Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 301 · October 28
Ready Always
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”
It is ten past twelve in the staff room, and somebody who has never raised the subject before asks you straight out how you can still believe any of that. Everyone in the room has heard the question. You do have a speech ready, but it answers a different question from the one you were asked.
The word Peter uses for "answer" is apologia, and it comes from the courtroom. It means what a person says in his own defence after the charge has been read. Paul uses the same word when he stands on the stairs of the castle in Jerusalem and begins, "hear ye my defence which I make now unto you." So an apologia is an account of yourself: what you have done, and why. And Peter asks for "a reason of the hope that is in you." That is simply an honest report on a hope you already carry.
The setting is gentler than a debate, too. Peter is writing to people who may "suffer for righteousness' sake," and he calms their fear with words taken from Isaiah. Isaiah had written, "Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." Peter writes, "sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." When the Lord holds the first place in your heart, the people questioning you lose their power to frighten you. Notice too that the answer is owed "to every man that asketh you," so the conversation begins because somebody has noticed something and come to ask. Peter also attaches two conditions that are easy to forget: the answer comes "with meekness and fear," and, in the next line, "Having a good conscience."
There are two ways to miss this verse. The loud one is easy to spot: an answer with the meekness taken out may win the argument and lose the person. Peter has already ruled that out: "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing." The quiet one is harder to see, because it is a life that never makes anyone ask. "Be ready always" was written to people whose neighbours could see a hope in them worth asking about. That hope rests on God, who "hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." The risen Lord is the reason for your hope, and when someone does ask, a few honest, gentle words about Him are enough.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 301 is Protected from Second Death (Revelation 2:11).