Are we always prepared to give others the reason for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ? Maybe you’re like so many of us and you’re not that open about your hope. You’re afraid of other people’s reactions. You feel uncertain of yourself. You’re afraid that you won’t be able to answer all the questions others might ask about the Bible.

Or maybe you’re just ashamed to let others know what you believe because you figure they might laugh at you and put you down. “Hey guys, you know what he believes? He thinks the earth was created by God in six days!” Or, “Hey, can you believe she isn’t coming with us to the beach because she wants to go to church instead?”

The people to whom Peter wrote his first letter didn’t find it easy to give an answer for the hope they had either. They had only recently become Christians and left behind a pretty bad lifestyle. From 1 Peter 4:3 we know that they had lived in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry, just like everyone else around them. But now they had embraced Jesus Christ in faith and they had given up that immoral lifestyle.

The result was that the people they had previously associated with thought it strange they no longer took part in their drunken and rollicking ways. And so they heaped abuse on these new Christians!

What advice does the Apostle Peter give to believers who are becoming afraid of others because of their Christian faith and life? To just keep quiet and blend in? No, he tells them they can overcome the fear of how people will react to their Christian life and words. And they can overcome it by holding fast to the truth that Christ their Saviour is Lord of all and everything. Peter says, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord” (1 Peter 3:15).

Those words are actually an allusion to an Old Testament passage, Isaiah 8:13. There the people of Judah had been threatening the Lord’s prophet for speaking out against how they were living. But God told Isaiah not to be afraid of all the threats of the people. No, he has much more to fear from the almighty and holy One than he does from people who don’t like what he’s saying.

Today that means if we’re giving testimony about the Lord in word or deed, we don’t need to be afraid. The Lord is so much greater than any person; if we have Him on our side as Lord, then we need not fear anyone.

If you think about that, it should make you wonder how in the world we can be so worried or ashamed about what others will think, say, or do, if we show them what we stand for as Christians. If Christ is really our Lord, why ever be frightened of people? People are weak in comparison to Him who overcame the power of the devil and of death! Understanding that this is how things really stand helps to be fearless. It helps us to answer anyone who questions the reason for the hope we have.

In fact, setting apart Christ as Lord in our hearts should mean that our aim is also to see others acknowledge Christ as Lord and Saviour of their lives. And wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if through our way of living and speaking, and through our testimony about why we live the way we do, that others would be brought to Christ? It’d be an awesome thing if, when we arrived in heaven, there’d be someone waiting with open arms saying, “I want to thank you from the heart a million times over for not being afraid to act as a Christian and to speak with me about your hope. That’s what helped to bring me here, to eternal glory and joy with the Lord!”