Growing in Suffering - 1 Peter 2:21-25

Introduction

Peter’s theme throughout chapter 2 has been spiritual growth. Having established in chapter 1 the reality of the new birth, he now exhorts his hearers to the natural and logical next step of Christian life: growth. Just as a natural baby must inevitably, by a miracle of God, grow after they are born, so also a spiritual baby must inevitably, by a miracle of God, grow after they are born.

We see for Peter that this growth happens as a result of feasting on the Word in verses 1-3, that it happens in proportion to our coming to Christ as the cornerstone of the new covenant temple in verse 4, that it happens together, in community and communion with the church, in verses 5-10, and that it happens before the eyes of a watching world in verse 11 and onward.

Last week we saw that a significant mark of spiritual growth and maturity as Christians is humility. This humility may be further defined according to Peter as subjection and submission to authorities. These authorities may be civil or corporate, they may be good or evil. Yet our responsibility as Christians is not resistance or revolution, but submission and subjection. This subjection and submission has two direct results: it silences folly and solicits favor.

Peter unquestionably qualifies subjection and submission to both good and evil authorities as good and excellent behavior before the eyes of the watching world. But he further qualifies it as suffering. It is certain that Christian conviction borne out in toil and turmoil of human experience, expressed as willing submission and subjection to those placed over us in positions of civil and corporate authority, will yield a harvest of suffering.

I think it’s important to ensure we are abundantly clear on what this means for us today, and I want you to write this down because it’s that important: Christians are called to submission and subjection before civil and corporate authorities, but submission and subjection do not exclude standing and speaking. All four ought to mark the life of the suffering Christian in equal portion. What does this look like? Let’s work backwards through history.

For James Coates, standing and speaking meant continuing to gather his church in person at full capacity when the Canadian government deemed such a gathering illegal. But subjecting and submitting also meant that he spent 35 days in jail. He did not resist arrest, he did not curse his captors, and he did not incite his followers to violence.

For the Puritan John Bunyan, standing and speaking meant continuing to preach according to his conscience and convictions, which happened to be in violation of Act of Uniformity issued by King Charles II. Subjection and submission meant that he willingly left his wife and children behind, one of whom was blind, and spent 12 years in the Bedford County Jail, where he penned some of the works that have made him the most widely read British author in history, surpassing the likes of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens in readership the world over.

For the Reformer William Tyndale, standing and speaking meant being constantly on the move and constantly in hiding, working when he could find a moment of peace and quiet on his translation of the Bible into English, and writing tracts and treatises speaking out against the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, King Henry VIII of England, and the archbishops and cardinals who promoted such false doctrines as Mariolatry, veneration, indulgences, papal authority, and justification by works. Submission and subjection meant that when he was betrayed into the hands of the British Royal Police by his friend Harry Phillips, he did not fight or resist or cause a ruckus, but went willingly to the Castle of Vilvoorde where he was imprisoned for over a year. Submission and subjection meant that when he was taken to the stake to hanged and burned, instead of spewing vitriol and violence against his captors and killers, he prayed for them. But in the moment of submission and subjection, Tyndale also stood and spoke, as he affirmed his guilt before every grievance listed out before the watching crowd. The charges were read by a lawyer: “Tyndale maintains that faith alone justifies.” Tyndale’s response: “I do.” “Tyndale maintains that to believe in the forgiveness of sins and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel is enough for salvation.” “I do.” So the list of charges was read. As the noose was raised and placed around his neck, and the fire lit below his feet, Tyndale subjected and submitted and stood and spoke together in his final act and word, for raising his bound hands to heaven, he cried out in prayer: “Lord, open the eyes of the king of England!”

For the Apostle Paul, standing and speaking meant ministering as a chosen instrument of the risen Christ, bearing His name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. It meant that when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone him, he fled with his companions so that he might continue to proclaim the gospel. It meant that he boldly cast out a demon from a young girl, which drew the ire of the local authorities. Then, in submission and subjection, was willingly sent to prison by the authorities, beaten, and bound in stocks and chains. Again, speaking and standing meant that Paul would stand before Jewish and Roman authorities and even before Caesar himself, proclaiming the gospel, while subjecting himself to their authority by willingly being placed under house arrest.

Like James Coates, John Bunyan, William Tyndale, and the Apostle Paul, the Christian has a responsibility to subject and submit, to stand and to speak. Doing all four in conjunction with each other, as Peter tells us and as the history of the church bears witness, will result in suffering.

For each of these men, as we read of and reflect on their suffering submission, subjection, standing, and speaking, we cannot escape two questions: why would they do this, and how could they do this? Where does the faithful Christian find the strength to suffer?

Peter tells us: the Christian finds the strength to suffer in Christ’s example to us, Christ’s atonement for us, and Christ’s shepherding of us.

So let us turn with Peter to Christ, as we look to the road laid before us, the road of suffering to glory.

Christ’s Example To Us

Peter’s first source of strength for suffering is found in Christ’s example of the same.

Peter connects us to the favor-finding good conduct of verse 20 with this first phrase of verse 21: To this you have been called.

We need to observe here that submitting, subjecting, speaking, and standing will result in suffering. For those who do good in the face of evil and corrupt authorities, not only the prediction, not only the promise, but indeed the calling is to suffering.

Therefore, we must prepare ourselves diligently to take up this calling of godly suffering. In many ways, Peter has been seeking subtly and implicitly to help us prepare for this suffering throughout the letter up to this point. His exhortation to prepare your minds for action, to keep sober in spirit, to fix our hope completely on future grace from 1:13 speaks directly to the call to suffer as a Christian.

This preparation can take many forms, but I think it starts with the local church. Are you anchored to the people of God, under Biblically qualified and Godly elders, participating in the public proclamation of the Word of God and the administration of the sacraments? Do you cherish those times? Do you savor their sweetness? Do you linger over these precious moments before God’s means of grace, drawing His people closer to Him and to one another? If we are to prepare for the call to suffer, we must do so together. We must commit to building one another up, to encouraging one another as long as it is called today, to speaking the truth together in love. This community is the stronghold where strength for the coming battle is to be found.

I find it troubling therefore that so many people, when the foretaste of suffering came to our own shores in March of 2020, fled from the very place from which God has ordained that they should find their strength and solitude. The call to suffering is a call to full, living, and vibrant churches, in which God’s people are strengthened and encouraged to face the tribulations that this world will certainly level against them.

If preparation to answer the call of suffering is to begin in the local church, it is to continue in the private lives of individual Christians through the personal means of grace that God has ordained. Knees that are sore from hours of kneeling before God’s face in the Word and in prayer are knees that are prepared for battle. A mind that is saturated in sound doctrine is a mind that is prepared to suffer well in the midst of persecution. Those who would suffer well must read much and pray often.

And more than reading and praying, I would venture that the grace of music is a vital and essential means of preparation as well, for often our minds fail us when our sufferings are great, but equally as often our hearts are filled with a song that is filled with grace and truth for the moment of trial. When we suffer, do we sing? As counterintuitive as it may sound, I have found in my own experience that when my mind and emotions are overwhelmed with whatever I am facing, a simple hymn is the antidote to the chaos.

Come before the Lord in Word and in prayer and in song to be prepared to answer the call of suffering.

Wayne Grudem provides a helpful and pastoral summary:

1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary 2. For Christ Suffered for You, Trusting God (2:21–25)

The knowledge that we have been called to a life which will include some unfair suffering, while it may at first dismay us, should not ultimately unsettle our minds. We should not of course seek suffering (Matt. 6:13), but when it comes we may even ‘rejoice’ (1 Pet. 4:13; Jas 1:2), knowing that in it God will draw us near to himself, and we shall know the fellowship of Christ who understands our suffering, and ‘the spirit of glory and of God’ (4:14) will rest upon us.

We affirm with Peter therefore the suffering is not merely a reality to be reckoned with but a calling to be fulfilled. And this calling exists within the reality of Christ’s own suffering. For Peter says “To suffering you have been called, since Christ suffered also for you.”

The reason and motivation for submitting and subjecting and standing and speaking and suffering well as a Christian is found in the suffering of Christ. As Tom Schreiner puts it, we suffer for Him because He suffered for us.

The strength for suffering is to be found then in the suffering of Christ, specifically in the suffering he endured throughout his life. The suffering in view here is to be differentiated slightly from the suffering in view in verse 24, and in view in 1 Peter 3:18. and elsewhere in the New Testament. This suffering is the suffering of Christ’s life, not of His death. It is the suffering of His active obedience, not His passive obedience.

This example of suffering obedience is our example, set up for us as a pattern of life to be followed. The strength for suffering is to be found as we look to Christ as the perfect example of Godly, obedient suffering. Christ himself called us to this in Matthew 16:24:

Matthew 16:24 LSB

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

The imagery of taking up the cross may have been lost on the disciples early in His ministry, but certainly becomes clear as they witness their Rabbi dragging a splintered beam outside the city, up Golgotha Hill, a spectacle and mockery before the crowds. For the disciples then, to take up their own cross is to follow in Christ’s example, as He willingly took to His lips the cup of wrath and providence poured for Him by His Father. They too must take the cup of suffering and drink it down to the dregs, stumbling and falling under their own splintered beam, being mocked and ridiculed and beaten and imprisoned for Christ’s sake. Each and every disciple of Christ would eventually taste this cup, and not only taste it, but drink it dry in the service of their King.