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Read 1 Peter 3:17 "That's not fair!"
SUFFERING, FAIR,NESS, UNFAIRNESS, VINDICATION, BLESSING, HONOR
Hello friends, today on StudyScriptureOnline I want to take just a couple of minutes to chat with you about … Unfairness.
Here’s a verse for you to contemplate: 1 Peter 3:17: “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” Really? It’s better to pay a price for something you didn’t do than to pay for something you did do? Is there anything that goes against our nature and goes against the way our society thinks more than that?
Frankly, there are a great many people today who seem to think they shouldn’t even be held responsible for the evil they do. The courts are clogged with criminals pleading “not guilty” for a whole host of reasons other than innocence. They are pleading extenuating circumstances, poor representation by their lawyers, temporary insanity, legal technicalities, you name it.
Sure, there are a few who will actually say, “I did it and I’m going to accept the consequences.” But the last thing anyone wants to pay for is someone else’s mistakes. Even the best of Christians can get his dander up when taken advantage of, or when accused of something he didn’t do, or when someone else gets credit for what he did do, or when a good deed is misinterpreted and criticized.
The kind of unjust suffering Peter is primarily concerned with is identified in the previous verse as that perpetrated by“those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ.” He’s speaking of those who suffer because of their faith-those who are persecuted, slandered, lose jobs, are imprisoned, or even martyred because they stand up for Christ and His standards. I think all unfair suffering is noted by God in His books, but when we suffer because we are Christians, that goes into a special category. God promises to vindicate us and bless us when that happens. And the ultimate proof is found in the life of Christ.
Do you know what comes next after verse 17? “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” The ultimate injustice is for an innocent person to suffer capital punishment. But that’s what happened to Jesus. The righteous died for the unrighteous.
God vindicated Him and gave Him an awesome place of honor. But this would be of no comfort to us if the message were not implicit that God will do for you and me what He did for Jesus. He will vindicate us as He vindicated His Son.
For further exploration of this topic, click the link below, which will take you to a sermon on “Defending the Faith, Not Ourselves” from 1 Peter 3:13-22.
Негізгі бет UNFAIRNESS
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