Chapter # 2 Paragraph # 4 Study # 4
January 17, 2010
Lincolnton, N.C.
1769 Translation:
20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
1901 ASV Translation:
20 For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
21 For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.
25 For ye were going astray like sheep; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
- I. Peter's Move Into the Particulars.
- A. He specifically addresses the "household servants".
- B. He also specifically outlines the "relationship": the "service" is rendered to a "master".
- C. He is without hesitation in his "command": be in submission.
- D. He also gives the parameters.
- 1. Not only to the good and gentle ...
- 2. But also to the "froward" ...
- E. Peter's Rationale.
- 1. The need to understand "grace" is only met by "unjust suffering".
- 2. There is no "fame", or revelation of grace from God, if "suffering" is judicially deserved.
- a. Peter's use of "glory" (re-translated "fame" above) is unique to the New Testament. The word he used is given the definition, "fame", by the Logos Library System.
- b. The issue of "fame" is the issue of something/someone having some characteristic that is sufficiently notable that it causes one to "bubble to the top" of the attention of those around.
- c. Peter's choice of this word reinforces the idea that he is concerned for his readers to know how important it is for "grace" to be made manifest and how that only occurs when there is a situation of "injustice" (grace is never visible when things are going "as they ought" in respect to what is just or fair).
- 3. It is our "calling" to graciously endure injustice.
- a. As the prior verses indicate, there can be no demonstration and, thus, clarification, of the "grace" of God if everything that is done is "righteous". Since a grasp of "grace" is absolutely essential to a man's well-being (salvation is by grace), someone simply has to be the divine instrument of that demonstration. Thus, as unpleasant as it may be, we who believe have been called to that.
- b. The rationale is this: even Christ suffered "for" us, leaving us His example so that we might not think that we ought to be spared what He was not spared.
- 1) The issue here is "suffering for another" as a "redemptive" act. It is because Christ considered our redemption extremely crucial that He did not draw back from the manifest injustice of the treatment He received. None who consider the salvation of the lost important can sidestep this issue: no one "gets saved" apart from obtaining a clear understanding of the grace of God and no one gets that understanding unless there is an apt demonstration of it.
- 2) The secondary issue here is that "even" Christ was subject to this reality. Not even the King of Heaven was exempt from the reality of His own character.