Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you… (1 Peter 3:15b)

              To start with, let me confess that this is the same chapter from 1 Peter that begins, “Wives…be subject to your husbands.” I choose not to go down that path other than to say, “Phhhlllbbb!!!” (which is the sound that comes out when your mouth when you make a raspberry with your tongue. Go ahead, do it. I’ll wait).

              Anyway. Once the writer gets over his culture-driven misogyny which hurts the church and distorts the gospel to this day, the chapter goes on to offer some worthwhile encouragement.

• v. 9 says “Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing.”
• v. 11, “let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it.”
• And v. 14, “But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed.”

             Those are, IMHO, some choice kernels of wisdom. It reminds me of a quote often attributed to Ghandi, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” If Jesus really believed in “an eye for an eye” as it says in Exodus 21:24, the end of the gospels would have looked more like the end of an Avengers movie where all the bad guys get blown up.

             And what is our defense 1 Peter tells us to prepare? Why are we not returning spite for spite? Why are we repaying evil with blessing?

             Because Jesus.

             Because Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God is near, near enough that when we offer blessings and do good and what is right, we are blessed.

             Because Jesus taught us to love God, and neighbor, and enemy, and that doesn’t leave very many people not to love.

             Because Jesus showed us how even when evil takes life and thinks it wins, love endures and life overcomes through God’s mercy and grace and we are blessed.

             Always be ready to make your defense if anyone asks why you have hope in the face of despair and why you believe good ultimately conquers all evil and why you have a smile on your face even when all hell is breaking loose in the world.

             Because hope. Because peace. Because blessing.

             Because Jesus.

             1 Peter 3:1 on the other hand, well, that’s indefensible. 😉