This is the message I gave yesterday at my churches: First Baptist Church Meaford and Woodford Baptist Church.
An Apologetic Church
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (1 Peter 3:15–16 NIV)
Introduction
Don’t you hate it when someone apologizes to you and then begins a lengthy speech explaining why they did what they did. “Sorry that I hurt you.” Fine enough. “But the reason I hurt you was not just a slip of the tongue or an unfortunate thought. I actually did it for the following reasons…” That seems to take the power out of the apology. In fact we might even say that is not an apology, it is an attempt at justification. Well, yes and no. It is not an apology according to our modern definition, but is according to the original meaning of the word. You see apology originally did not mean “sorry” but rather literally means “from reason.” One apologizes for something not to indicate their regret but rather to express their reasons for taking such an action. I speak of this because in our passage, when Peter tells us to be ready to give a reason for our hope, he uses the word apologia. This is the Greek word we get apology from and this is one of the key passages that has inspired the role of apologetics in the church. To many people, apologetics is about proving that God exists or debating with people from other religions. That can be part of it, but apologetics is much more general than that. In fact, I have heard it said that not every Christian is called to be an evangelist, but every Christian is called to be an apologist. Some individuals see in this verse a motivation to be active in the area of apologetics, but Peter is actually writing to a church. Peter’s expectation is not that there would be just a few people writing apologetic books, but that the church in general would embrace their apologetic calling. Let us take a look at what that means.
Hope
Before we look at how one gives an answer, let us begin with what we will give an answer for. Some people see apologetics as being about defending a very narrow and precise set of doctrines. We must keep our theology sound but that is not Peter’s primary concern here. What Peter tells us to give an answer for is the hope that we have. So, before we can think about defending our hope to the objections of skeptics, we better have some idea of what it is exactly that we hope. Perhaps the first thing we think of is that we hope to go to heaven. That sounds good but our hope is much greater than that. Earlier in this letter, Peter states: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3 NIV) Paul says “while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13 NIV), while in the same letter speaking of “a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 1:2 NIV) Paul addresses himself as “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” (1 Timothy 1:1 NIV) When one tries to nail down what our hope is, it cannot be easily captured in a single word. What is common, however, is that God is active and present in our lives in Jesus Christ, both for today and for the future. The hope that we must defend is why we trust that Jesus makes a difference for us now and why we have confidence that this trust will last into eternity.
Reasons
Why do we believe what we do? Faith? Well yes and no. We place our faith in Christ but that does not mean that our minds are separated from our Christian life. Why are you a follower of Jesus? You may say that it was because you were raised going to church and you have not really thought about it. I do not believe you. If you are really following Jesus, it is more than just a decision your parents made or a matter of habit. Even if you feel a million miles away from being a theologian, philosopher or Bible scholar, there are reasons we follow Jesus. As I visit with people, the answer I often hear is that God has been faithful, he has showed up when needed most. At some point you said ‘yes‘ to God and he continues to remind you that he is still there. You may not be able to articulate the finer points of Christian theology, but you do know that as you trust God, he proves himself to be trustworthy. As Malcolm Muggeridge said, answers to prayer may be a coincidence, but the more I pray the more coincidences I get to enjoy. How do I know that I can take a plane from here to Europe? I have no idea of how they are able to get such a heavy vehicle off the ground, deal with turbulence and land safely on the other side. But I do know that when I get on the plane here, a number of hours later I arrive in Europe. I know it is true because it works. This is where we may be, but it is not where we have to stay. Peter wants us to go from feeling confident in our own faith to being able to answer other people’s questions. You do not have to know everything, but it is important to reflect on why we believe what we do. Why do we say Jesus is God and human? Why do we follow the Bible? What are biblical moral values? There are answers to these questions and you do not need to spend years in school to answer them.
Respect
Let us imagine that we got to the point that we were both confident in our faith and were well informed enough to articulate our reasons to others. What would that look like? Should we storm into a mosque while Muslims are worshipping and shout reasons to be a Christian? Should we call our atheist friends in the middle of the night with reasons to believe in God? Should we walk around with our nose in the air, feeling arrogant that we are so much smarter than the heathens around us? Peter does not have a place for any of these attitudes. Peter makes it clear that although we should be confident of the hope we have, it must be demonstrated with gentleness and respect. It has been said that people will not care how much you know until they know how much you care. The point of being an apologetic church is not to win debates or to feel superior because of our correct theology. The point of being an apologetic church is that we have the truth of Christ and we really want people to have the same hope that we have. We want people to know that God is real and active. We want people to know that Jesus is the way, truth and the life. The only way for that to really get across is to do it with gentleness and respect. People may insult your beliefs, they may dismiss your faith, they may reject your reasons. The church Peter was writing to was a persecuted church and he still stressed the virtues of gentleness and respect. I know from experience that you never know what is happening on the inside. Keep patiently sharing the reason for the hope within you.
Conclusion
We have been blessed over the years with some very talented apologists such as C.S. Lewis. They are a gift to the church, but not to do the apologetic work, but rather to help us as the church to embrace our apologetic calling. We are not sorry for being Christians, but we do have very good reasons for having hope. We have experienced God in a very real way. It is not just blind faith. We can use our minds and see that we have a reasonable faith. We must all seek to be better prepared to defend our faith in an increasingly skeptical world. As much as that requires learning new knowledge, it also requires equal amounts or respect and gentleness. When we respond to people with love, they will be much more willing to listen to the reasons for the hope within.
