“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭3:12‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://www.bible.com/59/1pe.3.12.esv

We should be eternally grateful that Gods economy does not work like ours. While you may look at today’s scripture and think it’s a call to be good, and maybe in some ways it is, but it’s also pointing out that God sees all.

He’s not just glaring at evil, but also seeing and hearing those who are righteous. Now who is righteous? Romans 3:10 tells us that “none are righteous, no not one”. So where is our hope?

Romans 3, and indeed the better part of the New Testament, goes on to tell us that we take on the righteousness of Christ when we put our faith in Him. God hears the prayers of those who put their faith in Him. There’s so much more to unpack here, but the start of the journey is putting our faith in Christ our Lord.

It’s not about behavior modification, as if anyone of us could ever be good enough. Faith in Christ and walking in the Kingdom of God is about being brought from death to life. Now if we’re alive then we’re on a path to become more like Christ so of course we’re going to be a different person with different actions. But step one is to receive life through faith alone. Dead people cannot be “good” … they’re just dead. Christ calls us back to life to walk with Him.

So we must ask ourselves, are we alive and walking with Christ or are we spiritually dead trying to be good?