1 Peter 2:16-20—”Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”
Christ set us free from sin and its consequences by dying on the cross for us. (Gal 5:1) ‘For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.’
Yes, we were given a freedom and with it a certain sense of understanding or maturity when we accepted Christ and what He did for us. Freedom means not to be under the control of someone (as a slave) or under the control of something (as sin, addiction, bad habits, and so on). Even though we are free, we must at all times and in all relations remember that we are servants of God and therefore behave as such. We must avoid any wickedness, or neglect of duty in our freedom from Christ.
In the scripture, the apostle directs the slaves of those days to be subject to the masters placed over them by God’s providence. The master would include the kind, the severe, and the taskmasters who got angry without a cause too! This subjection was to be done with a fear to dishonor or offend God than to please and glorify their master. This instruction is valid for us today. Our boss, spouse, or any another relation in authority, who we must respect, may have a part in sinful misconduct. This behavior definitely does not justify sinful behavior on our part. We are bound to do our duty, though the master may be sinfully forward and perverse. On the other hand, if we are people in authority, we must be meek and gentle to our servants and inferiors. If we call ourselves Christians and then dwell in faults listed in the Bible, it would not be glory or a distinction to be patient when we were corrected for the committed faults? However for the times we behaved well; when ill treated by proud and passionate heathen masters yet bore it without peevish complaints or purposes of revenge, but persevered in duty, these would be acceptable to God as a distinguishing effect of His Grace.
Surely we will find a reward for our effort to overcome our impatience and stay in obedience to God’s Word. Our God is a just God. Our God watches over us all the time. God doesn’t try to find our faults but to help us, guide us, and reward us. The only thing we need to do to please God is to live as Christ lived, to serve – as a servant of God.
