So That You Might Follow In His Steps
When we are reviled by people, can we see the opportunity before us?
When we are reviled by people, can we see the opportunity before us? To be honest it’s my own sin that gets in the way of what would be a wonderful opportunity to be counter-cultural, to be more like Christ.
We live in a time and place that is not much different to the time and place the churches which Peter wrote to lived in. The church in many parts of the world lives in some degree of persecution, and there is in all parts the ongoing pressure to conform to the world. Into this Peter writes as someone like me, like you, where his own sin often got in the way - and so where he too needed to follow the way of Jesus.
Peter writes…
21 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. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 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. 24 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. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Peter 2:21–25.
We as the church confess that Jesus bore the judgement of God against our sin, on his body to death on that cross. We the church know that Jesus has healed our relationship with God. Jesus has brought strays like you and me back into a righteous relationship with God - and now He called us to endure under suffering because, we are called to be like the great enduring One, Christ.
The suffering of Jesus was seen formed out of his submission to his Father in the garden, where he prayed not my will be done, but your will be done. Jesus’ submission took him on that path of service, of pain, of dying an agonizing death - of suffering. Jesus is the great example, for here is God in flesh who submits.
Here is the One who created all things, here is the One who made the universe from the atom to the galaxy, who holds stars and black holes in his sovereign hands, who in a moment could have come down from that cross and summoned a legion of angels to wipe away all sinners in one crushing judgement. - and yet…
Here is the One who died on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
Here is your example of submission - even in suffering - like you've never seen it before. Jesus, he is the standard of submission, the example for you.
What opportunity do we have before us in our time and place?
Poor treatment presents Christians with an opportunity. We have the opportunity to show what Christlike service looks like.
For if a Christian responds by ‘payback’, in whatever form of slander, gossip, plotting downfall, whatever it is, then such a person has merely become embroiled in their own undoing. But if the Christian bears with unjust treatment patiently, then the Christian shows they are not in bondage to the person who treats them this way, rather they are a servant of the Lord.
The Christian shows they have confidence in the Lord’s justice, and the Christian then continues to serve willingly. This means the unjust person cannot humiliate the Christian, for the Christian person has already humbled themselves, willingly. Just like Jesus did.
