Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
– 1 Peter 2:12
Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
This verse teaches us how to behave ourselves among the Gentiles and be moral people in real life. Such kind of people are honest in God’s eyes. We need to glorify and testify God with our actual living out. For example, before we believe in God, in order to gain money and reputation, we are rigged and dishonest. Whoever is contrary to our benefit, we keep fighting with them and even take revenge on them without patience and tolerance. However, after believing in God and having the guidance of God’s words, we are no longer dissolute or unrestrained like the unbelievers. No matter what happens, we should pray and seek God’s will, and be tolerant and patient with love. If we do in this way, then those unbelievers who have blasphemed and condemned us will not only feel ashamed, but also say, “It’s God who they believe in has changed them.” In this way, we have given glory to God. The aim that we believe in God and practice His words to be an honest person, living out the likeness of a true human, is to glorify and testify God, more importantly, is to satisfy His heart. Therefore, regardless of what we do before the unbelievers or church brothers and sisters, we should act in accordance with God’s words. Only in this way can we stand testimony to God and please Him. God’s words say, “Your practice and revelations in real life are the testimony of God, they are man’s living out and the testimony of God, and this is truly enjoying God’s love; when you have experienced to this point, the due effect will have been achieved. You are possessed of actual living out and your every action is looked upon with admiration by others. Your appearance is unremarkable, but you live out a life of the utmost piety, and when you communicate the words of God, you are guided and enlightened by Him. You are able to speak God’s will through your words, communicate reality, and you understand much about serving in spirit. You are candid in your speech, you are decent and upright, non-confrontational and decorous, able to obey God’s arrangements and stand firm in your testimony when things befall you, and you are calm and composed no matter what you are dealing with. This kind of person has truly seen God’s love. Some people are still young, but they act as someone of middle age; they are mature, possessed of the truth, and admired by others—and these are the people who have testimony, and are the manifestation of God.”