Hi friends,
One of today’s lectionary readings is 1 Peter 2:19-25. However, in researching the passage, I realized that 1 Peter 2:18-25 better reflects the context.
Here’s the CSB translation:
Household slaves, submit to your masters with all reverence not only to the good and gentle ones but also to the cruel.
For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
“He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
At first glance, this appears to be horrible advice that discredits the Bible.
How can God want slaves to submit to abusive masters?
Doesn’t that give more power to evil slaveowners?
However, as I studied this passage, I realized that this passage is an indictment on slavery.
First, as Dr. Craig Keener notes in the IVP NT Background Commentary,
Except those slaves who were able to save enough money on the side to buy their freedom (which many household slaves could do), slaves were not in a position to achieve freedom. Although slaves and masters cooperated in many households as members of a common family, laws viewed slaves as property as well as people, and some owners abused them as property; nearly all owners treated them as socially inferior.
Thomas Schreiner quotes J.A. Harrill, “Despite claims of some NT scholars, ancient slavery was not more humane than modern slavery" (New American Commentary).
What advice would you give to an enslaved person in this situation? Rise up in rebellion? That’s not a practical choice in these circumstances.
Second, I thought about the ways this passage is remarkably subversive. For instance:
Who does God identify with? He identifies with the mistreated and enslaved.
Who did Christ die for? He died for those who were persecuted for their faith, and who suffered because they were enslaved.
How will God make things right? Peter promises that there is one “who judges justly.” Ultimately, at the end of our lives, we all face God. The enslaver and the enslaved will have to give an account of their lives!
Many “Bible-believing” slaveowners used this passage to manipulate and coerce God’s image bearers. Imagine that, using God’s words to justify degrading and abusing God’s people! What kind of judgment do you think they faced when they actually met their holy and impartial Judge?
What will God do for those who are enslaved and mistreated? Peter promises that God is their shepherd, “the guardian of your souls.” Peter is teaching that God is the protector of the enslaved.
Who has the ultimate authority? Thomas Schreiner notes, “The reason slaves are to submit to masters is because of their relationship with God. Hence, we have evidence that masters are not to wield absolute authority over slaves” (New American Commentary).
In the absence of a holy God, then who is the true master of an enslaved person? Unfortunately, it is the slaveowner. That is an objective description of the situation.
But in light of 1 Peter 2, the enslaved person can redefine themselves as subject to Christ and not their enslaver. Within the context of an evil social institution that cannot be escaped, this is a powerful form of liberation.
Who does Peter instruct? Peter Davids notes,
The unusual fact, unnoticed by most Bible readers, is that he, along with Paul (1 Cor. 7:21; Eph. 6:5–8; Col. 3:22–25; 1 Tim. 6:1–2; Tit. 2:9–10) and later Christian writers (Did. 4:11; Barn. 19:7), addresses slaves at all, for Jewish and Stoic duty codes (which in many respects this code in 1 Peter, as well as those in Ephesians and Colossians, resembles) put no such moral demands on slaves, only on masters.
The reason for this difference between 1 Peter and other moral codes of his time is simple. For society at large slaves were not full persons and thus did not have moral responsibility. For the church slaves were full and equal persons, and thus quite appropriately addressed as such (NICNT).
That’s amazing. It’s the enslaved who are participants in God’s church!
And how did the church handle social differences? Davids explains, “[the church]… did address the situation in the church…no social distinctions were to be allowed, for all were brothers and sisters (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:13; Col. 3:11; Philem. 16).”
So, as hard as it is to see at first glance, I believe this teaching offers an enslaved person the dignity, status, and agency that no other perspective can give.
Instead of being limited to the power dynamics of the master-slave relationship, Peter’s reflections on Christ, and our connection to God, open up an entirely different moral universe.
In contemporary times, no one has explained this better than Martin Luther King, Jr. Here’s what he wrote for the Christian Century:
My personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering. As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course. Recognizing the necessity for suffering I have tried to make of it a virtue. If only to save myself from bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an opportunity to transform myself and heal the people involved in the tragic situation which now obtains. I have lived these last few years with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive.
There are some who still find the cross a stumbling block, and others consider it foolishness, but I am more convinced than ever before that it is the power of God unto social and individual salvation. So like the Apostle Paul I can now humbly yet proudly say, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” The suffering and agonizing moments through which I have passed over the last few years have also drawn me closer to God. More than ever before I am convinced of the reality of a personal God.
What does this mean for us today?
Unfortunately, there are still many forced into bonded labor and other forms of exploitation. We should “live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24) and advocate for their freedom.
I do not see that I can compare my social situation in any way with that of an enslaved person. So it must be with an attitude of humility that I consider how I might learn from their example, and ultimately Christ’s example, and decide how I will respond to mistreatment.
Will I retaliate? Take revenge? Fling insults?
Or will I trust God and imitate Christ?
I need to find my identity, salvation, purpose, and freedom in what Christ did for me when he died on the cross to bear my sins.
What do you think?
- What questions or problems do you have with 1 Peter 2:18-25?
- Do you think this passage successfully subverts the social institution of slavery, even as it initially appears to reinforce it?
- How does Christ’s example change how we respond to mistreatement?
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