Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:  “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;  who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;  who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.  For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:18–25) 

Claudius is a slave of the rich Roman, Marcus Publius, a wealthy Roman citizen living in the province of Cappadocia. For three days now, Claudius has had no food. His back is still tender and from the beating he received three days ago. Marcus, his master, accused him of stealing bread from the kitchen, though he had in fact done no such thing. His master was not interested in his protests, and ordered him to be beaten severely with rods. Furthermore, he was to be denied bread for one week to further teach him a lesson. Claudius knows that it is in fact his master’s slave mistress Adriana, with whom he has a secret adulterous relationship, that is the thief. His master probably knows this too, and simply uses Claudius as a scapegoat to protect his mistress from scrutiny by his wife. It’s not the first time Claudius has gone through this, and he is sure it won’t be the last. His heart burns within him at the injustice of it all. 

At about 2am Sunday morning, Claudius rises to meet with the other disciples of Jesus Christ at a nearby home. Warm greetings abound, and a psalm is sung. Then everyone quiets down, while Peter’s letter is read to them again. The speaker takes up from the next paragraph. He reads, ¹Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

Claudius’ heart is all at once challenged, convicted and comforted. He remembers- “I’m a pilgrim, the Lord’s slave ultimately, and He is Just, and my justifier.” 

Claudius’ story has probably repeated thousands of times, in all kinds of forms all over the world for two thousand years. Working under difficult, unfair, unkind, masters, bosses, managers, overlords is nothing new.

But responding as Peter calls for here is unusual. It is a sign that you are not just one of the workers of the world. You are not one of the millions in the rat race, despising the jobs and their bosses, doing as little as possible for as much as possible. To respond like we’ll see in this passage means you have a hope within that is bigger and better than just a salary or a promotion. 

The letter of 1 Peter in one sentence is this: if you have a different hope on the inside, you should have different conduct on the outside. If the grace of God is real and active in your life, it will be most evident when you face trials, pain, difficulty. Including the pain of difficult bosses.

Someone once did a calculation of the amount of hours we on average spend on various activities and then worked it out in terms of a 75 year life. It looks like this in the average life. Of your 75 years – you will spend 6 years travelling, 6 years eating, 7.5 years dressing, and personal grooming, 9 years watching TV, .5 years worshipping and praying – 23 years sleeping – 19 years working. That’s over a quarter of your life. This is a huge section of your life that will either glorify God, or it won’t. It will either testify of Christ, or it won’t.

So Peter, in this second sector of his letter is explaining how we turn our inner hope, holiness, and humility into outward conduct, that will convict the unsaved and glorify God. And having shown us how to submit to earthly government, he now turns his attention to earthly bosses. Like a good shepherd, he first exhorts us by telling us what to do, then he encourages us with why we should do it, and then he challenges us with an example to follow. 

I. The Exhortation: What to Do

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. 

Here again, Peter commands Christians to submit. As we submit to earthly governmental authority, even the kind like Nero, so here again, we are commanded to engage that hope, humility and holiness and submit to your authorities in the workplace. You remember submit mean to fall in line, to line up under, to obey orders from a superior.

Servants refers to people who worked in households, and lived there. Sometimes they were very well educated, and had great responsibility. But in the Roman world, they were the property of their master. They did not have the kind of labour laws and protections that exist for many modern workers. The word here for master is the ancestor of our English word despot. It means someone with total or absolute authority. 

So you’d think Peter might issue a command for self-protection, for a guarded, self-protective approach to authority. But look how he tells us to submit. How should we submit? 

With all fear. This means a deep respect and awe. Respect for our bosses, but it probably goes beyond the human master here, and refers to to being reverent before God. God is our ultimate authority, and the respect we have for Him trickles down into the way we regard every authority.

Let there be full and complete respect from a Christian worker under authority.

That means we work heartily as if God is our audience. We work like Paul commanded in Ephesians “with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, (Ephesians 6:5–7) 

We submit respectfully, cheerfully, and from the heart in all things. That doesn’t include sinful things, but it does include stupid things. Your boss may give you tasks that you think are stupid, unreasonable, foolish, a waste of time, but unless what he asks you to do is sinful, you should do it. What will honour God is when you do it from the heart.

All respect also means without grumbling or answering back.

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, (Phil. 2:14-15)

Grumbling is the most common language spoken at work. When you don’t speak it, your co-workers will be amazed. But when you don’t grumble, you show that you believe Christ has given this command and you are not going to grumble against Christ. It shows that you are submitting sincerely, seeing past the manager and the boss, and seeing this as coming from Christ, to grow your humility.

Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, (Tis. 2:9) 

But surely this kind of diligent, respectful, courteous kind of submission is when our bosses treat us fairly and kindly?

Look at your text: not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.

Courteous, diligent, submission is easy when your boss is good and gentle: generous, sensitive, compassionate. The word here translated gentle means someone who is lenient, tolerant. Not unyielding and unbending, but understanding. It’s easy to submit to those bosses. 

But Peter calls for the same respectful submission to the harsh. This Greek word is the ancestor of our word for skoliosis, when you have a curve in your spine. It means to be crooked, morally twisted, bent, unfair, harsh, unscrupulous. This is a boss who is unfair, unkind, unyielding, with double-standards, who seems to be out to get you, who always seems to have a problem with you. 

“Even if your master is the devil himself, you are not excused from the work of love. The Christian does not serve because the master is worthy, but because Christ is worthy. It is Christ whom you serve in your station, not the tyrant who mistreats you.”—Martin Luther,

Take all the hope Peter gave us in chapter 1 and 2, take all the holiness and distinctiveness he gave us in chapter 1 and 2, and then be humble in the face of that boss, and submit with all respect. 

How do you do this?

Remember the invisible-man method of submission? When you are experiencing harsh and unfair treatment from your boss, momentarily make your boss invisible and see Christ standing behind him or her. It is Christ giving you this task, to test your humility. Christ who loves you is asking you to do this for bigger reasons than just this unfair boss in front of you. And as you see Him there, you have all this future hope, and all this positional holiness, so you have the motive and the means to do it. You are not ultimately doing this for this boss, but for Christ. 

So what could be the reasons God might sovereignly put you through a trial of a very perverse and harsh boss? Peter tells us in the next two verses, which give us the second step in this teaching.

II. The Encouragement: Why do it

For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

Here is the reason for this kind of submission: it is commendable, literally it is gracious, lovely, beautiful. To whom? End of verse 20 – before God. This is pleasing to God. Just as we saw back in verse 14 that is is God’s will to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men by your submission, here again, this pleases God to see His children acting this way. 

Peter describes particularly what is commendable before God. God, it seems, wants to see a good reaction to unfair treatment. In verse 19 he says when you endure grief and suffer wrongfully out of conscience toward God. In verse 20, he puts it this way: when you do good, and then suffer, and you take it patiently. 

In other words, when you get the opposite result of what you seemingly deserved. You work well, you do right, and you are falsely accused, or passed over, or not promoted, not given a raise, picked on by the boss, humiliated in front of others. You experience a negative result when what you have done is positive. You do what is right, and are treated as if you did wrong. You get that which makes you sad, pained, grieved. 

Now if you respond patiently, because in that moment you become aware of your position in Christ, your relationship to God, and you choose to not lash out, take revenge, act in anger, defend yourself angrily, but you endure, you bear up, God is pleased. 

Why? Because it is a grace-given reaction. Peter asks us, what credit is there, what kind of honour or praiseworthiness is there in patiently accepting bad treatment for bad work? You do bad work and you get punished, and you can’t retaliate and get angry, because it is your own fault. You brought it on yourself. And when you then take your punishment patiently, no one is going to admire and be amazed by the reaction. This is just normal life. Nothing unusual is happening. 

But respond to unfair treatment with meekness, and everyone knows that something unusual is happening. Either the person is too weak to respond angrily to the unfairness, or they are too meek to respond to it. 

“To return good for evil is the honey of a Christian. Many can return good for good, and evil for evil, but to return good for evil is the mark of Christ’s sheep. He answered reproaches with prayers, stripes with pardon.” —Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity

Hudson Taylor once worked under a foreman who despised him and intentionally gave him degrading tasks. Taylor later wrote: “I learned early that to answer again was to dishonour my Lord. When spoken to harshly, I would whisper a prayer, recalling how He ‘did not revile in return.’ Those years were a great blessing, for they taught me the patience I would need in China.”

But can Christians not respond at all to unfair or harsh bosses? Now does that mean that we should never respectfully ask our boss to re-consider? No, the Bible certainly has examples of godly believers making an appeal against foolish authority. Abigail appealed David’s decision to take revenge on Nabal. Jonathan appealed the decisions of his ungodly father Saul. Esther appealed the king’s decision to have the Jewish people killed. Paul appealed the Roman decision to try him in front of the Sanhedrin. Believers can thoughtfully, and respectfully speak to our authorities, usually in private, and ask them to reconsider. But if they do not, then we submit, even if we disagree. 

What about getting away from a horrible job? Leaving, resigning? John Bunyan wrote some similar words once when referring to the choice to run away or stay.  We should ask, does God want me to escape this suffering, or to endure it? “If it is in thy heart to flee, flee: if it be in thy heart to stand, stand. Any thing but a denial of the truth. He that flees, has warrant to do so; he that stands, has warrant to do so. Yea, the same man may both flee and stand, as the call and working of God with his heart may be.”

Later on he said : “flee not…out of a slavish fear; stand not, of a bravado. Do what thou dost in the fear of God, guiding thyself by his Word and providence.”

We can appeal, but not rebel. We can, in our day, seek legal protection when truly abused, but not vengeance. But we should not always remove the opportunity to display this unusual, grace-given response.

But why does this acceptance of opposites please God? Why is that God is pleased with this opposite reaction? It sounds almost cruel. So Peter now challenges us by reminding us that this acceptance of opposites is at the very heart of our faith.

III. The Example: who to imitate

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Whocommitted no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:18–25) 

We were called, which means we were saved, born again, so as to follow His steps. Jesus suffered for us to save us from wrath, but now we are called to imitate the kind of thing that He did. We are to be little Christs, mini-Calvarys, small reenactments of the greatest event in the world, when Christ suffered for us. 

Now Peter takes us back to that moment to see it in all its paradox, in all its contradiction, in all its chaos, as perfect Good takes on all evil. He unpacks Christ’s example for us in four statements about Christ and what He did.

First, in verse 22, quoting Isaiah 53:9 Peter tells us that He committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”. You might be innocent in a particular instance, your boss might be falsely accusing you in a particular moment, but Jesus was innocent in His entire life. There wasn’t a single thing He did that required a reprimand, a rebuke, a discipline, a punishment. He was the only one who wrote the exam of God’s Law and got 100%. He was the only one who perfectly loved God and loved man. 

Second statement is in verse 23. When He was reviled, did not revile in return. They threw the worst possible insults and slander His way. He, the ultimate God-fearer, was called a blasphemer. He, the ultimate Truth, was called a deceiver. He, the ultimate servant, was called a rebel against Rome. 

And on the cross, they said things that would hurt the most. They said, “He called Himself a Saviour, but He can’t seem to save Himself! He said we should believe in Him and believe the signs He did – why not do the ultimate sign and come down from the cross!” Nothing could hurt more than being challenged to prove you are God’s Son by abandoning the cross. On one level, coming down from the cross would have been the thing Jesus wanted to do most, and the only reason for Him staying there was to save the people busy insulting Him! But He did not insult back! He did not revile them for their malicious reviling.

The third statement is in the middle of verse 23 tells us that when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously

As torture upon torture was laid upon Him, having at His disposal more than twelve legions of angels to dispatch those harming Him, Jesus did not issue threats. He did not tell them what would happen to them, He did not speak of His revenge, or even of God’s vengeance upon them. He only prayed. He committed His soul to God who judges righteously. He knew ultimate justice belonged to His Father, and that’s where He made His appeal, to His Father, the righteous judge. But to those ones causing His suffering, He did not threaten. 

The fourth statement is the greatest paradox of all: Who bore our sins in His body on the cross. He – the sinless one – took our sins, with their guilt and their punishment on His person, experiencing the physical pain and spiritual death we deserved. We were guilty, we deserved to die: He was innocent, He deserved to live. But instead, we died to sin in Him, and can now live to righteousness. We were lost sheep, but have now been found and reclaimed by the Shepherd and Overseer, or to use the usual words, the Pastor and Bishop of your souls. 

Just a note on “by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24) Some have built a “healing in the atonement” doctrine out of these verses, claiming that physical healing from sickness is one of the benefits of the cross. Peter is quoting Isaiah 53:5: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. (Isa. 53:5)

The theme of Isaiah 53 is the Suffering Servant: the one who bears the iniquities of the people, and so saves them from death and judgement. The kind healing in view is like the “peace”, “griefs” “sorrows” of the previous verses. They are referring to the pains of sin, and the result of deliverance from sin. “Healing” is clearly a metaphor for forgiveness. 

It is true in an ultimate sense that the atonement will bring healing, since Christ’s atonement is the basis of the renewal of all creation, the removal of the curse, and the resurrection of the body (Ro 8:19-25). But this is far from making the claim that we can claim or expect physical healing on demand because of Calvary. Certainly Paul did not claim this for Epaphroditus, Trophimus or Timothy. 

Here then is an example that the worst possible workplace can never top: an innocent Man being reviled, brutalised, absorbing guilt and punishment for others. 

This is why God is pleased when we do this at work: because it is a Calvary re-enactment. It is a mini-Golgotha. It is the only Christ on the cross that some people will ever see. It is the Gospel displayed visibly. And that’s an awesome thought – that in the seemingly mundane world of day to day 8 to 5 work, you might be charged to give the world a Calvary demonstration. That by your reactions, you display the Son of God who said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are do’, so that some watching centurion might confess that indeed, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 

“By suffering unjustly, slaves in the household of God participate in the vocation of Christ Himself.”

Job satisfaction, work environment, career path, basic conditions of employment: these are all great things to have. But for a Christian, they should not be where your hope begins and ends. For a Christian, work is bigger than those things. Work is over a quarter of my life displaying the Gospel, showing forth outwardly what happened to me inwardly. Work is a place where you might be called to walk the Calvary Road with Jesus.