin to make us question our faith and the reason that we believe what we believe. By being grounded in the Bible, reading and studying God’s Word, we can have the answers to the questions we are asked about the faith we have, the hope we have, the reason we celebrate Jesus.
I encourage everyone to pray and ask God to help them have an answer ready for those who ask about our faith. We never know if the answer we give may lead someone to follow Jesus.