Most of you have probably seen the old Rocky films and enjoyed watching Sylvester Stalone have his whole body pounded for a grueling 10 minutes only to come back in the end and knock his opponent out with one powerful (feeble-looking) punch. It is such a thrill to meet or see someone that endures through long pain and turmoil in order to triumph in the end.
The Apostle Peter wrote two letters to the Jews that had trusted in Jesus as the Messiah, their Savior, and he wrote to them in a time when Christians were enduring great persecution from not just the Roman government, but from officials, employers, and people in all walks of life. He writes to these suffering Christians in 1 Peter 2:18,
“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.”
Peter goes on to talk about how it would be reasonable to think that a criminal should be punished, but these Christians were being treated as criminals. They were being arrested; they were being thrown into jails; they were being tortured and executed! Why? Only because they were Christians – because they trusted in and served Jesus Christ. “So Peter, I am supposed to take this abuse and rejoice? I am supposed to lovingly submit to that low-down dog of a master that beat me tirelessly today in the back field because he said that I was a plotting, scandalous dog meeting with all of my Christian friends at nights? How can I do that?”
Peter makes it clear that the way we suffer and love and rejoice in return to those that cause our suffering, is to be mindful of God. We are to be mindful of our Father in heaven’s grace to us in that while we were yet sinners, He sent down His only Son, Jesus, to die in our place so that we might have eternal life. We should be mindful, Peter reminds the believers, that Jesus was also rejected of men, tortured of men, and murdered on a cross by men, all unjustly so, and yet He prayed for them to be forgiven. When we are mindful of God’s grace to us, and think about the way that Jesus handled suffering at the hands of others, we can suffer, all the while loving and serving those that are causing us to suffer. Jesus, our Lord said, “I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven…(Matthew 5:44-45).
You may be saying, “This is impossible for me to do!” Peter did say that this was a “gracious” thing, and that we should be mindful of God. I think that it is not only grace given by us to our persecutors, but it will be grace given by God to us to be able to do this. “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me (Phil. 4:13).”
When we have suffered for a while here below, we shall triumph when we stand before our God and Savior, knowing that we lived as He told us to live – we lived to show the glory of the grace of our Father in heaven.
