How to Silence the Critics
I Peter 2:11-20
If you are a Christian, it is very important how you live because someone is watching. Every Christian life is an advertisement for the Christian faith, either a good advertisement or a bad advertisement. It has been often said, and I concur, that the best argument for the validity of the Christian faith is a faithful Christian life. One philosopher said, "Show me your redeemed life and I will be inclined to believe in your redeemer."
The truth of the matter is most people do not read the Bible. They never even open the Bible. They don't even know what is in the Bible. The only Bible most people ever read is the Bible they see lived out in your lifestyle. If you are a Christian, it is important how you live. Someone is watching.
The first religious poem I ever memorized was this. "You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by deeds that you do, by words that you say. Men read what you write whether faithless or true, say, what is the gospel according to you?"
It is because of this that Peter now takes a practical turn in his writing. He's going to talk about practical matters. He's going to talk about the importance of living the Christian life. He's going to do it because he says that the way you live your life as a Christian is a means of stopping the mouths of the critics.
Notice verse 15
The verb there "put to silence" means to muzzle. It's like putting a muzzle on an animal.
It was used in Matthew 22 about the Lord Jesus Christ where the Bible says that the Lord Jesus Christ put to silence the Sadducees, that is, because of the lifestyle of the Lord Jesus Christ they were muzzled. Their criticisms were silenced.
The Christian faith has always had its critics. From the very beginning of the Christian faith, there have been those who have slandered. They have made fun of. They have lied about the Christian faith. It was true then. It is true now.
Your life and my life will either stop the mouths of the critics or it will provide fuel for the fires of their criticisms. It is important how you live as a Christian because someone is watching.
Paul gives some very beautiful pictures here in these verses. He pictures the Christian as a stranger and a pilgrim. He talks about the Christian as being a good citizen. He will talk about the Christian as being a good worker, a good slave, in those days. Around those three pictures, he talks to us about how you and I can silence the critics of the Christian faith.
I. The Loveliness of Your Life.
First of all you silence the critics by the loveliness of your life.
verse 12
That means your lifestyle, the way you live. The word honest or honorable is a word that describes goodness which may be seen, something beautiful, something attractive, something lovely.
What he's saying is, "Let your lifestyle be lovely. Let it be an eye-catching loveliness. What he means there is that if you and I live the life we should live, if we are winsome, if there is something lovely and eye-catching about our life as believers, it will be a powerful influence in stopping the mouths of the critics of the Christian faith.
He talks here about several areas in which the loveliness of our life can do this.
verse 11
What he's saying is that there are two reasons why our life should be a lovely Christian testimony to those around us.
Number one, because we are sojourners and pilgrims. We say to the world that we really don't belong down here, that our home is in heaven, that we belong to heaven, and that heaven is our home. So if heaven is our home, the people looking at us, around us, are going to want to know if it is a heaven-like life. We don't belong down here so don't get sucked into this world's customs and its fashions and its standards and its manner of behavior.
He also says, "Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul." He's talking about personal discipline on the part of a Christian. The word lusts we normally think in terms of sexual lusts, but it is a little wider term than that. It means any desire that comes from our fallen nature, our fleshly nature. It may be greed. It may the desire for material things. There is nothing wrong with material things but when they become fleshly lusts, they war against the soul.
We know that this is true, that these desires from our fallen nature are like a military expedition. Notice what he says. He says that they war against the soul. I hope you have discovered as a Christian that you are in a war. The Christian life is a battle field, a battle ground, not a playground. "Fleshly lusts which war against the soul."
Obviously they war against the body and mind, but here he says that they war against the soul. That means that they affect your spiritual life.
These are worldly lusts, committed in the body and mind, but they war against the soul. Think about David’s sin with Bathsheba. It was committed in the mind and body, but it damaged his soul and his relationship with God.
Peter says to abstain from these, that is, stay away from these.
Then in verse 12a,
They do speak against you. You hear it every day. You hear people making fun of your church. You hear people slandering the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"they speak against you." That means to talk down, to put down. They put you down, "As evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." What he's saying is that your lifestyle as a Christian either has a negative or a positive impact on lost people.
It may be that we impact people negatively. If you have a bad disposition or if you have poor manners as a believer or if you have a carnal lifestyle, if your language is bad in front of people, you are a negative testimony on those who are lost and need to know Christ as their personal Savior.
Let me ask you a question. The people who serve you at the restaurants where you go, is your lifestyle and the way you behave in front of them a recommendation for or a recommendation against the Christian life?
What about at the ball game or sporting event?
He says, "Which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation," if they see your good works.
There are two different ways you can go in what that means. It may mean that when a time of crisis comes, that when a real emergency comes in their life, if you have lived the Christian life, when the day of visitation comes, then they will come to you for help.
Or it may be that the word "visitation" means to take the over sight. "In the day when God takes the over sight."
That is, in the day when God comes to judge. Maybe if you have lived a Christian life in front of these lost people, maybe your testimony as a Christian has impacted them positively and they have been won to Christ, then when the day of visitation comes, because of the testimony of your good, consistent, lovely life they have received Jesus as their personal Savior.
It's kind of similar to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, verse 16. He said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven." In other words, so live that people will glorify the Lord by the good works that you do.
The most powerful testimony I believe of the Christian faith today is the consistent life of born again believers at school, on the job, in the neighborhood, in and out of the community where ever you may be.
I really believe that if you and I will live the way God wants us to live, if our life will be an eye-catching loveliness, people will come flocking to this church to find out what it is that causes us to live the way we live. It's very important. The loveliness of your life will stop, it will silence the critics.
II. The Submissiveness of Your Life.
Secondly, if you want to stop the critics, you do so not only by the loveliness of your life, but you also do it by the submissiveness of your life. In verse 13 he says, "Submit yourselves." Then in verse 15 he says, "For this is the will of God." It is God's will for believers that they be submissiveness.
The word submissiveness means to rank under. It means to put yourself in subjection to. The picture here is Christians as citizens. We are, of course, citizens of heaven. We are strangers and pilgrims, but between now and heaven we are living in this world. We are citizens down here.
He says that it is the will of God for us that we submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, that is, authority. Every God-ordained authority we are to be submissive to. God has ordained government. The Bible says that Christians as to be submissive. It is the will of God that we submit to authority for the Lord's sake. You do it for the Lord's sake.
He says, "Whether it be to the king." That was the top dog in those days. We'd say the President now. Or unto governors, in verse 14. We would say maybe the mayor or the state governor. What he's saying is that all this kind of government is ordained of God, and believers have a responsibility to be obedient citizens, to be submissive citizens.
Think with me for a moment. The city of Ardmore has absolutely no right to tell us what we can preach and what we can teach in this church.
I don't check in with the mayor. I don't check in with the governor of the state or anybody to decide what I can or cannot preach. They have no right to tell us what we can or cannot preach.
But I'll tell you what they can do. They can tell us how many people we can put in this building. They can tell us what is safe and what is unsafe, and they have a perfect right to have ordinances that govern how many people can be put into a building. They can tell us how many people we can park on parking lots. And we have a responsibility as believers to obey the authority which has been established so far as it does not infringe upon our command to obey the Lord to preach the Word of God.
Good citizenship is a positive testimony to the critics.
Notice that he says in verse 14 that authority and leaders and these kinds of people are here, "For the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well."
In other words, government is here to punish those who are evildoers and to praise those who are well doers. He commends virtue and he condemns vice here.
Let me ask you a question and just be honest about it. If you are riding down the road and you see a Highway Patrolman, do you let up a little on the gas? Do you know what I'm talking about? You know why, don't you? Because government exists for the punishment of the evildoers and for the praise of the well doers.
God's people are to be good citizens. He says in verse 15, "For this is the will of God, that by doing good. . ." That is, if you are that kind of person, if by the submissiveness of your life, you demonstrate that Christ makes you a good citizen, it says that you will put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
Most critics don't know what they are talking about in the first place.
Most critics are just like what he says here. He says in verse 15, "Put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." Most critics are like crickets. They do their chirping in the dark.
In verse 16 he says, "As free." You and I are free.
"And not using your liberty for a cloak for vie," that is, a cover up for evil. Jesus Christ has set us free. We are free from sin. We are free from the law, but we are not to use that freedom as some kind of cover up to give us an excuse not to be good citizens for the Lord. He says, "But as the servants of God."
Verse 17 says, "Honor all people." That's what Christians should do. We should honor all people. In those days they estimated there were about 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. Most of the professions were slaves. There were doctor slaves. There were teacher slaves. There were actor slaves. What it says here is respect for all people.
In the Roman culture in those days there was very little respect for slaves. In fact, the noted philosopher Aristotle said that beasts and slaves were the same. The only difference was that a slave had the ability to speak.
Yet the Christian faith comes along and says, "Honor all men." There is a worth of all individuals and a respect for all people.
Then he says that you are to, "Love the brotherhood." That is another word for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Love the brotherhood." That's one of the things that I'm so thrilled about in our fellowship here is that there is love among the brotherhood. We love one another in our church.
Next it says to, "Fear God. Honor the king." Respect the Lord and show honor for the leader. We've got an election coming up. I do hope you are registered to vote. It's too late now if you're not. Then I do hope you will vote.
This may be the most important presidential election in my lifetime as a voting citizen. It is extremely important that Christians vote. "Fear God. Honor the King." You should vote!
I'm not going to tell you how to vote. That's not my job. I can't tell you how to vote, but I will tell you what you should vote. You should vote somebody who is pro life. You should vote somebody who believes that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. And just go right down the line.
You vote the way God leads you to vote. But you do have certain responsibilities to know what the moral issues are. Whoever is elected president, they will be the President. I have a responsibility as a believer to show respect for the office of the Presidency.
I haven't always respected the man who was President, but I have a responsibility to have respect for the office of the Presidency. That is a good testimony as a child of God.
You put to silence the critics by the loveliness of your life, by the submissiveness of your life.
III. The Graciousness of Your Life.
Not only are we strangers and pilgrims. Not only are we citizens, but in those days many of them were slaves. So he says that you silence the critics by the graciousness of your life as a Christian.
In verse 18 it says, "Servants." It's the word slaves. Slavery was a great social problem in those days.
You will not find a planned out program in the New Testament for how to do away with the institution of slavery. You will not find any of the writers of the New Testament developing any kind of attack against the institution of slavery in terms of a social political movement because if Christianity in its beginning had become a social political movement, it would have self destructed.
You say, "Well, then, does that mean that the New Testament approved of slavery?" Of course, not. But what it means is that the mountain of slavery was drilled and packed with the dynamite of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it went off in the early centuries so that the institution of slavery was demolished by the Christian faith.
The best thing that ever happened in this world in terms of slavery is for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and be the Savior of all men, whoever they might be. Slavery as a system can't live where Christianity lives.
Let's translate this and break it down to our day. We don't have slavery in our day in America, but let's translate it to a Christian. Let's translate it to a worker, to a person on the job.
"Servants," you who go to the job in the morning, "be subject to your masters with all fear," that is, all respect. Respect the people you work for. "Not only to the good and gentle." Some people had good and gentle masters. Some of you have good masters. You've got gentle bosses.
But he says also, "To the harsh." That word means the crooked.
That means the people that nothing you do is right. You say, "Oh, boy. That's my boss." Every move you make is wrong. They're ornery, cantankerous, disagreeable and you've got to go there in the morning. You say, "Don't remind me preacher." But you're a Christian. You're going to be a testimony on the job.
He says that the first thing you are to do is you are to be submissive. That is, do what you are assigned to do. If you're supposed to be into work at 8:30 don't come strolling in there at 8:45. You be there at 8:25. If you are supposed to work until 4:30, don't go dancing out of there about 4:10. You leave about 4:40. Be a good worker. Someone is watching. Don't take so much as a paper clip from you job. You are a Christian. The critics are just waiting to say, "Look at that. That's a Christian. They go down there to Trinity Baptist. Look at the way they are living." Somebody's watching.
He says in verse 19, "For this is commendable." The word there is really grace. This is a gracious thing. That's why I use the word graciousness. You silence the critics by the graciousness of your life.
This is gracious. "If because of conscience toward God," that is, because of his respect for God, because of his dedication to God, because of his testimony for the Lord, "endure grief, suffering wrongfully." In other words, if they are giving you a hard time on the job and it's not justified, and you respond to it in the right way, that's an evidence of God's grace in your life.
But notice verse 20. Some of you Christians need to hear this. "For what credit is it if, when ye are beaten," that is, when you have hard times, "for your faults, ye shall take it patiently."
There are some Christians who have a hard time on the job because you act the fool. There are some Christians over where you work who are taking advantage and are being stupid. Don't make a martyr out of yourself when you get fired because of your foolishness and stupidity. "I'm a Christian. They fired me." No. They didn't fire you for being a Christian. They fired you because you were a lazy, sorry, good-for-nothing worker. That's why they fired you!
But on the other hand though, he says in verse 20, "But if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable (same word as thankworthy) with God." If you are a Christian, be careful how you live because someone is watching. We will silence the critics when we as believers live such a lovely, such a submissive, such a grace-filled life that others will see that Jesus makes a difference in our life.
I think about the thief on the cross. He was a critic. The thief on the cross joined in on the criticism of Jesus. He was right along with them. Then that thief began to observe Jesus. He saw the loveliness of His life, an eye-catching goodness. In fact, he said, "This man has done nothing amiss." Jesus demonstrated an-eye catching loveliness.
Then he looked at the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't have to die on that cross.
He could have called ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set Him free, and yet He laid His hands willingly on that cross. That thief observed the submissiveness of the Lord Jesus and that thief heard Jesus pray, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He observed the graciousness of the life of Jesus, and he said, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." Jesus said, "Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise."
When his day of visitation came, which was just a matter of minutes, when God came to take the soul of the thief, he was ushered into Paradise itself with the Lord Jesus Christ. He was won by a life of loveliness, submissiveness and graciousness. That's how you silence the critics.
Let's bow our heads and pray.
