Some passages of scripture cannot be fully understood until a life experience comes and makes it real plain. Such was the case for me with a passage in Peter:
18-20You who are servants, be good servants to your masters—not just to good masters, but also to bad ones. What counts is that you put up with it for God’s sake when you’re treated badly for no good reason. There’s no particular virtue in accepting punishment that you well deserve. But if you’re treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant, that is what counts with God.
21-25This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.
He never did one thing wrong,
Not once said anything amiss.
They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.
Much of my life I have been so hard on myself that I have blamed myself before anyone else had the chance to blame me. And when criticism occurred, it was just an echo of what I had already said about myself. In my latter years I have come to forgive myself for my weaknesses and faults – recognizing that I have just as much a right to have them as anyone else. This has resulted in far less living in vain regret and more time trying to work on correcting those things I could in fact correct.
This passage in Peter talks about both the things that we suffer for what we’ve done, and the things we’ve suffered for things we have not done – and it appears that God really likes it when we can with patience suffer for those things that we did right, and still received criticism for.
Peter says that we are called to this life – for it is the life that Christ suffered. I think I never really tried to “feel” this scripture before, because I don’t like the suffering part (but who does?). So I kind of skipped over it – and said yeah, yeah.
I understand it now. I see what this scripture means. Can I do it? ‘Can I really live this out? No, I CAN’T. I need my Lord. I need my Savior. I need to die in this area, and allow the crucified Christ to live in me. This is my prayer, I want the Christ life.
Maria