Now, if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 this morning we are at verses 18 through 25. It's a long text, I hope we'll see the forest for the trees. Last week in verses 13 to 17 Peter told Christians how we are to relate to human governing authorities.
Our posture should be one of submission. Not absolutely, we said. Not without any qualification whatsoever for our greater obligation to obedience to God. May at times call us to disobedience to human governance.
There may be times when we are forced to say we will not obey you. We must obey God, not man. We give the examples. If you are told to do what God forbids you to do, you should never do what God forbids you to do.
Always obey God. And likewise on the flip side, if you are forbidden to do what God commands you, you should continue to do what God commands. But our basic disposition ought to be one of cooperation, not rebellion, against human authority. Now Peter, having said that, turns from the submission of Christians to state governance to the submission of Christians in household governance.
In particular here you are going to see verse 18 to Christian household servants, many of whom would have been slaves. And he is going to go so far as to say to them, be subject to your masters even if you are unjustly treated by them. Peter wants believers who are being treated unjustly to endure. And you are going to hear that word endure in verse 19.
Perhaps if you want to scan your eyes there for this is a gracious thing when mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering a justly. You will hear it again twice in verse 20. Now look, the person he is addressing most specifically would have had probably the hardest time enduring and yet the greatest need for it. Because the person who has the least power, least ability, least opportunity to escape unjust suffering was a slave in that day.
Or in this case a household servant. They generally couldn't change their circumstances except upon the pain of death. Most couldn't gain their freedom and were not allowed to make appeals to the law or civil governance for their own protection. So what should a person do in that circumstance?
Peter says I want you to endure, I want you to bear up under this unjust suffering. And how can you do that? How does his counsel then to them help us when we face and endure in perhaps differing but no less unjust ways are in suffering. And so let me invite you to think about that from God's holy word, first Peter chapter 2 beginning at verse 18, through to the end of the chapter.
This is the word of God, 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?
And 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. Amen.
This is God's word. Let's pray. Father, I ask that you would be our teacher. Grant that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts would be acceptable in your sight.
O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Few words of introduction and then three perspectives. My way of introduction, notice verse 18 who he's speaking to service and he says be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but to the unjust.
How should those household servants respond as Christians to being mistreated? He says I want you to endure verse 19. Now some of us might say what? Peter, tell them what they ought to do is to get out of it.
And you know that the Apostle Paul in verse 27 says that to slaves if you can gain your freedom to do so. But neither the Apostle Paul nor the Apostle Peter wanted Christian slaves to create a rebellion against Rome that would get them all crucified, which was the Roman penalty for rebellion. Nor does Peter say here, you Christian household servants, what I want you to do is I want you to transform the systems of your society so that this won't be an issue anymore. Why doesn't he say that to them?
Because they have no power to do so. These are folks who have no voice in politics and no voice in law. They have no influence to do such a thing. So Peter's words here aren't pointedly about cleaning up or transforming the cultural institutions of Roman pagans over which they had no ability.
Though what he does say here together with Jesus and Paul and the rest of the New Testament was enough to move Christians in places of power and influence to transform society. Why? Because Peter treats these servants as people, not property, these slaves as humans, not things like the ancient world often did. And in ancient Rome, many said you couldn't treat a slave unjustly.
Not that you shouldn't, but that you simply couldn't. It was impossible. You could do whatever you wanted with this property and you had a right to do whatever you wanted. And so you were never in the wrong, whatever you did.
And yet Peter says, yeah, I know, there is injustice being done. And so he and the rest of the Bible began to undo the terrible system of injustice in the Roman Empire. Any Christian master of a household reading this would have been compelled to treat them more gently and justly. And those Christians as they had influence in the culture did end the oppressive system in that time and day.
A system which you understand continues and is perpetuated all over the world in all kinds of places. But for the lowest of the low, the oppressed, the powerless, what can they do? Peter says, I want you to bear up. And I want you to do so by the grace of God.
Now sitting here today, presumably none of us are in this kind of condition. But there is application here to a variety of situations including, in some cases, employment scenarios. For instance, what do you do if the boss treats you unjustly? What if he or she takes credit for your work and receives what you ought to receive as the reward of it?
Or what if he or she makes unreasonable demands and choose you out and shame you publicly or something? Or what if they fail to pay you and compensate you as they promise to do? In some instances, of course, you might just simply quit. And you have that freedom in America.
The quit, the job you're in, though quitting is not as easy as it sounds in certain circumstances. You maybe have a family dependent upon you. You can't afford to quit, at least not now. Or maybe that you've made certain promises you feel obligated to fulfill even in this injustice.
So what do you do? What if you do if there's no HR department at work? Who can deal with the worst kinds of bosses? Or what do you do if no civil government or court will deal with your unjust neighbor?
Or what do you do if a criminal court doesn't deal with criminal injustice? What if the law is against you, as it was in the Roman Empire, against the servants? And as it is in many nations today, against the weakest and its places against Christians? What do you do?
Peter says, you endure your sorrow while suffering unjustly. How can he call us to that? And how can we do that? And I want to give you as big picture three perspectives here.
In verses 18 to 20, he says, I want you to live under the gaze of God with your eye on him. In verses 20 and 22, he says, I want you to live in imitation of Christ. He's your example. And then in verses 24 and 25, I want you to live in light of the cross and see what he did for you.
And so let's think about those three things. In the first place, we need to live under the gaze of God, verses 18 to 20. Now when he just points you at verse 19, first, for this is a gracious thing when mindful of God and one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. Mindful of God, conscious of God, and eye towards him.
Living in some of the expression, core of day before the face of God. Peter says, when your master is good or bad, whether he's gentle or harsh, he should be subject to your master with all respect. So be submissive with all respect. And the word he uses there is for fear, with all fear.
And the last time he spoke of fear was in chapter 1 verse 17 when he spoke not a fear of the master, but the fear of God, the fear of your heavenly Father, not a cowering fear, but the awe and respect leading to obedience that a child has to their beloved Father. And so what he's calling upon these slaves to do here is not, I don't think, fundamentally to respect their master, they call them the submission, which is a form of it, but out of respect for God, because of that eye towards God and that conscience, desiring to honor God. Live your whole life in reverence and respect for your heavenly Father. I mean, after all, you cannot control your master's behavior on Earth or their disposition, but you can, by the gospel, by the power of God helping you, you can set your own heart to fear the Lord and by Him, control your own behavior.
For the fruit of the Spirit of God, this God whom you fear is what? Well, three of the fruits are goodness, gentleness, and self-control. And your master may have none of those, but with the eye of God towards you, God can give those to you. In fact, he calls it a grace.
Verse 19, this is a gracious thing when mindful of God. It's a grace. It's a thing which grace produces, and it demonstrates the power of grace at work in your life. When you, with your eyes on God, out of love and respect for God and a desire for God's glory, when you endure on just suffering, you may not be able to escape those.
And so you're going to sorrow. He's honest about that. There will be tears here, anguish, not joy. You may be heartbroken or miserable.
And of course here, Peter, in describing this, means the kind of sorrow you might experience and the kind of suffering that brings it about, not because you deserve it. I mean, pointedly here, right, not because you've done anything wrong. After all, verse 20, he says, what credit is it if when you sin, you're beaten for it, you endure? In that case, in that day in society, it was considered deserved.
Now, let me just say publicly here, in our own day and age and generation, there would be very few, and I'm not among them, who would advocate beatings for those who miss the mark. And we have to acknowledge that domestic violence is pervasive in Northwest Arkansas and in the United States of America and around the world. And it is often hidden in darkness. And those who practice it hide it.
And here, Peter is not recommending. And Peter is not commending. Do not misunderstand him beating anyone. He is not telling parents it's okay to beat your children or bosses.
It's okay to beat your employees or homeowners your domestic help. But Peter is acknowledging that it is a fact that some will be beaten. And so let me just say, if you are suffering domestic violence, please call the police and tell myself, any of the elders, any of the deacons in this church, because we want to help you. Spouse abuse, child abuse, abuse of the elderly, any of you have no place in the body of Christ or in our households.
And in order to be safe, it may be we need to help get you out of an unsafe place for your safety. We want to be helping that way. So I would invite you to talk about it. I know that needs to be done discreetly.
But in any case, Peter is in no way commending beating. He's acknowledging a reality of it. But he's also saying, if you've done wrong, well, he isn't commending you for that either. Then he says, verse 20, middle of it, but if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure.
This is the greatest thing in the sight of God. In other words, God's watching. In his sight, his eyes are on his people. He knows exactly what's going on.
All things are open and laid bare before him. Don't think you're alone. Don't think God doesn't know. Don't think God doesn't care.
He does know. And he does care. And he's paying close attention. Live with your eye on him whose eye is on you.
And we might ask, well, then Father, Heavenly Father, your eye is on me. You know and you care. Do something about it here and now. Take care of it.
Get rid of it. Relieve me. And God may say, no, not yet, though it is coming. And he may have a different purpose for you in mind as his beloved daughter, his beloved son, for you, God may be saying, my goal is not your instant relief now.
And actually my goal is your imitation of Christ, the Christ who himself knows exactly what you're experiencing. Because that's the next thing he says, verses 20 and 21. Not only live with a gaze towards God and under his eyes, but live in imitation of Christ. Notice this language, verse 21.
To this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example. So that you might follow in his steps. There's two parts to that. On the one hand Christ suffered for you.
And then secondly Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps. Christ acting on your behalf in your place as a substitute upon the cross, purchasing you by his own blood. And then there's Christ the model, an example of the righteous sufferer. And here God says, I want you to be like my son, my son the Lord Jesus.
My goal is to transform you after his image. And he was what? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He suffered injustice at the hands of wicked men.
And no servant is greater than his master. And if they persecuted Jesus, well Jesus said they may persecute you. So he's an example to you. He's a pattern Peter says.
And God's calling your life may be to walk after his pattern and example. And what was that pattern? Notice the four things he mentions in verses 22 and 23. Innocence, truthfulness, restraint and trust.
Notice innocence. Jesus verse 22, he committed no sin. Right? So he had sinned in any way such that he ever deserved to be maligned or beaten or crucified.
No, he had never sinned. He didn't sin as and when he suffered these things. He didn't let the sins of others against him drive him to sin back at them. He didn't say, you're getting me.
You watch out. I'm going to get you instead. Love for his neighbor, even his enemies ruled his heart, his mind, his tongue and his actions. I mean, if love ruled everything, then he was innocent of sin.
And so therefore he remained truthful. Verse 22, he committed no sin neither was he seek found in his mouth. So he didn't twist the truth to get out of his suffering and he didn't lie to people to get them off his back. He spoke the truth and he showed restraint as he did so.
Verse 23, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. He didn't pay, you know, play the game of tit for tat. He didn't repay evil for evil. Not even with his words.
He blessed those who cursed him. On that cross, he said, Father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. Right? When he suffered, he didn't threaten them.
It says they were hurting him, but he didn't say, I'm going to hurt you. What did he do? He trusted for thing. And to verse 23, he continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly.
He put his life and his well-being and his future in God's hands. And Peter says that is the pattern and the example of Jesus in who steps you are now being called to walk, aimed to be like it in innocence, to truthfulness and restraint and trust. When you are reviled, bite your tongue. When you are mocked, reply in love.
Show kindness to those who show you hostility, serve others who treat you unjustly. That is the example of your Savior. So live under the gaze of God. Live after the example of Christ and finally live in light of the cross.
This is verses 24 and 25. About this Jesus, he says, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. Again, Christ is more than an example for us. His life itself was an atoning sacrifice.
And the injustice he experienced at the hands of wicked men served the purpose of God for our redemption. God intended good as man intended evil. And in doing so, he bore our sins, not merely the sins of others against you, which should concern you, but also your own sins that needed to be dealt with. It is so easy to see the sins of others.
And so hard to see our own. I find it in my heart. It is so easy to treat others with the judgment of severity and myself with the judgment of charity. And I give myself a break and I examine you critically.
Don't you do that too? Peter is saying here, well, we're talking about the unjustness there and we're pointing out sin and things they have done wrong. But don't you forget why Christ went to the cross for you. It was to deal with your sins too on that cross.
He was crucified and took them away. God counted them against Jesus and he died for you. And he did that for you. Notice here.
So that he might then do something in you. Verse 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live the righteousness. The purpose for which Jesus died was not only for your forgiveness, but was that you might die, not for your sin, but to your sin. A slave is only a slave while the slave master lives or while the slave lives under the slave master.
And the worst master a slave will ever have is that master called sin with a capital S. But if you have died to that master, it is no longer your master. Sin no longer has dominion and authority over you. It does not have the right to command you.
It will say it does. It will whisper in your ear. Come on. Do it.
If you have smacked them down, treat them the way they have treated you. Sin will say that. But the gospel has freed you from the domination and authority of sin to command you. You have been brought out and free and brought to life under the mastery of Jesus.
Now I know it's still fighting that guerrilla warfare and it's talking in your ear and there's temptation and we stumble and we give in. So we need to keep on dying to sin and living under righteousness. But we're not to let it rain. Instead, he says we are to die to sin.
Jesus died that we might die to sin so that we might live to righteousness. In other words, by God's grace, righteousness or justice might be expressed in our lives. Jesus came to set you free from sin to put you on the path of obedience to God which manifests itself in what we might call right living or living justly or rightly towards others. And so he says at the end of verse 24, by his wounds you have been healed.
By his wounds. By his suffering unjustly on our behalf. By him who loved you and gave himself for you whom you have now begun to love God. By him.
Heals you of your wicked preference for treating others unjustly. Jesus has begun to give you a heart of mercy. To love what is right and just in your dealings with others and to repent when you have failed and to seek forgiveness where you have offended and to long for heaven where there is no injustice on the part of the other or yourself. Where you ever saw Jesus on the cross dying for your sins.
You didn't prefer that mercy. You didn't prefer that love. You didn't prefer doing what was right towards others even when it cost you yourself to do it. And so you were sick he says and you needed to be healed and you didn't even know this.
But by his wounds you have been healed. This hasn't always been true of you. He says verse 25, for you were straying like sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray.
He used to do his own way. But the Lord laid on him our iniquity and then God called you back to himself right. Verse 25, you were straying like law sheep. But now return to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
And so I just close with this question. Have you? Have you returned to the shepherd and overseer of your soul? Have you returned to the God from whom you have walked away from?
And if you haven't I invite you to put your trust in him. The one who bore our sins on his body on the tree. And if you have returned to him you've returned to the good shepherd who looks out for and oversees your well being even when he calls you to imitate him after his own example suffering unjustly and yet enduring with your eye on God even the God upon a cross. May the Lord give us that eye and that help and that grace.
Let's pray. Father, we need you. We need our Savior. Forgive us for all our own injustice that we have done and grant us to forgive as we have been forgiven and teach us to be a people who do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with you.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Let me invite you to stand and we'll sing.