Bottom Line

I've heard there are two things everybody has: First, is an opinion ... In fact, thinking people have opinions on nearly every conceivable subject. But many opinionated people lack a rationale for their opinions. Many, in fact, hold their unfounded opinions with the tenacity of conviction. Just try sharing your faith with a few people. Some will listen and then dismiss you with a weak statement to the effect that they have their own beliefs and don't need yours. Others will tell you to stuffit where the sun don't shine. Still others will suck you into philosophical debate. But a few will feel their beliefs threatened and become defensive, even offended. I guess that's why conventional wisdom tells us to avoid discussing politics and religion in social situations. Among such sensitive people we will find Christians who jealously grasp their sectarian beliefs with a kind of white-knuckled desperation. If someone challenges their beliefs, their defense is an emotion laden, raised voice rather than a carefully reasoned, systematic explanation. Since God knows His creation better than we know ourselves, He dealt with this issue through His apostle Peter. 1 Peter 3:13-17 teaches us to know why we hold our beliefs: Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. The last couple of sentences touch on the key to defending our faith: No matter what we say in defense of our faith in Christ, our attitude in saying it speaks louder than our words. A godly attitude characterized by meekness and love shows the fruit of our belief system which is, in fact, the fruit of God's Spirit. Jesus' apostle Paul sumarized the influence of godly love in 1 Corinthians 13: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love Our critics may argue with our theology, but they can't argue with God's fruit in our lives. That is our faith's bottom line.