Secondary Suffering Servants

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? But 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.

1 Peter 2:18-21

All of reality turns on the Greatest of All taking on the form of a servant, and submitting Himself to those who should be His servants, and who should recognize Him as their Master. And yet, one of the Old Testament names given to the Messiah who was to come was the Suffering Servant. This occurs in Isaiah. It is no wonder the eyes of the flesh missed the Lord of the Glory when He came! The question for us will be whether we will miss this glory in the lowly places we have been called to.

Doctrine. Christian submission and suffering at work pleases God by copying Christ.

(i.) Imperative

(ii.) Motive

(iii.) Distinction

(iv.) Example

Imperative.

‘Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect’ (v. 18a). οἰκέται is the word for servants and it comes from the word for house, namely, οἰκία. The more servile word for servants or “bond-slaves” is δοῦλοι. Stibbs and Walls say that these were “domestic servants, including freemen as well as slaves. What Peter has primarily in mind is not slaves as a class, but the household as a common social institution.”1 Perhaps this makes little difference, but there can be no question that everything written here applies to modern free-laborers at their places of work just as much as to those under the Greco-Roman system where well over half of the population was a slave of one sort or another. Now this action item has a quality to it. The word rendered “respect” in the ESV is the same word used above to be rendered to God, namely, “fear” (φόβος). Most obviously, this rules out insubordination:

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God (Phi. 2:14-15).

We have here the same initial dilemma as we did with the political head. So it is with the head in the field of labor: ‘not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust’ (v. 18b). The Greek word that the ESV renders “unjust” is σκολιός meaning bent, crooked, or warped. It’s where we get the English word scoliosis. This is not just talking about supervisors who are incompetent, or who may be more severe. This covers people who have it out for you.

Have a positive attitude toward your work under that. NOT—be oblivious; be naive; live in mindless subjection—but do bring proper respect.

Not only is this a literal imperative, but Peter describes it later as a call from God: ‘For to this you have been called’ (v. 20a). To what? Or, to which? Peter said not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. In whichever you are—at least for this season—to that you have been called. Treat it as such. I want to say more about that by way of application, so that this isn’t misunderstood.

Motive.

‘For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly’ (v. 19). To be mindful of God at work is driven toward making those who see your work mindful of God.2 Here is how Paul says that, in getting Titus to exhort workers in his congregation:

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior (Titus 2:9-10).

The main difference between Paul’s words there and Peter’s words here, is that the circumstance here is suffering. A hostile work environment, as we call it today.

Further down he repeats the phrase about this being a gracious thing: ‘this is a gracious thing in the sight of God’ (v. 20b). This gives more of the sense of what is meant by that “respect” or “fear,” because that fear doesn’t terminate on that earthly master—which Paul draws out in a similar command to Christian servants in the Colossians church:

not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men (Col. 2:22-23).

There, this fear is opposite to “eye-serving” just as working ultimately for the Lord is opposite to “people-pleasing.” In other words, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Prov. 15:3); and more specifically, as a promise: “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous” (Ps. 34:15). This is our right-living. So even the word Peter uses, χάρις, usually used for “grace” or “favor” or “thanks,” is a kind of offering up to God—a light reflected back to Him.

When Paul gives this same commands to the Colossians and Ephesians, there that qualifier I pointed out about “every institution” (v. 13). In the Colossians passage it this submission is “as for the Lord” (Col. 2:23) In the Ephesians passages they are to obey, “as you would Christ” (Eph. 6:5). It is as though to be mindful of God, as Peter says it here, is to have a picture before one’s mind of working directly for God’s gracious hand even through, or at least around, this twisted mean-spirited earthly finger pointed at me. That is difficult at times, but Job confessed at the extremes of suffering, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15)

So three motives here in all these verses which support our passage: first, make God look good with your work; second, offer this as a thanksgiving up to God; third, look to God for a reward that will make you forget all about the rewards denied you by earthly eyes. This is seeing work through God’s eyes.

Distinction.

This is a distinction that has already been suggested in this letter, and it will come back in chapter 4. It is a distinction between what we might call spiritual suffering and carnal suffering, or even honorable suffering and shameful suffering. Here is how Peter gets his reader to think about it:

For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God (v. 20).

This distinction has already been hinted at in the imperatives of verses 12 and 15-16 because slander for doing evil is coming toward Christians, so the imperative is essentially preventing us from living up to the charge. Then, later, in the clearer contrast:

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian … (4:15-16).

Peter labors this distinction to avoid anyone getting a persecution complex—a victim mentality that excuses bad behavior by focusing on the severe reaction it gets.

Example.

There have been different models of the atonement of Christ throughout the history of the church. I don’t much like calling these “theories” of the atonement as some theologians will do. I prefer to call these different atonement emphases.

So it is with this particular emphasis: that Christ died as an an example for us. Peter says so right here in verse 20. Although very instructively, in that same breath we also see that foundational emphases of substitution. Do you see it here? ‘Christ also suffered for you’ (v. 21a).

But there is no doubt that the emphasis of example is here: ‘Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps’ (v. 21). It is a continuous thought here: the suffering of Christ is what is held out as our example. But how so? Not to substitute for others. Not to acquire merit before God. We get a fuller picture by the time we get to the next verses, which I want to cover separately next week. But just to take enough of a peak to complete the thought, Peter says that,

when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly (v. 23).

That is the key. That is the part we can do. We can endure suffering by entrusting ourselves to God who judges justly.

Jesus, our Lawgiver here, has the ultimate credibility in this. He led by example. He says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Mat. 11:29). Who was ever more humble? Paul tells us,

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phi. 2:5-8).

No one could more credibly say, “This treatment is beneath me.” And yet, He humbled Himself by taking on the servant form. He willingly subjected Himself to suffer at the hands of those who should have recognized Him as their Master.

Practical Use of the Doctrine

Use 1. Exhortation. When Peter says here ‘to this you have been called’ (v. 21), Peter is not saying—nor am I saying—that the moment you read these words, or hear them, you are bound! You are stuck because this one job (the job you currently have) is your last stop! That would be a poor way to interpret the Scriptures. In the first place, even of that slave-heavy population of the first century, Paul could say,

Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) (1 Cor. 7:21)

The idea that God has called you to this has to do with your outlook and attitude, and then your honorable service that should flow from it. You may see light at the end of the tunnel on that job; it may be your last day there. But in whatever time you do have there, work for the Lord with such contentment in His reward, that that contentment spills over into a pleasant demeanor and a valuable contribution. So that’s the real action item.

Use 2. Correction. Do we really commend a Savior who willingly suffers our whole curse if we cannot endure a day’s worth of hardship without grumbling? The Puritan preacher Jeremiah Burroughs wrote,

A Christian comes to contentment not by making up the wants of his circumstances, but by the performance of the work of his circumstances … A carnal heart thinks, I must have my wants made up or else it is impossible that I should be content. But a gracious heart says, ‘What is the duty of the circumstances God has put me into?’3

Wasn’t this Paul’s whole attitude? “for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content” (Phi. 4:11). Of course the grass always seems greener on the other side, but it is always God who has called us to this exact next unit of work.

Use 3. Consolation. If it is to this we have been called, namely, to follow His steps, then it follows that we are secondary suffering servants. We tell the gospel not only in a church context, but we show the gospel in a work context.

If we fight over the same things the world does;

If we take easy offense, or loose our temper quickly;

If we backbite or spew bitterness about our superiors;

If we live up to the criticism by slacking off—

Then they cannot make out our steps following after the Suffering Servant.

Sometimes that aforementioned “martyrs complex” is a cover for evil in a social way. The mantra, “We lose down here,” becomes a means to excuse retreat from public virtue.

But don’t fly to the other extreme. We do suffer down here, and when we are down and out, it is no argument that we are on the wrong path. In fact, there is assurance there. When we suffer as Christians, we are well on His trail, or as Peter says it, we are following in His steps.

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1. Stibbs and Walls, 1 Peter, 114.

2. The construction διὰ συνείδησιν—woodenly, “through conscience”—is made difficult because the genitive case ending for “God” (Θεοῦ), which can be diverse. So the ESV opts for mindful of God which, in my opinion, captures the same idea. The NIV says, “conscious of God,” whereas the KJV says, “for conscience toward God,” and the NASB, “for the sake of conscience toward God.”

3. Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2005), 51.