Grace Means: Submission To Masters
Grace Means: Submission to Masters
1 Peter 2: 18-25
There are various experiences that we share as human beings but perhaps the most common and pervasive of these are grief, pain and suffering. What is different, however, is how we handle them. Some, with stoic resolve, bear it as a duty, some crumble under its pressure, other suffer seemingly irreversible trauma, and yet others undergo it joyfully knowing that it is but a temporary trial until the time that they receive a greater glory.
The message that Peter gives us here is rather radical. We must not fool ourselves into thinking that as Christian’s suffering is something to be avoided at all costs but rather suffering is something to embrace as it becomes that which God uses in our lives for His glory.
A question came to mind as I was studying for this sermon. Have I even begun to have the right attitude toward suffering? To me it is an impossible commission to fulfill apart from the grace of God, Peter’s message is clear. Peter’s key idea in this passage of Scripture is “Desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ in suffering.” In telling us to desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ in suffering, Peter outlines three indispensable components of suffering that he wants us to consider.
The first component of suffering that Peter wants us to consider is the call to suffering. In verse 18-21 we see this call to suffering. In the beginning of verse 21, Peter says that you have been called to suffer.
In both verse 19 and 20 Peter uses the word grace in connection with suffering. Literally verse 19 reads as, “For this is grace, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrow when suffering unjustly. At the end of verse 20 Peter again uses the word grace when he says, “When you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it this is grace with God.” Our suffering in the will of God for doing right receives grace. When we suffer with the right mindset and with the right action grace is given to us to suffer in a manner pleasing to God. But how do you suffer in the right way? Peter notes two guides to help determine if our suffering is acceptable to God.
The first guide to determine the acceptability of our suffering is our mindset. This is what Peter mentions in verse 19, “For this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.” Peter says that this is acceptable with God is we suffer because of a mindfulness of God and His presence. We must possess a spiritual awareness of God. If we operate solely on the physical plane, making decisions without the awareness of God and His thoughts on a matter, what more are we doing than an unbeliever? We are acting just like an unbeliever if we are operating on that basis without the awareness of God. If the awareness of God’s presence does not change our behavior, then we are acting completely on this physical plane.
We are not to suffer with a grim stoical thought of, “I’ll just grin and bear it. I’ll get through.” We don’t suffer because it is our duty. We must have the right mindset in this. We must understand that in our suffering God is near and concerned. We must recognize that we can have God’s peace when we are going through a trial even though we don’t understand why or how long the trial will last. The reason we can have God’s peace is because we know that God is there. God has not deserted us. Peter says that we are not to let God slip from our day. Keep focused on the God who sees, the God who is nearby. The God who will never leave you nor forsake you. We must recognize that the more we suffer with a mindset that God is near the closer we will come to God. God will pour out more grace if we are willing to receive it.
The second guide to determine the acceptability of our suffering is our action. This is what he notes in verse 20. “For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? Peter indicates here that it is foolish to think that any suffering that we endure because we have done wrong is a mark of God’s grace. What credit is there when you sin and are harshly treated and rightly so? In that case we should take our punishment because we deserve it. What Peter wants us to understand here is that if we are experiencing a trial of suffering because of sin in our life, we shouldn’t think that God is somehow pleased in how we endure it. God doesn’t give us points when we beat our bodies like some monastic hermit.
It is when we are doing right and suffer for it that God is pleased. This is what the second part of verse 20 describes. It is interesting to note Joseph’s life in the book of Genesis. In the midst of his suffering in jail for doing good, the Scripture says that the Lord was with Joseph and gave him grace. This is exactly about what Peter is talking. The very reason Joseph was in jail in the first place was because he was conscious of God’s presence and refused to sin against God. God poured out His grace upon everything Joseph did because he definitely chose to do good regardless of the outcome of his actions.
If we want our suffering to be an evident sign of God’s grace in our lives then we ought to live with the conscious awareness that our Lord is the God who sees and that we ought to decide to do good regardless of the consequences. Then God’s grace, which is poured out in our suffering, will adorn our lives in the way that a beautiful ring compliments the hand that wears it.
The second part of suffering that Peter gives us is the pattern for suffering. Christ is the pattern that Peter gives us. Peter notes that we were called to this suffering. This word is linked closely to one of Peter’s key words that he uses throughout his letter. It is the chosen who are the ones called to suffer.
Peter says, Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example to follow in His steps. Our goal is to follow in Christ’s path step be step. Charles Sheldon, received inspiration from this verse for his, “In His Steps” book. The characters in his book were challenged to ask themselves the question, “What would Jesus do?” The real questions, however, to ask ourselves from this verse are, “What did Jesus do?” And “How can I follow in His footsteps?” This verse calls for a commitment to the real sufferings of Christ.
How have you viewed the Christian life? He you seen it as a means of gain for yourself, or a means of suffering? Peter says that we as believers are to live with a calling to suffer. With this in mind Peter describes 5 key elements to Christ’s suffering that we are called to follow.
Peter says we are to be beyond reproach. Verse 22 notes that Jesus committed no sin, nor was there any deceit or deception found in His mouth. No one could accuse Him of any wrong doing. So much so that at Jesus’ trial it took them a long time just to make up some wrong doing about Him. What about you? Are you committed to being beyond reproach? Or do you let things slide at work? (It’s a stupid rule anyway.) (That doesn’t apply to me) (Just this once, no one will know) Have you found yourself saying these things?
What does it mean to be beyond reproach? All of us need to examine our actions and our motives in every area of our lives and ask the Lord to show us where we have fallen short in this. Allow His grace to work in your life and give to you the freedom to suffer, not for doing wrong, but for doing what pleases the Lord.
Peter tells us here that Jesus was operating within the will of God. Peter is quoting from Isaiah 53 in this verse. He is showing that in His suffering He was fulfilling the will of God. The point is that you can be suffering and be in the will of God. There are some Christians today that say, if you are not rich, then you are not acting in faith. This is the premise of the Word Faith Movement. These men are false apostles teaching a creed that goes against what Peter and the Word of God is teaching. You can be undergoing suffering for the cause of Christ and be in the center of God’s will. And this is what Peter notes about Christ. His suffering was withing the will of God.
Another element in Christ’s suffering we are to follow is that we are to respond to suffering for doing right without retaliation. In both verbal abuse and physical abuse, Jesus did not retaliate. Verse 23 says this, “While being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered not threats.” If anyone had both the reason and power to do so, it would have been Christ. If you were Christ, what would you have done? When the soldiers pounded the spikes into your hands, how would you have handled that? When the men passed by and hurled insults at you and said, “Why don’t you come down from that cross? Wouldn’t you have flown down and slapped them in the face? The innocent Lamb of God could have done all these things but He refused to do so. Instead, He said: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
There were no sharp, biting comments, no shaken fists, not even a scowl or grimace, but only a deep desire to see these people who hated His to be brought to know a loving Father who cares for their every need.
In Christ’s suffering we are to follow, we are to commit ourselves to God’s care. The end of verse 23 says, Jesus “kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.” Did Jesus have the power to lay down His life and to take it up again? Yes! But He allowed the Father to call the shots. Can you let God take control of ALL aspects of your life? All is a very BIG word. Can you tell God you are no longer going to put yourself in His place, thinking you can control everything around you? It is impossible for God to use us when we are “Me focused.”
The last element in the suffering of Christ we are to follow is that we are to be sacrificial. He gave His life for ours. He gave up His life. This was the ultimate sacrifice. He often are we worried about how our investments are doing, or how we are going to make it when we retire? When were you concerned about your coworker who is drinking himself to death, or that mom next door who is falling apart because she doesn’t know what to do with her kids? We are probably too often envying that neighbor because of his boat instead of giving ourselves away in prayer for them over the condition of their souls. We envy them because they are prosperous physically when we should be concerned for them because they are bankrupt spiritually.
The third component of suffering that Peter describes is the reason for suffering. Peter details for us one reason why Christ suffered. In this reason for Christ’s suffering, we see one of the reasons for our own suffering. The effect that Christ’s suffering has upon those who trust Him as Savior is that we are turned back from our purposeless and dangerous wanderings into the safe haven of our Shepherd and Guardian. This is what the verse says, “For you were continually straying like sheep but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls.”
Now the face that we are called sheep is not a good thing. Sheep need a shepherd because they are not all there mentally. Apart from Christ we are aimlessly wandering, attempting to satisfy ourselves in any way we can, seeking to find our way out of dilemmas all on our own, become easy targets for sin and attacks be demonic predators. But when we turn to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls, we are able to find spiritual pasture in which to feed, free from worry and predatorial attack. Instead of wandering with no direction we were given a direction and purpose to our lives.
What does this all mean for us?
It means that we must make a commitment to do good regardless of the outcome.
It means that we must not seek the easy way out of sufferings or the world’s way out.
It means that we must remember our Lord is the God who sees and will never leave us.
It means that we are to be without retaliation and respond in a Christlike manner when we are unfairly treated.
It means that we are to sacrifice our lives for Christ.
It means that we must carefully view how we handle our time, our possessions and our family.