![\"\"](\"\/Banner-MOG-60.gif\" "\\"Ministry")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1 Peter 3:16<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Having a good conscience allows us to be a powerful witness.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The word translated \u201cconscience<\/span>\u201d is suneid\u0113sis<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of sun<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201ctogether\u201d and a form of eid\u0113nai<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto know.\u201d The fundamental idea of this word is \u201cknowing together with oneself.\u201d Hence it denotes the conscience, that part of our being that knows what is morally right or wrong for us to do.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Peter has been talking about our attitude while we are suffering for doing what is right and has just said that we should \u201cbe<\/span> ready always to give<\/span> an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear;\u201d <\/span>The reason we should be ready to give this answer is because we are, in this case, suffering wrongfully; therefore, we have a good conscience. He goes on to say that even though we are suffering for having done good and there are those who will speak against us as evildoers and who will falsely accuse us for our good behavior in Christ as though it were evil, they will someday be ashamed of it.<\/p>\n The point is that we should always be ready to give the reason for the hope in us because our witness in times of persecution and of suffering and our patient suffering without retribution is the type of behavior that the world doesn\u2019t understand. It appears supernatural to those who don\u2019t have it and, in some cases, may be used by God to open the eyes of others in order to bring them to saving faith in Christ. It was Christ\u2019s patient suffering that paid for all our sins, and it is our patient suffering that shows our own conformity to Him.<\/p>\n The Apostle Paul had this to say about suffering for Christ:<\/p>\n More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,<\/span> <\/span>\u2026 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death<\/span> (Philippians 3:8, 10<\/span><\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you want to know Christ as completely as Paul did? If so, you should be ready to suffer for it, and in the midst of that suffering be ready to testify regarding the hope that you have.<\/p>\n But whether suffering or not we should all be living a life that is a testimony to the One for whom we are ambassadors. Our manner of life should be such that others will see Christ in us, and when they ask us about it we should always be ready to give them a reason. The reason is Christ and what He did for us. The reason is a God who loves us so much and wants to have such fellowship with us that He provided a way for that to occur, if we will but humble ourselves and believe.<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Most Christians in the western world today have not had to suffer false accusations and defamation just because they are believers in Christ, but there are many in the world who are undergoing such persecution. Let\u2019s take a moment to pray for them right now that they might be good witnesses for Christ.<\/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 3:16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. Truth to Learn Having a good conscience allows us to be a powerful witness. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cconscience\u201d is suneid\u0113sis, which is made up of sun, meaning […]<\/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":[81,82,83,84],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ashamed","tag-evildoers","tag-good-conduct","tag-good-conscience"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-aR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673","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=673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"chrome:\/\/skype_ff_toolbar_win\/content\/cb_transparent_l.gif\"){kind=spacer}
<\/span>![\"\"](\"chrome:\/\/skype_ff_toolbar_win\/content\/famfamfam\/us.gif\")
![\"\"](\"chrome:\/\/skype_ff_toolbar_win\/content\/space.gif\")
![\"\"](\"chrome:\/\/skype_ff_toolbar_win\/content\/arrow.gif\"){kind=icon}
<\/span><\/span>(618) 614-3070<\/span>![\"\"](\"chrome:\/\/skype_ff_toolbar_win\/content\/cb_transparent_r.gif\"){kind=spacer}
<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:![\"e-mail](\"\/Will_e-mail.gif\")
<\/div>\n