1 Peter 2:18-25
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OK, so last week we looked at submission to authority. We looked to understand 1 Peter 2:13-17 in light of incidents like the Protestant Reformation (via Luther), the German resistance movement (via Bonhoeffer), and the American Revolution.
One of the questions that was asked, and we tried to answer was: was it sinful for these people we looked at to rebel against the authority that was in power. We asked that question because of this:
13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
And we dealt with the fact that sometimes rebellion is sinful. See, the Old Testament and Israel’s rebellion against God, but also Israel’s command to sit under Babylonian rule:
1 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: 4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
God told the exiles to stay put. Obey the authorities.
We also dealt with the fact that sometimes rebellion is the right course of action. See the whole Bible, and in particular the early church fathers, but also the Exodus of Israel, Daniel’s refusal to stop praying, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to bow to the statue. These are all acts of rebellion.
One of the main points I wanted you to see was that sin is an individual issue. Make no mistake, governments can sin, but it is a collective sin. We see that with Israel in the Old Testament. Israel as one man rejects God. They set up idols. They demand a king.
But that corporate sin comes after the long drift of individuals into their own individual sin.
Now, we dealt with the issue of authority and government and rebellion. Now what?
Well, in the next section, we see that Peter takes the idea of submission to authority and brings it close to home.
in verses 18-25, Peter takes the same ideas and applies them to general, daily life.
Let’s read the section and we will start breaking it down.
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
So, still thinking about submitting to authority here, Peter goes from corporate, from governmental and magisterial, and brings it down to boss/worker point of view.
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
And again we have hard things in scripture.
How hard is it to do what your boss says if they are a good boss? If they care for you?
That’s easy, right?
I’ve never been in the military, but one of my favorite military biographical stories is of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Company E. Designated as “Easy Company” (the phonetic alphabet equivalent to E in WWII).
Some of you may have seen their story in Band of Brothers.
This company of parachute infantry soldiers - Airborne Infantry, the “Screamin’ Eagles” - were highly trained soldiers that were the tip of the sword when it came to the US’s involvement in World War II.
During training, Easy Company was under the command of Herbert Sobel. Sobel was a tyrant and militarily incompetent. While he was adept at whipping the men into shape, as a field commander he was a hazard. Some of the NCO’s mutinied because of Sobel’s poor leadership.
His ultimate replacement (and a man that Sobel did not like) was Richard “Dick” Winters. Stephen Ambrose, in his book Band of Brothers, wrote, “Sobel had authority over the men [but] Lieutenant Winters had their respect.” Winters ended the war as a decorated soldier, ultimately rising to the rank of Major, and led Easy Company and the 506th to many victories. The company became one of the most lauded in the military. Part of this was because the men loved Winters. They would do anything for him. These men trusted Winters to lead them in the face of certain death.
It is easy for a person to follow a good leader.
When the leader is vile or cruel, it is much harder.
This is where Peter is living in these verses.
Look at what he says in the next couple verses:
19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
Now, this is one of those things that we hate about scripture. This idea that sorrows are going to come.
Peter isn’t saying if you suffer. He is saying when you suffer. We don’t like that, but for first century Christians that was a reality.
“when…one endures sorrows...” “when you do good and suffer for it...”
The realization here is that sorrows are certain.
But that isn’t the lesson Peter is teaching. It isn’t about the certainty of trials. In fact, that seems to be implied as normal. We are to take it as read that sorrows will come.
The lesson is how we deal with those sorrows.
Who remembers Jim Bakker? You may remember him better when coupled with his wife, Tammy Faye Bakker.
Jim Bakker was a televangelist. He is a charlatan, convicted of felony fraud, and served time in prison. He was accused of sexual misconduct, which caused him to embezzle money from his church/”ministry endeavors” to pay hush money to the victim. That was, in part led to the fraud conviction. They realized he was cooking the books. He was sentenced to jail and ultimately served like 5 years or so for his crimes.
Was he, in serving his prison sentence for embezzlement and fraud, was he suffering for Christ?
What does the text say to us?
English Standard Version Chapter 2
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?
Now, what about Tim Stephens, the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada?
He spent 21 days in jail for holding outdoor services during the pandemic. He was arrested and the Canadian administration paraded his arrest through the news as if he was a major fugitive. They tracked him with helicopters like he was a Colombian drug lord.
The humiliation, the financial hits he took. The physical abuse. The impact to his church, his congregation. Was that suffering for Christ?
See, in the case of Jim Bakker, it seems that all of his “work” for Jesus was a front to get rich and famous.
He commited crimes. He paid the price. If Jim Bakker is even a Christian should be a concern, but the fact is, what he did was illegal. He defied authorities and thought he was above the law. Scripture paints a different picture. And he paid the price. Scripture is clear on this too, that those who do wrong should expect to be punished as such. We see it here in the verses we read last week and already this evening.
In the case of Pastor Stephens, it seems he only wanted to follow the Lord’s command and gather with his congregation. It seems he tried as best he could to obey the local restrictions, but he felt the gathering together of the body was more important that the law of the local government. In particular, at a time when it seemed that the government was set on using the COVID pandemic as a means to exert unilateral control over the populace in order to stop religious gatherings. Because after the fact, we saw that some gatherings were not targeted, but higher concentrations of churches were.
In that case, the allegiance to King Jesus overruled their allegiance to the Canadian government. And they still had to pay the price.
Pastor Stephens and others were arrested. They paid a price that seems, at least to my eye, to be unjust. That seems to be the type of suffering that Peter is talking about here. When we use our freedom for Christ’s sake, not our own, and we suffer for it, it brings God glory.
Last half of verse 20: “But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”
Why?
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Because Christ is our example! This is what we are called to as Christians.
This also informs the earlier thoughts (both this week and last week) about rebellion.
Christ rejected some of the practices of the Pharisees. When they chastised Him and His disciples about not washing their hands, He chided them that it wasn’t what goes in the mouth that makes a man unclean, but what comes out. He chides them on their double standard relating to the Sabbath. He overturns the money tables at the temple because of the corruption of the system of worship.
Jesus was, in many ways, a rebel. A revolutionary.
Not in the way that the media wants to paint Him: always looking for the oppressed no matter what! Not with some liberal agenda.
Rather, His revolution was in worship. Christ demanded that those who would follow Him would seek God the Father, and that the only way to do that is through Jesus Himself. He “revolted” against the teaching of a future Messiah, because the religious rulers of the day had missed it: The Messiah had come. He was with them. And they didn’t accept Him.
But Jesus didn’t rebel just to cause trouble. He wasn’t Judas Maccabeus, the guy who helped to lead the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucids (Greeks) in the 2nd century BC. He wasn’t a rabble-rouser.
He did simply what His Father wanted Him to do.
He is our example.
He also willingly submitted to punishment that was not His to bear.
Look at verses 22-23:
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
He committed NO sin. None. Nothing that Jesus did was sinful. I like how Kandis always told our kids about sin. Sin is anything we think, say, or do that is not in line with what God thinks, says, or does.
Jesus thought, said, and did exactly what His Father desired.
Even when He was betrayed, He did not return violence for violence, whether spoken or acted out.
Instead He entrusted Himself to His Father, who “judges justly.”
And honestly guys, that is the crux of it there. We think of ourselves as the judge. That is why we have a hard time when Scripture tells us to submit, but we see the authorities as corrupt.
That is why we get so inflamed when we perceive injustice, or persecution that is not deserved.
We want to be the judge. We have our own sense of right and wrong, and when something clashes with it, we want to take action.
And that is good, to a point. We are made in God’s image. We are to fight injustice and tyranny. We are to hate evil.
But we are skewed by the fall. We cannot judge justly.
God the Father, on the other hand - that is exactly who He is and what He does.
Jesus trusted fully in God’s judgment, even when He Himself did not want to drink from the cup that was set before Him. He knew that taking on the weight of our sin would separate Him from His Father for a time, and He was not keen for that.
Yet, He bore our sins in His body on the tree. He suffered pain and punishment that He did not deserve. He is our example in that.
When we are placed in situations where we are unjustly punished, brutalized, humiliated, killed…our joy comes in the fact that Christ told us to expect those things. That what they did to Him they would surely do to His followers.
And that in those punishments, when we endure them for God’s glory, we show our faith in Him who loves us, who created us, and who sustains us.
When we are being persecuted for God’s glory, we are most like Christ.
Because by Christ’s wounds we are healed. We are being cared for and we are being overseen by the true Shepherd.
Let’s pray.
