Brian Maloy

We’ve been studying 1 Peter in our class now for six weeks, and I am thankful that while we still cannot slow down as much as I like, we are able to cover it without skipping chunks. Sometimes the quarterly guide we use hits high points of books (think Job or Genesis, while important, incredibly long, we could spend years digging in), so I am grateful for smaller books we can dwell in longer. 1 & 2 Peter are perfect for these three months we’ll study them. I plan to go back and make posts and plug down notes for the previous five weeks’ lessons, even if they are a tad brief, but rather than getting further behind, I’ll start here, on week six.

1 Peter 3:13-22 CSB:
“Who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear them or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, in which he also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. In it a few — that is, eight people — were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.”

There are so many good things I wish I could spend time meditating on, and writing about, and wrestling through. But where my mind went to was the hope we have because of Jesus, because of the new life we have through Him. Looking at verse 15, “but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”, there is so much more than meets the eye. Think about it, there is an assumption here, the assumption that those who trust Jesus, we indeed DO have hope. So it begs the question, can we explain the reason for our hope? And if we cannot, do we have hope? And if we do not have hope…

Our world today certainly struggles with hope, and frankly given much cause for it too. And I daresay, we Christians have our work cut out for us. We cannot afford to not understand our hope, we cannot ignore the mandate in this passage of Peter that calls us, not just suggests, but calls us to share the reason for the hope within us, to be ready. To make it richer, the hope we hold fast to, is a living, a real hope. It’s assured through Jesus’ death and resurrection, and in His defeat over death. We truly have new life through Him, in the power of the Holy Spirit. When we abide and rest in that LIVING (not dead) hope, the powers of hell cannot prevail. The beauty of God’s Kingdom, helping point others toward this beauty, oh my, what a calling we believers have.

All that considered, could it be that when we share our stories and the reasons for the hope within us, God provides the exact words that resonate with the ache in another’s heart? Perhaps our words are the very means through which the Holy Spirit draws them back to Himself. I certainly don’t want to miss those opportunities. In many ways, that’s why I am trying to write more, and wrestle these thoughts — perhaps they could be the words God uses to draw someone near to Himself.