Unjust Suffering

we are First Peter Chapter two verses eighteen through twenty I call this unjust suffering I had some other that's good titles that were potential uh... this one of shorter so i went with this uh... i i think the title on the schedule had to do with sir service and masters and and that is we'll see that in a moment here that is where this kind of falls in Peter's discussion of, you know, human relationships. He's kind of, you know, we'll see that in just a moment.

But let's, let's, I called it unjust suffering because I wanted it, I wanted you guys to understand that this is applicable to you, even if you're not a household servant. So, 1 Peter 2, 18 through 20. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you've sinned and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience, but if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

So what is our context here? As I mentioned a moment ago, Peter is going through these different human relationships, right? And in the last couple of weeks, Andrew covered verses 13 through 17 where we have your relationship to government or civil authorities or what NASB translates human institutions. and then in uh today's verses and actually what we're covering next week as well we could put that under the heading slaves slaves to masters um but as we're going to see actually really only verse 18 that speaks specifically to slaves the rest of it is kind of grows out of that.

But we'll call it, we'll give it that heading. Because then he continues on in chapter 3. He's got the relationship of wives to husbands and husbands to wives. Which looks a lot like what the Apostle Paul did in many of his letters as well, doesn't it? Very, very similar kind of a pattern. So we see that actually fairly often. So why is he going through these things? If we look back to how he introduces this, just go back in your Bible to chapter two, verse 12, and you'll see the heading that precedes these four sections. I'll put it on the screen as well.

He says, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. And so that's really the introduction to all of these relationships in which you are to conduct yourselves. And this is the heading, right? Keep your behavior excellent among, we could just say the world.

I'd be curious to study this a little bit more, but I can't remember who it was now, suggested someone I was talking to that That the word Gentiles can sometimes be used in the New Testament as a term for all of those outside the body of Christ. It's just kind of interesting because we don't become Jews when we accept Christ. But he suggested that occasionally, in the New Testament, the word Gentiles is just used to refer to those outside. Because that was kind of the Hebraic way of thinking.

There's us, and then there's everyone else. And so I'm not sure exactly here if Peter intends to say, because Peter is writing to the church, which is made up of Jew and Gentile. And so to say, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, Anyway, in any case, without going too far on that, this is amongst, in the world, you know, amongst those in the world, those who have not put their faith in Jesus Christ, right?

So that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe and glorify God in the day of visitation. And we'll see that that really, that verse really ties in well with where we're going this week and next. So the way that we conduct ourselves in all of these arenas has to do with our witness before the world. Will it bring glory to God or not?

So that's the context. So today's verses have to do specifically, as I said, with this relationship of servants and their masters. And like I said about the title, you might think, well, I can tune out then, because I'm, you know, I'm not a servant. But these verses do apply to us. And verse 18 brings up this relationship between servants and masters.

But then 19 through the end of chapter 2, Peter is really talking about the value of unjust suffering before God. so really the slave master issue uh... brings up a bigger issue uh... and uh... and so though though i don't know that any of us have ever been slaves uh... i know we all get into situations where we suffer unjustly and and that's where these verses apply to us uh... so let's begin with verse eighteen Peter says, servants be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

So who's in view? Servants, but what specifically these are? These are Christians, right? These are believers. So these are Christian servants in their relationship to their masters. So what's interesting is that these are, you know, you could say Christians who find themselves in this situation as slaves. And you know what's kind of interesting is that the New Testament authors never focus on abolishing slavery. But they do have a lot to say to believers who happen to be slaves, as well as believers who happen to be masters. In fact, we have a whole book of the Bible written to a slave owner. and uh... that that's a little bit foreign to us culturally to understand you know to live in a culture where the slave master situation is a reality uh... in the closest we have really is is uh... you know employer employee though slavery certainly this in the world today uh... we just don't See it openly in in America, right? But there's there's an interesting thing that we discussed at Bob's here last week No, I don't have it on the screen so sorry it's in first Corinthians 7 Where our paul is talking about the condition you were in when you were called to the condition that you were in when you came to christ and uh... any any says each man must remain in the condition in in which he was caught in that story let me read it again each man must remain in that condition in which he was called and verse twenty one is as we called as a slave Do not worry about it.

But if you're able also to become free, rather do that. So it's interesting, right? Paul didn't prohibit gaining freedom. He said, hey, if you're able to, that's great. But he actually really didn't encourage slaves to really seek their freedom or try to get their freedom. He said whatever condition you were in, you can be at peace about that.

And that has a lot of application to all of us. Whatever situation or condition that you were in when you were called or that you're in now, is where God has you. Yes? Reminds us, Miles, that we're heavenly citizens. That's very true, yeah. That's exactly right. Whatever earthly condition we find ourselves in, we're all heavenly citizens.

Yeah, Carolyn? Well, I think he's talking about servants here a bit. I mean, in a lot of ways, we serve people, whether as an employer Yeah, it's true. I mean, there are people here who serve us at church. It is true, yeah. So, I mean, everybody kind of serves somebody, you know, if it's going in. So, I think it could be in general as well. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, Miles, and actually, the verse you read kind of reminds me, and I think we all kind of realize that, when we become, and I became a believer as an engineer, Bob became a believer as a doctor, we didn't say, okay, I'm not going to, I'm going to quit, I'm going to stop being a doctor. I'm going to go in the ministry.

We didn't do that. We continued where we are. And the Lord will use that where you are. You don't have to stop that and become something else. Yeah, absolutely. Continue what you are. Yeah. And allow the Lord to direct where you're going to wind up from there. Exactly. Amen. Exactly. That's exactly right.

Um, so that's, that's, that's a really important point is that no matter, no matter what situation the Lord has put you in, that's where he wants you to be a witness to him. Um, so, so that, you know, the direct application of this verse is to slaves, but the, the indirect application is to all of us, you know, whatever situation you're in. Um, so what is the instruction to slaves in this verse? Just, just, uh, observing what is the, um, What is the command we could say? Be submissive. Okay. So those are the words. This is NASB. Anyone else have anything different? I think I checked. All the translations are pretty similar.

But this is actually a participle in Greek, which means that it's related back to the verse that preceded it. which is where Peter gives the instruction. He says, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king, servants being submissive to your masters. So it really connects with that, which makes sense, right? When you have this command to honor all people, you know, And then the direct application of that to servants is being submissive to your masters. So in other words, slaves, servants, that's what this looks like. That verse 17 applied for you looks like this, being submissive to your masters. And the word submissive is one of those words we kind of come across often, a hupotaso, which literally means to line up in rank under.

We could translate it that way if we want, to line up in rank under, almost a military type word. And so in other words, if someone is an authority over you, then respect that. In other words, don't disrespect that. Don't be disrespectful to that authority structure, that person. in authority.

I was just wondering, you use the terms, excuse me, slaves equally as frequently as bond servants. Bond servants is a little more user friendly. Sure, yeah. I mean, because servanthood then, the bond we have to that, is really of the Lord. That's what he's calling us to. Whether you're working for a master, or you're serving things within the body, or to the Lord directly, I agree, it carries a lot of baggage.

I didn't get into it, but the word servant here is not one of the more common terms for servant or slave in the New Testament, and I don't have my Greek in front of me right now. It could be translated household servant or house slave, I guess. It's interesting and I could spend more time studying this, but sometimes we say, oh, well, slavery at that day was a little bit more like the employer-employee relationship today.

Yes and no. I mean, it still was slavery. I mean, when you look at Onesimus running away from Philemon, I mean, Philemon could have had him executed for that crime, right? So it's not exactly like employer-employee, but anyway, yeah. So thanks for... People were born into slavery. Oh, yeah. I mean, there were different, yeah. There were different kinds of... Yeah, yeah, and it was different and I don't know that it's possible for us to entirely get our minds into that context because we didn't live it. You'd have to do a lot more historical research to really, you know, maybe understand this, but very, very common theme throughout the New Testament because that was the culture that existed.

And so why, like I said, Paul and Peter, they all make these references to slaves and to masters. It was the norm. It was what people lived in. So the direct command to servants, be submissive, respect your masters. And notice that, right? That with all respect. If you have the King James or New King James, you've got the word with all fear. And you know, what's interesting is that that's actually correct.

If you're going to translate verse 17, fear God, because it's the same word. It's just the noun form of the verb that's used there. And so where it says in verse 17, you know, fear God, honor the king. Here it says, submit to your masters with all fear. Same exact word. So we've got to be respectful. We've got to submit ourselves to those who are in positions of authority over us. That's where this applies to all of us. We have to respectfully submit to those in authority, but that's not always easy, is it? And we'll talk more about that. But it's also important to make one important qualifier that we'll talk a little bit more about later. Because this ties into some of what Andrew was teaching last week.

And the question, is there ever a place to disobey someone who is in authority over you? And the answer to that is yes. There is a place, right? If you look at Acts 419 and 529, Right? 529 is the line, we must obey God rather than men. So there is a place to disobey the authorities, but it has to be God's word above man's word. It can't be your own, you know, your own desire above those in authority. It has to be based on God's word.

That's the only qualifier to this command here. So that being the case, it's still true that as a principle we are to respectfully submit ourselves to those who are in authority. And so there's a, so the only qualification to that is that it can't violate God's commands or God's instructions. But notice, in the last part of this verse, what isn't a qualifier, right? He says, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. That is not a condition for disobedience. And you know that word NASB is translated unreasonable. Anyone have any different words in their translation on unreasonable? Harsh. Yeah. Perverse. Yeah. Cruel. Cruel. Uh huh. Unjust. Unjust? Unreasonable looks like a woke definition. Yeah, it's like, this is like the softest way you could translate it, the way the NASB put it. Because you look up the word, everything that was brought up here also valid. I mean, yeah. Crooked, yeah. I was thinking about it.

Today, we would call this a toxic work environment. And that's true, right? This would be a very, you know, to have someone over you who is harsh, cruel, maybe even perverse. But according to the word of God, right here, just because someone in authority over you is, we could just say a total jerk, doesn't give you the right to disrespect them. And that teaching is hard, isn't it? If you've ever been in that situation, that's not easy. In fact, who could possibly respond like that to that kind of employer or authority?

Well, I know that I can't, right? I don't, oh boy, that gets me. When someone in authority over me is just like a total, You'd be inclined not to. I would be, yeah. So we could tell stories, but we won't. What's that story? It's when you start looking at the wantons. The wantons, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, yeah. And see, we do have in our, you know, we do have the freedom.

You don't have to keep your job. You can look for another job. But the Lord's got to direct that, He's got to lead that. The servant didn't have that option, did he? But in some way, sometimes you learn from that situation. Even though it's difficult, you learn from that situation. Especially if you're in a situation where you're, quote, vested or you're You're already invested in that company or institution. To give it up would be... Or you're under contract and you've got it, you know? And sometimes people can change. Sometimes the boss may be removed sometimes. He'll be so bad, they'll take him out of there. They'll shoot himself in the foot and you'll be elevated to his position.

It's like David was inspecting Saul when he was trying to kill him. That's a great example. David, yeah. I mean, and that is amazing because David was already anointed king. I often think about that. David was anointed king when he was young and then went for years and years where Saul was still in authority over him and David never disrespected that. You know, so perfect example.

The other thing in the workplace today, I think, if one is given a fairly menial job description, as a believer, or even an unbeliever, but as a believer when we're called to this kind of responsibility, employer is harsh if you do a good job within that setting.

Ultimately, that's a stepstone to advancing within your job despite your employer. I mean, when you do a good job, that brings glory to God, but also allows advancement within a in a time frame that you can be respected, given more responsibilities and salaries. Yeah, and so going back to Paul's comments, right, it's like, should we be in a hurry to get out of what is sometimes a hard situation? And it's not to say that you don't have the freedom to, but sometimes, you know, it should be something that's led by the Lord, rather than just, ah, this, you know, I can't stand this employer. Paul said perseverance gives rise to patience. Sure, yeah. We all know. Absolutely, so. Okay, verse 19.

So, keeping verse 18 in mind here, verse 19 is connected to it with the word gar, or translated for. right so he's giving he's giving this and then verse 19 says for uh and so he's giving the reason to uh submit to your masters respectfully even those who are cruel or harsh or unreasonable and then he he gives the reason for that in verse 19 and what is it he says for this finds favor with god Now God is implied here.

Okay, it's not in the Greek. It just says for this one's favor A couple of translations, you know Remember, I think they kind of made it sound like this finds maybe favor with man, but I do believe God is implied because when you look down at the end of verse 20, there it includes the same phrase, favor with God. And so I pretty strongly believe that this is referring to favor with God here. Now, does anyone have a different word for favor in their translation?

Commendable, yep. Grace. Now that's the point. Your translation actually has grace. Okay. Which translation is that? in the notes. Okay, that's the interesting thing. So this word here, favor or commendable or acceptable, is actually the word for grace. So this finds grace.

Now that opens an interesting discussion that we're going to have, okay? So is this verse saying that God's grace can be merited or increased by patiently enduring suffering? That doesn't seem right, does it? No. So we need a little bit of clarity on the word grace. Grace, or charis, the Greek word for grace, essentially means anything beautiful, attractive, pleasing, et cetera. I have that. Thankworthy. Thankworthy. You've got to get King James. In Hindi, I believe it's a word which is like pleasant. Pleasant. Pleasant. Yeah, exactly. Pleasing, pleasant. Yeah, that's exactly it. So we have to understand that that is the root meaning of grace, which we don't often have in our minds when we use the word grace. But we have to understand in the Greek that is the root meaning of grace.

And along those lines, it can also mean a free gift, a gift given freely with no expectation of return. which is a beautiful thing. And so you can see how the word grace came to apply to a no-strings-attached gift, because that's a beautiful thing. Now, when we talk about the gospel, right, Jesus' death on the cross for your sins and resurrection from the dead, we talk about the gospel as a grace gift, right, the grace of God. which is to say right that the gospel is something that is freely given not earned or deserved right otherwise it's it's the payment of a debt not a gift so and there's no expectation of return and and the perfect verse for that is ephesians 2 8 and 9 right for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Not faith, but salvation is the gift of God. Not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. So that really helps us define this, you know, free gift concept of grace, that the gospel is given as a free gift. So the gospel is by grace, right? So we can say that eternal salvation, salvation from the penalty of your sin, is a grace gift.

And it can't be earned or merited. It could never be repaid. But if Peter has that grace, that Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 grace in view here, then we've got a problem. Right? Because he's saying that, you know, servants be submissive to your masters for this finds grace. And now all of a sudden you've made the grace gospel dependent on what the servants have done or not done. So that's a real problem if we do that.

But we don't have a problem because the word grace doesn't have to always apply to the gospel. If we remember that grace really just means something beautiful, attractive, pleasing. then what Peter is saying is that from God's perspective, it's a beautiful thing when you and I bear up under these suffering situations.

That's all he's saying. He's not saying you've merited God's favor or the death of Christ. All he's saying is that, hey, this is beautiful to God when you respond this way. So I just wanted to bring it up. And that's why I think the translators haven't really put the word grace in there. Because if your understanding of grace is a little bit limited or weak, you might have the tendency to say, you've earned or merited God's grace gift.

But yeah. Margaret, that's what Hal said. You may be the only Bible people ever read. Yeah, yeah. And that really relates to how you respond. The flesh is not very good at this, is it? No, no. And we'll get to that. That's the important point here. So this is, so hopefully that, that kind of clarifies that point.

That's why I wanted, I wanted to draw that out just so that we could have this little bit of conversation about grace and, and, and how it's being used here. Essentially, essentially Peter's saying that God is pleased when he sees us. And, and, you know, this is similar to what we've just been studying in Colossians, right?

In Colossians 1.10, where Paul prays for the Colossians that they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to Please him in all respects not the word grace, but same concept that the the walk of a believer is can be something that is pleasing to the Lord or beautiful to Him. So this is a really great place to clarify something about our standing and our state or our position and our condition. So I'm gonna ask a few questions. Question one, is it true that as born again believers in Christ Jesus, God is pleased with us?

Yes. Anyone? Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yes. Right. We are accepted in the beloved. Right? Ephesians 3 says we have boldness and confident access through faith in Jesus Christ. Right? So as Christians, we have a standing or position of favor before God. Now here's where we're going to It gets more challenging.

Is it also true that as a born-again believer in Christ Jesus we can walk in a way that is displeasing to the Lord? Yes, it is, right? Every time we sin, we're not going to say that God is pleased with that walk, right? Anytime we're walking in sin, we are displeasing the Lord. So, question three, is that a contradiction? Okay, and the answer is no, it's not, right? The Bible makes it clear that while, as a believer, a Christian, you have total acceptance and favor with God, you can, well that's true, you can still be walking in a way that displeases him.

And it's not too hard to understand if you just think about the relationship of a parent to their child, right? Any good parent loves and accepts their child unconditionally. But that doesn't mean that they're always pleased with their behavior. Anyone? You're right. And it's really no different with God.

God unconditionally loves and accepts us in his son, but he's not pleased when we're walking in sin. Doesn't mean that he's rejected us or doesn't accept us, but he's not pleased with our walk, right? We're his beloved children, and that's not gonna change, but are we walking in a way that pleases him? And Ephesians 5, 8, refers to both sides of this.

Kate says, for you were formerly darkness, but you are now light in the Lord. That's acceptance as God's own. You are light in the Lord. Yes. It's the whole position versus condition. Yeah, that's what we're trying to clarify here. But it also makes it so clear that we still have a sin nation. Exactly. It hasn't gone away. I think so many people in Christendom don't, can't grasp that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We still have sin.

Yeah, and if you don't, and if you don't understand this sort of, this distinction, you're awfully confused. Because you're either, if you conflate these two issues, right, you're thinking that, well, God's not pleased with me. He's not, you know, He doesn't accept me. But the fact of the matter is, no, you're His child. You're born again. As Paul wrote in Ephesians there, you are light in the Lord.

But then he gives the imperative command in Ephesians 5.8, he says, walk as children of the light. So in other words, a walk that is fitting of a child of God. So, lots of discussion about that whole issue, but let's come back to the text here. Peter is saying that as God's beloved children, When you're faced with unjust suffering situations, the thing that pleases Him, the walk that pleases Him, is to see you endure it, to bear up under it, right? That's not natural, right? The natural thing would be to lash out, to defend yourself, to set that person straight, right? But that's not the life of Christ. And how do we know that that's not the life of Christ? Well, that's next week's verses.

If you've read ahead, right, we'll see how Jesus responded when he suffered, and I think we all know, right? Did he return evil for evil? No. So the thing that pleases God when you and I are going through suffering is that we respond in the same way that Jesus responded when he suffered.

And we'll come back to that in a second, but let's go on to verse 20. Because in verse 20, Peter makes a really important clarification. And it all hinges on that word unjustly. Okay, let's just look at that again. The thing that finds favor with God is that it's bearing up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. And now he clarifies that. We have, again, the word gar for. For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?

If you're suffering for doing something wrong, don't think that God is pleased to see you enduring the consequences of that wrong. Okay, that would be a total misapplication of Peter's point here, right? So don't. Don't say, oh yeah, you know, I did something terribly wrong and now I've got all these consequences, but God's pleased because I sure am enduring them well. No, God's not. You got yourself into that mess. I mean, it's not that God doesn't love you, right? It's just that he's not pleased with the mess that you got yourself into. Positionally, you're still loved, but conditionally, you know, you're not pleased again.

Right. So that has to be clarified if it wasn't obvious already. But I mean, obviously, the Lord knows our hearts well enough to know that this needed to be in the text. Or we would take the opportunity to just be rebels and say, oh, look at the consequences we're getting. I mean, I could have thought some examples, but it's OK. We probably have a few in our own minds already. So then verse 20 continues. with this strong contrast, a strong contrast to that kind of thinking, right?

But when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently, sorry, the grammar, if you don't read all the words exactly right, that phrase is confusing. But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. There could probably be a smoother translation of that phrase. But you get the idea. It's not too hard to understand.

So how does that kind of situation come about, where you do what is right and suffer for it? How do you get yourself in that kind of situation where you've done the right thing, but you're suffering for it? I can think of two ways, but I want to hear what your thoughts are on that. How do you do what's right and suffer for it?

If your boss is unreasonable and you keep, as Bob mentioned, you keep doing your job faithfully day by day, honestly and accurately, and your boss is upset with you because you're taking too much time, you're doing it right all the time, can't you cut some corners here? And you say, I'm not going to cut any corners. Right, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and so there are a number of different ways and complexities to all that. I broke this down into two potential ways that I could see.

And one is I just call being falsely accused. And so that's the place where the authority boss or government authority, whomever, says, oh, you're doing it. You're doing it wrong, when in reality, you're doing the right thing, right? Lots of stories are coming to mind. But in this case, you obeyed, essentially, the authority.

So maybe it could be a case where your boss is telling you to break the law. And you're not going to do it. And so maybe you've disobeyed your boss, but you've obeyed a higher authority, which is the law. And so you could lump that maybe under a false accusation, because your boss is going to come to you and say, oh, you didn't obey me. And you say, well, I couldn't do that. so so in this case you know you obeyed human authorities but some human authority uh... falsely accuses you or or you did exactly what your the authority told you and they come back and say no you didn't or you know whatever uh... So this could be the person in authority who is accusing you of wrong, or this could be someone falsely accusing you to the people in authorities, like that co-worker or the neighbor who wants to get you in trouble with the authorities.

You have a hard time cornering on that road at 60 miles an hour. that's the that's like well if you're a rally racer maybe I run the trash and the money that goes to the trash and I pay bills and the recycling and you know so then I get some nasty email right from one of them right And of course, everyone's copied it.

And I just don't respond. I just don't. Because if I really wanted to respond, I'd just get out my gun. You got that flag with the rattlesnakes. Don't tread on Margaret. She bites back. It's just better not to engage when people are just going. It's also that kind of same thing. I was thinking a lot of times do people misjudge your motives or something. Yeah. Yeah. And so you're, you know, that's what they're, you know, misjudging. Yeah. That happens. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Even, yeah. So there are a lot of ways, but there's another way as well.

And this is, um, um, is what we talked about earlier. We mentioned, right, in Acts 529, we must obey God rather than men. And this is where, you know, as a believer, all the human authorities are asking you to do something that you cannot do with a clear conscience before the Lord. And so this is disobedience to the authorities, right?

Yes? Perfect example of medicine. Ask a believing obstetrician to do abortions. Yeah. And now in Canada, to perform MAID, or give referral for MAID, M-A-I-D, medical assistance in death. So assisted suicide. Same exact issue. Are you going to give a referral for assisted suicide? That's a major issue. Am I going to obey God or men?

And so this is a disobedience to the authorities that is sometimes necessary. But, and this is where it's important, it must be done in a way that is submissive and respectful. It has to be done in a way that is submissive and respectful. Now, some would say that's a contradiction.

Well, you can't be both submissive and disobedient at the same time. But why is that not necessarily correct? Right? Some people would just say, well, submissive, obedient, that's the same thing. And I heard a lot of that. from some people in certain times past, that obedience is the only way to really be submitted to the government authorities. That is not true, right? Because what can you do? You can quietly take the consequences that the authorities dish out for disobedience. And that came up last week in Andrew's lesson, right?

We talked about there were three pastors in Alberta who were arrested. Two of them went during COVID. So anyone who wasn't here, sorry. Three pastors whose churches stayed open. They came and arrested the three pastors. Two of them went very peacefully and quietly and had a great testimony. And the third dug in his heels and literally let them drag him, you know, down the freeway to throw him in the back of the cruiser. It was really an embarrassment, right? Yelling at them all the time, right?

And so if you are going to disobey the authorities, You have to do so with a mindset of being willing to take whatever consequences they're going to give you even if they are unjust. So you can still, even in disobedience, you can still respectfully and in a submitted way receive those consequences as unjust as they might be. Yes? In India, what happened before, we were struggling for the freedom. During the days of Mahatma Gandhi, he invited people to come out and disobey the laws, but do not fight with them, just receive what they are doing to you. Yeah, that's exactly the principle.

So maybe there are other ways that we could think of how you could get yourself into a situation, but I thought this kind of summarizes the two ways. One, where you are obeying the human authorities, but you've been falsely accused in some way, shape or form. Or two, where you actually are disobeying the human authorities, but it's only because God's word supersedes and you have to be either way. Well, it's the first one, Miles, you can attempt to clarify things. Yeah, yeah, you can. I mean, false accuses, but no, this is what I was doing. I mean, does it need to be pejorative or argumentative? Right, right. Yeah, that's true.

We have, you know, when given the opportunity, I mean, Paul himself appealed to Caesar. He used the legal mechanism to defend his innocence. But he did end up getting executed eventually. So it's like you go through all the legal channels that are available, but in a respectful and peaceful way. And you might still end up paying the consequences.

God is pleased with that kind of response that we're talking about. And that is the way verse 20 ends, right? This finds favor with God. And by the way, that is the same word, grace, that we talked about earlier. This finds favor with God. So this is something that is beautiful to the Lord. And I think this is something we need to spend the next week really pondering, right?

Why is it beautiful to our Lord? when his children patiently endure unjust suffering. If you think about that, if you have kids, or if you can imagine having kids. Think about your children going through unjust suffering. That's a really hard, it's hard enough to go through unjust suffering yourself, but to watch your children go through an unfair or unjust suffering situation is probably harder.

And so, so why is it that our Lord finds this beautiful, to see us go through in this way, in a respectful, peaceful kind of a way. Well, that's going to be next week's whole topic. So I just want to open that. But comment? I have a question related to all these things. We are supposed to receive or endure this suffering.

Do you think that today we have this right and responsibility, both right and responsibility, to tell the authority that what you are doing is not right? Yeah. I think you bring up a really valid point. There are a lot of situations where the wrong should be reported to the authorities. Because right now we don't have slavery, but we still have presidents or politicians. We cannot simply just No, I agree. I agree, you're absolutely right. That's a really valid point and I don't want that to be misunderstood in what I'm teaching today, right? Yeah. Is that, you know, we, there are, we have a legal framework and rights and so forth in which to, you know, that wrongs should be reported and dealt with, absolutely.

So, we won't be all getting that too much right now, but we could, but very valid to bring up, and I thank you for bringing that up. But I just, in my closing thought, I don't want us to go away with the wrong idea about pleasing God. The whole way along here, I've kind of said, well, how is that kind of life lived? I know I couldn't live that. So we've got to answer this one question, right? This kind of response is not natural to us, right? So how is it going to happen?

Well, it has to be the Lord Jesus living his life through us. And by the way, That really answers the question about why this response pleases the Father. So that's what we're going to talk about next week. Why does this response please the Father? Because it's the life of His Son being lived out and demonstrated through us. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word.

We thank You for the things that You are teaching us. A challenging subject in many ways. Easy to discuss in theory and really, really hard when you walk through this reality. And so I pray that you would, in this time where we have the opportunity to really think on this and learn this from you, that we would, so that when we do enter into these situations, our response would be the correct one, that we would trust you about it, and that we would be able to respond in this way that is pleasing to you, respectful, and submissive, even when disobedient. But Lord, so many things that we're learning about, and I just pray that you would continue to work these truths deep into our hearts so that we might walk in a way that's pleasing to you and beautiful in your sight. We just pray in Jesus' name, amen.