[You can read the passage here]
We ended off the last time by considering that even in times of suffering, all the more we are to testify for God.
1. Example of Jesus
We start off this study by looking again at Jesus' example when he suffered and dies for us. The results were that we are brought back to God (v18) and he went to declare his victory to the fallen angels (v19).
So in our suffering for doing what is right, we should focus also on the end result - at the end of the day, victory is ours. And other people will also benefit thru our testimony and our sharing of the gospel. Just like Jesus, we should fix our eyes not on our sufferings but on the ultimate goal (see Heb 12v2).
2. Baptism
We ended off by talking about baptism. We all know what baptism is and what it is not - it is an outward show of what had taken place. But more than that, Peter describes it as a 'pledge of good conscience' (v21) - this basically means that by being baptised, we commit ourselves to obeying God's commands all our lives. That is how we keep a 'good conscience'.
We shared about our experiences when we were baptised and what made us do so. We also thought about our enthusiasm then compared with now.
For those of us who found that our enthusiasm has increased, we should not be too complacent but to give God the glory and continue to persevere in our walk. For those who found that our enthusiasm seemed to have decreased, we should remind ourselves that our walk with God is for our whole lives - and we still have opportunities to be more committed.
As Winston Churchill once said - Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.
