January 2023
Nougat 25
There are cultures that operate from a system of honor and shame. But is that the honor that defines our faith. Consider today’s Holy Nougat
“It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.” 1 Peter 2:15 NLT
What does it mean to live honorably? Well I guess you are welcome to state the obvious – one which silences the ignorant. And I cannot argue with that. But I would ask for a little more details. And, from the introduction, you might also go into detail about vengeance when shame is brought on a family or community. Except that the one who experiences the vengeance (by way of death) is usually the girl/woman who is perceived to have shamed the family and the perpetrator gets off freely in cases of rape. And if we propose the honor system where the assumption is that we purchase the service before paying; well, we’re close, but still not on track.
The use of ‘honorable’ here is in the context of ‘doing good’, from the Greek ἀγαθοποιέω (ie agathopoieó, intrinsically good). For many of us, the nougat just became a lot more challenging, as few people want to just do good to their perpetrators in the face of persecution. In some cases, we are most definitely not interested in recalling that there’s intrinsic good as part of our divine 
Yes – God.
Only God
For when we bear in mind that this word comes from Peter the rash – we know that only God could have manifested that transformation. We’re talking about the Simon, renamed Peter. The one whose pre-transformation idea of honor included inflicting harm to the ones who presented a threat to Jesus and Jesus’ ministry. As a fisherman, he was versed with using a knife and was not afraid to use it. That Peter had no compunction about dealing with persecution. In fact he’d probably find a scripture to defend his actions.
Then God’s grace transformed his outlook. He probably thought of another scripture: ’vengeance is mine, and recompense’ (Deuteronomy 32:35). I rather believe that his understanding of Jesus’ life and God’s Spirit dwelling within, motivated the transformation.
If it happened to him and Paul, who preached a similar gospel, I know God’s grace can transform us that we do the intrinsically good thing. We choose to compensate evil with good (see Romans 12:17). And that’s also how we infect others with God’s Spirit.
So we do the honorable in the face of persecution (help us Lord), and that in turn is the witness to God’s Spirit within, silencing the haters without. May God’s grace sustain us to go do likewise.
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May all we seek be found in Christ