16 But answer those people in a gentle way with respect. Always be able to feel that you are doing right. When you do that, the people who say bad things about you will be made ashamed. They say these bad things about the good way you live in Christ. They will be made ashamed for the bad things they said about you.
16 having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
16 [And see to it that] your conscience is entirely clear (unimpaired), so that, when you are falsely accused as evildoers, those who threaten you abusively and revile your right behavior in Christ may come to be ashamed [of slandering your good lives].
16 Yet do this with respectful humility, maintaining a good conscience. Act in this way so that those who malign your good lifestyle in Christ may be ashamed when they slander you.
16 But do so with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, so that, in whatever matter they may slander you, they shall be confounded, since they falsely accuse your good behavior in Christ.
16 But with modesty and fear, having a good conscience: that whereas they speak evil of you, they may be ashamed who falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
But when the other supervisors and the satraps heard about this, they were very jealous. They tried to find reasons to accuse Daniel. So they watched the things Daniel did as he went about doing the business of the government. But they could not find anything wrong with Daniel. So they could not accuse him of doing anything wrong. Daniel was a man people could trust. He did not cheat the king and he worked very hard.
“People will say bad things against you and hurt you. They will lie and say all kinds of evil things against you because you follow me. But when people do those things to you, know that God will bless you.
I am in Christ and I am telling you the truth. I don’t lie. My deepest feelings are ruled by the Holy Spirit. {\cf2\super [72]} And those feelings tell me that I am not lying:
This is what we are proud of, and I can say with all my heart that it is true: In all the things we have done in the world, we have done everything with an honest and pure heart from God. And this is even more true in the things we have done with you. We did this by God’s grace (kindness), not by the kind of wisdom the world has.
But we have turned away from secret and shameful ways. We don’t use trickery, and we don’t change the teaching of God. No! We teach the truth plainly. This is how we show people who we are. And this is how they can know in their hearts what kind of people we are before God.
The goal of this command is for people to have love. To have this love people must have a pure heart, they must do what they know is right, and they must have true faith.
I always remember you in my prayers day and night. I thank God for you in those prayers. He is the God my ancestors {\cf2\super [2]} served. I have always served him, doing what I know is right.
And your teaching should be clearly right so that you cannot be criticized. Then any person who is against you will be ashamed because he has nothing bad that he can say against us.
So surely the blood of Christ can do much, much more. Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit {\cf2\super [106]} as a perfect sacrifice {\cf2\super [107]} to God. His blood will make us fully clean from the evil things we have done. His blood will make us pure even in our hearts. We are made pure so that we can worship (serve) the living God.
People who don’t believe are living all around you. Those people may say that you are doing wrong. So live good lives. Then they will see the good things you do, and they will give glory to God on that day when he comes.
That water is like baptism {\cf2\super [26]} that now saves you. Baptism is not the washing of dirt from the body. Baptism is asking God for a pure heart. It saves you because Jesus Christ was raised from death.