Servants Before God and Man

I Peter 2:18-25

V. 18 (Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.)

John Kenneth Galbraith, in his autobiography, A Life in Our Times, illustrates the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family's housekeeper: It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House. "Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson." "He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him." "Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him." "No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you. When I called the President back, he could scarcely control his pleasure. "Tell that woman I want her here in the White House." Houghton Mifflin in Reader's Digest, December, 1981

"Servant" in our English New Testament usually represents the Greek doulos (bond slave). Sometimes it means diakonos (deacon or minister); this is strictly accurate, for doulos and diakonos are synonyms. Both words denote a man who is not at his own disposal, but is his master's purchased property. Bought to serve his master's needs, to be at his beck and call every moment, the slave's sole business is to do as he is told. This probably included freedmen who remained in their master’s house. A master was not always a Christian, so Peter does not mention how they were to behave towards their servants. Paul, however, does mention the master’s conduct in Colossians 4:1-6, but these master’s were Christians. Christian service means, first and foremost, living out a slave relationship to one's Savior (1 Corinthians. 6:19-20). “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

I also believe that this carries over to the workplace and how we address our superiors. My terminal manager gave me some excellent advice, when we discussed being asked to do something that I felt was unfair. He told me to do what I was asked to do and then bring my concerns to him and he would address them. This is the issue Peter was addressing, do what you are asked to do as long as it does not compromise your faith, and bring your concerns to God and he will deal with it. This does not mean to sin against God if asked to, but if asked to go above what is normally considered in your job description do it. Remember that you are God’s and He will defend you.

V. 19 (For this commendable, if because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.)

This verse speaks of performing our duties towards God rather than man, either in our personal lives or in the work place. There will be times that the world asks to act outside the will of God, at this time we have to remember who we serve man or God. This seems to tell us to act in the exact opposite of what Peter says in the previous verse. Peter is telling those he is writing to that they will suffer for their choice to follow God, and to endure such suffering. If asked to do something that contradicts the will of God, in the work place in order to keep ones job, we are better off to remember our duties to God, rather than man. This may cost you your job, a relationship, undue suffering, or even your life. In Acts chapter four we find Peter and John arrested for healing a man and preaching Jesus to the people. When asked to stop this behavior, Peter filled with the Holy Spirit says; “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.” Peter and John did not stop speaking the word of God and ignored the threats of the Jewish leaders to do so. Each and every one of us will face a test when we too must decide if it is right to listen to man or listen to God. When we choose to follow God He will remember our deeds and honor them, in His timing according to His will.

V.20 (For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your own faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.)

Peter is speaking directly to those servants who were punished for not worshiping their master’s idols as they were instructed to do. This also speaks to all of us who have no trouble paying a late fee for not paying a bill on time, grumble but pay a speeding ticketing, or apologize to our spouse for saying the wrong thing rather than endure the silence. We are to take to same attitude when we suffer for serving God.

Stephen a man filled with the Holy Spirit, preached Jesus, and did many signs and wonders in His name. When he angered those around him, he continued to preach to them and he was stoned for it. Did this go unnoticed before God or man? Certainly not, for God honors all who serve Him, no matter the costs. Also there was a man in the crowd who witnessed the stoning of Stephen, who God changed his name from Saul to Paul. We have to wonder if Stephen’s witness before Saul made an impact. We know that from reading that Saul witnessed the deaths and punishment of many Christians at his own hands. This did make an impact on Saul that at his conversation Jesus told him it was hard to kick against the goads. Jesus knew Saul’s heart and he mentioned this to remind Saul of the turmoil that was going on in his heart, because of the witness of those he persecuted. Saul upon his conversion spent the rest of his life honoring the lives of those he persecuted.

V.21, 22 (For 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.”)

As new guys are hired on at my work place they go out and train with a driver who works every day and makes a good income. I have told them that this is a good job to have but a hard job to keep. When work is good, everyone works and is happy; as work slows down they begin to grumble. What kept me there during those times was that I could see the older drivers had reached where I wanted to be I was willing to endure the smaller paychecks in order to get to that spot.

In a way this is the life of many a Christian, we answer to the call of Christ to follow Him, and share in the experience and excitement of this new relationship, and look forward to a time when we will be with Him forever. Yet we still have to live in this world, even though we keep the goal in sight, it is only the encouragement of God through the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the saints, that keeps us on the path to the goal. Peter is not beating his listeners up telling them that if Christ suffered and He was sinless, than why are you whining, but encouraging them to look to the Sinless One, for our strength and encouragement to continue in the faith.

V. 23 (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;)

Jesus could have inflected any kind of punishment He wanted to upon His persecutors, yet he kept silent. Even when Peter struck out against those who came to arrest Jesus, He rebuked him and told him if this was not the Father’s will that all He had to do was pray and twelve legions of angels would have been available to Him. It was Peter’s acting in anger, or lashing out that Jesus was speaking against. To give us an example of how to deal with persecutors, that we should avoid acting in anger to avenge ourselves.

It is a great comfort to take our pain and fear to God, knowing He judges according to all truth. It is too easy to lash out against those who persecute you, or accuse you wrongly. When we are persecuted for the sake of Christ, which I feel that his verse refers to, it is Christ who is being persecuted as well. When Jesus met with Saul on the road to Damascus, He asked him why he was persecuting Him, and not why he was persecuting Christians. There are many in history and today that followed this example even to the point of death.

The ultimate goal is that the heart of the accused and accuser, be saved. What a witness this is that even when persecuted for our faith that we do not lash out, but pray for or accusers. Just as the witness of those Saul persecuted worked in his heart to bring him to salvation, it works, through God, in the hearts of men and women today. God never changes, He still loves as He did before the world was formed, and His will is that all should come to the saving knowledge of His Son Jesus Christ. Remember before you lash out against someone that your witness could affect their eternity, what an awesome responsibility.

V. 24,25 (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 Shepard and Overseer of your souls.)

Christ is our redeemer and our example, His death makes our repentance possible, as well as our response to God of a righteous life. Peter puts in the simplest form, that by His stripes you were healed. His intent in quoting Isaiah 53:5 is to show that personal wholeness (mental, psychological, physical, and spiritual) flows from our conversion. We were lost separated from God, as we went about trying to control a life that we had no control over in the first place. This is why Peter says that we have returned to our Shepard and Overseer. God is in control of all humanity, and does not live in fear of what His creation will do next, but all things are working towards the return of Christ, the final redemption of mankind, and realization of the final victory over Satan and his assault on God’s children. Christ has won the victory over sin and death, and Satan’s time is short, come even now Lord Jesus!