1 Peter 2:20—Concerning right and wrong and suffering for each

For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.  1 Peter 2:20

For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?

As a child of the 20th century now alive in the 21st, this statement of Peter’s seems alien—like a concept recently unearthed from an obscure civilization entirely unfamiliar to modern society.

This is our current reality: When anyone is caught in a sin or a crime, they rarely feel any remorse. And if they are harshly treated as a result of their wrongdoing, they become the victim and are celebrated for it—and woe to the one who doled out the rough treatment, however well-deserved; he is now the criminal.

Cities have burned and members of law enforcement have been crippled in carrying out their task by our present reality. But this reality is not the will of God. It’s time to speak truth about what is right and what is wrong, about sin and remorse, about crime and consequence.

Until recently, most people caught in a sin or crime generally admitted that what they had done was wrong. Some felt genuine remorse and attempted to live a better life. Others, as they hit rock-bottom, cried out to God for His forgiveness and entered into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Most recognized that the consequence of their sin, wrongdoing, or crime would very likely result in harsh treatment at the hands of those who were wronged or who enforced the law; this was understood by most of society—including the seedy underbelly of the culture.

When a wrongdoer or criminal ran head-on into rough treatment as a result of his own lawlessness, more often than not, he endured it with patience. He didn’t like it, but he understood instinctively the law of sowing and reaping (what the secular world often calls karma).

In the eyes of God, if you are harshly treated for wrongdoing, you are to endure it with patience, not with cries of vengeance upon those who seek to stop you. And even then—when you do endure this roughness with patience, you don’t earn points with God. You have merely reaped what you have sown—no matter how our ethically “evolved”, socially “just” civilization looks at it.

But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

Throughout history, stories abound of good men and women who suffered for doing what was right. In fact, even in your own life, you can probably remember a time or two when you did the right thing and were ridiculed, rejected, or worse.

As we enter the days when good is called evil and evil good, don’t be surprised if obeying your Scripture-based convictions results in some form of retribution. What should you do if that happens? According to Peter, you patiently endure it. This will direct the favor of God your way.

Not only should you endure the harsh treatment with patience, but you are also called to bless those who curse you and to pray for those who spitefully use you (see Luke 6:28).

Those who don’t know God scoff at this advice; but they beat you over the head with it as well. They mock your very human anger they intentionally provoke and laugh at you as they tell you to turn the other cheek.

But there’s something they haven’t counted on—the principles they despise are sober truth and the God they mock is very real—and He will personally defend the righteous. Because of your confidence in Him, you are able to endure their attack, and His favor upon you will be openly displayed.

You will see the salvation of your God—and so will they.

Dorothy

Let all those that put their trust in you rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them: let them also that love your name be joyful in you. For you, LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor will you surround him with a shield. Psalm 5:11-12

© 2015, Dorothy Frick