Submission, Suffering and a Servant

Pray.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, Oh Lord, my rock and my Redeemer

INTRO

Illustration

Years ago, just before marrying Soumya, I worked in Bangalore’s oldest architectural firm. I loved it there. They had a pretty decent work culture, I was learning a lot and my boss used to be a professor of mine at college. It felt like I was living the dream.

Till suddenly, I wasn’t.

After working there for three years, it was time for my next appraisal. I thought I had done well and worked hard and served the firm well. The meeting went well until I was told a line that I have since begun to hate: I am not matching my potential.

I didn’t know what that even meant. I asked for some quantifiable evidence, but got a vague response about prioritizing interaction. And then they told me my new salary. I had gotten an increment of 650 Rupees. It didn’t bother me too much until a colleague of mine who worked fewer hours and was junior to me told me his increment, and I wished I never heard it.

I was hurt. I felt used.

And it felt very very unfair.

Need

I am pretty sure that my experience is nowhere close to experiences that many of you have had.

But the desire, perhaps, remains the same.

We all want to be treated justly.

Topic

And I think Peter shows us how we can find justice, especially in the midst of rampant injustice.

Reference

1 Peter 2:18–25 NASB 2020

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are harsh. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person endures grief when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you would follow in His steps, He who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being abusively insulted, He did not insult in return; while suffering, He did not threaten, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

Organisation

Exhortation: Fearful Submission

Motivation: Favour in Suffering

Foundation: Follow the Saviour

Exhortation: Fearful Submission (v18)

Remember that Peter’s writing in this letter is to

“exiles” and “strangers”

(most recently in 1 Peter 2:11

“Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.” )

And Peter has just told them their purpose as “strangers” and “exiles” in 1 Peter 2:9

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,

so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”

And in our passage, he is talking specifically to believers who were household slaves.

And although none of us are slaves like people then,

we can take the liberty of applying the passage

to all of us who suffer unjustly under authority,

because in this section that deals with authority,

Peter has unified all believers under the title of

“slaves of God” (v16)

who are spiritually free

And we’ll see that the foundation for his argument is a universal one

in vv21-25.

So, the exhortation is simple: “submit”!

Yet it isn’t easy.

Submit not only to the good masters,

but to the cruel, harsh, unjust and awful masters as well.

Peter exhorts his listeners to use their freedom

and intentionally put themselves under

the painful power of cruel masters.

Not only that,

he adds, “submit with all fear”.

Now in this letter, Peter consistently tells his exile friends

to fear only one person.

You see it in v16:

Fear God.

And I think Peter is continuing that idea here.

We submit

to our clients

and bosses not out of fear of them,

but in fear of God.

He drives our submission.

So brothers and sisters, in our quest for justice and fairness,

are we willing to obey and submit to our awful, cruel, unjust bosses?

Are we willing to submit to a boss

who refuses to give increments,

To a client who constantly berates our work,

To those in authority who simply do not recognise what you do?

What about in ministry, in our church?

Are we willing to submit even when we are not recognised for our work in the church?

Deeper than that, I have to ask myself, do I fear God?

Is that what drives my submission?

The command in v18 is to submit with all fear.

The exhortation: Fearful Submission

Motivation: Favour in Suffering (v19-20)

Note with me the motivation that Peter gives.

In v19, you see “For”, giving a reason for why we ought to submit.

And this motivation is a double dose of two related ideas: grace and credit.

You’ll see grace sandwiching the motivation

at the beginning of v19

and the end of v20.

Most translations will say “This finds favour”.

But literally, it reads “This is grace”.

You see, Peter has been repeatedly talking about grace throughout in the letter

In 1 Peter 1:2 ...May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

In 1 Peter 1:10 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you ...”

In 1 Peter 1:13 “... set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

You’ll see more in 1 Pt 3:7; 4:10; 5:10, 12.

But the summary is this:

God has promised grace and favour

which is now accessible to believers.

But how does this grace show up?

Answer:

v19: Endurance in unjust suffering because of conscience toward God

v20b: Endurance in unjust suffering because of doing what is right

Here then is the motivation.

when I am doing what is right

in God’s sight,

and I am treated cruelly

for doing the right thing,

I am under the grace of God.

Now observe v20a in the middle,

Peter changes the consequence.

He doesn’t say grace or favour with God,

instead:

“What credit is there

if you endure harshness

because of sin?”

Peter has happily interchanged

the word grace/favour with “credit”.

To paraphrase,

if I do wrong and get punished,

I deserve it.

But implicitly,

when I do what is right

and endure cruel treatment

because I fear God,

there is credit.

There is a reward.

Motivation 1: I am under grace now (19a, 20b)

Motivation 2: A reward is coming in the future (20a)

These motivations enable us exiles

to do what’s right in God’s sight,

and submit to cruel consequences,

because our eyes are not fixed on their cruelty,

but they look upward at God’s present grace

and they look forward to God’s reward

for endurance.

Fellow exiles, how willing are we to refuse to do what is wrong? How willing are we to bear the cost of wrongdoing?

When our bosses tell us to fudge numbers, are we ready to say no, and face the consequences?

When our clients tell us to break the law, are we ready to lose them and their money?

When our companies ask us to celebrate “diversity”, are we willing to risk our jobs and refuse?

When our companies ask us to prioritise work over our families or church, are we willing to refuse and are we ready to get a pay-cut?

Are we ready to lose our reputation when we don’t participate in crude jokes, binge drinking and partying?

All of us do what we want.

So what do we want?

The favour of God or the favour of men?

We all want to be treated justly right?

But here’s the beautiful thing.

We have more than mere justice.

We have favour.

We have grace.

All in the middle of unjust suffering.

But there is more;

we will also have a reward.

The Motivation: We have God’s Favour in our Suffering

The Exhortation: Fearful Submission

The Motivation: Favour in Suffering

Foundation: Following the Servant (v21-25)

Peter goes deeper in v21-25, beginning this section again with “For”.

And he answers that age old-question:

“What is God’s call for my life?”

Not job satisfaction,

but job suffering,

is our calling.

And why is this our calling in v21?

“...because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you would follow in His steps,”

There is the foundation.

The Messiah suffered for us

and called us to follow after his pattern.

And then Peter goes into a stream of allusions to the servant songs from Isaiah. Jesus, the Servant:

did not sin (v22)

was not deceitful (v22)

was abusively insulted but did not insult back (v23)

he suffered, but did not threaten back (v23)

Note the perfection of Jesus.

He did not sin,

yet he suffered.

He was the ultimate case of unjust suffering.

There was no one better.

And observe Jesus’ response.

Forget physically attacking back,

he didn’t even open his mouth

in retaliation.

Instead what did he do?

See the end of v23:

1 Peter 2:23 “...but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly;”

Jesus, who suffered unjustly,

put himself in the just hands of God.

God was the ultimate judge

and rewarder.

Jesus knew that

even though God’s justice was slow,

God’s justice would be very thorough.

So while he was being handed over for our sins,

he was handing himself over to God.

There’s a scary thing there.

If we hand ourselves over to God’s justice,

We would be doomed.

We are not Jesus.

We are not perfect.

If anything, we have caused other people

cruel harm when they did right.

Peter knows this well.

After all, who was it who betrayed

His Master three times?

And so he reminds us of what Jesus did

by using Scripture from Isaiah 53

Take a look at v23-24

He took our sins

He was cursed instead of us

So that we to sins

So that we might live for righteousness

He took the shame and penalty of Peter’s betrayal.

He took the shame and penalty of my betrayal.

And gave Peter and me healing.

Healing, not with hands,

but by wounds.

Here’s something else.

My past is frightening.

I know I was like that continually straying,

backsliding black sheep.

Peter knows that too.

So in v25 he shows us not only have a Servant

and a Saviour,

but we see a Shepherd

and guardian.

As John wrote in John 10:28

No one can snatch these sheep from

Jesus’ hand.

So, the penalty is taken,

And our souls are guarded.

So as v23 implies,

we, like Jesus, are free to entrust ourselves

to God’s justice .

And Peter’s point is this.

Jesus’ response is the original pattern.

We are to trace the same pattern.

I saw the kids colouring with a colouring book

on Wednesday.

There was a full coloured spread on the cover,

and outlines of beautful patterns inside.

Jesus is the full coloured cover image.

We are called to colour our outlines

to match the image of Jesus.

And as we follow in Jesus’ footsteps,

Peter later tells us where they go.

See 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God...

This is the foundation for

both the motivation and the exhortation.

Jesus, the suffering servant shepherd.

Christ’s past suffering

is our present condition,

and Christ’s present condition

is our future destination.

Dear church, have we come to terms with the freedom we have in Christ? Freedom to suffer cruelty, just like he did?

Do we recognise how secure we are in the arms of the Good Shepherd? His rod and staff comforts me, while my masters’ whips do nothing.

Do we find our satisfaction in God’s calling in following the Saviour, or do we try to be Saviours ourselves at our workplace? This saviour complex is what most people call job satisfaction, I think.

Does our submission take the shape of the cross? Are we willing to let go of ouselves and entrust ourselves to great David’s greater Son?

We all want to be treated justly right?

But here’s the beautiful thing.

We have more than mere justice.

We have favour.

And we have a Servant to follow,

The Foundation: Follow the Servant

The Motivation: Favour in Suffering

The Exhortation: Fearful Submission

And here’s something else that happens.

Look back at 1 Pt 2:9

1 Peter 2:9 NASB 2020

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

As each of us submit in fear, enduring suffering,

And as the colouring sheets of our lives,

look more and more like Jesus,

slowly, the earth will be filled with the glory

of God as the waters cover the sea.

Application?