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1 Peter 3:15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always<\/span> be<\/span><\/em> ready to<\/span> give<\/span><\/em> a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Standing firm in your faith is more important than giving in to the fear of what might be done to you by someone else.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The word translated \u201csanctify<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word hagiadz\u014d<\/span><\/em> which means \u201cto make holy or pure\u201d or \u201cto set apart.\u201d But, the root of the word is hagos<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201can awful thing\u201d or \u201ca fearful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGod<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word theos<\/span><\/em>, although the best texts use the word christos<\/span><\/em> rather than theos<\/span><\/em>. Christos<\/span><\/em> means \u201cthe anointed one,\u201d which we transliterate to the word Christ. It is equivalent to the Hebrew word mashiach<\/span><\/em>, which we transliterate to Messiah.<\/p>\n The word \u201cdefense<\/span>\u201d is translated from apologia<\/span><\/em>, from which our English word \u201capology\u201d was originally derived. However, it doesn\u2019t mean to ask forgiveness for a wrong done, rather it means \u201cto give an answer or speech in defense of oneself.\u201d In this verse it means to give an explanation for the hope that we have because of our faith in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Peter has just told us that we are blessed if we suffer for doing good and that we should not be afraid of their terror (those who would threaten us because of our faith). In today\u2019s verse, Peter is making a play on words with regard to the notion of fear. He says, \u201cdon\u2019t fear or be troubled by them [those who would threaten you], but put the fear of Christ the Lord in your hearts.\u201d Part of the reason I think this is Peter\u2019s meaning is because the opening phrase of this verse is a quote from Isaiah.<\/p>\n Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let<\/span> him be<\/span> your fear, and let<\/span> him be<\/span> your dread.<\/span> (Isaiah 8:13<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n The remainder of today\u2019s verse tells us that we need to always be ready to give a reason for our hope to anyone who asks us, and to do so with meekness and fear. We know that our God is both holy and just. That means that He is pure and fearsome Himself and that He will judge evil. We also know that we have been saved and set-apart from that judgment through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and, as a result, we have a hope that others in this world don\u2019t have. That hope, and the fear of God which goes along with it, should be so evident in our lives, especially when we are suffering for doing what is right, that others will want to know how we can keep such an attitude in the midst of our suffering.<\/p>\n Peter may have even been thinking of a specific martyr of the early church like Polycarp, one of the early church fathers and a disciple of the Apostle John. As he was about to be killed for his refusal to deny Christ and offer obeisance to the Roman emperor he said:<\/p>\n “Fourscore and six years have I served Him [Christ], and he has done me no harm. How then can I curse my King that saved me? Bring forth what you will.”<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If you were being threatened with death for refusing to deny Christ as your Savior, would you be able to stand forth confidently and make a profession like Polycarp?<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; Truth to Learn Standing firm in your faith is more important than giving in to the fear of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[78,74,79,38,80],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-answer","tag-fear","tag-godly-fear","tag-hope","tag-sanctify"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-aO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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