Remember three lines!

What does ‘apologetics’ mean to you? If you haven’t heard of it before, the word is taken from a verse in Peter’s first letter.

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

The Greek word for ‘answer’ is ‘apologia’. Hence ‘apologetics’ is offering an answering word to those who ask you about your Christian hope. So far so good. But, if you ask me, in the 2,000 years since Peter wrote, there has been an individualising and an intellectualising of apologetics. We would do well to recapture what the apostle originally meant.

Peter begins, in Chapter 1, by preaching the gospel and reminding his suffering readers how ‘precious’ is Christ (a word he uses four times). In Chapter 2 he proclaims the church to be the great ‘priesthood’, bringing God to the people and the people to God. Then, from 2:13, Peter talks about how to live well in the context of the state, the workplace, the family, but constantly his advice is: suffer well and cling to Christ.

From 3:8 Peter tells us to live with sympathy, love, compassion, humility, blessing, doing good and being, what Edwin Friedman would have called, a ‘non-anxious presence’. This is the context in which people will ask us questions. Then, having ‘set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts’, we are prepared to give an answer to those who ask (1 Peter 3:15).

So, with all that background in mind, what kind of questions does Peter have in mind? What do we need to prepare for? Probably not: ‘Where did Cain get his wife?’ or: ‘Can God create a stone so heavy he can’t lift it?’

The key question which our lives are meant to provoke and for which we should have answers is: ‘How come you’re still standing after the year you’ve had?’ And an answer in keeping with 1 Peter would be something like: ‘I honestly don’t know, but somehow Jesus got me through.’

This is the first of three sentences that I recommend Christians have up their sleeve.

1. I couldn’t have got through X without Jesus…

I don’t know what X is for you. Perhaps it’s lockdown. Perhaps it’s a diagnosis, a chronic condition, a series of operations. It might be a family breakdown, a financial crisis, a redundancy – whatever it is, it’s a crisis where Jesus has sustained you. Speaking of Christ in the context of these trials is a tangible way of proclaiming ‘the hope that you have.’ Here’s another sentence up your sleeve:

2. That’s what I love about my church…

This is based on 1 Peter 2 where the church is called ‘a royal priesthood’ (v.9). There’s something about the community life of the kingdom that communicates. It’s priestly. It brings people to God. So, in personal evangelism, I’ve found few more effective topics of conversation than celebrating the church to which I belong. What can you praise about your church? Shout it from the rooftops.

3. That’s what I love about Jesus…

Here’s where 1 Peter (and evangelism!) begins and ends: love for Christ. How would you finish that sentence? What’s freshly striking you about Jesus at the moment?

You’ll notice I don’t complete these sentences for you. They are for you to fill out, with whatever is true of your walk with Christ.

Evangelism is not about ready-made silver bullets. I say, let’s lay down our silver bullets. Those who live by them will die by them. True apologetics – true answering words – are like seed. So be prepared with sentences like these three, and let’s get scattering.