Yet hallow the Lord Christ in your hearts, ever ready with a defense for everyone who is demanding an account concerning the expectation in you, but with meekness and fear.
1 Peter 3: 15, Concordant New Testament
Usually when I am at the local gym, it seems that Jesus is the last thing on many peoples minds. Not that most gym goers do not believe, it's just that they are busy with more pressing things like exercise and day to day activities. However, every now and then I will see someone with a cross necklace or a t shirt with a bible verse splashed on it and I wonder, do they know whom they are advertising? Have they ever heard of He who died on that cross? Granted, Jesus is known worldwide, but fewer still truly know Him. They know the story, but they don't know Him. So we walk around like little billboards advertising Jesus wherever we go. For many people, knowing of Jesus is good enough. I once counted myself among that crowd. I wore the WWJD bracelets, the bible verse shirts and bumper stickers. I let everyone know what team I was on. Yet all I knew was the story of Jesus and not the man. To me, that was good enough. This was my attitude until a good friend confessed that he once desired to "know more" about Christ Jesus. He wanted to know the man Jesus. This led me into more than a few discussions on the difference between knowing of Jesus and truly knowing Him. I basically had been proclaiming Jesus without knowing Him in my heart. This is all fine and good, until someone wants to know more about the Jesus you're advertising to the world. The apostle Peter calls on us to be "ever ready with a defense" for those inquiring of the expectation of Christ in you {1 Peter 3:15}. Peter knew that there would be those who would question his beliefs. We should also be well aware of this. This is not a situation of a good defense being a good offense. Far from it. A good defense for Christ in us is to gladly tell others of the joy and freedom which you have found in Christ. You've shown the world that you know the name Jesus, now what can you tell us of Him? What is it that makes you want to know Him more? What makes Jesus more than just a story to you?
Now it is eonian life that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Him who Thou dost commission, Jesus Christ.
John 17: 3, Concordant New Testament
There is more than enough scripture evidence that it is the desire of the Lord that His children know Him as well as His Son {John 17:3, John 17:21}. God does not desire us to simply know of Jesus. He wants us to know Him intimately. This is what my friend was talking about when he spoke of knowing more about Christ. God had placed it upon his heart to know His Son. This is the same desire which was laid upon my heart as well. Jesus is now more than a story to me. So, how is it that we are to speak to others who may know the story of Jesus but not the man? Do we bombard them with scriptures about what they should be doing? Do we warn them of their inevitable future in hell if they do not repent? Neither of these. Most people who advertise Jesus have already been exposed to religious people who have smothered them with scriptures and warnings of doom. This is not the meekness Peter was speaking to in 1 Peter 3. No, when others ask us why we believe we should tell them honestly why we desired to know Jesus. No filter, no BS. We tell them of the freedom we have found through Christ Jesus. We tell them how grateful we are that Jesus chose us. That's right, He chose us, we did not choose Him. The defense we give of our belief in Christ is stripped of all the religious nonsense which has driven so many believers to simply advertise Jesus but not come to know Him. In the end, it is not about the religion but about the man. Our desire to know Jesus is the best advertisement.
For not by the will of man was prophesy carried on at any time, but, being carried on by holy spirit, holy men of God speak.
2 Peter 1: 21, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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