1 Peter 2:18-25..."Be Subject To..." part 2 of 5...What is the rumor or report?

 


I love roads like this that have an ample shoulder for the cyclist.  I also like it when the wind is at my back and I am heading home.  The roads of central Wisconsin have been beautiful this summer and I look for windows in my schedule to strap on the helmet and hit the road to a new location to explore.  I know this will end sometime soon but I'm going to enjoy watching the colors change this fall as I ride the road and trails of Waushara County.

We finished chapter 2 of 1 Peter this Sunday.  That means that this coming Sunday will be a stand-alone sermon.  I will be doing another the next Sunday and then a Sunday off to get Stephanie and Buddy and then back to chapter 3 which starts with, "Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands,..." (1 Peter 3:1a, ESV).  I figure I needed my wife here when I speak on such things.

What is the report or rumor if you do wrong and get just punishment and remain versus the report or rumor if you do right and get unjust punishment and remain?  The first is logical but the second is a head scratcher.  Peter is instructing the slaves who have become Christians to continue to do good even if they have a bad master.  Who is the prime illustration to point to?  None other than Jesus Himself as He suffered doing good with unjust punishment.  Jesus becomes our example to follow, to step in His actual footprints of conduct while being persecuted.

The question is, will we trust what He has said on how we are to respond?  Will we continually entrust ourselves to God who judges justly?  Will we return to the ways and words of the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls?  It will dictate what we say and how we say it.  It will guide us in our physical response and especially when we need to raise our hand of objection for the Lord's sake because we are servants of God being mindful of and in the sight of God.  The response of the Christian should be drastically different than that of the world.

Jesus explains this in Luke 6:32-36.  Our response should be beyond what the world does because we follow the One who "is kind to ungrateful and evil men" (Luke 6:35b NASB).  We are given the command to "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36 NASB).  This lines up with Peter's words earlier to be holy in all our conduct because our God is holy (1 Peter 1:16, 17).  Easier said than done but that is no excuse not to step into those footprints.  It might be a stretch as it was when you were a kid trying to match dad's footprints in the snow but you reached for them.  

So we as children of God need to stretch to step into the conduct footprints of our example Jesus who has not only gone ahead of us but paid the price so that we may have peace with God.  His suffering, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree," (1 Peter 2:24a) made it possible for us to die (depart and be removed from) what hindered us (sin) from having a share in eternal life and allowed us to live (to breathe) in a right relationship with God.  His wounds allowed us to experience true peace.

May we have confidence when we step where Jesus tells us to step because He has already stepped there.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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