For this is thanksworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
—1 Peter 2:21, 24
Peter wrote, if anyone does wrong and is punished for it, to bear it patiently is no special grace. But if one does well, suffers for it, and takes it patiently, this is acceptable with God; such bearing of wrong is Christlike. In bearing our sins, Christ suffered wrong from man. Following His example, we must be ready to suffer wrongfully, too.
There is almost nothing harder to bear than injustice from our fellowmen. Besides the sense of pain, there is the feeling of humiliation and injustice, and the consciousness of our rights being violated. In what our fellowmen do to us, it is not easy to at once recognize the will of God. Let us study the example of Christ Jesus. From Him, we may learn what it was that gave Him the power to bear injuries patiently.
Christ believed in suffering as the will of God.He found in Scripture that the servant of God would suffer. He made Himself familiar with the thought, so that when suffering came, it did not take Him by surprise. When it came, His first thought was not how to be delivered from it, but how to glorify God in it. This enabled Him to bear the greatest injustice quietly. He saw God’s hand in it.
Christian, do you want to have strength to suffer wrong in the spirit in which Christ did? Accustom yourself, in everything that happens, to recognize the hand and will of God. Whether there is some great wrong done you, or some little offense that you meet in daily life, before you fix your thoughts on the person who did it, be still and remember, God allows me to come into this trouble to see if I will glorify Him in it. Let me first recognize and submit to God’s will in it. Then, in the rest of soul that this gives, I will receive wisdom to know how to behave in it. With my eyes turned from man to God, suffering wrong is not as hard as it seems.