“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” – 1 Peter 2:12
Think about every aspect of how you live your life and interact with non-Christians in every environment (work, school, your neighborhood, the grocery store, the internet, etc.)… Think about the words you speak with your mouth, those you post online, and those you text or email. Think about your actions. Your example. Your ethics. Your attitude. Your priorities.
Is the conduct of your life so good, so wholesome, and so much like Jesus that if someone were to start saying bad things about you, everyone else would look and praise God instead? This is Peter’s command to us (seriously!). To live such a Christ-like life around those who don’t believe, that the very act of attacking our character would make people start to believe in Jesus!
That’s certainly a tall order but it isn’t impossible! Not with the Holy Spirit in us. We should live and conduct ourselves in such a sweet, loving, gentle, joyful, peaceful, patience, kind, good, faithful, and self-controlled way that people instantly know that any character attack is not only false but ridiculously so. That when people start to investigate the false claims, they actually learn more about Jesus than they do about us. And they believe in His saving, transforming power!
Think about that. If you aren’t there yet (and most people aren’t), start talking honestly with God about what you need to do to free Him to change your character and what it says to others about Jesus. #FollowJesus