1 PETER 2:18-25
INTRODUCTION
Last week, we took a look at The Christian Obligation in a broken World. Today, we are going to deal with Christ Our Model of Service. Last week, we saw how we are to live as citizens of both heaven and earth and our responsibility to earthly authorities.
The fact that the practice of slave trade and slave holding has been abolished today has caused some people to state that this text is not relevant for our postmodern world. However, don’t jump into such a conclusion until we have exegete the passage and drawn the application. When Peter wrote his Epistle the topic of slavery was relevant to his generation. First century society, economically and politically was in fact based on slavery. As I said last week, it was estimated that there were about 60, 000,000 slaves in the Roman Empire. In many of the leading cities of that day, half of the citizens were slaves. Many of them were more educated than their masters; and they held responsible positions within their master’s household. It is believed that almost all the medical doctors, engineers, architects, and people of great skills were slaves. This is the reason I asked you to hold your peace. If Peter from a practical point of view could enjoin slaves, who had no rights to be loyal to and work faithfully for their masters, how much more would he urge honest and faithful work upon Christian employees of our day, who enter voluntarily into our employment, who can bargain with their employers, and who can terminate their relationship to a company at any time.
The next problem about this text and others like it in the NT that vexes many modern Christians is that the inspired writer did not condemn slavery. To every Christian in our postmodern world today, the whole institution of slavery seems repulsive, and many Christians are shock to discover that the apostles did not question slavery as such. However, there are several responses to this. For one thing, the apostles did not condemn slavery, neither did they commend it. They simply accepted it as a fact of life in their society. Another thing is that in their statements concerning the institution of slavery, the apostles sometimes attempted to regulate and modify it, urging masters to treat their slaves with justice, kindness, and even brotherly love, and reminding them that their slaves had rights and that slave owners as well as slaves had a master in heaven (cf. Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1). By such teachings the apostles called attention to principles that would eventually destroy slavery. Furthermore, some think that the reason for the apostles’ conservatism was the church’s preoccupation with the thought of the imminent end of the age or perhaps their fear of dreadful reprisal or retaliation if they encouraged social revolution. Others think that the reason was the burning conviction of these early Christians that through their fellowship with Christ, they had entered into a relationship of brotherhood with one another in which ordinary social distinctions had lost its meaning (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:31; Col. 3:11; Philemon 8-18).
I. THE IMPERATIVE OF SUBMISSION V. 18
Last Sunday we saw how the Word of God commands us to submit to ruling authorities. In verse 18, the Word of God again commands servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect. Let us talk about the word servant or slave. In the New Testament, the predominant word that is used for slave or servant is the Greek term doulos, which means a bondslave (cf. v. 16, where the term occurs in Peter’s epistle); the word that is used in the present passage is the Greek word ioketes, which means house servant; that is slaves who worked within the household. In those days the slave whether doulos or oiketes, was the chattel of his/her master whose power over the slave was almost absolute.
I have given you some synopsis of the situation in which slaves found themselves in those days (first century). Let me throw additional light on the plight of slaves at the first century. Slaves were not allowed to marry; but they could cohabit; and the children born of such partnership were the property of the master, not of the parents. However, it would be wrong to conclude that the lot of slaves was always wretched and unhappy, and that they were always treated with cruelty. Many of the slaves were loved and trusted members of the family; but one great inescapable fact dominated the whole situation. In Roman law a slave was not a person but a thing; and he had absolutely no legal rights whatsoever. For that reason there could be no such thing as justice where a slave was concerned. The only distinction between a slave and an animal or a farmyard cart was that a slave happened to be able to speak. In regard to a slave, his master’s will, and even his master’s caprice, was the only law.
It was in the midst of this situation that Christianity and its message came that every person was precious in the sight of God. Evidently, this was the more reason Christianity was appealing to the common people of the first century. The result of God’s unconditional love broke the barriers that the society had created in those days. Even today where the real Gospel is preached social distinctions and racial pride are abrogated. The reason is that the cross of Jesus Christ is level ground. Tradition reveals that Callistus, one of the earliest bishops of Rome was a slave; and Perpetua, the aristocrat, and Felicitas, the slave-girl, met martyrdom hand in hand. The great majority of Christians were humble people and many of them were slaves. It was quite possible that the slave was pastor or overseer of the congregation and the master an ordinary member of it. This was a new and revolutionary situation. It had its glory and it had its dangers.
Peter urges believers in those days to be submissive to their masters for he sees two dangers. First, suppose both master and servant became Christians, there arose the danger that the slave might presume upon the new relationship and make an excuse for shirking his work, assuming that since he and his master were both Christians, he could get away with anything. The same thing can be said of employees and employers who are both believers and attend the same church. There are still people who trade on the goodwill of a Christian master and think that the fact that both they and their employers are Christians gives them the right to dispense with discipline and punishment. In other words, they think that they can do anything without being reprimanded. However, Peter is quite clear in his teaching. The Christian must indeed be a better worker than anyone else. Your Christianity is not a reason from claiming exemption from discipline; on the contrary, it should bring you under self-discipline and make you more conscientious than anyone else.
Second, there was the danger that new dignity which Christianity brought him would make the slave a rebel and seeks to abolish slavery altogether. The reason why some Christians find themselves in trouble in our world today is because they want to change the society in which they find themselves too soon. The truth is that some situation cannot be changed at the time you are seeking change. When that happens, we have to be patient and allow God to work things out until the time is ripe for the change to happen.
Observe what the Bible says in 1 Peter 2:18. It does not say, servants be submissive to your master with all respect to those who treat you well. Rather it says, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.” Here Peter admits that there some masters who are kind and gentle and there are those who are harsh, cruel, and perverse. Let’s bring it home. It is easy to work for an employer who is cool and gentle. The burden of Peter’s letter in this passage is not on the master who is good and gentle. The burden is on the harsh, cruel, and perverse, because it is such an employer that a Christian or Christians face the temptation of rebellion and self-assertiveness, but this situation provides unique occasion to demonstrate the power of the gospel in the believer’s life. Suffering, discrimination, and abuse are not easy to bear at the work place. It is in such circumstances that the Christian is tempted to show disrespectful conduct and ruin his/her testimony for Christ. However, God commends you when you bear under the weight of unjust treatment for the name of Christ. What Peter is saying is that when you and I endure underserved suffering it is an act that pleases God.
II. THE MOTIVATION OF SUBMISSION VV. 19-20
Peter is saying that what pleases God if you and I are going to suffer we must suffer for doing good not for doing what is evil. God is displeased when Christians suffer because we have acted in some rebellious or sinful manner. In one hand, if you and I suffer for insubordination, then we are acting outside God’s will for His people. On the other hand, if we patiently endure undeserved suffering it is an act that is pleasing to God. Jesus does not want His disciples to become social revolutionaries who want to topple the government. God wants the Christian slave community to manifest a kind of behavior that transcends the norm of society and demonstrates its supernatural origins. Thus, Christian slaves are to submit to their masters as part of their holy conduct (2:11-12).
In verse 20, Peter is expanding the thought in verse 19. He is saying that if you endure suffering for doing what is wrong what benefit do you receive? If you do what is wrong to your boss at the work place and he fires you what sympathy and commendation do you get from God as a believer? You don’t receive God’s commendation or applause. Actually, what you have done has brought a shame and contempt to the name of God.
The phrase “receive a beating” translates a Greek term used in Mark 14:65 and Matthew 26:67 of the blows given to our Lord Jesus Christ. The verb “beat” or “beating” is a strong one, meaning “to strike with the fist,” “to beat,” or “to treat roughly.” It is a different matter when you endure suffering even when you have done what is right and good. Peter states that such an attitude is commendable.
III. THE BASIS OF SUBMISSION
I always feel uncomfortable when some Christians make the statement that the Christian life is an easy life. The Christian life is not an easy life. On the contrary, it is an impossible life without the help of the Holy Spirit. That is the reason Jesus said, “If anyone wants to come after Me he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Peter raises a hypothetical question, which could have been the plight of some of the persecuted Christians of the Dispersion. He says something like, suppose you have the Christian attitude to people and to work and you are treated with injustice, insult, and injury what then? This is where the rubber meets the road. Peter’s answer to unjust treatment is that this is exactly what happened to Jesus. He was none other than the Suffering Servant. Verses 21-25 are full of statements and quotations of Isaiah 53, which is the supreme picture of the Suffering Servant of God, which was realized in Jesus Christ. Jesus was without sin and yet He was insulted and He suffered. However, He accepted the insults and the suffering with undisturbed love. Peter is saying that the greatest incentive to patient endurance of hardship or suffering is the example of Christ (vv. 21-25). Peter is saying that you and I are to follow the example of Jesus when we suffer. The word that Peter uses for example is graphic. It is the Greek word hupogrammos. The word was used in classical Greek for a copy-piece to be traced or imitated by children learning to write. Thus the sufferings of Christ are left as a pattern or model “that you should follow in His steps” (v. 21c). Elsewhere Apostle Paul states that the cup of Christ’s suffering spills over to us because we are His followers. Should Christ suffer for us so that we can go to heaven on flowery bed of ease? The verb “follow” translates a compound word that means “to follow closely.” The last word of the quotation “steps” though always used figuratively in the NT, translates a term that signifies an actual footprint. There was a TV commercial to discourage the use of drugs among young people. I don’t see it these days. A father caught his son smoking marijuana and was so upset about it. Then he asked his son who taught him to smoke. The son’s response was revealing and convicting. He said, “I learn to smoke by watching you.” When the son said that the father’s face dropped and he was speechless. He knew that he had not been a good example to his son.
As Christians if we have to suffer insult and injustice and injury, we have only to go through what Jesus has already gone through. This does not mean that we have to become like door mats for people to walk on us. At the back of the mind of Peter is a great truth. That suffering of Jesus was for the sake of the human race; He suffered in order to bring you and me to God. And it stands to reason that when you suffer insult and injury as a Christian with uncomplaining steadfastness and unfaltering love, you show such a life to others as will lead them to God (Stephen, Acts 7). Peter’s readers could not reproduce every aspect of Christ’s sufferings, but verses 22 and 23 call attention to three qualities of that suffering that are patterns for believers. Verse 22 emphasizes the innocence of Christ. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.” This statement is very important because Peter affirms the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. Verse 23a stresses the patience and meekness of Jesus, His unresisting submission to maltreatment (Is. 53:7). Here Peter is drawing from his eyewitness account of the Passion of Christ (cf. Mk. 14:61, 65; 15:5, 17-20; Lk. 23:9). Verse 23b affirms Jesus’ trust in God, suggesting that His confidence in the righteousness of God lay at the root of His patient endurance of the insult and suffering.
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