1 Peter 3:15, The Call to Apologetics?

//In a forum a while back, a member proposed today’s verse as encouragement for Christians to take up the call to apologetics … that is, to defend their faith.

I disagree, and in fact, I think that it instructs us to do the opposite. Reading the passage in context, the instruction begins back in verse 3:8:

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

So it is a call to sympathy, love, compassion, and humility. The author compares good (as defined by 3:8) to evil (presumably, arrogance and lack of sympathy, love, and compassion) and says “be prepared to explain why you act the way you do, where you get your hope for a better world.”

I do not believe this has anything whatsoever to do with modern apologetics, which seems to focus on proving the truth of the Bible. It is merely about convincing others, by actions and words, that the way of Jesus brings hope for a better world.