Thanks for the good thoughts. Indeed we need to be the kind of people who listen and ask questions and honestly want to hear the answers people give and know their experiences from which those answers come.

I’m surprised you didn’t comment on 1 Peter 3:13-17 which is so excellent on this whole topic. We are to give an answer (or make a defence) with such gentleness and respect that any who would revile us may be put to shame. This text is set in the larger framework of our wilful subjection to others out of our ultimate freedom and power in Christ. (citizens to authorities, servants to masters, wives to husbands, husbands to wives in a certain sense, all of us to each other and believers to unbelievers)

We need boldness and graciousness. We should be full of grace and truth like our master.

Thanks for this article,
Paul