“David, it’s good that you’re going off to do all of this apologetics stuff, but don’t forget to preach the gospel.”
Sound advice from a Christian brother, who shared it with me before I set off to study apologetics overseas. But to be candid, his comment troubled me. What did he think apologetics was all about if not the gospel? What has happened to our understanding of apologetics that we would need such reminding?
For some, “apologetics” has become a bit of a dirty word, even (perhaps most especially) within the Church. At the risk of being a little curt, Christians seem to have organised themselves into one of two groups on the matter. There are those who have drunk the cultural cool-aid and think apologetics has no place in the Church because it’s unloving to challenge people’s beliefs. Then there are others who look down on apologetics from their theological cloisters for what they consider to be an over compromise with fallen reason – just “preach the gospel”!
Depending on the day, it’s not hard for me to find sympathy for either of these groups. There are plenty of obnoxious so-called apologists who seem to get a kick out of offending people with what are often simplistic arguments, and there is no denying the tendency for others to use apologetics as a vehicle to pedal words absent any sort of evangelistic cause or conviction. But I don’t think poor examples should be the measure of how we understand apologetics.
Apologetics is Biblical
The word “apologetics” derives from the Greek ἀπολογία (ah-poh-loh-gee-ah) which means “to give a reasoned defence”. We find it in the familiar ‘apologetics verse’, 1 Peter 3:14-15: “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence [apologetic] to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…”
It’s an unfortunate translation in English because it sounds like apologising or saying we’re sorry for something, which is not what the Greek means. Apologetics is simply giving the reasons, the why, underneath what you believe, and here in 1 Peter we see that it is an expected part of being a Christian.
Apologetics is for all Christians
The “your” to whom Peter is referring are the recipients of the epistle. Earlier Peter addressed servants and masters, then husbands and wives, now he’s expanded his instructions to all of his readers, to “those who are elect” who have been “born again to a living hope” (1:1, 3).
So, here’s the interesting logic: I am a Christian (elect, born again) therefore I am an apologist – and so are you if you’re a Christian. I find that interesting because not all Christians are called to be teachers or pastors, but we are all called apologists. Does that mean we need to go and get a degree in apologetics? Of course not. There are more reasons to believe in God than our reason will ever know; the intellectual life is not the only road to God.
Whether you’re a nurse, a musician, an accountant, a barista, a builder, if you’re a Christian you are an apologist. That tells us that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ time-bound cookie-cutter approach for doing Christian apologetics. Just as no two cooks or coffee makers are alike, so each person’s apologetics will be refracted through their own personalities and life experiences. Christians are hopeful people (1:3); apologetics is simply the giving of reasons for that hope we already have.
Apologetics is all about Jesus
When Peter says “always [be] prepared…” we’ve seen how that preparation cannot mean Christians need to go get some specialised degree or be intellectual gladiators of some kind. The word for preparation is an adjective implying a state or condition a person is already in. Hence, the instruction here is that Christians maintain the hopeful state they’re already in.
But what is hope? In its simplest, hope is something invisible, an expectation or desire looking forward to something you believe to be true. And because hope is something inside of a person, others don’t have direct access to it. But if someone asks a Christian about the invisible hope that is inside them, as Peter says here, then that must mean that the Christian is living in such a way that shows on the outside to other people what is going on, on the inside.
What might this look like? We’re not left to wonder. Peter gives two examples in v. 14 when he says we should not “fear” or be “troubled” in times of adversity. In other words, hopeful people don’t panic, don’t seek vengeance, instead they return good for evil when they’re going through tough times. At least that’s the way it’s described in the previous section where Peter talks about women who have a “gentle and quiet spirit”, who do good and do not fear, evidencing their hope in God (vv. 4-6). Incidentally, that passage is, itself, a quote from Isaiah 8:12-14 where the people of Israel are said to stand out from other nations by not getting caught up in conspiracies fearing what everyone else is fearing. Ancient Israel was to stand out in the world by fearing God more than they feared anything else so that God Himself would become their sanctuary, their security, their stability amidst adversity.
So it is for Christians today. To be prepared means to live “honouring the Lord as holy” so that He will be your sanctuary. When everything else in this world starts to shake, Jesus remains the firm foundation upon which you can stand, and people will see that stability in your life and it will make them want to come and ask you about it. Not everyone ‘wears their heart on their sleeve’, so to speak, but all Christians should wear their hope.
Apologetics is all about loving others
Finally, Peter says we are to do all of this “with gentleness and respect”. In other words, how Christians do apologetics is just as important as what or who our apologetic is all about – Jesus.
My mate wasn’t mistaken – we can’t “forget to preach the gospel” – but it is a biblical understanding of apologetics that tells us that. Christians are apologeticspeople precisely because we are gospel people. The good news of Jesus is that “God so loved the world that He sent His one and only son” (John 3:16). The incarnation was not just the proclamation but the embodiment of God’s truth in love. In the same way our apologetic endeavour is shaped by the distinctiveness of the hope we have in Jesus: His birth, life, death, and resurrection. Thus understood, apologetics is a way of moving us from our love of God to our love for others, from our worship to our witness.
We do not need to drink the cultural cool-aid or retreat into a theological cloister. 1 Peter 3:14-15 reminds us that apologetics is just what we need today, to strengthen our collective witness as the Church. The lesson in all of this, as I see it, is to remember that disembodied words are as valuable as screen doors on a submarine because truth is rarely heard until grace is first experienced. Our burden is to share the hope of our salvation to anyone who asks “with gentleness and respect” because that is the way God has shared Himself in salvation. God meets us where we’re at in our humanity and extends His grace towards us while we are yet sinners. His way is to be our way: uncompromising truth enveloped in unconditional love.
