WEDNESDAY
Next, Peter moves into the household and how Christians are to live their new identity as the people of God in the Greco-Roman culture. The household usually consisted of a husband and wife and kids, plus servants. Peter will address servants first.
1 Peter 3:18-25 18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 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. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
It’s often been asked why Peter didn’t directly refute the practice of slavery in the Roman world. While it’s true that slavery was different in the Roman culture than the American slave trade, Romans still viewed slaves as property and that’s evil. The answer lies, I think, in what we talked about on Monday—Peter has an eye towards the Christians being respected in their society. The household was the foundational unit of the Greco-Roman world, and its significance cannot be overstated. They built their society on the household codes of Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, and Seneca. Every new idea and religious belief was scrutinized on its impact on the household. To take a frontal assault on the household codes of the Roman world would have left the infant church facing even more persecution.
So, in contextualizing the gospel to the Roman culture, Peter calls Christians to submit to the institutions of society. Peter is not primarily concerned with social reform, as we tend to be today. Instead he is primarily concerned with the less efficient, large-scale but more permanent transformation of the individual believers. He calls them to live the way of Jesus within the social norms they find themselves in. This theology and approach ends up gutting the evil system from the inside out in the long term.
He does this in a few specific ways in this text as well. First, he addresses the servants. The other household codes never addressed the servants and the wives. Slaves were a part of the church and Peter addresses them directly. This would elevate them in the congregation. Second, he calls the actions of abusive masters “unjust.” Aristotle, in his household codes, said that no true injustice can be done to a slave. Other codes often expected harsh treatment of slaves. Third, he begins by talking to the slaves who had the least authority in the household. Fourth, he reminds them of their primary allegiance to God—“mindful of God” in verse 19 and “a gracious thing in the sight of God” in verse 20. Finally, he makes the servants the paradigm for the Christian life! Don’t read that too quickly. In verse 16 he says all Christians are to live as servants of God. Here he spends a good bit of time expressing how the slaves identify with Jesus as the suffering servant. This we will talk about tomorrow.
Reflection
The closest application in today’s society is in our work and how we are to treat our bosses with respect even if we are being treated unjustly. Instead of being an employee who constantly complains about your boss at the lunch table or the private zoom chat, we should honor them. We should do our work with integrity and high character, so even if we are mistreated at work we can confidently say that we have acted in righteousness and count it a gracious thing in the sight of God.