1 Peter 2:18-25
Today’s Passage: 1 Peter 2:18-25
Our passage today continues to set guidelines for submission to authority, and specifically this portion zeros-in on how servants are to submit to their masters.
Verse 18 poses a command that may seem harsh when it is plucked out on its own as it urges servants to submit to both the good and the unjust master. Not only is this a command, but it is described as “a gracious thing.”
God is not asking us to sugarcoat unjust treatment or to sweep abuse under the rug, but He is asking us to endure. By focusing our minds on God and orienting our hearts around Jesus’ own suffering, we are given an example to follow and pointed to the Shepherd who cares.
So what can we learn from the suffering of Jesus? How does His suffering demonstrate how to endure in a gracious way?
The suffering of Christ was done without sin or deceit. This means that he did not outwardly sin by acting harshly or lashing out against His offenders, and it also means that He did not store up bitterness or anger in His heart.
It is easy for me to want to brush this off as easy for Jesus. Jesus was God, so of course He was without sin, but He was also man and so He also likely felt the temptation to revile and to threaten. So, how did Jesus fight this temptation?
Just as He fought temptation in the wilderness by focusing on scripture and the truth, Jesus was able to continue by “entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” Jesus did not suffer the Cross because He had to. He was not enduring suffering for His own sake. He endured by trusting that through His “body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”
Jesus endured by trusting that the Judge would use His suffering to redeem the people that He loves, and because of Jesus’ suffering we are offered the biggest act of grace that by his wounds we can be healed.
Written By: Paulette Black
Our passage today continues to set guidelines for submission to authority, and specifically this portion zeros-in on how servants are to submit to their masters.
Verse 18 poses a command that may seem harsh when it is plucked out on its own as it urges servants to submit to both the good and the unjust master. Not only is this a command, but it is described as “a gracious thing.”
God is not asking us to sugarcoat unjust treatment or to sweep abuse under the rug, but He is asking us to endure. By focusing our minds on God and orienting our hearts around Jesus’ own suffering, we are given an example to follow and pointed to the Shepherd who cares.
So what can we learn from the suffering of Jesus? How does His suffering demonstrate how to endure in a gracious way?
The suffering of Christ was done without sin or deceit. This means that he did not outwardly sin by acting harshly or lashing out against His offenders, and it also means that He did not store up bitterness or anger in His heart.
It is easy for me to want to brush this off as easy for Jesus. Jesus was God, so of course He was without sin, but He was also man and so He also likely felt the temptation to revile and to threaten. So, how did Jesus fight this temptation?
Just as He fought temptation in the wilderness by focusing on scripture and the truth, Jesus was able to continue by “entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” Jesus did not suffer the Cross because He had to. He was not enduring suffering for His own sake. He endured by trusting that through His “body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”
Jesus endured by trusting that the Judge would use His suffering to redeem the people that He loves, and because of Jesus’ suffering we are offered the biggest act of grace that by his wounds we can be healed.
Written By: Paulette Black
1 Comment
In an unjust world such as this, thoughts fill my heart of Christ and how "by His wounds you have been healed" from the deadly disease of sin.