Transcript & Slides: Christian Workers
Christian Workers (1 Peter 2:18-25)
By David Feddes
We're going to return today to our study of the book of First Peter and focus especially on what Peter has to say to workers--and to slaves in particular.
The Roman Empire was a splendid, magnificent empire, and you could see it in many of its buildings and accomplishments. There was one particular hill of Rome, the Esquiline Hill, where they built the first heated pool in Rome. This was a magnificent pool, and there were structures around it for the rich to enjoy, with marble buildings and perfumed gardens. It was built in a particular spot, and for some reason the vultures and buzzards still wheeled overhead years later. It was built atop a graveyard filled with the bodies of slaves. Somebody got the bright idea that this could be developed into a more attractive site, and so they made it into a more attractive site. But they still needed the perfumed gardens in certain measures, for years and years afterward, because sometimes bodies would come uncovered and the stench would rise.
In a sense, that was a parable of what the Roman Empire was. Tom Holland, in his book Dominion, writes some of the history of the Christian church, and he begins by talking about that magnificent building and architectural achievement on the Esquiline Hill and what lay underneath. The Roman Empire had the vast majority of its people as slaves, and you became a slave in a variety of ways. If you were captured in warfare, you could become a slave. If you were kidnapped and somebody sold you, you could become a slave. If you were born to slave parents, you were automatically a slave. If you were desperately poor, in danger of starving, and wanted to survive, you could sell yourself as a slave.
There were a lot of avenues into slavery, but not a lot back out of slavery, although sometimes you could buy your way out if you scraped together enough money. Slaves did not have much in the line of rights. If you were a slave, you could be sexually abused by your master, and that was perfectly legal. You could be beaten by your master, and that was legal. Sometimes the Roman moralists would say it was not wise to beat your slave because you might hurt your hand while doing it. That was very considerate—be careful about your own health while you’re beating your slave.
When you had an empire that enslaved so many and whose prosperity, wealth, and splendor depended so much on slave labor, you had to keep the slaves in line. So there were ferocious tortures and punishments for slaves who didn’t do exactly as they were told or who got a bit uppity. The ultimate penalty was crucifixion—to be nailed to a cross and left to hang there for days, to have the birds come and the buzzards pick at you, maybe even before you were dead, and to die that way. The Romans thought that was perfectly sensible.
The Roman intellectual and historian Tacitus said, “We have slaves drawn from every corner of the world in our households, practicing strange customs and foreign cults or none, and it’s only by means of terror that we can hope to coerce such scum.” That’s what crucifixion was for primarily—to keep the scum in their place and let them know what would happen if they didn’t stay in their place.
So you have this situation with many people as slaves. Some slaves had it better than others. Some masters were more considerate than others. But you had a system with many suffering under it and a means of control by the masters through terror. Peter addresses people who are in that kind of situation.
Now, the Romans and their greatest thinkers and philosophers thought this was perfectly normal. A slave is a slave because that’s their proper station in society. If you’re one of the ruling people, you’re there because that’s where you belong. It reminds me of Dr. Seuss’s I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew. He’s got one spot there where one guy’s doing all the work and the other one is bossing him around, and the boss says, “This is called teamwork. I furnish the brains; you furnish the muscles, the aches, and the pains.” That’s teamwork: you get to furnish the muscles, the aches, and the pains, and I’m the boss who gets to boss you around.
Now, when the Bible deals with this whole situation of slavery, it sounds a couple of different notes. One is that you find again and again that slavery is not considered God’s ideal at all. When Jesus Christ comes into the world, he says a variety of things that really begin to make things look very different. He says, “You have one Master, and you are all brothers” (Matthew 23:8). If you believe that one sentence, it is like a depth charge that detonates and starts wrecking things if you believe in superiority of one over another and the right of one to subject another.
Throughout the Bible you find things that are not very convenient if you are comfortable in your position as a slave owner. Of course, even people who profess to be Christians throughout history have been able to cherry-pick and say, “Now this shows that slavery is right, and I get to be the boss, and you get to be the slave.” But let’s think for a moment: what is the most fundamental event, the defining event, of the entire Old Testament? The Exodus. What happened? A bunch of slaves got freed, and their masters got blasted. This is not a convenient story to have as your main story if you’re a champion of slavery.
What happens in the New Testament? It begins with Mary receiving the good news from an angel that she’s going to give birth to the promised Savior. She sings a song, and part of her song is, “You have cast the powerful down from their thrones and have lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). That’s a song that packs a wallop.
You have God himself entering into the world in the form of one of the lowliest of people. The Romans had people who, in a sense, you could call god-men in their opinion—they were always the most important and powerful people in the world. If you were Julius Caesar, then you got promoted to godhood. If you were Augustus Caesar, you got promoted to godhood. After a while, just about any Caesar decided they were a god already while still here on earth. The Christian gospel announced something very different. Rather than first becoming the most powerful man on earth and then making it all the way up to being God, God came down and emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave (Philippians 2:7).
So when you read the Bible, you have God doing something very surprising.
In cultures that took slavery for granted as a good thing, you have the apostle Paul identifying slave owners and slave traders as ungodly people who are out of line with sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:9-10). Church history is mixed—sometimes the church made great blunders and continued allowing Christians to enslave people, but it also had great voices who opposed it.
John Chrysostom, the greatest preacher of his day about 300 years after Jesus, told his congregation that there was only one good reason to have a slave: so that you could train them in a trade, help them earn their own living, and then set them free. He told his listeners that most of them had slaves simply because they were too lazy to work as God commanded. The next century after him came Patrick, who was kidnapped and forced into slavery in Ireland. He escaped but later had a dream of Irish voices calling him back to be a missionary. He returned, brought the gospel to Ireland, and declared that slavery was evil. Throughout history, witnesses like these kept speaking the voice of Christ: “You have one Master, and you are all brothers” (Matthew 23:8).
Still, the New Testament also has a strain of teaching that says, in effect, “Slaves, I’ve got some advice for you,” and it isn’t revolution advice. It’s not “kill your masters, overthrow the society.” Paul wrote, “Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—but if you can gain your freedom, do so” (1 Corinthians 7:20-21). If there were opportunities to get into a better situation, take them, but don’t think you can’t live for Christ and have a worthwhile life if you’re stuck being a slave.
The purpose of that teaching was that, as a slave, you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and your main purpose in life is to bring credit to the gospel and not to discredit it. “All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered” (1 Timothy 6:1). Paul didn’t want the gospel to be slandered.
Part of that respect for masters is simply to realize that even if they’re jerks—some of them mean and cruel—they’re still people who need a Savior. If you’re feeling sorry for yourself as a Christian slave, realize this: a Christian slave is far better off than a godless master who is on the road to hell. Paul said, “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:9-10).
This was not because all the masters were good or deserved loyal service, but because serving well made the gospel attractive to those being served. There’s a missionary motive behind being an excellent worker.
One favorite contemporary example of that is a story about a Hollywood actor who was looking for hired help. Even though he was rich, he wanted it cheap. One of the people he interviewed was an immigrant woman. He asked, “Why do you want to work for me?” She replied, “I want to work for you so that I can lead you to Jesus Christ.” The actor laughed—but he hired her, and she led him to Jesus Christ. The immigrant with no income and the fabulously wealthy celebrity—one seemed more important than the other, but she had a sense of mission in her lowly work.
That’s the same Spirit Paul called Christians to have, and it’s the same Spirit Peter teaches in the passage we’re looking at in First Peter. Peter addresses Christians who weren’t in the most important positions and yet had crucial roles to play.
Let me remind you what he said to them about who they are. Christians are royalty, not scum. Remember the earlier reference from Tacitus: “We’ve got to keep the scum in line, so we’ve got to scare the daylights out of them and have terrible tortures and executions so that everybody behaves.” Peter’s message is the opposite: you are royalty, not scum.
“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). That’s who you are, says Peter, echoing Exodus 19, right after God freed the slaves and made them his special people. Now Peter says to Christians 1,400 years after the Exodus, “You’re a chosen people, a royal priesthood.”
He’s saying, “I know a lot of you are slaves, but you are royalty, not scum. You are agents, not victims.” If you slip into a victim mentality, you’ll think, “I’m just toiling away until I die, maybe horribly. That’s all my life amounts to.” But Peter says to all Christians, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:12). That’s his command to all Christians. Then he starts addressing different situations believers live in. How do you deal with rulers—not all of whom are wise and good? You live under them, seek to make a difference by the way you live, and let your godly conduct and light shine. How do you live in the work system? That’s what we’re focusing on—Peter’s words to slaves in the labor and work system. Later he talks about living under the family system. Through all these, he says: “You are royalty, not scum. You are agents, not victims.”
How should they behave while living in a work system that was unpleasant and unfair? Peter writes:
18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.
20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
When the Bible speaks this way to Christian workers and slaves in particular, Peter highlights a number of things to keep in mind. You live under the boss’s authority—that’s what it means to submit yourself to your master. He may not be a very good boss, but even a bad boss you show respect toward. That doesn’t mean you lie to yourself and say, “This is a really good boss,” when he isn’t. Respecting the boss means respecting the position and the role that he has, as well as respecting his humanity. So you act in a respectful manner and behave toward him respectfully even if he doesn’t really deserve it. The Bible says not just those who are good and considerate, but also those who are harsh.
“Harsh” maybe isn’t quite the right translation. The word is scolios. Have you ever heard of scoliosis? It means you’ve got a crooked, twisted spine. In this case, it’s not the spine that’s crooked and twisted—it’s a crooked, twisted master. And even when you’ve got one like that, you want to reach him with the gospel. You put up with a lot and endure undeserved suffering.
Peter says, “Let’s make sure that if we’re going to suffer, we suffer for good, not evil.” There are situations where, if you’re a rotten worker, you don’t do what you’re told or you do a horrible job, and you get slammed for it—don’t go around proclaiming your martyrdom. You’re bringing punishment on yourself if you’re doing terrible work. That’s true not just back when Peter was writing, but today. If you’ve got a job, do it well. Do it even if your boss isn’t the finest of bosses.
Peter says, “Just remember who you’re really working for.” You’re always working under the leadership of Christ. When the apostle Paul talks to slaves, he says, “Do everything as to the Lord. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24). Your master only thinks you’re working for him, but you’re really working for Jesus. All along he says, “Focus on God’s approval.” It is commendable if you bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you are conscious of God. It is commendable if you suffer for doing good because you are conscious of God. That’s the key to everything we do and everything we are, but especially in this kind of tough situation. You always remain more conscious of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ, of who he is.
Then you follow his example: “To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). That, in brief, is what Peter is saying in this passage about Christian workers and Christian slaves.
Now that’s not the whole biblical message about work, but it is what Peter focuses on. If we look at the broader biblical teaching, there are a number of things to keep in mind about your job and your work as a calling from God. One is that work’s a good thing, and you can honor God by doing excellent work. When you have a job, give it your best. Do it with excellence because work is a noble thing.
That may sound obvious—and I hope it does—because if you’ve grown up with a Christian mentality or in a Christian-influenced culture, work is held in much higher regard than it was in the Roman Empire. Work was for lowlifes only—for people who couldn’t get out of it. If you were living at that time, leisure was what the important people valued.
You honor God with excellent work. God’s given you abilities—use your talents and abilities. God gives you passions, things you really care about and want to make a difference with. Work is a wonderful way to use your talents and pursue your passions. These are things that, let’s be honest, a lot of slaves didn’t have the opportunity to do. We have the opportunity not just to do the work we’re forced to do all the time, but sometimes to get into something we enjoy doing—something we have special abilities for, something where we can express ourselves even in our work.
Another important aspect of work in the Bible is earning your own living so that you’re not mooching off someone else. The Bible says, “If anyone has the ability, work with your hands so that you can not only provide for yourself but share and give to those who are in need” (Ephesians 4:28). That’s another excellent purpose of work according to the broader teaching of the Bible.
“Seek justice, encourage the oppressed” (Isaiah 1:17)—that’s another message of the Bible in relation to the realm of work. When you see that exploitation is widespread and you live in a nation where you can have a voice, then use your voice. Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. Try to make society more just, to help it flourish, and to spread fairness. We have options that people in the time of the slaves didn’t have, so we who are Christians should try to make a difference.
And, as we’ve already emphasized, be godly in your life and share the gospel in your witness. That can be part of what you do in the context of people you meet at work—people you work with and interact with. These are all excellent realities about work that we can pursue as people in a free land with great opportunities, following the teaching of the Bible.
And suffer unfairly for doing good—that is part of the work situation. You’re not always going to have a great boss. You’re not always going to be making your living doing something you love. Part of your calling as a Christ-like worker is suffering unfairly for doing good. In fact, this is one of the prime opportunities to shine for Jesus.
When we think of Peter’s discussion of the different systems—the government system, the work system, the family system—we wish we had good government, and we may work for it. We wish we had a great and just economic system. We wish our families were ideal. But do you want to know where you can shine the most and be the most like Jesus? When the system stinks.
Sorry to bring that news to you, but if you really want to shine, then actually when government is bad and out to oppress Christians is when you get the opportunity to be the most like the Lord Jesus Christ. When your work situation is very hard and you suffer and live for Christ anyway, then you’re showing more of Christ than when you’re raking in piles of money doing what you love, flourishing in every way. Bless you if that’s happening—I praise God when it does happen. You don’t go looking for trouble, but if you want to really shine with the light of Christ in ways that you can’t in any other situation, you shine when your work is hard and your master stinks.
And yes, let’s face it, some bosses are pretty much like the master. They think you’re their slave. Even in marriage, as we’ll see, sometimes your opportunity to be the most Christ-like is not in, “I married my best friend, and it’s been sweetness, bliss, and light ever since.” If you have a difficult spouse, you might not want to say it to them, but your opportunity to be Christ-like and suffer is by putting up with them. You might not want to say it that way, but when you’re in a difficult and challenging marriage, sometimes the persistence of remaining faithful even when it’s hard shows more of the life of Christ than when you’ve got a great marriage and everything is going wonderfully well.
Peter says you need to be able to suffer unfairly for doing good, and this is how you follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we think of following in Jesus’ steps, let’s just think for a moment of Jesus as the slave. You might think that’s an overstatement, but I’ll develop it a little more. Jesus calls us to follow in his steps, and that includes submitting, serving, and suffering.
Peter says we follow in his steps, and what does that mean? Jesus himself puts it this way: “The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:26-27). “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45).
He didn’t come to enslave; he came to slave away for other people. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. If you want to follow Jesus and walk in his steps, that involves not being the great, important person who dominates others, but being the one who’s often despised and who serves others—Jesus the slave.
Christmas is not a time when people think much about Jesus the slave, is it? But what do you think was happening in that stable? What do you think was happening in that manger? The Almighty Maker—the one who had absolute control, the one who was master of everything—gave up that status and became a baby.
And as in days of old, so today, babies are not the safest people in the world. Back then, babies—especially babies born in embarrassing or difficult situations, or ones people simply didn’t want—would be dumped and left outside for animals to eat or to die in the weather. That’s how they got rid of babies back then. Now we’re much more civilized—we kill them before they can get out of the womb. But either way, the Master of the universe, who entered into the womb of a woman, became one more little baby—or as some might label him, a mere fetus. But God thought it was worthwhile to enter a woman’s womb, to be born, laid in a manger, and then hunted as a little child, forced to flee his own country as a refugee, and live as an immigrant for a few years in Egypt before returning to live in the poverty of Nazareth.
What do you think was going on in that manger? Do you think Jesus said, “Two thousand years from now, everybody’s going to think, ‘Oh, how cute! That little baby lying in that manger—isn’t it wonderful?’” He left the greatest palace—not even the greatest palace in the universe, because it wasn’t in the universe at all. It was a step down, an infinite step down, for God even to enter his own universe as a creature.
Because God is so far beyond anything he’s ever made, the difference between God and the greatest archangel is greater than the difference between an archangel and a mosquito. God is God—there is none like him. There’s nothing like God. When God becomes a creature in the person of his Son, he takes the biggest step down anyone could possibly take. Had he come down and become an emperor, it still would have been an infinite step down. But he became a baby in a manger.
And when he got back to Nazareth, he worked with his hands. He wasn’t one of those who gets paid to do next to nothing for easy work. He labored in a carpenter’s shop. He knew what it was to work very, very hard.
The Bible says that when you submit yourself, you accept a lower status. That’s basically what submission means—you say, “Okay, I’ll take that status of the slave to the master.” “Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave” (Philippians 2:5-7). Did you think I was overstating it when I spoke of Jesus the slave in connection with Christmas? But this is the Word of God—he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave.
During his life, he also did work that only slaves would do. You remember the story—the disciples were arguing about who would be the greatest, and when it came time for the Passover supper, someone had to wash the feet. But there were no slaves around, and none of them was going to do it. So Jesus took off his outer tunic, grabbed a towel, and washed their feet. He did the work of a slave.
After Jesus had done slaving for them, he said, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:13-15).
He does the work of a slave. So if God himself will wash feet, what job is too lowly for you or for me if it will help others? Who among us is more important than Jesus? What job is lower than the things Jesus himself has done for his people?
And of course, not just his birth, emptying, loss of status, and serving in the scum jobs, but dying the terrible death of a criminal slave—that’s what Jesus did on the cross. Slaves in the Roman Empire, when they got out of line, were crucified. If you were one of the big shots and the authorities wanted to get rid of you, they chopped off your head or gave you some other “nice” death—and believe me, that was a nice death compared to crucifixion.
Jesus was crucified as a slave. And he said before his death that we need to suffer in his steps: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (Matthew 16:24; John 15:20). That’s what Jesus has done, and that’s what Peter means when he says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).
He himself practiced what he preached. Not long after writing his letters, Peter himself, in the year 64, was caught by the Romans and executed under Emperor Nero. He was to be crucified like the other slaves, but he asked to be crucified upside down because he said he was not worthy to die in the same manner as his master.
So up to now you’ve been listening to a preacher in a fairly comfortable situation talking about ancient slaves—but don’t forget that the person who wrote these words died this way, and he died in much the same manner as his master. Think about that again for a moment. You belong to a church that worships someone who gave up all power, was born as a baby, and was crucified like a rebel slave. His foremost disciple and most prominent leader of the early church died on a cross.
There are other religions where their big founding figure is some mighty conqueror and some big shot. These are the big shots of the Christian faith—Jesus supremely, and Peter with a pretty high rank among the apostles of Christ—and this is how they died. The Bible continues to tell us about that, and it extended well beyond the Bible.
The Roman Empire lasted quite a while, and it never did get very nice for a few hundred years. A slave named Blandina was one of those in the city of Lyon in 177 who was killed. There was a group of Christians who were all tortured and mistreated very badly. Some of them died under those tortures; others survived. Blandina, a slave girl, was one who survived the first round of torture. Then she and a fifteen-year-old boy named Ponticus were brought in. Ponticus was being tortured, and Blandina encouraged him not to renounce Christ, not to confess that the Christians were evildoers.
When Blandina herself was being tortured, she said, “I am a Christian. We do not do wrong.” They were supposed to renounce their Christianity and confess that the Christians were wrong for following Christ, but she kept saying the same thing over and over: “I am a Christian. We Christians do not do wrong.”
She was tied to a stake, and wild beasts were set loose, but for some reason the wild beasts weren’t hungry that day—maybe because they had too much to eat the day before devouring other Christians. At any rate, they left Blandina alone that day. Others who were still awaiting execution said that when they saw her hanging there, they saw the figure of Christ himself on the cross, and it encouraged them to continue.
She was continually tortured, then set in a red-hot iron seat and clamped there for a while, and still didn’t die. Then she was put out for a wild bull to gore and trample her, and she still didn’t die. Finally, she was killed with a sword. The death of Blandina was described in great detail by witnesses in Lyon who were there. This was a slave—just a nobody, a slave—who died for Christ, and she is still remembered after many of the Caesars have been forgotten.
If you change the scene to the next century, you have Perpetua and Felicity and another group of Christians in the city of Carthage. The Romans liked to have a good time, so it was time to celebrate the birthday of Emperor Septimius Severus. When you wanted to have a birthday party, what did you have to do? You had to find some people to torture and kill, of course—that was amusing and fun. So in Carthage, they decided to have a birthday party for the emperor.
Perpetua was twenty-two years old, a free woman nursing a baby. Felicity was a pregnant woman who was a slave. There were also two men who were slaves and two who were free. They were all rounded up to be part of the entertainment for the emperor’s birthday.
By this time, Felicity was supposed to have been executed earlier, but the Romans—being such compassionate people—had outlawed executing pregnant women. So she couldn’t be executed until her baby was born. Once her baby was born, she was up for execution with the rest of them. They were first whipped, then the men were set loose with a boar, a leopard, and a bear who tore them apart. Then they set wild cattle loose on the women, and finally, all the men and women were finished off with swords.
Some of these Christians were free; some were slaves. They were all equally martyrs for the sake of the gospel. When Peter was writing to slaves, he was preparing them to be ready to suffer. Things had not yet gotten as bad as they were about to be, but God knew what was coming. So he gave this message through Peter to strengthen the Christians for the times ahead of them. Many slaves perished, and they kept on saying, “I am a Christian, and Christians do not do wrong.”
Now we live a couple thousand years later in a society that has many freedoms, where we don’t suffer nearly so much. It might be wise to pause for a moment and ask: What is the price that Christ paid, and what is the price that Christians paid so that the faith would stay alive during those dark and terrible days of empire? When they were building their grand swimming pools over the top of stinking graveyards, when emperors’ birthdays were celebrated by the torture and slaughter of Christian slaves—that was not a faith for the faint of heart, to put it mildly. They lived for Christ. They worked for Christ. They died for Christ.
So when you go to work on Monday morning, do you have a pity party in mind for yourself? You have to work kind of hard? Your boss isn’t very nice? What was his last birthday party like—or her last birthday party? Did they torture a few people and then kill them for fun? Is that how your boss celebrates?
Again, I’m not saying that you have to put up with the most horrible of bosses no matter what. In a free country, as Paul says, “If you can gain your freedom, do so” (1 Corinthians 7:21). You’ve witnessed to your boss; it might be time to move on if you have a boss like that. But even if you can’t escape, keep in mind again what it meant to be a Christian worker back in the day, and what we may yet be called to do in the future.
And please, please, please—the next time you hear one of these morons preaching a prosperity gospel that everything is always blissful, sweet, healthy, and uninterrupted if you follow Jesus and have enough faith—just remember Peter. Remember Jesus. Remember Blandina. Remember Perpetua and Felicity. Remember the saints, the martyrs, the confessors of the faith, and just say, “Fool! You prosperity preachers—you can have your yacht; I’ll take Christ.”
When we think of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming into the world at Christmas, remember that he emptied himself, taking the very nature of a slave (Philippians 2:7). Remember that he washed feet so that we might do the same and serve others. Remember that he gave his life, and give your life for him—whether it’s in dying or in living for him.
Because as Peter finishes this passage, he goes on to talk about Jesus—and we looked at that a few weeks ago. He speaks of Jesus as our Substitute, the one who dies in our place; as our Shepherd, the one who brings us back again; and as our Standard, our example—the one whose steps we follow in.
“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:21-25).
Back in the late 1940s, there was a village in Korea that was taken over by the communists. Those atheistic communists went around hunting for people known to be Christians, and they caught the two oldest sons of one of the pastors in town, Pastor Son. These two young men, Matthew and John, were lined up, and they testified to their persecutors that they needed to put their faith in Christ—but they were shot.
Later on, that village was taken back from the communists, who were mostly driven out. Then the people started looking for who had committed all the atrocities in the village. They found that a young man named Chai Sung was the one who had fired the shots that killed the two boys. He was captured and sentenced to be executed.
But the father of the two boys, Pastor Son, stepped forward and said, “Please don’t execute him. Release him into my custody, and I will adopt him as my son.” His thirteen-year-old daughter, the sister of the two boys, said the same thing. And so the court released the murderer into the custody of the man whose sons he had shot. That young man became a Christian.
Pastor Son wrote a book about it years later and said, “I thank God that he gave me the love to seek to convert and adopt as my son the enemy who killed my boys.” That is an astounding story—that a father who lost two sons to this murderer would adopt the murderer and lead him to Christ. Yet that’s what happened.
Again, I hope that none of us is ever in that kind of situation. But the life and witness of such people remind us again of the power of the love of the Savior—and that same Savior can live in you. That same love can shine from you. But it does require that we get in tune with the Spirit of Christ—the Christ who came down into that manger, the Christ who washed feet, the Christ who died on the cross—and say, “We are not interested in taking revenge.”
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. When he suffered, he made no threats. He healed us by his wounds. What wounds can I heal? What crooked, twisted person can I help by putting up with them rather than lashing out at them? How can I, in my work life and in my total life, show the light and life of Jesus Christ?
Prayer
Father, help us to submit to a lower status than we might want, to serve others even when it’s not glamorous, even when it’s downright difficult and shameful, and to suffer to whatever degree you call us to. Help us, each in our work life, to have a vision for how we can honor you in the way that we do our work—whether that’s work in the home that sometimes involves a lot of menial tasks and almost a sense of slaving away, or whether it’s in our paid employment. May we, Lord, shine for you in the situation in which we find ourselves.
We praise you for our Lord Jesus Christ and his great sacrifice and gift for us. We praise you for those throughout history who have suffered for your glory and so that the faith might continue and shine to future generations. We thank you for them, and may we be faithful in our own generation. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Christian Workers (1 Peter 2:18-25)
By David Feddes
Slide Contents
Control scum
We have slaves drawn from every corner of the world in our households, practicing strange customs, and foreign cults, or none—and it is only be means of terror that we can hope to coerce such scum. (Tacitus)
Scripture and slavery
You have only one Master and you are all brothers. (Jesus in Matthew 23:8).
Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—but if you can gain your freedom, do so. (1 Cor 7:20-21)
Honor God’s gospel
All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. (1 Timothy 6:1)
Make gospel attractive
Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. (Titus 2:9-10)
Working class royalty
Christians are royalty, not scum.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (2:9)
Strategic submission
Christians are agents, not victims.
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (2:12)
Living under the system
- Political system (2:13-17)
- Work system (2:18-25)
- Family system (3:1-7)
18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.
20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
Christian workers
• Live under boss’s authority.
• Respect even a bad boss.
• Endure undeserved suffering.
• Focus on God’s approval.
• Follow Jesus’ example.
• Honor God with excellent work.
• Use talents; pursue passions.
• Earn your own living and share.
• Help society flourish and be fair.
• Be godly and share gospel.
• Suffer unfairly for doing good.
Jesus the slave
Follow in his steps
• Submit
• Serve
• Suffer
In his steps
The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:26-27)
In his steps
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:43-45)
Submit in his steps
Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave. (Philippians 2:6-7)
Serve in his steps
You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:13-15)
Suffer in his steps
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34)
No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. (John 15:20)
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