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NASB | 1 Peter 2:19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Peter 2:19 For this finds favor, if a person endures the sorrow of suffering unjustly because of an awareness of [the will of] God. |
Subject: What's the proper response to injustice? |
Bible Note: Brother Ray: May the Lord bless you. Please forgive me if I fail to comment on the differences among the translations. Since I am not an expert in the original languages or manuscripts, I tend to use all of the translations rather than to choose among them. I tend to see what they have in common rather than the ways in which they are different. I note, for example, the appearance of the little word “If” in so many of the verses. Thank God that our lives do not consist of continual suffering. But there are times when we suffer, and sometimes the suffering is an injustice, for no good reason, so to speak. Sometimes we suffer at the hands of professing brethren. At this point I am intensely interested in that topic, and would like to stick to it. The prevailing message that I get from Peter, and from the rest of Scripture, is that suffering is a natural part of life and we should bear it. The example that we have from Jesus is that he bore it. Like a sheep before her sharers, like a lamb brought to the slaughter, we should bear it. Some say we are fools to bear it. Some say our religion is foolish since it calls on us to bear it. There also seems to be a natural instinct to rebel against it. Add to that the fact that God is just and calls on us to be just. All of that may lead us to question why we should tolerate injustice, or how or when he wants us to. I agree that Peter says we (should) suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. I also see that we glorify God when we suffer for doing right, and that God gets no glory from our suffering when we suffer for having done wrong. But beyond that, there is justice that characterizes God (Psalm 89:14) that God commands (Isaiah 56:1; Micah 6:8) and commends (1 Chronicles 18:14) and there is injustice that God condemns (Isaiah 59:4). Something in us seems to crave justice. God seems to say it is commendable that we desire it (Matthew 5: 6) and we should be willing to wait for it (Isaiah 40:4). But the man of God asks, “How long?” (Habakkuk1). It does seem quite profound, and strange sometimes, that God allows injustice, that he suffered it himself in Jesus, and that he asks us to bear with it. He will get glory in the future when he rights the wrongs and compensates the victims, it seems, but it might help us now to understand all that. Please try to combine the verses and the translations and tell me what you find. |