Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:12 NIV
Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope. 1 Peter 3:15 NABRE
Peter was a leader in the first church. He had seen Jesus up close and personal. When he heard Jesus give the command to love others, he knew exactly what it meant because he had seen Jesus love through rejection, misunderstanding, betrayal – every hard thing. He had felt what it was to be loved in the middle of your mistakes.
He had received the command to not hide out from the world in a “holy huddle” and criticize the “pagans” out there. They were commanded to go into the world and share the love of Jesus so well that they could make disciples of people, teaching them everything JESUS had taught them.
Peter knew that when they went into the world they were not to be noticed and recognized for the noise they made, by the problems they pointed out, but by the exemplary, helpful lives they lived. They were to live so much like Jesus (who Himself “went about doing good and healing” (Acts 10:38) that people would be in awe and glorify God. They were to go into the world as irrepressible purveyors of hope. Followers of the Risen Jesus were to be so lit by hope that they were unmistakable and magnetic. The way they lived would give them multiple opportunities for
sharing the love and power of Jesus. People would ask them questions about how they could hold up with hope.
And it worked. Just exactly as Jesus said and as Peter encouraged the church leaders. When the church left the building, they were the living, breathing, loving body of Christ in the world, and the world took notice. They were the people who tuned the other cheek, went the second mile, forgave before they were asked and even if they weren’t. They were the people who were unfailingly fair, they took in the orphans and the sick – no one was untouchable or unlovable. They fed the hungry, befriended the lonely, encouraged the criticized. They paid their unfair taxes and obeyed the law. They didn’t fight their enemies – they loved them. And they turned the world upside down. That’s what is supposed to happen when the Church leaves the building.
- Is what we have worth exporting or do we need to keep ourselves under wraps until we can “do everything in love?” Let’s get on it. A needy world is waiting.