The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 195

Vers. 1-i.-Tlie persecuted Ohristian reminded of tlie necessity of suffering for righteousness. This passage is the most difficult in the entire Epistle. We can see a meaning in each of its sentences taken separately, but when we take them together their meaning, as a whole, is obscure. As far, however, as I can understand it, I would entitle the paragraph, The persecuted Christian reminded of the necessity of suffering for righteousness. Peter here states the fact that suffering for righteousness is no strange thing, but what Christians must reasonably look for. I. CHRIST'S SUFFEBING BIDS III8 PEOPLE BE READY TO SuFFER. The sufferings of our Lord alluded to here are not his substitutionary sufferings-they are referred to in the eighteenth verse; of them, to the world's last moment, it w~ll be t,~ue, "I havu trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me. But there is another class of our Lord's sufferings in which his people can, and according to their likeness to him must, share-the suffering he bore iu the maintenance of holiness in an evil world; of this he could say, "The disciple is not above hie Master." There is sometimes confusion in Christian minds, in :finding that Christ is said to suffer for us, and yet that in many places we are called to suffer with him. Let us be clear on this poiu t, we arc "redeemed by the precious blood of Christ;" God requires nothing from us for our redemption, but, when thus redeemed, much of Christ's suffering becomes the pattern of ours; and of that he says, "He that taketh not up his cross and cometh after me cannot be my disciple." 1. Christ's experience would lead us to errpect that holiness must suffer on earth. For three and thirty years he, the Embodiment of perfect Jove to God and man, lived and moved upon this earth, and what was the result? He was "despised and rejected of men;" the longer he lived, the more he ,nought, the wider he was known, tbe wilder and louder and fiercer became the cry, "Away with him! Crucify him!" Goodness condemns wickedness when the lips ,av nothing; the very presence of a good man in ail ungodly circlo is a protest again,t el'il. On one side at Jt,ast there will al ways Le enmity between the seed of the surpent and the se<:d c,f the woman; and the nrarer his people approa.::h conformity to their Lt,rd's character, the more may they be snre af conformity to their Lord's death. 2. W7,at Chris(• suff,rirl,gs have rrwrle po~sible to m shou.ld lea,l us to be willing i:J wffer fc,r its attainrrierd. Our Lord's sufferings had no other entl than our senctifica- ti 1JD, to ~ecun, God-likeness in us. How great a boon must this be, when it coultl be 011. 1v. 1-19.) 'l'HE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL 01<' PE'fER. 191