Wednesday 16 May 2018

May 16: 1 Peter 2:13-17

Key Verse: 1 Peter 2:16
Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.

Devotion:
A Christian must be honest. There is no other way to fully serve a just and honest God other than to be totally honest oneself. That honesty has to be throughout your life and not just in what other people see of you. It is all well and good to be an honest person on the outside so others will trust you with everything and even come to believe you, but if you are not being honest with God as well, then you have a problem which is eating at you from the inside and will eventually make itself known. Once again, we can take our wonderful members of parliament to see this. They seem honest on the outside, but eventually their back-hand deals are exposed and we see many of them for what they are – mostly honest but willing to break the rules when it suits them!

If we fall into this trap as a Christian, we are not any better than someone who is openly doing evil things – we are doing evil within our hearts! That is the place where Christ looks! It is no good our going around trying to be an example to others when we cannot be honest with God. Once we are open and honest we can then be that example to others – hiding things behind the scenes is nothing more than being a thief, taking peoples trust without asking them.

When we start our honesty with God, we will find that being honest with everyone else becomes second nature. Others will then be able to see we are honest, trustworthy and someone whom they could listen to. That is when we can then give them the truth about God and allow them to get to know Him too.

We have to make sure we do honour those to whom honour is due, but we have to make sure we do fear God above others because He is our rightful King having created us and paid for our sin debt.

Points to Ponder:
How often are you forced to lie?

Would you have had to lie if you had been honest up front?