The Glory of Unjust Suffering Text: 1 Peter 2:18-20
Introduction: A World of Grievances
We live in an age that is drowning in grievances. Our entire culture is structured around the cataloging of slights, the nursing of resentments, and the public performance of victimhood. Everyone wants to be recognized as a member of an oppressed class, because in our inverted moral universe, victimhood has become the highest form of currency. To suffer an injustice is to be granted a kind of secular sainthood, a license to screech, to demand, to cancel, and to burn things down. The man who can claim the greatest injury is the man who wields the greatest power.
Into this thin-skinned, whiny, and perpetually offended world, the Word of God lands with the force of a meteor. The instructions that the Apostle Peter gives here are not just counter-cultural; they are a frontal assault on the entire edifice of modern identity politics. Peter is writing to Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor, many of whom were in the lowest stations of life, including household slaves. They were experiencing real injustice, not the micro-aggressed variety. They were suffering under pagan masters, some of whom were not just demanding, but "crooked." And what is the apostle's inspired counsel? Organize a union? Start a protest? Demand their rights? No. He tells them to be subject, to endure, and to do so with all fear, seeing it as a grace from God.
This is not a call to be a doormat. This is a call to a radical, Christ-centered form of spiritual warfare. It is a call to conquer injustice not by demanding your rights, but by laying them down. It is a call to show the world a supernatural response to suffering that baffles and ultimately convicts a watching world. Peter is not giving us a strategy for social reform, though this kind of behavior, consistently applied, will reform any society from the inside out. He is giving us a strategy for glorifying God in the fires of affliction. He is teaching us how to suffer well, which is to say, how to suffer like Christ.
The world says, "If you suffer unjustly, you have found your glory." The Bible says, "If you suffer unjustly for the sake of Christ, you have found favor with God." One path leads to bitterness, rage, and societal collapse. The other leads to glory, grace, and the very heart of God.
The Text
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unrighteously. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this finds favor with God.
(1 Peter 2:18-20 LSB)
Submission in Every Direction (v. 18)
Peter begins with a direct command to a specific group:
"Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked." (1 Peter 2:18)
The word for servants here is oiketai, which refers to household servants or domestic slaves. This is part of a larger section where Peter is applying the principle of submission to every sphere of life. He has just addressed submission to civil government (v. 13), and he will go on to address wives submitting to husbands (3:1). The Christian life is a life of ordered submission. We are all under authority. The only person who thinks he is not under authority is the rebel, the fool who thinks he is his own god.
This submission is to be offered "with all fear." This is not the cowering fear of a beaten dog. This is reverential fear, directed ultimately toward God. The Christian servant obeys his earthly master because he fears his heavenly Master. He understands that all earthly authority is delegated and derived from God. To resist the legitimate authority God has placed over you is to resist God Himself.
But Peter immediately anticipates the objection. "That's easy to say if you have a good boss. What if my master is a jerk?" Peter slams that door shut. The basis of your submission is not the character of the authority figure. You are to be subject "not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked." The Greek word for crooked is skolios, from which we get scoliosis, a crooked spine. This refers to a master who is twisted, perverse, and unreasonable. The command stands. Why? Because your submission is not ultimately about him. It is an act of worship directed at God.
This principle demolishes the modern temptation to make our obedience contingent on our approval of the authority. We think we only have to obey the laws we like, the bosses we respect, or the leaders we voted for. The Bible says otherwise. The Christian's default posture is submission, not because earthly authorities are always right, but because God is always sovereign. This doesn't nullify the responsibility of authorities to be just, nor does it forbid lawful appeals or, in rare cases, principled resistance when commanded to sin. But it sets the baseline. Your boss's crookedness is not a blank check for your insubordination.
The Grace of Bearing Up (v. 19)
Peter now explains the spiritual logic behind this difficult command.
"For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unrighteously." (1 Peter 2:19 LSB)
The word for "favor" is charis, which is the word for grace. This is remarkable. Peter is saying that when you suffer unjustly and you take it patiently, it is a grace. It is a beautiful, God-pleasing thing. This is not the world's economy. The world says that getting your own back is what's admirable. God says that enduring wrong for His sake is what finds favor in His sight.
Notice the motive: "for the sake of conscience toward God." This is the key. You are not enduring the crooked master because you are a stoic, or because you are weak, or because you are trying to earn brownie points. You are doing it because you are conscious of God. You see His hand in your circumstances. You know that He is your ultimate judge and vindicator. Your conscience is captive to Him, not to your circumstances or your feelings. You are living before an audience of One.
This is what transforms suffering from a meaningless tragedy into a glorious opportunity. When you are wronged, your first instinct is to think horizontally. "He did this to me!" The gospel trains you to think vertically. "God has allowed this for His purposes, and my response will either honor or dishonor Him." This vertical orientation is the source of supernatural endurance. You "bear up under sorrows" not because you are strong, but because you know the One who is sovereign over both you and your crooked master.
Deserved vs. Undeserved Suffering (v. 20)
Peter clarifies the kind of suffering that brings this divine favor by drawing a sharp contrast.
"For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this finds favor with God." (1 Peter 2:20 LSB)
Here is the diagnostic question we must always ask ourselves when we are suffering. Is this the consequence of my own sin and foolishness? If you are lazy at your job and get fired, there is no glory in "enduring" unemployment. If you are insubordinate and get disciplined, there is no credit in taking your lumps. That is just the law of sowing and reaping. Taking your punishment patiently when you deserve it is basic decency, but it is not a distinctly Christian virtue. The pagan world understands that.
The glory, the credit, the charis, is found in the second half of the verse. "But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this finds favor with God." This is the scandal and the power of the Christian life. This is when the world stops and takes notice. When you are the best employee, the most honest, the hardest working, and you are passed over for a promotion because you are a Christian. When you speak the truth in love and are slandered for it. When you show kindness and receive contempt in return. And your response is not bitterness, not revenge, not slander for slander, but patient, prayerful endurance. That is when the aroma of Christ is released.
This is a profound comfort and a sharp challenge. It is a comfort because it tells us that our unjust suffering is not meaningless. God sees it, and He calls it beautiful. It is a challenge because it calls us to self-examination. Before we claim the martyr's crown, we must first ask if we are simply paying the stupid tax for our own sin. Much of what we call "persecution" is just the natural, earthly consequence of being obnoxious, foolish, or disobedient.
The Pattern of the Cross
This entire passage is driving us to one place: the foot of the cross. Peter is not laying a heavy, impossible burden on these servants. He is showing them how to walk in the footsteps of their Savior. The very next verse says, "For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps" (1 Peter 2:21).
The logic is inescapable. We are called to endure unjust suffering because our Lord and Master endured the ultimate unjust suffering. He did no sin, yet He was treated as the ultimate sinner. He was the only truly good and considerate Master, yet He submitted Himself to crooked and wicked men. He suffered unrighteously, not for "conscience toward God" as a creature, but as the Son of God, perfectly executing the will of His Father.
When a crooked master mistreats a Christian servant, that servant has an opportunity to put the gospel on display. He can show the world a small picture of what Christ did on a cosmic scale. Christ absorbed the injustice of our sin and did not retaliate. He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. When we, in our small trials, do the same, we are not just being stoic. We are being Christ-like.
This is why the world's grievance culture is so spiritually toxic. It trains us to be the anti-Christ. It trains us to see ourselves as the ultimate victims whose suffering gives us the right to judge, to condemn, and to exact payment. The gospel tells us that we are the ultimate villains whose sin demanded the suffering of the ultimate victim, Jesus Christ. And because He took our deserved suffering, we are now free to take our undeserved suffering with grace and patience, knowing that it finds favor with God.
So when you are wronged, when you are treated unfairly at work, when you are slandered for your faith, do not see it as a distraction from your Christian life. See it as the curriculum. It is a divine appointment, an opportunity to find grace, a chance to follow in His steps, and a platform to show a bitter and resentful world the sweet and startling aroma of the cross.