having a good
conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good
conduct in Christ may be ashamed. – 1
Peter 3.16
This follows on to the
passage on being able to give an answer of the hope that is in us.
When we have a clear
conscience, we are free from doubts and fears and concerns about what our
opposition can or will do to us. Persecution and attacks are the norm for God’s
people.
But it also should lead us
to the honourable conduct that we read about earlier. That kind of conduct can’t be answered. That
kind of conduct shuts the mouth of the opposition. One of the last Roman
emperors wrote of the Christians that no matter what the law did the Nazarenes
(Christians) had the cheek to love them. He had no answer for that.
We ought to live our lives
in such a way that we give no one an excuse to condemn us because of our words
or our actions. We ought to live so that people would be ashamed to talk about
us.
When people talk about us
behind our backs in a slanderous or accusatory manner our lives should be so
honourable that those who hear it will say ‘no way that is true.’
Is that the kind of life we
live? Is that what our honourable conduct produces?
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