It's a jungle out there, conclusion

When we stopped yesterday, we said Peter told us to "be ready to tell" when unbelievers asked us why we lived the way we do....
The words Peter used mean a prepared, legal defense. They imply a thoughtful and logical presentation of the gospel. Are you wondering, like me, if he was remembering a certain night as he wrote these words? That miserable night that Jesus was betrayed, and Peter failed.....he was taken off guard by people who questioned him, and he ended up denying that he even KNEW Jesus. Wonder if he'd been prepared, would he have done better?
God often uses our failures in witnessing to show us that we need to be prepared. How many of us look back on lost opportunities and cringe? Times that we had a chance to tell about the gospel, and the changes it has made in our lives? And instead, we mumbled or fumbled, and lost that opportunity?
It's not a bad idea to get some training in how to share our faith!
It's pretty simple, really. We need to tell a person what sin is, and what it does to alienate us from God. They need to know Who Christ is, and how He bore our sins through His death and resurrection. And they need to know how to accept God's gift of eternal life and His forgiveness, through faith.
Learn one or two key verses for each point, and we've got it! Yeah, I know, I've been stressed out, too, because I was afraid they would ask some thorny question. And I wouldn't have the answer. But you know, as grandma told me, "Honesty is the best policy." She got that somewhere. But it's true -- we can always say, "I don't know, but I will try to find out."

See, we don't need to defend the Bible. Not really. That would be like our trying to defend a lion. We just need to un-cage it and it will take care of itself! Every person has the same basic problem; they are sinners. And every person needs the same thing: forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ.
Now, they may try to argue and squabble; some people do that to divert us, but we need to be careful to avoid arguing. That's why Peter uses the words he does; he means we should calmly present the truth in a clear, understandable way, with gentleness. With strength under control.
If we truly respect and reverence God more than men, we can speak confidently. We can share the gospel kindly, without quarreling, all the while praying that God will bring the person to Himself.

That's a powerful witness. And the power source is mentioned in verse 15: "revere (sanctify) Christ as Lord."  I learned in studying this passage, that Peter is quoting from Isaiah:

The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,    he is the one you are to fear,
    he is the one you are to dread. (Isaiah 8:13)

Here's the context -- the faithless king of Judah, Ahaz, had allied himself with Assyria, in order to ward off invasion by Israel and Syria. Isaiah and the faithful remnant were charged with conspiracy because they opposed Ahaz' alliance with godless Assyria. In the eight chapter of Isaiah, and in the verse highlighted above, the Lord is encouraging them not to fear the Assyrians nor those in Judah who accused them of conspiring. Instead, they were to fear the Lord of hosts, to reverence Him and regard Him as holy. Peter changes the "Lord of hosts" to the "Lord Christ," showing that he believed Jesus to be one and the same as the Lord in Isaiah.
He is telling us to revere Christ as God above anyone who threatens to harm us because of our witness. Because Jesus is the Lord of hosts, we can trust Him to triumph, no matter what suffering we may have to endure in the short term, for His sake.

As believers, we are called to bear witness through good behavior and reasoned words, in submission to His lordship. We know that He will return in power and glory to reign in righteousness.
Have we examined our lives this week? Are we making good deeds a habit? Are we able to make a gentle defense of the gospel? Are we revering Christ above all others?
Then God can use us mightily as witnesses for Him!