Repeat After Me

In our study of 1 Peter, we came to 1 Peter 2.21 in our latest message. The verse contains one “big word” that dominates it and the next few verses in the epistle. That word is “example” — translated that way in almost all the English versions I checked. A couple of versions give us “model” or “pattern,” words which convey the same meaning.

The Greek word is rare, even in secular Greek, but it gives us a vivid picture enlightening our understanding of the passage, and intensifying its application to our lives. “Example” often has an academic setting, “where for the purposes of instruction a word is proposed (several examples are given) which contains all the letters of the alphabet in a form in which children can remember them, so that a model is given.”¹ In that sense, Greek teachers would use a word using all the Greek letters as a kind of elementary mnemonic device. Elementary teachers would also draw lines on a paper to guide the student in his exercises, or to write out example letters for the student to trace as he develops his penmanship.

Do you recall doing that in elementary school? I recall exercise sheets with the sample letter on the top line, often in dotted lines we were to trace as we learned to write. (Or not, as in some cases — I often boast of my “D” in handwriting.) Commentaries offer other pictures — an outline or a sketch for a student or apprentice painter to follow, or a line in the snow set by an older child for younger ones to follow.

Peter’s point is that Christ sets out our example for us. Let’s look at the verse.

^{1 Pt 2.21} For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,

The Lord’s suffering is our example, not that we should follow the exact same kind of sufferings as he did (i.e. we aren’t called to literally die on a cross), but that we should follow his manner in our own sufferings.

The sufferings Peter has in mind may be the unjust treatment of a slave in a household when he has done no wrong (1 Pt 2.18-20), or really, the application may be much broader to any kind of suffering (other than deserved suffering). However, the context does seem to point to suffering imposed on the subordinate by the superior. There is a command in vv. 13-14 to submit to government officials, with the echo to servants in v. 18, culminating in a further echo to wives in 3.1ff., where they must submit even to the husband who disobeys the word.

The context, then, is a call to submission in our sufferings, especially those imposed by authorities we cannot easily withdraw from.

How does the Lord lay down the school lines for us?

Line one: he committed no sin when he submitted to suffering (v. 22, a loose quotation of Isa 53.9). Can you trace that one out when you suffer unjustly?

Line two: he uttered no deceitful word in suffering – he didn’t try to shift blame, give a false excuse, try to avoid punishment by telling some fabrication (also v. 22). How does your school work look? Do you ever succumb to the temptation to deceive when you suffer?

Line three: he “reviled not again” – he didn’t resentfully talk back, return railing for railing (v. 23). How about you? What is your worksheet looking like here?

Line four: he uttered no threats (v. 23). He is the judge of the universe. He could have given full threats to his persecutors, not the empty, idle ones we might attempt. Yet he remained silent before those who mistreated him. How is your school work looking now?

Line five: he gave himself over to the One who judges righteously (v. 23). Can you trust God in your suffering? This is the real bottom line. Our Lord sets the precedent, shows us the way to follow. Can you trace this out on your worksheet?

As we think about all these things, we find that our worksheet is full of ink stains and blotches. (I told you I got a D in handwriting!) What a mess we make of things! How can we learn the lesson Jesus sets out for us?

Verse 24 gives us the answer:

^{1 Pt 2.24} and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

We die to sin and live to righteousness. We reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin and alive to God (Rm 6.11). We commit ourselves to our God and beg of him to build in us that spirit that follows the lesson plan laid out for us by Jesus.

Now, we are talking about suffering in general. Let me get specific for our common affliction these days. We all live under governments attempting to manage the dangers imposed on us by the Covid virus. Some of the things our governments ask us to do seem unreasonable, useless, counter-productive, and ineffectual. (We might disagree on which ones, but I think most of us have the same feeling.)

Can we live out under these regimes a spirit of submission, where we submit, not so much to governments, but to our God and Saviour? Can we trace out our lesson plans, when we don’t like the course they set for us? Remember, submission really only becomes visible when we have to do something we don’t like.

Repeat after me…

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Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

1. Gottlob Schrenk, “Γράφω, Γραφή, Γράμμα, Ἐπι-, Προγράφω, Ὑπόγραμμος,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, electronic ed., vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), 772. [↩]