Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Peter 2:21
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
21. For even hereunto were ye called ] The thoughts of the Apostle travel from the teaching of Christ which he had heard to the life which he had witnessed. The very calling to be a disciple involved the taking up the cross and following Him (Mat 10:38; Mat 16:24; Luk 14:27). It was the very law of the Christian life that men “must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Act 14:22). And if this was true of all believers it was true in a yet higher sense of those who, when they were called to know Christ, were called as slaves, and as such were to abide in that calling and find in it a discipline of sanctification (comp. 1Co 7:22). And the Apostle had seen what that taking up the cross involved. It is not without significance that in almost every instance in which the example of Christ is referred to, it is in special connexion with His patience under sufferings. Stress is laid on his suffering for us, as making the analogy of the pattern sufferer more complete. He, too, was “buffeted” for no fault of His (Mat 26:67).
leaving us an example ] The Greek noun, not found elsewhere in the New Testament, seems to have been a technical word for the drawing which was set before young students of art for them to copy. Such a picture of patience under suffering St Peter now paints, as with a few vivid touches, and sets it before those who were novices in the school of the Christ-like life that they may become artists worthy of their Master.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For even hereunto were ye called – Such a spirit is required by the very nature of your Christian vocation; you were called into the church in order that you might evince it. See the notes at 1Th 3:3.
Because Christ also suffered for us – Margin, some read, for you. The latest editions of the Greek Testament adopt the reading for you. The sense, however, is not essentially varied. The object is, to hold up the example of Christ to those who were called to suffer, and to say to them that they should bear their trials in the same spirit that he evinced in his. See the notes at Phi 3:10.
Leaving us an example – The apostle does not say that this was the only object for which Christ suffered, but that it was an object, and an important one. The word rendered example ( hupogrammon) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means properly a writing copy, such as is set for children; or an outline or sketch for a painter to fill up; and then, in general, an example, a pattern for imitation.
That ye should follow his steps – That we should follow him, as if we trod exactly along behind him, and should place our feet precisely where his were. The meaning is, that there should be the closest imitation or resemblance. The things in which we are to imitate him are specified in the following verses.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. Hereunto were ye called] Ye were called to a state of suffering when ye were called to be Christians; for the world cannot endure the yoke of Christ, and they that will live godly in Christ must suffer persecution; they will meet with it in one form or other.
Christ also suffered for us] And left us the example of his meekness and gentleness; for when he was reviled, he reviled not again. Ye cannot expect to fare better than your master; imitate his example, and his Spirit shall comfort and sustain you. Many MSS. and most of the versions, instead of Christ also suffered for US, leaving US, &c., read, suffered for YOU, leaving YOU, &c. This reading, which I think is genuine, is noticed in the margin.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For even hereunto; viz. to patient bearing of sufferings even for well-doing.
Were ye called; viz. to Christ and the fellowship of his kingdom; q.d. Your very calling and profession, as Christians, requires this of you.
Also; there is an emphasis in this particle, it is as much as if he had said: Even Christ our Lord and Head hath suffered for us, and therefore we that are but his servants and members must not think to escape sufferings.
For us; or, as in the margin, for you, which agrees with the beginning and end of the verse, where the second person is used; but most read it as we do, in the first person, and the sense is still the same; only the apostle from a general proposition draws a particular exhortation: Christ suffered for us, (therein he comprehends the saints to whom he writes), and left an example for us all; do ye therefore to whom, as well as to others, he left this example, follow his steps, Joh 13:15; 1Jo 2:6.
Leaving us an example, as of other graces, so especially of patience.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. Christ’s example a proofthat patient endurance under undeserved sufferings is acceptable withGod.
hereuntoto the patientendurance of unmerited suffering (1Pe3:9). Christ is an example to servants, even as He was once in”the form of a servant.”
calledwith a heavenlycalling, though slaves.
for usHis dying forus is the highest exemplification of “doing well” (1Pe2:20). Ye must patiently suffer, being innocent, as Christ alsoinnocently suffered (not for Himself, but for us). The oldestmanuscripts for “us . . . us,” read, “you . . . foryou.” Christ’s sufferings, while they are for an example, werealso primarily sufferings “for us,” a considerationwhich imposes an everlasting obligation on us to please Him.
leavingbehind:so the Greek: on His departure to the Father, to His glory.
an exampleGreek,“a copy,” literally, “a writing copy” set bymasters for their pupils. Christ’s precepts and sermons were thetranscript of His life. Peter graphically sets beforeservants those features especially suited to their case.
followclose upon:so the Greek.
his stepsfootsteps,namely, of His patience combined with innocence.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For even hereunto were ye called,…. Both to well doing, of which none but those who are called with an holy and effectual calling are capable; and which they are fitted for, and are under obligation to perform, and to suffer for so doing, which they must always expect, and to patience in suffering for it, which highly becomes them. This being then one end of the saints’ effectual calling, is made use of as an argument to engage them to the exercise of the grace of patience in suffering for well doing; and another follows:
because Christ also suffered for us; in our room and stead, to fulfil the law, satisfy the justice of God, and make reconciliation for sin; and not only for our good, or merely as a martyr, to confirm the truth of his doctrine, or barely as an example to us, though this also is true: the Alexandrian copy, and some others, read, “for you”; for you servants, as well as others, and therefore should cheerfully and patiently suffer for the sake of Christ, and his Gospel; and the rather, because he suffered,
leaving us, or “you”, as the same copies, and the Vulgate Latin version read,
an example that ye should follow his steps: Christ is an example to his people in the exercise of grace, as of faith, love, zeal, meekness, and humility; and in the discharge of duty, in his regard to the commands of the moral law, and positive institutions of religion; in his constancy in prayer; in frequent attendance on public worship; in his submission to the ordinance of baptism, and his celebration of the supper; and likewise in his sufferings; and in his meekness, patience, courage, and resignation to the will of God, which is what is here intended, and in which his people are to fellow and imitate him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
For hereunto were ye called ( ). First aorist indicative of , to call. They were called to suffer without flinching (Hort), if need be.
Because (). The fact that Christ suffered () lifts their suffering to a new plane.
Leaving you an example ( ). Present active participle of the late Ionic verb (in the papyri) for the common , to leave behind (under), here only in N.T. H is also a late and rare word (from , to write under), a writing-copy for one to imitate, in II Macc. 2:28; Philo, Clement of Rome, here only in N.T. Clement of Alex. (Strom. V. 8. 49) uses it of the copy-head at the top of a child’s exercise book for the child to imitate, including all the letters of the alphabet. The papyri give many examples of and in the sense of copying a letter.
That ye should follow his steps ( ). Purpose clause with and first aorist active subjunctive of , old verb, to follow closely upon, with the associative-instrumental (1Tim 5:10; 1Tim 5:24) or the locative here. is old word (from , to go), tracks, footprints, in N.T. only here, 2Cor 12:18; Rom 4:12. Peter does not mean that Christ suffered only as an example (1:18), but he did leave us his example for our copying (1Jo 2:6).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Leaving [] . Only here in the New Testament.
An example [] . Only here in the New Testament. A graphic word, meaning a copy set by writing – masters for their pupils. Some explain it as a copy of characters over which the student is to trace the lines.
Follow [] . Lit., follow upon. The compound verb implies close following. From writers and painters, the metaphor changes now to a guide.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
THE SUBSTITUTIONARY SUFFERING OF JESUS
1) “For even hereunto were ye called:” (eis touto) to this end — obedience to God, even when mistreated — (Gk. eklethete) ye were called out or elected. Mat 16:24; Joh 16:23; 1Th 3:3-4.
2) “Because Christ also suffered for us.” Peter cites the suffering and unjust suffering of Christ on our behalf and His patient forbearance of it as justifiable grounds for the true believer’s enduring the same for Him.
3) “Leaving us an example” (Gk. hupolimpanon) leaving behind (hupogrammon) an example, pattern, or blueprint (a pattern).
4) “That ye should follow his steps.” (Gk. hina) in order that (epakolouthesete) you all might (should) follow the steps or pattern of conduct He lived or walked. Joh 15:18-21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
21 For even hereunto were ye called For though his discourse was respecting servants, yet this passage ought not to be confined to that subject. For the Apostle here reminds all the godly in common as to what the condition of Christianity is, as though he had said, that we are called by the Lord for this end, patiently to bear wrongs; and as he says in another place that we are appointed to this. Lest, however, this should seem grievous to us, he consoles us with the example of Christ. Nothing seems more unworthy, and therefore less tolerable, than undeservedly to suffer; but when we turn our eyes to the Son of God, this bitterness is mitigated; for who would refuse to follow him going before us?
But we must notice the words, Leaving us an example (33) For as he treats of imitation, it is necessary to know what in Christ is to be our example. He walked on the sea, he cleansed the leprous, he raised the dead, he restored sight to the blind: to try to imitate him in these things would be absurd. For when he gave these evidences of his power, it was not his object that we should thus imitate him. It has hence happened that his fasting for forty days has been made without reason an example; but what he had in view was far otherwise. We ought, therefore, to exercise in this respect a right judgment; as also Augustine somewhere reminds us, when explaining the following passage,
“
Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” (Mat 11:29.)
And the same thing may be learnt from the words of Peter; for he marks the difference by saying that Christ’s patience is what we ought to follow. This subject is handled more at large by Paul in Rom 8:29, where he teaches us that all the children of God are foreordained to be made conformable to the image of Christ, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Hence, that we may live with him, we must previously die with him.
(33) Calvin has “you” instead of “us,” and has also “you” after “suffered.” The authority as to MSS. is nearly equal; but the verse reads better with having “you” in both instances, as the verb “follow” is in the second person plural, “that ye may follow in his footsteps.” The word for “example” is ὑπογραμμὸν, a copy set before scholars to be imitated, and may be rendered “a pattern.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) For even hereunto were ye called.Namely, to the combination of suffering and well-doing. To this they were called by the Gospel which St. Paul had preached to them; it ought not to be a surprise to them when it comes. (See 1Pe. 4:12.) It was a special point in St. Pauls preaching to forewarn fairly of the tribulations attending all who wished to enter the kingdom of God. Comp. 1Th. 3:3-4, and Act. 14:22, which latter passage refers to preaching in the very homes of some of the recipients of this Epistle.
Because.This justifies the last assertion. It appeared on the very face of the gospel message that we should all (slave and freeman alike) have to do well, and at the same time suffer, because the gospel told us that it was so with Him, the subject of the gospel. Notice what a fine assumption lies in this becauseviz., that Christs experience must needs be that of every Christian.
Christ also suffered.It is to be carefully observed again that he does not say Jesus suffered; the whole point is that these Hebrew Christians have given in their adhesion to a suffering Messiah. (See Note on 1Pe. 1:11.) And the true reading immediately after is for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps; not, of course, that St. Peter exempts himself from the need of the atonement or the obligation of following Christs steps, but because it is his accustomed style to give a charge (as it were) rather than to throw himself in with those whom he addresses. (See Note on 1Pe. 1:12.) There is one important point to be observed. Christ is said to have suffered for you, but this does not mean in your stead but on your behalf, for your good. Christs atonement for us is not represented in this passage as vicarious. He did not, according to St. Peters teaching, die as a substitute for us, any more than He rose again as our substitute. So far as the words themselves go, the death of the Messiah for us might have been such a death as that of the hero who, in the battle of Murgarten, gathered the Austrian spears like a sheaf into his own bosom, for his fellow-patriots, clearing the way for them to follow. The addition for you conveys the thought that in gratitude we ought to suffer with, or even for, Him.
Leaving us (you) an example.This clause seems added as a kind of explanation of the abrupt because just before. You were called to suffering, I said, because Christ, too, suffered; for in so suffering He left (as something to survive Him is implied in the word) an example to you. (This last you stands very emphatically in the Greek). The curious word for example, nowhere else used in the New Testament, means primarily the copy given to a child to write from, or a plan suggested for carrying out in detail, a sketch to be filled in. It is used in this literal sense in 2Ma. 2:28-29, and in the metaphorical sense it occurs repeatedly in the Epistle of St. Clement; in one passage (chap. 16) apparently with a reminiscence of this place, for the author has been quoting the passage of Isaiah to which we shall come presently, and then adds, See then, beloved sirs, what is the copy which has been set us; for if the Lord was so lowly-minded. what shall we do who through Him have come under the yoke of His grace? The leaving us of this copy was one of the benefits of His passion implied in suffered for you.
Follow his steps.In all probability St. Peter used the word rendered example without any sense of its containing a metaphor, or else it would accord badly with the metaphor here. The word for follow is a strengthened form, and in 1Ti. 5:10 is rendered diligently follow; in 1Pe. 2:24 of the same chapter it is follow afteri.e., dog; the only other place being Mar. 16:20. It means (as in 1Ti. 5:24) rather to follow up, made still more vivid by the addition of His steps (Rom. 4:12; 2Co. 12:18). St. Peter could remember the day when he was called to follow, and he did so literally (Mat. 4:19; Joh. 21:19); but the Pontine Christians, who had believed without having seen (1Pe. 1:8), could only follow Him up by the footprints which He had left.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Were called To this patient endurance as a result of their call to follow Christ; and him they were called to follow whithersoever he might go, whether to the mount of transfiguration, where St. Peter found it good to be, (Mat 17:4,) or to Gethsemane and Calvary. Php 1:29. The innocent Christ also suffered unjustly, and he suffered for us, which, with its other and larger benefits, furnishes a pattern for us to follow. A wonderful change has come upon the spirit of the apostle since his indignant cry at the bare suggestion of his Master’s suffering, “Be it far from thee, Lord; this thing shall not be unto thee.” Mat 16:22. In no thought does he now more exult, save in that of the glory in which He will be revealed.
For us And so not for himself; pointing also to the vicarious character of his sufferings, more fully treated in 1Pe 2:24.
Example Literally, a writing copy, set by a master, which his pupils are to imitate. It is a pattern of both personal innocence and patient submission.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For to this were you called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps,’
Indeed such unmerited persecution and suffering was a part of their calling as Christians, for it was apart of their calling to participate in His sufferings. Christ had suffered for them. They should expect to have to suffer for the sake of the world. For they had been called to be an elect race and a holy people (1Pe 2:9), and as such must expect to suffer, and must also expect the retaliation from the world which would cause them to suffer. As Jesus had said, ‘if any man would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me’ (Mat 16:24), and further ‘if they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you’ (Joh 15:20). As Christians therefore they had been called to follow in His steps and to suffer in the same way as He would (compare Mat 16:24; Mat 5:10-12; Joh 16:2-3). For in the end it was through suffering that God would redeem a lost world.
Thus it is made clear that there was a necessity for suffering, and they were to expect to share in it with Him. Jesus had gone before them to provide the perfect example of innocent suffering, and that of One Who was also a Servant (Isaiah 53). They too must be servants and be willing to suffer. The idea behind the word ‘example’ is that of the one copying the Other, as of a child tracing characters on tracing paper, or of an outline sketch which has to be filled in. Once the initial pattern is laid down there is a certain necessity to it. It is an example to be closely followed or entered into.
We should note that there is more here than just the idea of following His general example by not getting upset over suffering. There is the positive thought that by partaking in His sufferings they would also be playing their part in the redemption of the world. Jesus had suffered that we might follow in His steps, and by following in His steps we are carrying forward God’s purposes. In the words of Paul, by suffering for His sake we are ‘filling up that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ’ (Col 1:24). That is not to say that His bearing of our sin was lacking, or was insufficient on its own as far as making atonement was concerned. From that point of view His sacrifice was full, complete and sufficient. But it is to bring out that God’s purpose is that His further purposes for the world must also be fulfilled through suffering. If the world is to be reached it will be reached by those who suffer, firstly because such suffering reveals the genuineness of their faith (1Pe 1:7), and God’s ways are to be worked out through suffering (Act 14:22), and secondly because it is through suffering that men and women will be brought to consider and practise righteousness. It is when God’s judgments are in the earth that people learn righteousness (Isa 26:9).
Thus by being innocent and yet suffering, and bearing it for His sake, these servants are to see that they are entering effectively into the fulfilling of God’s plans. They are not just putting up with it because nothing can be done about it, but are positively contributing towards the world’s salvation. This would be especially significant if their suffering was because of their loyalty to Christ.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The inspiring example of Christ:
v. 21. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps;
v. 22. who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth;
v. 23. who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, he threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously;
v. 24. who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.
v. 25. For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. The first reason for suffering wrong readily is the good pleasure of God, the second is that of the Christian’s calling, as it is typified in the example of Christ: For to this end you were called, because also Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His footsteps. That is a part of the believer’s calling, that is the fate which was held out before him at the very time of his conversion, namely, that he will indeed be an heir of eternal glory, but that the way leading to this glorious bliss is also one of much tribulation, Act 14:22. Incidentally, the disciple is not above his Master, and Christ Himself serves as a type, example, or pattern to the believers that we should follow His footsteps, be as much like Him as possible, grow more like Him every day. This example He set before us in His suffering during His whole life, and particularly at the time of His last great Passion. The meekness and humility, the patience and endurance which Christ showed at this time should always stand out strongly before the eyes of the Christians.
The individual instances in which His example stands out with such marked emphasis are now named: Who did not commit sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth, who, being reviled, reviled not in return, suffering did not threaten, but left it to Him that judges righteously. See Isa 53:9. The suffering of the Messiah was in no way merited by His own transgressions of the divine Law; even upon His direct challenge the Jews were unable to convict Him of a single sin, Joh 8:46. In both His actions and His words Christ was unblamable. Even those sayings of Christ which were deliberately branded as lies by His enemies were without guile, altogether true. Not one of the accusations which the members of the Sanhedrin brought against the Lord was substantiated. When Christ was scorned, cursed, covered with the vilest epithets, He did not return in kind in a single instance. What He had taught His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount He kept in every way. Even His apparently harsh rebukes were not personal vilifications, no expressions of hatred, but words of warning to show His opponent the foolishness of his self-hardening. In the midst of the most bitter sufferings, as when He was nailed to the cross, He did not threaten His jubilant persecutors, but, instead, pleaded with His heavenly Father to forgive them their sin. Far from seeking His own revenge, He placed the entire matter into the hands of His heavenly Father, the just Judge, that He might adjust the affair as He should think best. Surely we believers that confess Christ, that bear His name, should be willing to bear His reproach with the same patience.
Just wherein the secret of the Christian’s ability to bear injustice and wrong lies, is shown in the next verse: Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the wood, in order that we, having gotten rid of our sins, should live to righteousness, by whose wounds you are healed. Here the vicarious suffering of Christ is plainly taught, as in Isa 53:4. Christ, of whom it had been stated that He had no sin, stepped into our place and took upon Himself the burden of our sins, as our great Substitute. They were laid upon His body, His person: He was considered the greatest sinner of all times. Thus He assumed also the guilt of our sins, He took upon Himself their punishment. He ascended the wooden altar of the cross, the accursed tree, loaded down with their terrible weight. And all this He did in order to give us the benefit of His suffering and death. It is now possible for us, having gotten rid of our sins in the manner indicated, to spend our entire life in living in conformity with the holy will of God, in true righteousness. Without the vicarious suffering and death of Christ we should never have been able to reach this state, to obtain this ability; but faith in His redemption gives us the power, since He became wounded that we might be healed, since He became sick that we might be made whole. What an inspiring example, what a compelling motive, what a divine source of power!
But the apostle repeats his thought, clothing it in another picture, in order to give it the proper emphasis: For you were like sheep gone astray, but you have now been turned back to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. See Isa 53:6. That is true of all men by nature; they have turned away from the God of their life, of their salvation, following their own sinful bent, walking the way of sin and of destruction. It is due to the redemption of Christ and to the proclamation of this redemption in the Word of the Gospel that we have been turned, brought back, literally turned ourselves back, from the ways of sin and death to God and life, by the power transmitted to us in the Gospel-call. In accepting God as our Father, we, at the same time, have turned to Christ, to the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls, to Him who, as the one Good Shepherd, brought us home out of the desert of sin and is now daily leading us in the green pastures of His gracious Word. Truly, the sheep of Christ are provided for in a wonderful way, they live secure under the guiding staff of Him who laid down His life for them.
Summary
In continuing his admonitions, the apostle describes the true growth in holiness on Jesus Christ as the true Foundation, resulting in the spiritual house of the royal priesthood which the Christians form; he gives specific admonitions to be obedient to the government and to masters, holding up before his readers the inspiring example of Christ.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
1Pe 2:21. For even hereunto were ye called That is, “You were called to suffer for righteousness’ sake, when ye became the disciples of Jesus.” See Mat 5:10; Mat 5:48; Mat 16:24; Mat 16:28. Because Christ also suffered for us; that is, for us Christians in general, Jews or Gentiles, bond or free. It is observable, that upon the mention of the name of Christ, the apostle falls into anoble and animated digression to the end of the chapter; afterwards he continues to pursue his exhortation to relative duties. The word ‘, rendered example, signifies “the exact model of any curious or regular work;” here it signifies that exact pattern of holiness which Christ hath set his disciples, that they may copy after it. The example of our Lord is recommended Joh 13:15. Php 2:5. 1Jn 2:6. But in what are we to imitate him? Not in all his actions; not in walking upon the water, commanding the winds and waves, miraculouslycuring all manner of diseases, or raising the dead; no, nor in making new laws for his Church, drawing up new doctrines or new articles of faith, or laying down new rules of worship, new terms of ministerial or Christian communion, or precepts concerning practice. This seems to be the clue whereby we may be led to distinguish between what is imitable in the example of Christ, and what is not so: namely, “What the rules of Christianity, of Scripture and right reason have made our duty, in such things the example of our Lord ought to excite us to the practice thereof.” For the example of Christ alone has not made any thing our duty, which is not so upon some other account; or, in other words, his example is not so properly a rule of duty, as an alluring motive to the practice of what is our duty. Piety, benevolence, and self-government are the three grand branches of our duty; and in all these we ought to set our Lord’s pattern before us, and copy after it. And in no particular have we more occasion for such an example, than in a patient suffering for righteousness’ sake; the virtue here particularly recommended. The phrase that you might tread in his steps, is a very strong and lively figure, to denote how closely and carefully Christians should imitate the example of their Lord. See Rom 4:12. 2Co 12:18.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Pe 2:21 gives the ground of the exhortation to bear undeserved suffering patiently, by a reference to the sufferings of Christ.
] refers to . Many interpreters incorrectly make it apply only to suffering as such; but, as Hemming rightly remarks: omnes pii vocati sunt, ut patienter injuriam ferant.
The construction with occurs frequently; cf. Col 3:15 ; 2Th 2:14 .
In harmony with the connection, is to be thought of as the subject to ; accordingly it is the slaves in the first instance, not the Christians in general, who are addressed (as in chap. 1Pe 3:9 ; 1Pe 3:14 ; 1Pe 3:17 ); but as this applies to them not as slaves but as believers, it holds true at the same time of all Christians.
] : such suffering is part of a Christian’s calling, for Christ also suffered : is here the emphatic word; and with it also must be joined (which Fronmller erroneously interprets by “even”). Wiesinger incorrectly takes with in this sense, that, as Christ suffered for us, “so we should endure affliction for Him, for His sake, and for His honour and glory in the world,” thus introducing a thought foreign to the context. The obligation to suffer under which we who are Christ’s people are laid, from the very fact that Christ also suffered , is for us all the greater that the sufferings of Christ were (not: , but “for our advantage”), and therefore such as enable us to follow the example which He has left us in His sufferings. Inasmuch as implies that Christ suffered not for His own sins, but for ours, we are no doubt justified in recognising these sufferings as undeserved, but not in concluding, with Hofmann, that is meant to mark only the undeservedness of Christ’s sufferings.
] , . . Another form of (used of the leaving behind at death, Jdt 8:7 ). Bengel: in abitu ad patrem. ( . .): specimen, quod imitentur, ut pictores novitiis exemplaria dant, ad quae inter pingendum respiciant: equivalent in sense to , Joh 13:15 ( ; 2Th 3:9 ). It is not Christ’s life in general that is here presented by way of example, but the patience which He showed in the midst of undeserved sufferings. [151] The participle is connected with . . as giving the nearer definition of the latter: He thus suffered, as in doing so to leave you an example, withal to the end that, etc. [152]
] Sicut prior metaphora a pictoribus et scriptoribus, ita haec posterior petita est a viae duce (Gerhard); with . cf. 1Ti 5:10 ; 1Ti 5:24 .
, besides here, in Rom 4:12 ( ) and 2Co 12:18 ( ).
[151] Wherever Scripture presents Christ as an example, it does so almost always with reference to His self-abasement in suffering and death; Phi 2:5 ; Joh 13:15 ; Joh 15:12 ; 1Jn 3:16 ; Heb 12:2 . Only in 1Jn 2:6 is Christ presented as an example in the more general sense.
[152] Hofmann wrongly asserts that “ stands only in place of an infinitive clause, as after (Joh 13:34 ), (Act 27:42 ),” inasmuch as “ is no more than a direction to do likewise.” But this interpretation of is erroneous, and therefore cannot be resolved into an infinitive clause.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (22) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (23) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (24) Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (25) For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
How very blessed is introduced here the person and actions of Christ! And, let the Reader observe, how Christ’s death is first spoken of, as a Surety, before that his meekness is held forth as an example. I mention this the rather, because those wretchedly deluded men, who wish to rob the Lord Jesus of his glory, and, consequently, the Church of her happiness, in talking of Christ dying only as a martyr to his religion, and wholly as an example of patience to his people under suffering, bring forth this passage, as, in their view, justifying their argument; whereas, in fact, it is the reverse. For this very portion first mentions Christ’s suffering for us; before that it is added, he becomes our example, that we should follow his steps. A plain proof that the former is the grand cause the Holy Ghost first insisted on; and the latter, but as a sweet elect arising out of it. And when the whole volume of testimonies in scripture to this glorious doctrine of atonement is taken into the account, to what a miserable expedient must such men be reduced, who shelter themselves under such a flimsy covering, for their un-belief? How fully Christ speaks of his giving his life a ransom, Mat 20:28 . How blessedly Paul also testifies of it He gave himself (saith Paul) an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savor, Eph 5:2 . Who gave himself for our sins, Gal 1:4 . Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, 1Co 15:3 . And this same Apostle, in the next Chapter, saith, that Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Observe, it is for sins, and the just for the unjust. And how could either be, but as a sacrifice for sins, and as in the room and place of the Sinner? 1Pe 3:18 .
I need not tell the Reader, acquainted with his Bible, that the greater part of these verses is a quotation from the prophecy of Isa 53 . And who can read the account of either, among the Lord’s people, dry-eyed, or unaffected in heart? The Prophet, as though he had been in the hall of Pilate, describes the sufferings of Christ as accurately, seven hundred years and upward before the event came to pass, with all the blessed consequences resulting from it. And, here the Apostle goes over the subject again, who was himself an eye-witness of it, 1Pe 5:1 . The close of the Apostle’s account is very blessed. He considers the Church as sheep, and Christ the shepherd. He beholds them as having gone astray, like sheep, in the Adam-fall of nature, and now brought back by the recovery of grace. And what I beg the Reader not to overlook in this relation is, that They were sheep before they strayed. And they were Christ’s sheep, given him by the Father, before he purchased them in redemption, from their Adam-wanderings, by his blood, and brought them back by his Spirit. Oh! the preciousness of this to my soul! Yes! through grace I am now returned to the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls! His is a diocese indeed, over which the Lord exercises his Pastoral care, by watching over it night and day, lest any hurt his fold, Isa 27:3 . But where shall we look for any other? Precious Lord Jesus! thou art the same still in heaven! Thou art our High Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedec
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
Ver. 21. Leaving us an example ] Gr. , a copy or pattern. Christ’s actions were either moral, or mediatory. In both we must imitate him. In the former, by doing as he did. In the latter, by similitude, translating that to our spiritual life, which he did as mediator; as to die to sin, to rise to righteousness, &e., and this not only by example (as Petrus Abelardus held of old, and the Socinians at this day), but by virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection working effectually in all his people i not as an exemplary cause only, or as a moral cause by way of meditation, but as having force obtained by it, and issuing out of it, even the Spirit that kills sin, and quickens the soul to all holy practice. There is a story of an earl called Eleazar, a passionate prince, that was cured of that disordered affection by studying of Christ and his patience. Crux pendentis cathedra docentis, Christ upon the cross is a doctor in his chair, where he reads unto us all a lecture of patience. The eunuch, Act 8:32 , was converted by this praise in Christ. It is said of Jerome, that having read the godly life and Christian death of Hilarion, he folded up the book, and said, Well, Hilarion shall be the champion whom I will follow. ( In Vita eius apud Surium.) Should we not much more say so of Christ?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21 .] For (proof that undeserved suffering is , by the instance of Christ’s sufferings, which were our example) to this (state, viz. the endurance of wrongful sufferings) ye were called: because (ground of the assertion ) Christ also (the applies to the , the words carrying with them the , as explained below, 1Pe 2:24 ) suffered for you, leaving behind for you (emphatic repetition from the former . Tischendorf’s reasoning, edn. 7, that , was probably the original reading, and has given rise to and , may be met by the above consideration in favour of the more ancient reading. [In edn. 8 Tischdf. reads as in text.] is a late form of . Themist. Orat. x. p. 139 D, is the only place quoted for this sense: Dion. Hal. i. 23 uses the 2 aor. in an intransitive sense, of streams failing, , . On the pres. part. here, Bengel remarks, “in abitu ad Patrem.” It gives the abiding intent of the single fact : and might be rendered ‘ut relinqueret’) a copy ( , a pattern to write or paint by: technically, were formul given by writing-masters to their pupils, containing all the letters of the alphabet. Clem. Strom, v. 8. 50, p. 675 P., who gives examples of them) that ye should follow upon ( , follow close upon, the denoting close application to: it is a word commonly used of following behind another) His footsteps (so in reff.):
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Pe 2:21 . , sc. to do well and to suffer, if need be, without flinching, as Christ did. , sc. by God; cf. . , 1Pe 2:22 supplies the essential point, which would be readily supplied, but Christ’s suffering was undeserved ( , 1Pe 3:18 ). also with reference to the similar experience of Christians; so Phi 2:5 , . (1) outline , 2Ma 2:28 , to enlarge upon the outlines of our abridgment ; (2) copy-head, pattern , to be traced over by writing-pupils (Plato, Protag. , 227 D; Clement ot Alexandria, Strom. , ver 8, 49, gives three examples of which is one). , reminiscence of jesus’ word to Peter, , Joh 13:36 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 Peter
CHRIST THE EXEMPLAR
1Pe 2:21 .
These words are a very striking illustration of the way in which the Gospel brings Christ’s principles to bear upon morals and duty. The Apostle is doing nothing more than exhorting a handful of slaves to the full and complete and patient acceptance of their hard lot, and in order to teach a very homely and lowly lesson to the squalid minds of a few captives, he brings in the mightiest of all lessons by pointing to the most beautiful, most blessed, and most mysterious fact in the world’s history–the cross of Christ. It is the very spirit of Christianity that the biggest thing is to regulate the smallest duties of life. Men’s lives are made up of two or three big things and a multitude of little ones, and the greater rule the lesser; and, my friends, unless we have got a religion and a morality that can and will keep the trifles of our lives right there will be nothing right; unless we can take those deepest truths, make them the ruling principles, and lay them down side by side with the most trivial things of our lives, we are something short. Is there nothing in your life or mine so small that we cannot bring it into captivity and lift it into beauty by bringing it into connection with saving grace? Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example. This is the first thing that strikes me, and I intend it also by way of introduction. Look how the Apostle has put the points together, as though there are two aspects which go together and cannot be rendered apart, like the under side and the upper side of a coin. ‘Christ also suffered for us,’ and so for us says all the orthodox. ‘Leaving us an example’–there protests all the heretics. Yes, but we know that there is a power in both of them, and the last one is only true when we begin with the first. He suffered for us. There, there, my friends, is the deepest meaning of the cross, and if you want to get Christ for an example, begin with taking Him as the sacrifice, for He gave His life for you. Don’t part the two things. If you believe Him to be Christ, then you take Him at the cross: if you want to see the meaning of Christ as an example, begin with Him as your Saviour. ‘Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps.’ These are the words, and what God hath joined together let no man put asunder. With these few remarks I shall deal with the words a little more exhaustively, and I see in them three things–the sufferings of Christ our gain, the sufferings of Christ our pattern, and the suffering of Christ our power to imitate.
And first of all that great proclamation which underlies the whole matter–Christ also suffered for us. The sufferings of Christ are thereby our gain. I shall not dwell on the larger questions which these words naturally open for us, and I shall content myself with some of the angles and side views of thought, and one to begin with is this: It is very interesting to notice how, as his life went on, and his inspiration became more full, this Apostle got to understand, as being the very living and heart centre of his religion, the thing which at first was a stumbling-block and mystery to him. You remember when Christ was here on earth, and was surrounded by all His disciples, the man who actually led antagonism to the thought of a saving Messiah, was this very Apostle Peter. How he displayed his ignorance in the words, ‘This shall not be unto Thee, O Lord’; and you remember also how his audacity rose to the height of saying, ‘Why cannot I follow Thee now, Lord? I will lay down my life for Thy sake,’ so little did he understand the purposes of Christ’s suffering and Christ’s death. And even after His resurrection we don’t find that Peter in his early preaching had got as far as he seems to have got in this letter from which my text is taken. You will notice that in this letter he speaks a great deal about the sufferings of Christ, which he puts side by side and in contrast with God’s glorifying of His Son. Christ’s cross, which at first had come to him as a rejection, has now come to him in all its reality, and to him there was the one grand thing, ‘He suffered for us,’ as though he realises Christ in all His beauty and purity, and not only as a beautiful teacher and dear friend. That which at first seemed to him as an astounding mystery and perfect impossibility, he now comes to understand. With those two little words, ‘for us,’ where there was before impossibility, disappointment, and anomaly, the anomaly vanishes, although the mystery becomes deeper. In one sense it was incomprehensible; in another sense it was the only explanation of the fact. And, my friends, I want you to build one thought on this. Unless you and I lay hold of the grand truth that Jesus Christ died for us, it seems to me that the story of the Gospel and the story of the cross is the saddest and most depressing page of human history. That there should have been a man possessed of such a soul, such purity, such goodness, such tenderness, such compassion, and such infinite mercy–if there were all this to do nothing but touch men’s hearts and prick and irritate them into bitter enmity–if the cross were the world’s wages to the world’s best Teacher, and nothing more could be said, then, my friends, it seems to me that the hopes of humanity have, in the providence of God, suffered great disaster, and a terrible indictment stands against both God and man. Oh, yes, the death of Jesus Christ, and the whole history of the world’s treatment of Him, is an altogether incomprehensible and miserable thing–a thing to be forgotten, and a thing to be wept over in tears of blood, and no use for us unless we do as Peter did, apply all the warmth of the heart to this one master key, ‘for us,’ and then the mystery is only an infinitude of love and mercy. What before we could not understand we now begin to see, and to understand the love of God which passeth all understanding. Oh, my friends, I beseech you never think of the cross of Christ without taking those two words. It is a necessary explanation to make the picture beautiful: ‘for us,’ ‘for us’; ‘for me, for me.’ And then notice still further that throughout the whole of this Epistle the comparative vagueness of the words ‘for me’ is interpreted definitely. So far as the language of my text is concerned there can be nothing more expressive, more outspoken, or more intelligible, ‘Christ also suffered for us,’ for our realm. But that is not all that Peter would have us learn. If you want to know the nature of the work, and what the Saviour suffered on the cross for our behalf, advantage, and benefit, here is the definition in the following verse, ‘Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness.’ ‘For us,’ not merely as an example; ‘for us,’ not merely for His purity, His beautiful life and calm death; no, better than all that, though a glorious example it is. He has taken away our sins, we are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ; ‘for us’ in the sense of the words in another part of the Epistle, ‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,’ and if so, we are living examples of what Christ our Saviour has done for the whole world.
There is another point I want to speak about in dwelling on the first part of the text. If you will read this Epistle of Peter at your leisure, you will see that while with Paul both make the cross of Christ the centre of their teaching, Paul speaks more about His death, and Peter more about His sufferings. Throughout the letters of Peter the phrase runs, and the phrase has come almost entirely into modern Christian usage from this Apostle. Paul speaks about the death, Peter speaks of the sufferings. The eye-witness of a Loving Friend, the man who had stood by His side through much of His sufferings though he fled at last, a vivid imagination of His Master’s trials, and a warm heart, led Peter to dwell not only on the one fact of the death, but also on the accompaniments of that awful death, of the mental and physical pain, and especially the temper of the Saviour. I shall not dwell on this, except to make one passing remark on it, viz., that there is a kind of preaching which prevails among the Roman Catholic Church, and is not uncommon to many of the Protestant churches, which dwells unduly on the physical fact of Christ’s death and sufferings. I think, for my part, we are going to the other extreme, and a great many of us are losing a very great source of blessing to ourselves and to those whom we influence, because we don’t realise and don’t dwell sufficiently on the physical and mental sorrows and agony He went through with the death on the cross; and one bad effect of all this is that Christ’s atonement has become to be a kind of theological jungle, and I don’t know that the popular mind can have in the ordinary way any better means of the deliverance of Christ’s cross from this theological maze than a little more frankness and honesty in dwelling on the sorrows and pain of our dear Lord.
Now a word about the second part. The sufferings of Christ as represented here in the text are not only for our gain but our pattern, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. We are not concerned here about the general principles of Christian ethics, and I don’t think I need dwell on them at all as being great blessings to us; and passing from that I would rather dwell on the one specific thought before us–on the beautiful life, the gracious words, the gentle deeds, the wisdom, the rectitude, the tenderness, the submission to the Father and the oblivion to Himself, which characterises the whole life of Jesus Christ, from the very first up to the agony on the cross. We have looked to Him as our gain, and as the head and beginning of our salvation, and now we have to turn from that mysterious and solemn thought and look to Him as an ideal pattern by which our life should be moulded and shaped. ‘Leaving us an example.’ Just as Elijah’s mantle dropped from him as he rose, so Christ in going up to the Father fluttered down on the world a pattern which He had in His sufferings. He goes away, but the pattern abides with us. ‘Leaving us an example.’ The word used here is translated quite correctly. The word example is a very remarkable and unusual one; it means literally a thing to be retained. You put a copyhead before a child, and tell him to copy it, and trace it over till he retains it; or, to come to modern English, you put the copyhead on the top of a page. What blots, pothooks, and angles you and I make as we are trying to write on the top of the page of life. See, there is the pattern. Lo, another man hath written above, and you are asked to make your life exactly the same, the same angles and the same corners–to make your life in all respects coincide with that. My friends, we shall all have to take our copybooks to the Master’s desk some day. There will be a headline there which Christ hath written, and one which we have written, and how do you think we shall like to put the two side by side? My friends, we had better do it to-day than have to do it then. There is the pattern life; the copy is plain. I don’t think I need say any more about the other metaphor contained here. The Divine Exemplar has left us the headline that we should follow His footsteps, and it is a blessed thought to know that we are to follow in His own steps. ‘What, cannot I follow Thee now?’ said Peter once, and you remember when the Apostle had been restored to his office, the words of the Saviour were–’Feed My lambs; feed My sheep; feed My lambs, follow thou Me.’ This is also our privilege. As a guide going across a wet moor with a traveller calls out, ‘Step where I step, or else you will be bogged,’ so we must tread in the steps of the Saviour, and then we shall come safe on the other side. Tread in His steps, aye, in the steps which are marked with bleeding feet, for ‘He suffered and left us an example.’ I will just add one word, dear friends, to deepen the thought in its impressiveness, that the cross of Christ it to be the pattern of our lives. It stands alone, thank God, for mighty power in its relation to the salvation of the world, and it stands alone in awful terror. You and I are, at the very worst, but at the edge of the storm which broke in all its dreadful fury over His head; we love to go but a little way down the hillside, while He descended to the very bottom; we love to drink but very little of the cup which He drained the last drop of and held it up empty and reversed, showing that nothing trickled from it, and exclaimed, ‘The cup which My Father hath given Me have I drunk.’ But although alone in all its mighty power, and though alone in all its awful terror, it may be copied by us in two things–perfect submission to our Maker, and non-resistance and meekness with regard to man. There is only one way of carrying the cross of Christ, which God lays on us all, and that is bowing our back. If we resist, it will crush us, and if we yield we have something to endure; and there is but one thing which enables a man to patiently bear the sorrows and griefs which come to us all, and that is the simple secret, ‘Father, not as I will, but Thy will be done.’ Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His footsteps, and when we patiently do this the rod becomes a guiding staff, and the crown of thorns a crown of glory.
But my text reminds me that the sufferings of Christ are not only our gain and our pattern, but they are also our power to imitate–the power to fight the battle for Christ. Example is not all. The world wants more than that. The reason for men’s badness is not because they have not plenty of patterns of good. If a copyhead could save the world it would have been saved long ago. Patterns of good are plenty; the mischief is we don’t copy them. There are footsteps in abundance, but then our legs are lame, and we cannot tread in them, and what is the use of copies if we have a broken pen, muddy ink, and soiled paper? So we want a great deal more than that. No, my friends, the world is not to be saved by example. You and I know that the weakness and the foolishness of men know a great deal better than the wisest of men ever did, so we want something more. Examples don’t give the power nor the wish to get it. Is not that true about you? Don’t you feel that if this is all which religion has given you it stops short? The gospel comes and says, ‘If you love Christ Jesus because you know that He died for you,’ then there will be something else than the copybook. That copy and pattern will be laid to your heart and transferred there. You will not have to go on trying to make a bungling imitation; you will get it photographed on your spirit, and on your character more distinctly and more clearly down to the very minutest shade of resemblance to the Master, and with simple loving trust you will go on from strength to strength glorifying God in your life. They that begin with the cross of Christ, and make the sacrifice their all in all, will advance heavenward joyously; the cross and the sacrifice will be the pattern of your pilgrimage here, and the perfectness of your characters unto the likeness of the Son. The cross is the agency of sanctification as well as the means of forgiveness–saving grace to save us from the world, saving grace to help us everywhere and in everything for our salvation, and saving grace to help us to conquer our self-will, and saving grace to bind us to Him, whose abundant goodness and gratitude no man can tell. If we love Him we shall keep His commandments; if we love them we shall grow in grace, and not else. None else, my brother, my sister, but the Eternal Exemplar stands there as our refuge; and if you want to be filled with this all-saving grace, deep down to the bottom of His tender heart, if you want to be good, and of pure mind, then you have to begin with that Saviour who died for you, and trust to the cross for your forgiveness. Then listen to Him saying, ‘Any man who comes after Me, let him take up My cross’–take it up, mark–’and follow Me.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
even hereunto = un to (App-104.) this.
Christ. App-98.
for. App-104.
us. All the texts read “you”.
leaving. Greek. hupolimpano. Only here.
example. Greek. hupogrammos. Only here.
follow = diligently follow. See 1Ti 5:10.
steps. See Rom 4:12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21.] For (proof that undeserved suffering is , by the instance of Christs sufferings, which were our example) to this (state, viz. the endurance of wrongful sufferings) ye were called: because (ground of the assertion ) Christ also (the applies to the , the words carrying with them the , as explained below, 1Pe 2:24) suffered for you, leaving behind for you (emphatic repetition from the former . Tischendorfs reasoning, edn. 7, that , was probably the original reading, and has given rise to and , may be met by the above consideration in favour of the more ancient reading. [In edn. 8 Tischdf. reads as in text.] is a late form of . Themist. Orat. x. p. 139 D, is the only place quoted for this sense: Dion. Hal. i. 23 uses the 2 aor. in an intransitive sense, of streams failing,- , . On the pres. part. here, Bengel remarks, in abitu ad Patrem. It gives the abiding intent of the single fact : and might be rendered ut relinqueret) a copy (, a pattern to write or paint by: technically, were formul given by writing-masters to their pupils, containing all the letters of the alphabet. Clem. Strom, v. 8. 50, p. 675 P., who gives examples of them) that ye should follow upon (, follow close upon, the denoting close application to: it is a word commonly used of following behind another) His footsteps (so in reff.):
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Pe 2:21. , to this) to the imitation of Christ; who condescends to propose His own example to servants, as He Himself was formerly esteemed as a servant.-, ye were called) with a heavenly calling, whereas it found you in a state of slavery.-, leaving) on His departure to the Father.[19]-, an example) , a copy, a lesson for imitation, is adapted to the capacity of a tiro, learning to paint. Thus Peter in this passage plainly paints before the eyes of servants the example of Christ, expressing those features which are especially adapted to the case of servants.-, footsteps) of innocence and patience. The same word occurs, Rom 4:12; see note.
[19] Into glory, V. g.; in contrast to the previous shame.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
A Propitiation and a Pattern
Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps.1Pe 2:21.
These words are a striking illustration of the way in which the Gospel brings Christs principles to bear upon morals and duty. The Apostle is doing nothing more than exhorting a handful of slaves to the full and complete and patient acceptance of their hard lot, and in order to teach a very homely and lowly lesson to the squalid minds of a few captives, he brings in the mightiest of all lessons by pointing to the most beautiful, most blessed, and most mysterious fact in the worlds historythe cross of Christ.
There are two things in the text
I.Christ as a PropitiationChrist suffered for you.
II.Christ as a Patternleaving you an example.
But more important than either of these things, highly important as they are, is their connexion. Christ is of little avail as an example if He is not first a propitiation; and again the propitiation is of little worth if we do not follow the example. We shall take the two separately, but first of all let us take them together.
1. A large number of those who profess and call themselves Christians would fain blot out Calvary from the system of Christian morality. They would tell us that it was only an accident in the onward march of Divine revelation, that the Saviours sufferings had in them nothing mediatorial, nothing atoning; and, on the other hand, there are men who would hold so tightly by faith in the power of the Cross of the blessed Saviour as to banish from their minds the idea of an honest, a diligent, and a loving copy of His example. They will say, Look to the Cross alone, trust in the Cross alone, and all will and must be right. Good people there may be found in these two extremes, but the scribe that is well instructed in the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God will not be satisfied with either one or the other; he must have both together. Like the two inscriptions, like the two faces on a coin, which must be there before it can be made current of the realm, so the Divine truth has these two manifestations,first the suffering for sin, next the example of godly life.
2. The Antinomian, the man who thinks that all religion is centred in the single grace of faith, looks at Christ as his Saviour, but forgets that He is also his Example. The Socinian professes to follow Jesus as an Example, but rejects Him as a Saviour. The Bible-taught Christian unites these two opposite systems into one. Confessing with St. Peter that there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, he also allows with St. Paul that he who would taste of this salvation must so walk as he walked. In the simple and unmistakable language of the text, believing with all his heart that Christ suffered for him, he has an equally deep conviction that He has left us an example that we should follow His steps.
3. Without the Atonement there would have been little use of the Example. Moses is an example, and Abraham, and Joseph, and David, and every holy man or woman that ever livedmany in our own times and neighbourhood, whom we may ourselves have known. St. Paul, who was the last person in the world to speak presumptuously or vaingloriously, exhorts the Philippians to be followers together of him, and to mark those who walked so as they had him for an ensample. And yet in another Epistle, after calling his readers attention to the great cloud of witnesses with whom they were encompassed, all of them examples of patience, faith, and other heavenly graces, he does not suffer their thoughts to rest there, or on any merely human object, but carries them on with him still further, even to the foot of the Cross, there bidding them look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
If ever the history of human error comes to be written faithfully and exhaustively, it will be found, I venture to say, that by far the largest proportion of human mistakes, whether in the region of theology or in the region of philosophy, will be found to have their origin, not so much in the abstract grasp of error as in the partial grasp of truth. The danger is inconceivably great of a shallow and imperfect comprehension of the mind and will of God, and in all ages and under all circumstances men have been found taking up this or that or the other statement of Gods most holy Word; emphasizing it and giving to it a dignity and an importance, not possibly in itself greater than it deserves, but relatively to the other truths of Gods Divine Word. And hence it comes to pass, that amidst the multitudes of divisions and parties and sects and schisms that Christianity presents to-day, and, indeed, has presented in all ages, there is no party or sect or schism that has not in some degree a grasp of some kind of Divine truth and revelation, the mistake and the misfortune being that it esteems this particle and portion equal to the entire, and forgets the dignity and importance of declaring the whole counsel of God.1 [Note: Prebendary Cross.]
I
The Propitiation
Christ also suffered for you.
1. The mystery of suffering! Suffering beyond any doubt is the commonest feature of human life. There are none who escape. There are the weird, strange sufferings of childhood, which grow into the sterner sufferings of our manhood; and these pass into the special sufferings of old age. It reaches every portion of our being. Our body is held in the grip of physical suffering; our minds know the exquisite suffering of intense perplexity, our hearts are continually all but broken in the woes of life and our wills in the spheres of intense suffering, in the intense discipline to which we are called upon to submit in life; and the inner shrine of our being is the scene of our most exquisite suffering, the spiritual sorrows of children of God. Sufferingit casts its shadow over our life. Looked at upon the surface, all life may seem to be a comedy; but it is a very weird and pathetic comedy, for beneath this comedy lies the awful tragedy of life.
To-day I had a long and strange interview with a lady who has recently become a member of the congregation. She asked me if I had ever known a case of trial so severe as hers. Yes, I replied: numbers; it is the case of all. Suffering is very common, so is disappointment. Are our affections to be all withered?Very often, I believe. Then why were they given me?I am sure I cannot tell you that, but I suppose it would not have been very good for you to have had it all your own way. Then, do you think I am better for this blighting succession of griefs?I do not know, but I know you ought to be. Wordsworth was lying open on the table, and I pointed her to these lines:
Then was the truth received into my heart,
That, under heaviest sorrow earth can bring,
If from the affliction somewhere do not grow
Honour which could not else have been, a faith,
An elevation, and a sanctity,
If new strength be not given nor old restored,
The blame is ours, not Natures.
The deep undertone of this world is sadness: a solemn bass occurring at measured intervals, and heard through all other tones. Ultimately, all the strains of this worlds music resolve themselves into that tone; and I believe that, rightly felt, the Cross, and the Cross alone, interprets the mournful mystery of lifethe sorrow of the Highest, the Lord of Life; the result of error and sin, but ultimately remedial, purifying, and exalting.1 [Note: Life and Letters of F. W. Robertson, 285.]
2. Christ is the first of sufferers. Nothing was wanting, humanly speaking, to make patience impossible. The natural sensitiveness of His tender frame, the ingenious appliances of torture, such as a crown of thorns pressed down upon the head and the temples, the coarse brutality of His executioners, the vivid consciousness of the Sufferer sustained from moment to moment, a consciousness directed upon all that He was enduring, and upon all also that immediately awaited Himthe continuous succession of varied sufferings without any relaxation throughout His passion, without any one pause or relaxationthis might well have exhausted patience. And what His mental sufferings must have been we may infer distantly from the agony in the garden, in which, without any outward cause, His body yielded all the symptoms of a violent convulsion. His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground.
If you will read this Epistle of Peter at your leisure, you will see that while, with Paul, he makes the cross of Christ the centre of his teaching, Paul speaks more about His death, and Peter more about His sufferings. Throughout the letters of Peter the phrase runs, and the phrase has come into modern Christian usage almost entirely from this Apostle. That vivid imagination of his, when brought to the contemplation of his Masters trials, supported by his warm heart, which could have said, not once only but always, and with truth, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee, led Peter to dwell not merely on the single fact of the death, but also on the accompaniments of that awful death, of the mental and physical pain, and especially the temper of the Saviour.
I saw in Siena pictures,
Wandering wearily;
I sought not the names of the masters,
Nor the works men care to see;
But once in a low-ceiled passage
I came on a place of gloom,
Lit here and there with halos
Like saints within the room.
The pure, serene, mild colours
The early artists used
Had made my heart grow softer,
And still on peace I mused.
Sudden I saw the Sufferer,
And my frame was clenched with pain;
Perchance no throe so noble
Visits my soul again.
Mine were the stripes of the scourging;
On my thorn-pierced brow blood ran;
In my breast the deep compassion
Breaking the heart for man.
I drooped with heavy eyelids,
Till evil should have its will;
On my lips was silence gathered;
My waiting soul stood still.
I gazed, nor knew I was gazing;
I trembled, and woke to know
Him whom they worship in heaven
Still walking on earth below.
Once have I borne His sorrows
Beneath the flail of fate!
Once in the woe of His passion,
I felt the soul grow great!
I turned from my dead Leader;
I passed the silent door;
The gray-walled street received me;
On peace I mused no more.1 [Note: George Edward Woodberry.]
3. The sufferings of Christ are inexplicable on any other supposition than that they were for others. They could not be the due reward of personal demerit; for, if He suffered more than other men justly, He must have been worse than all men; instead of which He was the best of men, the sinless One in a world of sinners. If then He could not suffer because of personal ill-desert, being wholly free from fault, did He suffer by the unjust decree of Heaven? That again is an impossible supposition; for not only would it destroy the righteousness of God, but it would also contradict the experience of Christ Himself in His sufferings. For He never manifests any sense of being unjustly dealt with. Indeed no other explanation of His painful experiences is possible than that which He Himself gives, and which is repeated in the teachings of the Apostles, namely, that He was a sufferer for others; that He endured voluntarily that which came upon Him, and with a conscious reference to other persons. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep are His own words. The Apostles simply repeat that which Christ felt and declared when they say, as did St. Paul, Christ died for us, or as St. Peter, Christ suffered for us. It was this fact that reconciled our Lord to His sufferings and cross; it was this that led Him to take them up in a voluntary manner.
It is interesting to notice how, as his life went on, and his inspiration became more full, this Apostle came to understand, as being the very living and heart centre of his religion, the thing which at first was a stumbling-block and mystery to him. You remember that when Christ was here on earth, and was surrounded by all His disciples, the man who actually led antagonism to the thought of a saving Messiah was this very Apostle Peter. You remember how he displayed his ignorance in the words, This shall not be unto thee, Lord; and how his audacity rose to the height of saying, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sakeso little did he understand the purposes of Christs suffering and death. And even after His resurrection we do not find that Peter in his early preaching had got as far as he seems to have got in this letter. You will notice that here he speaks a great deal about the sufferings of Christ, which he puts side by side and in contrast with Gods glorifying of His Son. Christs cross, which at first had come to him as a rejection, has now come to him in all its reality, and to him there was the one grand thing, He suffered for us, as though he realized Christ in all His beauty and purity, and not only as a beautiful teacher and dear friend. That which at first seemed to him as an astounding mystery and perfect impossibility, he now comes to understand. With those two little words, for us, where there was before impossibility, disappointment, and anomaly, the anomaly vanishes, although the mystery becomes deeper.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
4. The doctrine of the Atonement, then, is this, that we who were by nature afar off from God, in Christ are brought nigh: that God, for His sake, hath blotted out our transgressions, and our sins and iniquities will he remember no more: that He gives the water of life, to all who will take it, freely: that we are not, and cannot be, saved by our own righteousness: that Gods purpose towards us is full of mercy and tenderness in His blessed Son: that He willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance: that those will be saved who, renouncing their own merits and all carnal titles to Gods favour, look for salvation only through the blood of Christ; who come unto Him that they may have life; who appropriate the benefits of His sacrifice by personal faith, confessing that they are bought with a price, and feeling that he who glorieth must glory in the Lord. It is a blessed and comfortable doctrine! the anchor of our hopes as well as the object of our faith; the only sure ground of peace, and confidence, and joy; not only enabling but impelling us to come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. It has bridged over the wide gulf that lay between ourselves and God; and shows even to the most obdurate sinner, if he will only follow it, a way by which he may yet hear of joy and gladness; and to the heaviest-laden a place where they may find rest unto their souls. God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
For poor Jean Valjean, weeping bitterly for his sins, while he watched the boy play with the buttercups and prayed that God would give him, the red and horny-handed criminal, to feel again as he felt when he pressed his dewy cheek against his mothers kneefor Jean Valjean is there no suffering friend, no forgiving heart? Is there no bosom where poor Magdalene can sob out her bitter confession? What if God were the souls father! What if He too serves and suffers vicariously! What if nature and life do but interpret in the small this Divine principle existing in the large in Him who is infinite! What if Calvary is Gods eternal heartache, manifest in time! What if, sore-footed and heavy-hearted, bruised with many a fall, we should come back to the old home, from which once we fled away, gay and foolish prodigals! The time was when, as small boys and girls, with blinding tears, we groped toward the mothers bosom and sobbed out our bitter pain and sorrow with the full story of our sin. What if the form on Calvary were like the king of eternity, toiling up the hill of time, his feet bare, his locks all wet with the dew of night, while he cries: Oh, Absalom! my son, my son, Absalom! What if we are Absalom, and have hurt Gods heart! Reason staggers. Groping, trusting, hoping, we fall blindly on the stairs that slope through darkness up to God. But, falling, we fall into the arms of Him who hath suffered vicariously for man from the foundation of the world.1 [Note: N. D. Hillis, The Investment of Influence, 86.]
II
The Example
Leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps.
i. Christ is an example
1. The word example in the text is a highly technical word. It was a word that was specifically employed by the old writers to indicate the headline of a copy, given by the master for the pupil to imitate, to trace out and to follow. And if we regard the blessed Saviours example in that light, much good fruit will be produced in our lives.
In the economy of Divine grace our blessed Master, in the three-and-thirty years of His earthly sojourn, was employed in writing the great headline of the copy; and as He gathers the children of the ages round about Him, generation after generation, century after century, place after place, nation after nation, He says, I have left you an example; meaning by that, that pains and diligent care must be taken to copy that great example, and also that the eye may be lovingly and constantly fixed upon that Jesus, who is alike the Author and the Finisher of our faith.
How easily and contentedly we speak of Jesus Christ as our example. Do we realize what it means? If we did, it would revolutionize our life. Do we begin to know our Bible as He did? Do we begin to pray as He did? How thoughtful He was for others, how patient toward dulness, how quiet under insult! Think of what it meant for Him to take a basin and towel like a slave and wash the disciples feet! Do we stoop to serve? Can any one say of us, as was said of Him, that we go about doing good? Think of His words, servants of His, I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Christ-like is a word often on our lips. Do not speak it too lightly. It is the heart of Gods predestination. It is our high calling.1 [Note: M. D. Babcock, Thoughts for Every-Day Living, 50.]
2. That ye should follow. As Christ gained disciples, or as any proffered to be His disciples, the first and only direction He gave them was to become devoted followers of Himself personally. Instead of laying before them any laws of His Kingdom, or any definite rules by which to regulate their lives, His one exhortation wasforsake all and follow Me. Instead of instituting any inquiry into their moral character or their religious experienceas men do nowthe only test He applied was to their love for Him and the need they felt for His love and friendship, which of course would have to be strong in order to secure a consistent and devoted discipleship. Hence, to the words forsake all, He often added take up the cross and follow me.
It is clear that by following Him, He meant exactly what we mean when we present His life as an example; He meant entering into the spirit and manner, and thereby into the very deeds of His life. To this precept, He in many ways gave great force, as, for instance, when He sent them forth on evangelic missions invested with the powers that He Himself possessed, and when He spoke such striking words as to their being one with Him, even as He was one with the Father.
And how shall I follow Jesus the Christ? The first requisite is a personal relationship to Him. From the Cross where He has saved me I set out on the pilgrim-road of imitation. Sometimes I hear it alleged against Thomas Kempiss golden little book, that it fails to insist on these initial experiences of pardon and reconcilement. But the good monk regards them as having been already tasted and passed through. As truly as Charles Wesley, he is persuaded that the Saviour must cover his defenceless head with the shadow of His wing. Has He done so? I cannot wear the loveliness of Jesus till I drink deep of the forgiveness of Jesus.
And, next, I must have a constant remembrance of the real humanness of my Lord. The radiant lights of divinity and eternity gleam about His person. But His example ceases to have practical interest for me unless I feel that He was and is my real Kinsman and my very Brother. I must not lift Him into a magical world from which I am excluded. Where He has gone in advance of me, I can walk in patience behind.
This is necessary, too, that love for Him leaps and flames in my soul. No amount of intellectual comprehension and no attention to worship and work are enough. The heart must enthrone Him, must adore Him, must turn to Him with the inevitableness and the trust of the sunflower turning to the sun. I can resemble Him only if mine is an affection profound, controlling, pervasive, revealing itself in look and word and deed and behaviour, not to be checked by ridicule and opposition, not to be dried up.
And a certain aloofness of spirit is required. Of spirit, not of body. I am not to retire to any hermitage or desert or solitarys cell. No arbitrary fences are to divide me from my neighbours. Yet, if I would be an epistle of Christ, I must hold on firmly to the heavenly life around the earthly life; my heart will move there while my feet stay here. The holy man, said Jacob Bhme, who made and mended shoes, hath his church about him everywhere, even in himself. He standeth and walketh, sitteth and lieth down, in his church.
And there must be intimacy with my Lord. His thought, His temper, His motives, His decisions, I am to share. So I must commit myself implicitly and continuously to His Holy Spirit, who takes His things and shows them to me. I must dwell much with Himself in prayer. I must read often the story of His life and death. I must accustom myself to consider Him, the Apostle and High Priest of my confession.
These are some of the modes in which I shall touch and grasp and keep the grace and the wisdom and the power and the gentleness and the splendour of Jesus Christ.1 [Note: A. Smellie, In the Secret Place, 350.]
In one way or another the idea of withdrawing entirely from the world engaged Francis thoughts. He often discussed it with the Brothers of the Order and weighed the pro and con. There was one thing that always prevented him from choosing the hermit life, and that was the example of our Lord. Jesus could have chosen to remain in His glory at His Fathers right hand, but instead descended to earth to endure the vicissitudes of human life and to die the bitter death of shame on the Cross. And it was the Cross that had from the first been Francis model, the Cross to which he applied with the rest of the Middle Ages Gods word to Moses: Fac secundum exemplarMake it according to the pattern, that was shewn thee in the mount.2 [Note: J. Jrgensen, St. Francis of Assisi, 148.]
3. His steps. As a guide going across a wet moor with a traveller calls out, Step where I step, or else you will be bogged, so we must tread in the steps of the Saviour, and then we shall come safe to the other side.
It is said of the Bohemian king, Wenceslaus, that on one occasion he set forth in a wild snowstorm, when the frost was keen and the air bitterly cold, on an enterprise of mercy and love. His servant, following him barefooted, as was the habit in those days, could not keep up to his master by reason of the bleeding of his naked feet as they trod upon the sharp protruding icicles. So the king said to his follower, Watch where I plant my steps, and plant yours there too. And so the master advanced and the servant followed, treading in the masters steps.
Dean Stanley was one day showing, as he loved to do, some working men over Westminster Abbey. One of them in conversation referred to the Deans work on Sinai and Palestine, which he had just been reading, and remarked, as he thought of its graphic descriptions of the Holy Land, and how the Dean had actually stood upon the sacred soil, and personally visited the hallowed places, How beautiful to have been able to walk where the Saviour had walked. The man said, I shall never forget the answer, nor the look with which it was accompanied, as the Dean replied: Beautiful indeed, and not beyond the power of any man to endeavour to walk in the footsteps of the Saviour.
4. Our Lords life, as recorded in the Gospels, does not present situations corresponding to all those in which human beings may be placed. Perhaps too much is sometimes attempted to be made out, with regard to the extent to which the life of Christ tallies in its outward features with the lives of men. It is true that Jesus was an infant, a youth, and a grown man; and it is profitable to consider Him as therefore sharing our infancy, our boyhood, and our adult age. But then it must be admitted that He was not an old man. He was a son, a friend, and presumably an artisan. But He was not a husband or a father; not a landowner or a tradesman. We make perhaps a graver admission still, when we say that He was not a woman. These admissions we might carry on without limit, as we reckon up the various relations and circumstances in which we may be placed. They prove conclusively that a close repetition of the acts of our Lord cannot be what is meant, when it is said that His example is one for all men to follow. If a father seeks to know, for instance, how he ought to act in the management of his children, he will not find it reported how the Son of God acted in similar circumstances. Even when we find a correspondence of circumstances, and can learn how Jesus acted when placed as one of us may be placed, we ought not to consider the following of His example to be simply the repeating of His actions.
The most intelligent Christians here cannot see why they should not have everything we have. They have no national costume, and every one of them would like to have clothes just like ours, from hat to shoes, regardless of the fact that they would be miserable in such dress. One of our elders made me fairly shudder, some months ago, by appearing at communion in a thick overcoat. He sweltered in it through a long hot day with a look of supreme contentment. It was a white mans coat, and therefore must be right. I suppose I was the only person in the audience who did not envy him.1 [Note: E. C. Parsons, A Life for Africa, 155.]
5. It is clearly the spirit in which our Saviour acted that we are to follow. The details of our Lords conduct may be very helpful in showing us how to act in particular situations; but their highest and most general value consists in their illustrating or interpreting the mind of Christ. As we learn to understand our fellow-men not through metaphysical or ethical descriptions of them, but through the observation of their acts, so is it with our knowledge of the Saviour. It was of infinite importance that we should know the Son of God to be a living person, and should perceive the Spirit that was in Him to be a fountain of conduct, sending forth the streams of word and deed. Everything He did, every word He spoke, has this value, that it contributes to our knowledge of Him who spoke and acted. The single recorded incident of His boyhood, His conversation with the doctors in the Temple, and what we are told of His submission to His mother and Joseph, and His growing in favour with man as well as with God, cannot be thought of with much profit, except in direct connexion with His nature and character. All the acts of His ministry become most instructive when we see in them so many tokens of the simplicity, the sympathy, the kindness, the fearlessness of our Lords character. The actions are most precious and indispensable to bring us into acquaintance with the spirit out of which they proceeded; and when they have done that, their chief work is done. Thenceforward, what we have to do with is the spirit.
It does us good to see how faithful persons have discharged duties which we ourselves are called to perform, those of husbands and wives and parents, of lawyers and merchants, of domestic servants, of Christian ministers; and how a life that might have been solitary has been glorified, like that of a Mary Carpenter or a Sister Dora, by special enterprises of noble voluntary service. It is clear therefore that the example left us by the Lord Jesus is one which can be largely supplemented by other lives. Good Christians may be said to fill up that which is behind or lacking in the actions and instructions as well as the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the Church.1 [Note: J. Ll. Davies, Social Questions, 115.]
Not Thine the bigots partial plea,
Nor Thine the zealots ban;
Thou well canst spare a love of Thee
Which ends in hate of man.
Our Friend, our Brother, and our Lord,
What may Thy service be?
Nor name, nor form, nor ritual word,
But simply following Thee.
We bring no ghastly holocaust,
We pile no graven stone;
He serves Thee best who loveth most
His brothers and Thy own.2 [Note: John Greenleaf Whittier.]
ii. Christ is especially an example to sufferers
1. In His public teaching our Lord made much of patient submission to undeserved wrong. He pronounced those men blessed who suffered for righteousness sake. Blessed are ye, He says, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. Not in exemption from suffering, but in truthful endurance, would His true followers find their peace. In your patience, possess ye your souls.
2. Our Lord teaches us by His sufferings more than in any other way. By these He reveals to us the love of God: by these He points to the value of heaven. These sufferings are the measure of the gravity of our sins, of the miseries of hell, of the solemnity of life. But, beyond this, our Lord gives us lessons about painpain, that stern and strange mystery which follows hard upon the steps of every one of us throughout life, with which, sooner or later, we each of us become familiar, of which, left to ourselves, we know and even can guess so little.
Do not complain of suffering; it teaches you to succour others.1 [Note: Golden Thoughts of Carmen Sylva, 35.]
Depend upon it, patient, cheerful acceptance of suffering is a great force which achieves more than many active energies that command the attention of mankind. To take one single instance from the history of this country, how vast has been the effect of the closing scenes of the life of King Charles the First. Had he conquered in his struggle with the Parliament, the English Revolution would have been only deferred. Had he died quietly in his bed, whether in exile or as the occupant of a phantom throne, such as at one time after his great defeat his enemies would still have been content to leave him, he would have lived in history as a monarch who had endeavoured to exaggerate the prerogative and to defend the exaggeration, and who, happily, had failed; and the political and religious history of England mightnay, wouldhave been widely different. But whatever the mistakes of his earlier life, his last sufferings were covered with a robe of moral glorythe glory of Christian patience. That long imprisonment, borne with such unvarying patient dignitythat refusal at the last to make concessions which did violence to his conscience, but which certainly might have saved his lifeabove all, that last tragedy at Whitehall, the most tragic, perhaps, all things considered, in the history of our country, when, as the old poet Marvell says,
He nothing common did or mean
Upon that memorable scene;
But with his keener eye
The axes edge did try,
Nor Heaven invoked, with vulgar spite,
To vindicate his helpless right,
But bowed his comely head
Down, as upon a bed,
While his last thoughts were, as we know,
Turned to the cross, and his last words, I go
From a corruptible crown to
An incorruptible,
here was the real secret of the Restoration which followedhere the moral force which, in the end, saved by ennobling the English monarchy.1 [Note: Canon H. P. Liddon.]
It is a tremendous moment when first one is called upon to join the great army of those who suffer. That vast world of love and pain opens suddenly to admit us one by one within its fortress. We are afraid to enter into the land, yet you will, I know, feel how high is the call. It is as a trumpet speaking to us, that cries aloudIt is your turnendure. Play your part. As they endured before you, so now, close up the ranksbe patient and strong as they were. Since Christ, this world of pain is no accident untoward or sinister, but a lawful department, of life, with experiences, interests, adventures, hopes, delights, secrets of its own. These are all thrown open to us as we pass within the gatesthings that we could never learn or know or see, so long as we were well.
God help you to walk through this world now opened to you as through a kingdom, regal, royal, and wide and glorious.2 [Note: Canon Scott Holland, in a letter to Romanes, in Life and Letters of George John Romanes, 284.]
3. We suffer in mind, we suffer in body, we suffer in soul.
(1) We suffer in mind.From the point of view of religion there is the suffering of doubt, which comes at times like a cloud between almost every Christian and God. But we suffer not only from doubt, but from fearsfears whether we shall persevere, fears whether we can stand against the storm of trial and temptation, fears, perhaps, whether we are even now in the narrow way. We suffer from perplexity, from the difficulty of deciding our duty in the many questions which come before us. And we suffer in mind lastly, and perhaps most often, in what may be called the worries of life; the irritations, the trifling troubles of every daytrifles in themselves, and each one easy to be borne if it stood alone; but coming so continually, coming so thickly, the worries of life often seem to overwhelm us.
We turn to our Lord and we follow Him through His whole life of sorrow and suffering, but we find that He seems to be always so calmwith Him there is no doubt, no perplexity, no fear, no worry. There is one scene in our Lords life which seems to be the climax of the concentrated suffering of His mindthat time, between twelve and three upon Good Friday, when He hung upon the Cross, doing penance for the sin of the world, and darkness rolled, not only around His Cross, hiding from sight the light of day, but into His very soul, and extorted from Him that one cry of complaint, the only one in His whole life, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Once only in His life does our Lord reveal to us the sufferings of His mind.
On reading his correspondence, some may accuse him of indicating too strongly his loneliness and passionate desire of sympathy; they may call his fancies diseased, his complaints unmanly, and his transient doubts unchristian. But his faithlessness was but momentary: only the man who can become at one with Frederick Robertsons strange and manifold character, and can realize as he did the agony and sin of the world,only the man who can feel the deepest pain, and the highest joy, as Robertson could have felt themhas either the right or the capability of judging him. Doubts did cross his mind, but they passed over it as clouds across the sun. The glowing heart which lay behind soon dissipated them by its warmth.
With regard to his passionate desires and his complaint, they were human, and would have been humanly wrong in him only if he had allowed them to gain predominance over his will, righteously bent all through his life, not on their extinction, but on their subjugation. The untroubled heart is not the deepest, the stern heart not the noblest, the heart which crushes all expression of its pain not that which can produce the most delicate sympathy, the most manifold teaching, or speak so as to give the greatest consolation. Had not Robertson often suffered, and suffered so much as to be unable sometimes to suppress a cry, his sermons would never have been the deep source of comfort and of inspiration which they have proved to thousands. The very knowledge that one who worked out the voyage of his life so truly and so firmly could so suffer and so declare his suffering, is calculated to console and strengthen many who endure partially his pain and loneliness, but who have not, as yet, resisted so victoriously; whose temperament is morbid, but who have not, as yet, subdued it to the loving and healthy cheerfulness of his Christian action.1 [Note: S. A. Brooke, Life and Letters of F. W. Robertson, 473.]
(2) We have to suffer in body, through sickness or accident. This frame of earth in which we tabernacle during our sojourn in this world, how frail it is! how full of weakness and of pain! And yet, even here, in the majority of cases, we can trace our pain or sickness to our own fault, to the breaking of some law of health, very likely to our luxury of life, or our gluttony, or love of ease, or the pursuit of pleasure.
It may be pointed out with irresistible force that suffering can be traced, often at a long interval, in some cases to sin, and that it is simply one of the wholesome sanctions of law. We are firmly convinced that we live in a moral universe, and by that we mean in a state where it will be made pleasant to do what is right, and very unpleasant to do what is wrong, at least in physical affairs. If one play the fool and slap Nature in the face, that power will take up the quarrel and pursue it to the end with the man and his descendants till she has obtained complete satisfaction. If one make a covenant with Nature and keep her laws loyally, this power will remember him for good, and his children after him, opening her hand and blessing them with health and strength. With her saving judgments and her abundant mercies, Nature fences up the way of life that we may be induced to walk therein with steadfast step. And if any one break through the hedge, it is good that he suffer; and if it be that its actual transgressor do not pay all the debt, but that the innocent must share his liability, this is only the inevitable consequence of the solidarity of the family and the race. None can interfere between the sinner and his penalty, and we can even see that it is well none should, for in so far as one accepts his chastisement with a right mind the pain leaves peace behind.2 [Note: J. Watson, The Potters Wheel, 140.]
(3) And then, lastly, there is the suffering of the human soul; the suffering in our affectionsthe keenest, the deepest, the hardest of all to bear! And again we see that this comes so often through our own sin; so often we have to suffer in our affections, because our affections have been set on that which is not lawfully within our reach, that which has been forbidden to us by the law of God.
But, whether it be from our own fault, or from those many, many heart-wrenchings which come through love, even in right affections, in right relationshipsthe sorrows, the pains of husband or wife at the suffering or perhaps sin of the other; the pains (what greater?) of the mother weeping over her erring, wayward, sinful childall these sufferings of the human soul we find in their fulness throughout our Lords life, and reaching their culminating point upon the Cross. For throughout His life He suffered, being grieved at the hardness of mens hearts. He suffered in seeing those for whom He had come to die refuse His proffered grace and turn away from His words of love.
It goes without proving that no one has ever so affected our race for weal as our Master, and that the spring of this salvation is in Himself. Partly it is His example of holy living, and partly it is His Gospel of Divine Truth, but a white marble Christ had not touched the human heart, or loosed the bands of sin. It is the Crucified, in the unutterable pathos of His Passion and Death, who has overcome and gotten unto Himself the victory. Because it appears that God also is in the tragedy of life, and in the heart of its mystery. When one enters the dimness of a foreign cathedral, he sees nothing clearly for a while, save that there is a light from the Eastern window, and it is shining over a figure raised high above the choir. As ones eyes grow accustomed to the gloom, he identifies the Crucifix, repeated in every side chapel, and marks that to this Sufferer all kneel in their trouble, and are comforted. From age to age the shadow hangs heavy on life and men walk softly in the holy place, but ever the Crucifix faces them, and they are drawn to His feet and goodness by the invitation of the pierced hands.
Had one lived in Jesus day and realized His excellence, the Cross would have been an almost insuperable offence to faith. Why should He have had a crown of thorns? Had the veil been lifted from the future, and had one seen the salvation flowing from the five wounds of the Redeemer, then he had been comforted and content. No one then imagined that through the mystery of the Lords Passion so great a blessing was to come on all ages, for none had entered into the secret of suffering. To-day we are perplexed by the Passion, which is not now concentrated like a bitter essence in the Cup of a Divine Person, but is distributed in the earthly vessels of ordinary people, and we stand aghast at the lot of the victims. Were our vision purged and power given us to detect spiritual effects, then we would understand, and cease to complain. We would see the hard crust of human nature broken up, and the fountain of fine emotion unsealed; the subtle sins which sap the vigour of character eliminated, and the unconscious virtues brought to bloom. Before the widespread, silent, searching appeal of the suffering, each in his appointed place, the heart of the race grows tender and opens its door to goodness.1 [Note: J. Watson, The Potters Wheel, 150.]
It was the Sea of Sorrow; and I stood
At midnight on the shore. The heavy skies
Hung dark above; the voice of them that wept
Was heard upon the waters, and the chill,
Sad going of a midnight wind, which stirred
No wave thereon. And I was there alone
To face that dreadful sea: I felt the cold
And deathly waters touch my feet, and drew
A little back, and shuddered. Yet I knew
That all who follow Christ must suffer here.
Master, I said, with trembling, in the night,
With voice that none but He would note or know,
So hoarse and weakO Master, bid me come!
If on these woeful waters I must walk,
Then let me hear thy voice thereon, that so
I may not die, before I reach Thy feet,
Of loneliness and fear.
I listened there,
With breathless longing by that solemn sea,
Till through the curtains of the night I heard
His own voice calling methat voice which draws
His children through the flood and through the fire
To kiss His feet; and at the Masters word
I left the shore, forth walking on the dim
And untried waters, there to follow Him
Who called me, and there to see His face.2 [Note: B. M., The Sea of Sorrow.]
A Propitiation and a Pattern
Literature
Brown (C.), Trial and Triumph, 89.
Davies (J. Ll.), Social Questions, 114.
Davies (J. Ll.), The Work of Christ, 104.
Edgar (S.), Sermons at Auckland, N.Z., ii. 27.
Farrar (F. W.), Bells and Pomegranates, 133.
Fraser (J.), Parochial Sermons, 115.
Gibson (J. G.), Stepping Stones to Life, 96.
Hamilton (J.), Works, iv. 217.
Hickey (F. P.), Short Sermons, ii. 94.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., ii. 286.
Liddon (H. P.), Easter in St. Pauls, 346.
Mackennal (A.), The Eternal Son of God and the Human Sonship, 81.
Meyer (F. B.), Tried by Fire, 105.
Mortimer (A. G.), Lenten Preaching, 142.
Russell (A.), The Light that Lighteth Every Man, 122.
Sauter (B.), The Sunday Epistles, 242.
Vaughan (R.), Stones from the Quarry, 87.
Watkinson (W. L.), The Education of the Heart, 186.
Wells (J.), Bible Echoes, 153.
Wilson (J. M.), Truths New and Old, 260.
Wilson (J. M.), Rochdale Sermons, 10.
Wilson (S.), Lenten Shadows and Easter Lights, 71.
Wiseman (N.), Childrens Sermons, 302.
Cambridge Review, xiv. Supplement No. 350 (Ridgeway).
Christian World Pulpit, xviii. 142 (Tatton); xlv. 241 (Fairbairn); lvii. 164 (Body); lxiii. 193 (Fairbairn).
Church of England Pulpit, xlvi. 5 (Henslow); xlix. 290 (Body); 1. 2 (Rawnsley).
Churchmans Pulpit: Lenten Season: v. 140 (Carter).
Churchmans Pulpit: 2nd Sunday after Easter: viii. 19 (Liddon), 23 (Cotton), 27 (Henslow), 29 (Fairbairn), 31 (Edger), 34 (Davies).
Churchmans Pulpit: Sermons to the Young: xvi. 256 (Garbett).
Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., i. 330 (Cross).
Keswick Week, 1899, 84 (Webb-Peploe).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
even: Mat 10:38, Mat 16:24, Mar 8:34, Mar 8:35, Luk 9:23-25, Luk 14:26, Luk 14:27, Joh 16:33, Act 9:16, Act 14:22, 1Th 3:3, 1Th 4:2, 2Ti 3:12
because: 1Pe 2:24, 1Pe 3:18, 1Pe 4:1, Luk 24:26, Act 17:3, Heb 2:10
for us: Some read, for you. 1Pe 1:20
leaving: Psa 85:13, Joh 13:15, Rom 8:29, 1Co 11:1, Eph 5:2, Phi 2:5, 1Jo 2:6, 1Jo 3:16, Rev 12:11
Reciprocal: Deu 21:4 – shall strike 1Sa 25:21 – Surely Psa 89:51 – footsteps Psa 119:47 – I will delight Pro 26:4 – General Pro 27:18 – shall be Ecc 7:8 – the patient Dan 9:26 – Messiah Mat 3:15 – for Mat 11:29 – for Mat 12:15 – great Mat 26:52 – Put Mar 6:46 – General Luk 2:51 – and was Luk 9:56 – And Luk 10:37 – Go Luk 22:51 – And he Joh 5:41 – General Joh 10:4 – he goeth Act 1:1 – of Act 8:32 – and like Act 26:25 – I am not Rom 1:6 – the called Rom 4:12 – in the steps Rom 12:14 – General 2Co 12:18 – in the same steps Col 3:13 – even 1Th 1:10 – Jesus 1Th 4:7 – God 2Th 3:9 – to make 2Ti 1:9 – called 1Pe 3:9 – called 1Pe 5:9 – the same 2Pe 1:3 – called
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
NATURAL FAILINGS AND SPECIAL GRACES
For even hereunto were ye called
1Pe 2:21
There is always something very interesting in seeing what kind of men God chooses to send His messages to us by. God has many different messages to us, and God sends His messages to us by different messengers. The Bible was not all written by one writer. The New Testament was written by a great many different Evangelists and Apostles. We have four different Gospels by four different Evangelists; and though the greater number of the Epistles were written by St. Paul, still we have Epistles by St. John, and St. James, and St. Jude, and St. Peter. We try to see what things God chooses to tell us, by which messengers. Or, in other words, we try to see what are the particular things which each particular Apostle writes most about, and what were the points in that Apostles character which made him different from the others.
I. St. Peters natural disposition was what we should call hot and fiery.He was eager, and impetuous, and impatient. He was always for doing everything at once. And you will remember especially how angry he was when first our Lord revealed to him that He was to be put to death by the Jews. St. Peter could not take in the idea. He loved his Master. He wanted to see Him honoured and obeyed, and he could not stop to think what our Lord might mean, and why it might have to turn out true. St. Peter was startled and shocked, and he never stopped to think, but spoke out hastily and angrily, and contradicted his Lords words, and drew down upon himself our Lords solemn anger, for he had spoken very wrongly. So, again, you know, it was St. Peter who tried to rescue our Lord when He was arrested the night before His Crucifixion. And yet for all his eagerness and forwardness, St. Peter was not steadfast. One time he would be going too far, another time not far enough. He wanted steadiness. Though he was so ready to act and to strike, he was not ready to endure. It was not natural to him to bear. His natural disposition, as we say, was quick and sudden, but it was not naturally good at endurance. Such, then, was the natural disposition of the Apostle St. Peter, who was commissioned by God to write this letter or Epistle.
II. Now let us look at the message from God in our text, and let us put it alongside of what we have seen of the natural disposition of the Apostle who wrote it.
(a) What is the message? He is telling Christian people something about what God meant them to be and to do when God called them to be Christians. St. Peter says to us hereunto were ye called. Whereunto? What is the particular thing that St. Peter chooses out of all the many points of a Christians life to write to us about? It is about that very thing which St. Peter had found it so very hard even to hear of, when Christ his Master told him He would have to bear it. It is all about suffering wrongfully and taking things patiently, about doing well and being treated ill, and still not murmuring or reviling, but committing ourselves to Him that judgeth righteously.
(b) And why? Because such was Christs example, and because we are called to copy our Master, and therefore, hard as all this may seem, we must not think it hard. We are called Christians, and this is being Christians. Just as being a soldier means that a man must be ready to bear wounds and hardships and death; just as being a lawyer means that a man must study and think and advise, and not be enjoying himself in the sports of the field; just as being a clergyman means that a man must give up many worldly pleasures which may be quite right in themselvesso being a Christian means that we are bound to be patient and gentle, to be very enduring, to take injustice quietly, and not be at all surprised if we are found fault with for the very things which we know to be the best things we have ever done.
III. Taking St. Peters natural disposition, this is just the very last thing which we should have expected to find him writing about.And it is not as if this came only once in St. Peters letters. If you will read them through you will see that the same thing comes over and over again. He is always telling us this. It seems as if he felt that it was one of the chief things he was commissioned by God to teach Christian people. It really looks as if St. Peter had never forgotten the rock on which, but for Gods grace, he was in such danger of making shipwreckthe rock of an impetuous, hasty disposition, quick to strike, impatient to bear, and thereforeas such people always areunstable and unsteady. And we can hardly doubt it was so. Different people have different self-denials, according to what their dispositions are. What is a self-denial to one man comes quite easily to another. And we can have no doubt that to St. Peter the greatest self-denial was the checking his eager disposition, the having to bear injustice, andwhat to a generous-tempered man is the hardest thing of allthe having to see injustice done, and yet not meddle because it was no business of his.
IV. Thus St. Peter learnt to bear his cross.And then, when he had learned to bear it, he became quite changed; and instead of impatience being his particular sin, quietness and trust in God became his particular virtue; and then God chose him to preach the duty he had learned to practise; and we Christian people, all these centuries after, are learning from St. Peter to this day the great Christian duty of bearing injuries and forgiving injustice. By Gods choosing St. Peter to teach us this, he is teaching us more also. It is not as if it was anybody that God had inspired to write this Epistle and preach this duty. When God causes St. Peter to set forth the Christian duty of bearing injuries, He is teaching us the use He means us to make of what we call our natural defects. We have all of us some particular faultsbesetting sins, as we commonly call them. Some of us are naturally lazy; some of us are naturally proud; some of us are naturally covetouseverybody has something which he is naturally prone to. This is so plain that we all of us admit it; but the wrong may be overcome.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Pe 2:21. Hereunto were ye called. The disciples of Christ are called upon to endure sufferings for His sake. (See Act 14:22; Rom 8:17; Php 1:29; 2Ti 3:12.) Jesus does not require his followers to bear-any burden that is greater than He carried himself, hence He set an example by going through the severest of sufferings. Now the disciples are called upon to follow his steps in that they cheerfully accept the trials that are forced upon them for His sake.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Pe 2:21. For unto this were ye called. Patient endurance of undeserved suffering should be deemed no strange thing (cf. 1Pe 4:12). Painful as it was, it was involved in their Christian vocation. In being called by God to the grace of Christ, they were called to take up His cross (Mat 10:38; Mat 16:24, etc.). The fact appeals with special force to slaves; for He Himself took upon Him the form of a servant (Php 2:7). For the turn of expression here, cf. Col 3:15; 1Th 3:3; 2Th 2:14. The A. V. needlessly inserts even, as Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Bishops Bible introduce a verily which is not in the text.
because Christ also suffered for you. The best authorities give the second person here instead of the for us of the Received Text. The phrase means here, too, not in your stead, but in your behalf, or for your good. The idea is that the servant cannot expect to be greater than the Master. They do not stand alone in suffering. They are only called to endure as Christ endured. He suffered, and that, too, not on His own account, but in their cause and for their benefit.
to you leaving behind (Him) an example. The pronoun (which again should be you not us) is put with a strange prominence first, taking up the immediately preceding for you, and applying the fact most emphatically to these bond-servants. The leaving behind is expressed by a verb which is found nowhere else in the N. T., but which occurs in reference to death in the apocryphal Book of Judith (Jdt 8:7). The idea of an example is conveyed by a term, of which this is the one N. T. instance, and which denotes properly the sketch given to students of art to copy, or trace over and fill in, or the head-lines containing the letters of the alphabet, which were set for children who were learning writing. The idea of an example is expressed by different terms in Joh 13:15 (where it = sign, or pattern), and 2Th 3:9 (where it = type; cf. also 1Co 10:11). The object of this bequest is next stated,
in order that ye might follow; or, follow closely, as the verb strictly means, which occurs again in Mar 16:20; 1Ti 5:10; 1Ti 5:24 (in this last verse pointing to the closeness with which some mens sins pursue them to judgment).
his steps, or footprints. Compare also Rom 4:12, 2Co 12:18, the only other occurrences in the N. T. The change of figure from a teacher setting a copy to be imitated, to a guide making a track to be intently kept by those coming after him, is to be noticed. Huther calls attention to the fact that, except in 1Jn 2:6 (where the idea is more general), it is with particular reference to His self-abasement in suffering and death that the N. T. presents Christ as an example, e.g. Joh 13:15; Joh 15:12; Php 2:5; Heb 12:2; 1Jn 3:16.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, two farther arguments to excite and move Christians to patience under unjust sufferings.
1. Hereunto, says the apostle, were ye called, that is, by your profession of Christianity: religion obliges you to suffer with patience; you must bear the cross, before you wear the crown; to this you are called, and with this you have been acquainted.
2. You should not think much to suffer patiently, when you suffer unjustly, because Christ, your captain and guide, did so freely before you; he was the most meek and patient endurer that ever was, of the greatest and most wrongful sufferings that ever were.
Note here, That although the example of our Saviour be here propounded to us with a special regard to the particular virtue of patience under unjust sufferings, yet ought it to be extended to all graces and duties, and improved as a pattern for the love and practice of universal holiness: Leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.
The practice and example of the holy Jesus, in all the ordinary acts of his obedience, ought to be propounded by all his disciples and followers as the grand pattern of our imitation; it being a safe and unerring example, an easy familiar example, a powerful and encouraging example, and the most instructive and universal example that ever was given to the world, being a most absolute and perfect pattern of holiness.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
1Pe 2:21-23. For even hereunto Namely, to suffer wrongfully, and to bear such treatment with patience and meekness; are ye Christians called; because Christ Whose followers you profess to be, pure and spotless as he was; suffered for us Not only hard speeches, buffetings, and stripes, but deep and mortal wounds, even the ignominious and painful death of crucifixion; leaving us When he returned to heaven; an example of suffering patiently for well-doing; that ye should follow his steps Of innocence and patience. Who did no sin And therefore did not deserve to suffer any thing; neither was guile Any insincerity, or dissimulation, or the least mis-spoken word, found to drop from his mouth This is an allusion to the words of Isaiah, concerning the Messiah, Isa 53:9; neither was any deceit in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled As he frequently was, being called a Samaritan, a glutton, a wine-bibber, a blasphemer, a demoniac, one in league with Beelzebub, a perverter of the nation, and a deceiver of the people; he reviled not again In any one instance: he did indeed once say to the Jews, Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye will do. This, however, was not a reviling speech, but a true description of their character, and a prediction that they would murder him; and when he suffered All kinds of insults and tortures, till they ended in his death on the cross; he threatened not the vengeance which he had it in his own power to have executed; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously The only solid ground of patience in affliction. In all these instances, the example of Christ was peculiarly adapted for the instruction of servants, who easily slide into sin or guile, reviling their fellow-servants, or threatening them, the natural result of anger without power.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 21
For even hereunto; that is, for this purpose, namely, that you might exhibit a spirit of patient endurance, under the pressure of injustice and suffering, in accordance with the example of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:21 {23} For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an {g} example, that ye should follow his steps:
(23) He alleviates the grievousness of servanthood, while he shows plainly that Christ died also for servants, that they should bear so much more patiently this inequality between men who are of the same nature: moreover setting before them Christ the Lord of lords for an example, he signifies that they cannot but seem too subdued, who show themselves more grieved in the bearing of injuries, than Christ himself who was most just, and most severely of all afflicted, and yet was most patient.
(g) A metaphor of speech taken from painters and schoolmasters.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Part of the Christian’s calling (1Pe 1:1; 1Pe 2:9) includes suffering (cf. 2Ti 3:12). Jesus Christ suffered for His righteous conduct at the hands of sinners (cf. Mat 26:67; Mar 14:65). We too can expect that our righteous behavior will draw the same response from the ungodly of our day (Mat 11:29; Mat 16:24; Luk 14:27; Act 14:22).
Whereas Jesus’ atonement set an example for us, it accomplished much more than that. Peter cited only His example here in view of his purpose, which was to encourage his readers to endure suffering with the proper spirit. They also needed to remember that their experience duplicated that of Jesus. They were like children who place foot after foot in the prints of their elder brother who walks before them in the snow (cf. Rom 4:12; 2Co 12:18). The Greek word translated "example" (hypogrammon) refers to a writing or drawing that someone placed under another sheet of paper so he or she could trace on the upper sheet. [Note: See Robertson, 6:104-5, for other extrabiblical examples.] In the next few verses Peter expounded on Jesus’ example at length.
"These verses [21-25] contain the fullest elaboration of the example of Jesus Christ for believers in the New Testament." [Note: D. Edmond Hiebert, "Following Christ’s Example: An Exposition of 1 Peter 2:21-25," Bibliotheca Sacra 139:553 (January-March 1982):32.]
"Nothing seems more unworthy and therefore less tolerable, than undeservedly to suffer; but when we turn our eyes to the Son of God, this bitterness is mitigated; for who would refuse to follow him going before us?" [Note: John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, p. 89.]