Silencio Por Favor

Silencio! Por favor!

 This was a phrase that we heard a lot in my 8th grade Spanish class. Mrs. Laborda, our Spanish teacher, used to get so mad at us and her face would turn beet red. I seem to remember getting yelled at a lot my 8th grade year. It seemed as if the class had a propensity to run our mouths too much and have cotton balls in our ears when it came to instruction. Maybe this is how all middle school classes are, or maybe we were unique, either way we had a culture of talking and being too loud. So to deal with this culture, yelling was the tactic of choice to silence our class.

 I thought about this as I read the following verse the other day:

"For God wants you to silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good."    1 Peter 2:15 (NET)

 So to set a little context for this scripture, Peter was addressing Christians who were experiencing persecution from the government of Rome and the culture of the day. Some commentators seem to think that when Peter wrote this the persecution of the church in Asia minor had not yet experienced the torture and death like those in Rome, but they were possibly subject to lies and slander. This is interesting given where we are at in our current culture in America. We have a cancel culture trying to remove the voices of those that differ from them. They are currently using the tactics of lies and slander, just like the Roman culture of old, to try to stamp out the effect of Christianity on culture. This is the modern day equivalent to the ignorant and foolish people that Peter is referencing. There are many patterns that happened in ancient Rome that we see happening today, I pray that we do not see the degree of persecution that the early church did in Roman culture.

 What I love is that God has an answer for the culture of darkness that is set against His people. It is so strong a statement that it is His will for us to silence these foolish people. God says that I want you to shut up these people who are coming against my people, coming against my Son, and I want you to do it with good.  I was having a conversation with another pastor the other day and he was asking me how are we going to handle the policies that could come down with a new administration. My response to him was this scripture, we are going to do what God has told us to do, we are going to do good!

 This word for good is the same word that Jesus used to describe what we are supposed to do our enemies. It is the same word that was used when Jesus confronted the Pharisees and asked them if one could do good on the sabbath. Doing good is taking the life that we have inside of us and giving it to others. I think of 2 actions that we can do today:

Pray - We can start by praying for those that are in leadership, and those who may actively be pushing the agenda to silence Christians. We can pray for those on the street that are sick, hurting, poor, or are broken in circumstances that they can't get out of. When we bring the power of prayer to those we meet in our everyday life, God's kingdom is released in a practical way.

Give - Giving is a mark of those who follow Christ, and this is not just money, but other areas too. It's giving in relationships, like when your spouse asks you to go shopping in the mall at Christmas time. It is giving his love by helping shovel your neighbor's driveway, by paying for a meal for someone, or clothing those who don't have a home. God is a giver and he wants his children to be just like him.

Doing good is living a life that glorifies God, with no hint or stain of anything else. When we live this way it literally puts a muzzle on those that would accuse. Let's go today bringing the good of the gospel, bringing the life of the kingdom of God that is within you to a culture that is lost in darkness!