1 Peter 2:11 – 12 “Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul. Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”
This was the absolutely WORST part of my day as a surgical intern!!! I was working in a Veterans Administration Hospital, and one of our most difficult patients was J.M. Not only was J.M. a brittle diabetic and an alcoholic who could go off into rages, but he was also rotting off much of the sole of one foot. In some hospitals, they might already have amputated this foot, but J.M.’s relatives had begged the head of the hospital, also a general surgeon, to try to do everything they could to save the leg. As the junior member of the surgical team, it was my job to debride J.M.’s foot every morning. Due to diabetic neuropathy, J.M. didn’t have pain in the foot, but that also did not keep him from cursing me roundly every morning as I picked away at the dead tissue in his foot.
I had recently re-dedicated my life to Christ and I was trying as hard as I could to behave in a Christ – like manner, but J.M. was getting on my very last nerve!
“Lord, do I REALLY have to love J.M.?” I whined one morning. Stupid question! Of course, the answer came back, “But I died for him too.” So I began to pray for J.M. Every morning I prayed before I went to work on that foot. I prayed while I was working on that foot. And I prayed after I finished working on that foot. (Dead tissue doesn’t smell very good, and the scent gets into your hair.) But as I continued to pray for J.M., he cursed less and less. Finally J.M. began attending chapel services. I transferred to another service in a different hospital and I never saw J.M. again. But I choose to believe that I will see J.M. in heaven.
Peter was writing this letter to people who had just gotten saved out of temple prostitution, out of fertility god worship, out of all kinds of moral messes. While they were engaged in promiscuity and idol worship, they weren’t making anybody uncomfortable; in fact, their neighbors probably felt morally superior. Now these same peopel were worshiping this new Christian Messiah and their whole behavior had changed. The neighbors were incensed! How dare these people change? When a family became Christians, the neighbors were probably ready to spread evil rumors.
“You know that they drink human blood and eat human flesh as part of their worship services, don’t you? Better watch your children! I hear they really like the flesh of little kids.” And that was probably one of the milder rumors!
When I was growing up and tried to tell my mother that she should allow me to do something “because everybody else was doing it,” my mother would tell me that I was her child and that her children didn’t do such things. Here Peter is encouraging the new believers not to pay attention to the rumors, the slander, the persecution because they refused to do business on Sundays, etc. “Don’t worry about what people are saying,” Peter might have remarked. “People are watching you and seeing all the good things you are doing in the community. Some day they will glorify the one true living God because of your conduct.”
None of us can do enough “good stuff” to earn our way into heaven. On the other hand, once we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we are already citizens of heaven and we must behave as such. If we only ask, God will give us the power to live righteous lives of loving service. Some day we are going to stand before Jesus and answer for the way we have lived. What will we say on that day?
PRAYER: Father God, help! We want to live righteously but we can’t. Only You can give us the power to change and only You can give us the power to live lives that will cause others to glorify you. Please let people see our behavior and desire to know you better. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
Burunche's Blog 
Leave a comment