QT 20 Sep 16, 1 Pet 2:18-25, Our witness includes how we respond, even to injustice

1 Peter 2:18–25 (ESV) — 18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 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. 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.

NOTE: The relationship in Israel of servants (or slaves) was more akin to a seven-year contract or enlistment than to the slavery in the early history of the United States. Still the methods of punishment seem extreme to a western person, but there is no indication that beatings were normal. Many masters (employers) were kind. But since most servants were paid up front for their  seven years of service, usually because of a debt, firing was not really an option, so I'm sure physical punishment grew out of this quandary. In any case, nowhere in scriptures is the behavior (beatings) condoned. And we don't even know if it was wide-spread. Peter's point (and Paul makes a similar case), is that how we respond to injustice is an important aspect of our witness (whether it is beating or other forms of discipline, like extra work). For a servant, the discussion of being an alien and stranger may have created some jealousy. They already felt like strangers, they weren't masters of an estate. They probably wondered if they would ever get to enjoy prosperity like their masters. Peter, previously, reminds them that their reward is in heaven and it is sure. But for now, they live on earth as witnesses, and there are a lot of ways to be a witness, whatever your role or lot in life is now. If we recognized that we have a sure inheritance, it makes injustice easier to understand and to accept. But if this is all there is to life, then injustice is horribly wrong and unfair. Injustice is wrong, but God has promised to deal with the unjust. And actually he already has on the cross. Now, people are left with two options, to believe in Jesus or to reject Jesus. If they believe, then Jesus' death has fully paid for their injustice (as well as our own sins) and we can't improve on that. If they refuse, they will suffer eternity in hell, and that is the strongest punishment imaginable. Although the punishment is  not because of the injustice performed in this life, but their refusal to believe in their creator, savior, and God.