I’m currently leading a study of 1 Peter on Wednesday nights at MoSt Church. My love for 1 Peter is exceeded only by my appreciation for Luke’s Gospel. What a powerful letter!

Our study is entitled With the World Against Us and the text for tomorrow night’s session is 1 Peter 2:11-17. We’ll entitle this session “Witness.” Whether or not you’re a part of this class, following are a few questions to ponder and pray over. It’s a deceptively simple sounding text that will certainly get your cerebral juices to flowing and conviction to well up in your heart! Do read the text (http://bit.ly/dkxR9A), pray, and ponder … and then bring all of that with you to class tomorrow night. We’ll all be sharpened a bit for it.

1. Name the “sinful desires” that “war against your soul” these days (vs.11). What are you specifically you doing to “abstain” from these desires? What are your battle plans and strategies?

2. What other passages in Scripture come to mind as you meditate on the meaning and implications of vs.12 (“Live such good lives among the pagans that …”)?

3. Sometimes our living a life truly sold-out for God’s glory can help lead others to celebrate God (vs.12). At other times, the best we can hope for is to perhaps mute those who would mock us (vs.15). Have you experienced both? Recall some instances of the effects of your living a Christ-like life before others. What have you learned from these experiences?

4. “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” (vs.16) Just how exactly might you, as a Christian, be tempted to “use your freedom as a cover-up for evil?”

5. If you diligently practiced the last phrase in this paragraph (vs.17b) as a Christian, spell out what it would look like to live out the intent and command of this text (“honor the emperor”)?