“He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 Peter 2:22-25
The second chapter concludes at the foot of the cross, as Peter applies the prophecy of Isaiah 53 so as to make clear that Jesus is our example in dealing with the hardships of life. In every thing that Jesus said or did during His ministry, His priority was on serving the Father by serving others in a way that would advance the Father’s purpose. When this involved sacrifice, He sacrificed. When it required suffering, He suffered, for that is how great His love for us was… and is.
As followers of Jesus, can we expect to do less? If that means putting others first, we put others first, because we love Jesus. If that means that we endure hardship, then we endure it for His sake because we love Him. If that means we love our neighbor even when our neighbor seems less than lovely, then we do it because we love Him. Through this process, we are modeling the behavior of our Savior to the world. Some might scoff and call us fools, but others will respond and follow the One who reached out to them through us in love, and we will have added to His holy spiritual house one more living stone.
And all because we love Him who first loved us.
Life Project Blog 
Thank you for a very true and sobering post. We don’t really like to talk about sacrifice or suffering but you raise a very valid point; we are called to “Take up our cross and follow Him” and I don’t think we talk about this half as much as we should. Thanks again! 🙂
Thanks, Simon!
Oh this is fantastic! God bless you, if others are looking for similar blog material (cpkidd09.com)
Thank you
Amen to Simon’s comment. We shouldn’t be surprised or caught off guard when suffering and sacrifice show up at our door. He left us an example to follow:)
He sure did… thanks!
I just started a verse by verse study on 1Peter so your text was fresh in my mind. Thanks for the challenge.
As a believer there are plenty of things we have to take or ignore instead of reacting and making a fuss. It becomes a way of life eventually. 🙂
True story, it does become a way of life, thanks!
🙂
We win hearts and souls to Christ through love, never through condemnation or rules. Love is the answer and we must remember it is a commanded – not a when you feel like it rule….
Reacting to the world is really what gets us in trouble. We react and then think… we should first love and then love even more.
Great point! Thank you
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