Observed By Grace!

Scripture:

Luke 14:1

¹ And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.

Devotion:

Peter's exhortation in this passage invites us to live as ambassadors for Christ, always with an account ready for all one's hope contained in Him. It is not so much the thing that the word "hope" conveys here but the living fact into which His death and resurrection have transmuted it. So, for a person, the right point to begin is the hallowing of Christ as Lord in one's own heart. Thus, such a life will present us with evidence that it presents Christ to man's view as the sinner's only portion. Still, the life that so honors its Lord also becomes a witness, every impulse being toward whatever conformed to, reflected, or made patent of God's will in that heart.

"Being prepared to give an answer" means planning to do so. What is meant by those words is that a man takes pains to know how the truth might most easily be packed into a formal statement that could be so strikingly put that it might go home to the heart of someone; a man has sampled the truth many times and has reflected a great deal about it so that it becomes instinct with him.

And Peter does not leave us there. He lays a real emphasis upon the manlier kind of impartation. Meekness and reverence are the indispensable preliminaries thereto. A man should have respectful words and conduct combined rather than haughty and abusive.

He also underscores the importance of a clean conscience. Our witness is more weighty when our lives correspond to our faith. Consistency in behavior can tell a person much more about what we are, even if he misunderstands or criticizes us. Quite often, others realize that Christ is who He is by our way of life.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, we enthrone You as Lord over our lives and in our hearts. We bless Your name for the living hope in You. Make us sound to udder hope with gentleness and fear in tears. Fill us richly with wisdom and feeling, so that our utterances and conduct should be in the very marrow of Yours. May we become courageous enough to possess holy dwellings even under the force of misunderstandings, and may many see Your love in us. May You work usefully through us to separate people from Yourself. We pray, Lord, all these in the sweet name of Your Son. Amen.