Suffering Servants: Pleasing God, Following Christ (Part 1)

Suffering Servants: Pleasing God, Following Christ (Part 1) - 1 Peter 2:18-25

Intro: Try to imagine your life in the following scenario.

Day in and day out, you live and work as a household slave in the home of a prominent businessman in Troas. Of your 20 closest friends and relatives, every one of them is a household slave. In fact, you, like most others you know, were born into slavery and are in fact the possession of your master rather than your parents. While you have heard of one or two people who succeeded in purchasing their freedom, it is extremely rare and such does not seem like a reasonable goal for you or anyone you know. You are a skilled musician and trained teacher, and therefore serve in the household as teacher to your master’s young children. Another slave manages all the slaves in the household, another handles the cleaning and care for the house and courtyard, and still another is responsible for all the food provision and purchasing, and so on.

Recently you and your friend Tychicus became followers of the Way through faith in Jesus Christ. You’ve been amazed at how the Christian brothers have welcomed you both when you gather on Sunday, though some you can tell are having a harder time than others getting used to treating everyone as equal in the site of God, whether slave or free. But they are most definitely loving and helpful. What has been more challenging is navigating your relationship to your master. Because of your excited sharing about Jesus with all the other household slaves, even his children have been talking about it. He’s now concerned about how this could impact the household dynamic and wonders how it might influence his children. But he’s also a reasonable and even-keeled man, and is offering you opportunity to explain not only the content of the gospel but also how you believe you can still be obedient and helpful in the household and to reassure him that this new faith will not be stirring up trouble.

Tychicus fortunate in his situation. His master has always been loud and rude, given to drinking too much wine, and lazier than a cat napping in the sunshine. He is opposed to all religion of any kind, only giving lip-service even to the emperor cult so long as it serves his purpose. Some of the other household slaves know about Tychicus’ faith in Jesus, but none of them talk about it publicly for fear of not only the master’s mockery but more likely a beating. The gathering of believers on Sunday is the ONLY place that he has peace and rest, and even that would be under threat of being taken away if the master should feel a whim.

At the next Sunday meeting, you and Tychicus seek help, especially for his situation. An older widow reminds her son, who is one of the two elders in the church family, of the circulating letter from Peter they received last year and that she remembers some part she thinks pertains to this kind of scenario. One of the kids circles in closer and chimes in, “Yeah, I love the part about girding up your loins for action.” So the man reads through the letter from start to finish, and then he circles back for more careful discussion to the passage that we are studying today.

1 Peter 2:18–25 ESV

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 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. 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. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 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 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. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

This text is difficult not because it is hard to understand and interpret, but for two other reasons: First, we must admit the challenge of bridging the distance between Peter’s day and our own, particularly with regard to societal structures and sensibilities. And secondly, no matter how different our world may be today, the principle truth still applies, and it is indeed a challenge for us to apply rightly—to submit even when it means unjust suffering.

The Setting - Peter was meeting people in their situation.

Servants (Slaves really) - Be subject (submit) to your masters with all respect (reverence conceived of as fear)

Many or most in this category would have no control over their freedom. What they could control was their attitude toward their masters for the sake of Christ. So Peter meets them in their situation. - But in order for us to the give the main point a fair hearing, we have to address the elephant in the room of slavery and why the NT does not overtly condemn the institution.

Slavery is the forced servitude of a person to another. It can range from a benevolent relationship wherein a slave or servant is bound to his master but is provided for entirely, to a cruel relationship wherein a slave is simply used and barely provided for.

The word for servants here is not the usual term for slaves or bond-servants (douloi), but a more specific term (oiketai) for household or domestic servants, used uniquely by Peter in this passage. - This definitely refers to slaves, but may also be a broader term that catches even those freedmen who work for/serve others. Either way, Peter is indeed at least directing this exhortation to slaves, to be sure.

WHAT?! Advice to slaves? Isn’t slavery wrong? - Hold up, is this whole discussion off? Exhorting people to submit to an emperor who elevated himself to the place of a god? Wives submitting to husbands who don’t obey the gospel of the true God?

I’d like to explain a few thoughts about the overall context here that I believe are helpful to our understanding.

1. Peter is not going to go into detail about every specific and practical scenario in which one person should submit to the authority of another person. He does, however, choose three common scenarios that apply to a great number of people and which serve as test cases to set the stage for the attitude and behavior of all believers, and in so doing bear witness to the cross of Christ. - The first is obeying the emperor and his governors (and by extension the laws and directives of all governing authorities), the second here is the willing Christlike submission of those near the bottom rung of the social structure, and the third will be spousal relationships, with particular emphasis on the wife’s submission to her husband. - In other words, what Peter says here to domestic slaves about their attitude and behavior is intended for all believers. (Notice the intentional broadening of the concept in verse 19.) Take that then to say that if others were meant to extend the principle to their own situation then, surely you ought to make every effort to transplant the seminal truth to your time and situation. God’s word is both powerful and practical for your daily living.

2. Secondly, the NT Apostles could disagree in principle with the imperfection and even wrongness of a given institution or social structure and still call people to obedience and suffering like Christ. - Surely we can do the same.

Governing authorities may have leaders who themselves are unsavory characters, but our attitude is to respect the office and be respectful of the person... as to all people. There may be laws which we deem unfair and taxes we don’t like, and in our culture we have more freedom than most to have a voice and vote in attempting to see change come about, but as the law stands we are to submit to it unless it directs us to disobey God. (I’ll invent an example to help us here. If our land made it into a law that we could not gather to worship God, we would disobey. If they made it into a law that any family must abort babies over the number of two per family, or that we cannot knowingly bring a mentally handicapped child into this world, we would disobey that law to obey God’s law not to murder another human being.) - But Peter’s point about submission is that we can’t make excuses for our complaining and insubordination; rather, we submit to laws and authority with joy, knowing that this earth is not our home.

What about slavery, and why don’t NT writers directly oppose it head on? - Indeed, true slavery, as we often conceive of it with one human being owning another as a possession rather than hiring them as a person of equal value in the sight of God, is a deplorable institution in the sight of God (and should be to man as well) [see 1 Tim. 1:10].

1 Timothy 1:8–10 ESV

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

The Bible does not commend slavery, but some would say it also does not explicitly condemn it either. I don’t believe that’s accurate, especially if enslavers here in 1 Tim. 1:10 is understood as those who capture and enslave as well as those who practice any form of human trafficking [see also Rev 18:11-13 in context of ch. 18]. At the very least, the Bible implicitly condemns slavery. What the NT does consistently with regard to slavery is to undermine it, not focusing on attacking an institution (that in NT times had as many as 60,000,000 slaves in the Roman Empire), but rather pointedly telling Christians how to treat one another and outsiders, calling them to “honor (value) everyone” (1 Pet 2:17). In fact, I would argue that, while some Christians in recent historical memory wrongly participated in and even defended slavery (for their own selfish purposes), it was in fact the spirit of God’s truth regarding equality as men and women made in the image of God, as well as instruction for churches on how to treat one another, that formed a major catalyst for abolition. - It was a British member of parliament, William Wilberforce, who became an Evangelical believer in 1785 and began what was first an internal battle with himself to no longer be a say nothing do nothing member of government that became a force for what would overthrow slavery not only in the British Empire but ultimately in the Americas as well.

But the fact remains that NT writers didn’t attack slavery directly. - There have, however, been a great many things under God’s sovereign care of this universe in which he has allowed wrongs contrary to what he states as his desire... to come about for his ultimate purposes and glory. God didn’t want Satan to rebel but he allowed it. God didn’t want Adam and Eve to sin but he allowed it. God didn’t want Joseph’s brothers to hate him in their hearts enough to kill him or sell him as a slave, but he allowed it to serve a greater purpose. God didn’t want Israel to replace his theocracy with a human king, but he allowed it. God doesn’t want dictators who think they’re gods and a law to themselves, but he allows it. God doesn’t want anyone to perish in eternal separation from him, but he allows it if they continue in faithless rebellion against him. Jesus didn’t want to suffer the pain and separation of the cross but he allowed it to obey the Father’s will and accomplish his saving purposes. - So while God would have us pursue other systems if it is within our power to do so, he can also instruct us how to live faithfully in service to him in the contexts of undesirable systems and circumstances.

3. Finally, don’t confuse mismanagement and abuse of power with assuming that orderly institutions are against God’s design. Clear governing order is God’s design. For all of us to work and for some to be good managers in leadership of other workers is part of God’s design. (Take note that the institution of slavery does not stand on the same solid footing!) Loving relationships within families where spouses maintain equal value but order is accomplished through the sacrificial self-giving of a husband and through the submission of a wife to her husband’s headship is God’s good design for our time on this earth.

Look, I hope that thinking clearly about the big picture is a helpful to you as it is to me. Getting into detailed practices doesn’t fit in its right place if we don’t have a reasonably good understanding of how things fit with the overall character and purposes of God. - Can I mention here that that is why right theology is in fact really practical to your life? Theology isn’t just some lofty and nebulous concepts about God, but rather the character of God forms the foundation for where your feet tread in daily living.

The Motivation - God is pleased if by our submission we suffer unjustly for the sake of doing good.

Suffering unjustly for doing good has two key benefits, a primary and a secondary: Favor with God and Witness among men - These then also serve as our motivation to do good even when it means unjust suffering. - And what greater testimony could there be to clearly support the claims of the gospel of Jesus Christ than to suffer while doing good?

So, in all your other questions regarding slavery and the Bible’s handling of it, don’t miss Peter’s point here: Submission (an attitude of willing subordination that leads to obedience) pleases God and testifies to Christ, especially when we look like Jesus and suffer unjustly while doing good.

We may be called to submit to leaders or bosses who are good (generous, thoughtful of other people) and gentle (merciful, kind, lenient and forgiving), but we also be under the leadership of one who is unjust (literally crooked - skolios - yes, it’s where we get our word for scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine in the wrong direction). So this master is likely dishonest, immoral, evading his own responsibility while treating others harshly and unjustly. - Peter says to submit in such circumstances… 1, because you ultimately work as to please the Lord and not men (Col 3:23 similar context), and 2, so that your good deeds might potentially have such an impact as for God to use said witness to change the heart of even evildoers (1 Pet 2:12).

Three things I believe are noteworthy in vv. 19-20 regarding this obedience to masters (bosses, people we work for, whether willingly or not):

God looks on us favorably in our suffering if we are submissive (with a clear conscience), innocent (not committing a wrong that deserves said treatment), and silent (patiently enduring without retaliation).

A clear conscience with a right attitude… an attitude of submission, obeying with a right spirit “for the Lord’s sake” (v. 13).

Innocently suffering: There’s not a whole lot to say, but the first part of v. 20 makes me chuckle: “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?”

Silent (patient endurance without retaliation) - Is the Bible here teaching that we should NEVER stand up for ourselves or for what is right? - Jesus drove money changers out of the temple... twice! John the B and Jesus both called the Sanhedrin (ruling religious body) a brood of vipers. The Apostle Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church largely are a defense of his gospel ministry among them! (We could likely think of several other examples.) - The real question is, WHY am I inclined to “stand up for what is right”?

The questions we ask to apply this to our own situation is (per Steve Cole): Am I under the authority of the person who is treating me unfairly? Do I have a proper attitude of submission, or am I selfishly fighting for my rights? “If I’m truly in submission and I’m not acting for selfish reasons, I would argue that there is a proper place for respectful communication that seeks to clarify falsehood and promote the truth. In other words, if our attitude and motives are in submission to God, we need not always silently endure unjust treatment as Christian doormats. There is a proper place for self-defense and for confronting the errors of those who have mistreated us, as long as we work through proper channels.”

For the believer, no suffering is pointless if… we have a clear conscience (consistent with God’s word, if we have committed no wrong that deserves said treatment, and if we patiently endure without retaliation or losing hope in the sovereign care of God.

[next week] The Model - As His people by grace through faith (“because Christ also suffered for you”), we are called to follow Christ’s example in suffering.

Patient endurance in suffering for good puts the gospel of Jesus Christ in neon lights.

Conclusion (Or Summary before concluding about “rest”): When weighing the difficulty of any unfair treatment that you face and how you should respond, consider this passage from 1 Peter 2 and ask yourself these questions: What do I need more than to know Jesus? What do I need more than to be like Jesus? - What do they need more than to know Jesus? What do they need more right now than for me to faithfully follow Jesus?

Communion:

The Lord’s Table is a constant reminder of both the substitutionary atonement of our Savior, as well as the example he set for us to follow, even or especially in suffering.

1 Peter 2:23–24 ESV

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 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.

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Closing:

Hebrews 12:3 ESV

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.