Silencing Foolishness

1 Pet. 2:15

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Doing good in the face of the accusations and actions of ignorant people, hm...what an interesting idea! I wonder is it doing good in general or doing good to those specific people? I am sure that to have its greatest effect, it would have to be to those specific people. So every time I am greeted with a foolish statement or an action, I should think of something good I can do. Perhaps the time and effort I put into thinking of something good would cancel out my fleshly response to that person. A little replacement theory! And of course, it would have the blessing of God because it would be in obedience to His word. 

The very next verse says, Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. I am free in Christ, free from my bondage to sin, not free to do whatever fleshly, foolish think I want. I need to abstain from having the necessity for a cover-up for my sin, a sin which would be in context to the last verse, that is doing evil. The more good God can do through me as His servant, a servant who has willingly submitted to Jesus Christ, the more that I can silence the ignorance of foolish people. Living in the flesh is just fodder for the mouths of foolish people! The more they see Christians living sinfully, the more they can voice loud and clear their ignorant thoughts. Why ignorant? Because they don't know what it means to be a Christian. They don't know it means that Christians are just saved sinners who are prone to the flesh just like they are. Instead they take their preconceived notions and use them as a lens with which to view all things Christians. No wonder it comes out ignorance!

Father,

Help me to do Your good in Your strength and in Your will and way. Teach me to live as Your servant. That is who I desire to be.

In Jesus name,

Amen