Living Out of Hope and Not Fear – 1 Peter 3:8-17
September 12, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
A few decades ago, a synagogue and a church building sat right next to each other in Greenville, SC. Over coffee, the rabbi explained to the pastor how tough it was to be a Jew in Greenville. “We are forever telling our children, ‘That’s fine for everyone else, but it’s not fine for you. You are special. You are different. You are a Jew. You have a different story. A different set of values.’”
To live as aliens and strangers in this world as Peter is calling us to in his epistle, we must increasingly find the need to say to ourselves, “Such behavior is fine for everyone else, but not fine for you. You are special. You are different. You have a different story. You have a different set of values. You are a Christian.”
Of course, merely saying it is not what is important. We must actually have a different set of values than the world. Those values must lead to a changed life, and that life will produce the kind of community that God intends for His people to be.