#rejoicinginsuffering

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Worthy is our Lord and Savior! He is our Messiah and our God.

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Indeed! Christ should be our Lord and Savior.

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Peter carefully instructed and anticipated our verse today. He instructed us to revere Christ as our Lord, for he is already talking to the people who already are Christians. His audience is people who are already saved, but still, he reminded all of them— all of us to revere Christ as our Lord in our hearts. Peter perfectly knows that most of the time we are only seeing Christ as our Savior and we decline the fact that He is Lord and God of our lives. Now, as Peter reminded us that we must revere Christ as our Lord in our hearts too, he has also mentioned that we must be ready to answer the people who ask us about the hope we have. 

As we revere Christ as our Lord in our hearts, this worship will manifest something in our lives. It will produce fruit and that fruit is hope. Once we have Christ as our Lord in our hearts, it will produce hope that no matter what sufferings we are undergoing, we have a secured hope and faith in our hearts that we are suffering from joy because we know one day will come that we will be with our Savior and Lord. Now, that hope we will be manifesting— that’s the hope that the people will question. So, we must really also be ready to answer them with gentleness and respect. 

Actually, Peter is hitting two birds with one stone with this verse. This is to remind us to always look to Christ and to always recognize Him as our Lord and Savior. We are called to be joyful in our sufferings and have the peace that can pass all understanding because Christ is here with us. We know that He is true and living, and we know that we will be with Him in paradise one day through His death and resurrection by faith. Furthermore, Peter also highlighted the part where people will be asking why we are so hopeful and still rejoicing amidst adversity. Thus, this will be the chance for us to share the Gospel too.

Therefore, as Christians, we must understand that being one is not that easy. We will be questioned and it takes a lot of self-assessment throughout the years to check ourselves if we are still revering Christ as Lord or only as our Savior. However, being a Christian is a privilege and a gift too. For we know that we are saved and that even whatever circumstances we are undergoing right now, we are hopeful that this too shall pass and that we will experience eternal glory. Also, being a Christian is not easy because we will be questioned too. However, we must always be ready to answer those people and to take the chance to fulfill our duty— to spread the good news, to spread the Gospel, to spread the Word of God which is Christ our Lord.

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Indeed. We should deny ourselves and completely follow Christ.

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Now, we can become like Christ.

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Greatest example of how we should live our lives in this fallen world is to follow Christ’s example. He has lived His life perfect so that we will be able to imitate His life. Just as how Peter explained our explanation in our verse today that Christ has suffered for us so that we will also follow His example. What God wants us to do is not to call us to suffer for just anything, but what God means by this is that a Christian life is not a life full of ease and simplicity. 

However, a Christian life is full of suffering for righteousness. As long as we are living in this fallen world, it will hate us for being associated with righteousness. We are now saved and clothed with the righteousness of Christ and because of that, we will now live a changed life. A changed life means that we are turning our backs to our sinful nature and fully submitting to God’s Will. 

Therefore, we have to understand that this world is fallen and sinful. It will not give us a good time if we are following God’s command for the commands of God are only taboo in this world. This world just normalized sinning and as long as people will always try to reason out that no harm is done physically to the other people, then it is okay even if it is clearly disobeying God’s law. Now, we have to understand that even if this world will always try to normalize things, it is still prohibited in God's law. 

So, by this truth, we have to always remember that instead of always dwelling in the darkness, we must suffer for the sake of righteousness. We have to always remind ourselves that in order to make ourselves in line, we have to always look at Jesus Christ and follow Him. We have to set Him as an example on how we should live our lives for Christ lived a sinless life. Many things will really try to steer us away from the path that God has prepared for us, but we must remember to just immerse our lives with Christ. 

Furthermore, let us always remember to fight and stand our ground to pursue righteousness. We might be side-tracked to just not follow righteousness so we don’t have to suffer for righteousness, but we have to remember that Christ also suffered for us even if He did not do anything, so as per what Peter instructed, we must use Christ as an example and imitate Him. Whatever the cost, let us joyfully suffer for the sake of righteousness and follow God at all times. Let us imitate Christ and use Him as an example on how to continue to live our lives in this cruel world with His peace that can surpass all understanding.

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