The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal - 1 Peter 2:18-25 - His Wounds Healed Us

0:00Life Audio Well howdy there, faithful listeners and welcome to the Bible Explained Podcast on this lovely, lovely Thursday morning. I'm thankful that all of you guys are here to share a delicious cup of coffee with me, and you might need it because we are going to be talking about another hot button topic. In fact, all of first Peter for the next couple days is going to be hot button topics, because it's talking about submission. And us Americans and the West broadly do not enjoy the topic of submission because we want to be in charge of ourselves. We want to say yes when we want to say yes and we want to say no when we feel like saying no. So submission, understandably, can be a tough pill to swallow, especially with what we're going to talk about today. But first a quick message from a sponsor. Hey listeners, it's Kelly from Life Audio. We know life gets busy and sometimes it's easy for your faith to get pushed to the side.

1:05That's why we created the Good Word, a free weekly newsletter designed to give you a moment to slow down, be encouraged and reconnect with what matters most. God's Word. Inside you'll find devotionals, guided prayers, podcast recommendations and other faith-built content we think you'll love. No ads, no clutter. It's good content to help you stay rooted in God's Word throughout your week. Sign up for the Good Word today at lifeaudio.com forward slash the Good Word. That's lifeaudio.com forward slash the Good Word. All right, you guys ready? Are you sitting down? Are you holding onto your coffees or your teas for your crazy tea drinkers? Today we're going to talk about submission when it comes to slaves and slave masters. Let's read 1 Peter 2, 18 through 25, as usual, I'll be reading from the W.E.B. this morning.

2:08Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all respect. Not only to the Good and gentle, but also to the wicked. For it is commendable if someone indoors pain, suffering unjustly because of conscience toward God. For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure a beating? But if when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. For you were called to this because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps, who didn't sin neither was to seat found in his mouth. When he was cursed, he didn't curse back. When he suffered, he didn't threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. See himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. After reading through that passage, some of you guys might be questioning, how could Peter actually encourage a slave to continue to be a slave under a cruel slave master?

3:15Why would he encourage this? Why would he not tell this slave to run away, to fight for himself or his family? Why would he not encourage these things? In fact, if God is loving, why didn't God abolish slavery? But what's really interesting about that, even though there is no verse in Scripture that says, do not own slaves, somehow Christians figured out based upon Scripture that slavery was wrong. Because if you look at history, it was the Christians who were the abolitionists. It was the Christians fighting for the freedom of the slaves. You can look that up. I am not exaggerating. It was the Christians who brought the movement of slavery to an end. And now, in the West, which is broadly Christian, even still to this day, slavery is illegal. If you are caught owning a slave, then you will go to jail. Now slavery across the rest of the world is actually still legal in some parts, specifically the parts of the world that Christians are in the minority.

4:16Because Christians somehow, through Scripture, figured out that slavery was a sin and it was wrong. And yet, there is no verse in Scripture that says not to own a slave or not to be a slave. In fact, more often, we see these passages like the one we just read in 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 18. It says, servants, be in subjection to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. For it is commendable if someone indoors pain, suffering unjustly because of conscience towards God. So Peter is basically saying that if somebody is a slave and they cannot get free, then they need to obey their earthly masters, no matter what the situation is. It does not matter if their master is a Christian and is kind and good and gentle. Or if their master is a pagan who is cruel and beats them and mistreats them because of their faith. It does not make a difference.

5:17Peter says, submit to your masters with all respect regardless of who they are. And there is a similar passage in 1 Corinthians 7, 20 through 22. This now is Paul speaking to the servants. He says, let each man stay in the calling in which he was called. Are you called being a bond servant? Don't let that bother you. But if you get an opportunity to become free, then use it. For he who is called in the Lord, being a bond servant is the Lord's free man. Likewise, he who is called being free is Christ's bond servant. And that right there is really interesting because Paul is telling the slaves, look, if you were called to be a slave, then stay in the calling in which you were called. You see, Peter and Paul and the other apostles like James, they understood something that the rest of the world did not understand at this time.

6:18They understood that slaves had just as much humanity as a master did. That a slave through his actions could potentially save the entire family that he was owned by. But a slave had that much power because in this same chapter, 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul actually tells the slave to stay in the calling in which he was called, he tells husbands and wives the exact same thing as well. In fact, in verse 16, right before he starts talking about slaves, he says, for how do you know wife, whether you will save your husband, or how do you know husband, whether you will save your wife? And that is in relation to the husband and wife staying in the marriage relationship, even if their spouse is not necessarily a Christian and they are. They shouldn't leave the marriage over that because someday they might be able to convert their spouse to Christianity. The same thing goes for the slaves because Peter and Paul knew that slaves were human beings, that they were created in God's image, the same exact way that the masters were created

7:21in God's image. So a slave, if he became a Christian, had a lot of authority and power. He could potentially someday end up saving the entire family who owned him. That is why Peter and Paul actually encouraged the slaves to remain in the position that they are in unless they directly get the opportunity to become free. So in other words, don't run away. Don't be lazy. Be a good servant. Be a good slave. Show the love of Jesus to your master and to his family. And then, if the master actually became a Christian, it is very possible that he would free his slave. Understanding that his slave was no longer a slave but a brother or sister in Christ, an adopted family member of God. And that is actually what happens in the book of Philemon. Philemon had a slave who would run away. His name was Onysamous. And Onysamous, during his rebellion, met Paul and became a Christian.

8:22And Paul actually encouraged Onysamous to go back to Philemon and apologize. So if you turn to Philemon 1, when there is only one chapter in it, verse 12 through 17, here is what it says. This is Paul speaking, I am sending Onysamous back. Therefore receive him that is my own heart, whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the good news. But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity but a free will. For perhaps he was there for separated from you for a while, that you would have him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave as a beloved brother, especially to me. But how much rather to you both in the flesh and in the Lord? If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me. That was so countercultural for the day. For Paul to actually encourage a slave owner to free the slave because the slave was a

9:25brother in Christ. In fact Philemon was actually one of the books specifically that slave owners in Antibellum America did not want to let their slaves know about. So a lot of times slaves weren't even allowed to learn to read and write for fear that they might actually be able to pick up the Bible and start reading it and realize that they had humanity under Christ. Because when somebody becomes a Christian, they are adopted into the family of Christ, same exact as the slave owner if the slave owner ends up becoming Christian as well. That means based upon this new family unit that nobody is beneath another person. And so why James chapter 1 talks about how Christians should treat the poor and the wealthy. There should be no distinction between the two. Just because somebody is wealthy here on earth, that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of eternity. You should treat the poor man just as well as you treat the rich man that comes through

10:26the church's doors essentially. All of the New Testament was countercultural when it came to slavery and that is how Christians were able to figure out. So slavery was a sin because every single person was not just created in God's image, but when they become a Christian, they are part of God's family. So let's go back to our passage for today. 1 Peter 2 18 through 19. Servants be in subjection to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. For it is commendable if somebody indoors pain, suffering unjustly because of conscience toward God. But what glory is it if you sin, you patiently endure a beating, but if you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. So essentially if a Christian slave does well, but is persecuted by his master because his master is just an evil guy or because his slave is a Christian and he doesn't like that. It actually says that it is commendable before God to endure persecution when you have

11:29done nothing wrong. And the reason this is commendable before God is because that is what Jesus did. This is part of being like Jesus is able to endure through persecution and through suffering. Because look at Jesus as the ultimate servant of humans, he died on the cross and that is what Peter is about to explain here. He says, for you were called to this in verse 21 because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps who didn't sin neither was deceit found in his mouth. And when he was cursed, he didn't curse back. When he suffered, he didn't threaten, but he committed himself to him who judges righteously. So essentially Jesus left everything up to God. He didn't sit there cursing the men who caused him to suffer. In fact, when Jesus was on the cross, he said, father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. So Jesus is the ultimate example of suffering well because Jesus, I believe, suffered more

12:36than any human being could ever suffer. And you might be like, well, Jen, many people experienced crucifixion, many people experienced torture, many people experienced way worse torture than Jesus ever did. And yes, that is true. People have experienced torture and they have experienced crucifixion and other horrific means of death. People have experienced these things, but here is something that Jesus experienced that no human being can ever understand or experience themselves. Verse 24 right here, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we having died to sins might live to righteousness. He were healed by his wounds. So Jesus experienced taking every sin of humanity and putting them inside of his own body and sacrificing himself so that we do not have to die in those sins.

13:38So whatever this was like was beyond human comprehension. Because think about it, Jesus did this when he was perfectly sinless, right? He did not tell a lie. It actually says right here, there is no deceit found in his mouth in verse 22, which by the way is Peter quoting Isaiah 53, which I'll go over there in a second and read that. But Jesus was perfectly sinless. But yet he took the punishment of the sins that he did not commit. You know, when you are blamed for something that you didn't do, is that not one of the worst feelings ever, especially if people don't believe you? I'm sure this has happened to every single one of you guys listening here on this podcast that you've been blamed for something that you didn't do. It feels unjust. It feels unfair. It is miserable, especially if you take the punishment for something that you did not do. Now imagine doing that for every single person on the entire earth, past, present, and future. There is something to that that we cannot possibly understand, an emotional and spiritual component

14:42that Jesus endured, that you and I, no matter how much torture and suffering, like physically we could ever go through, we will never understand that. And Jesus also endured the most excruciating death that you can pretty much imagine as well. I mean, that's where we get the word excruciating from is from crucifixion. So he had two things going on, the physical torture of the pain he was suffering and also the emotional and mental and spiritual suffering that he was experiencing by taking all of those sins of humanity on himself. Here's what Proverbs chapter 18 verse 14 says, a person's spirit can endure sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit? I like that verse because human beings can endure through many different things. We can endure through physical suffering, through pain, like it's miserable and we don't like it and we might cry and we might hate it in the moment, but our tenacity and our

15:44spirit can endure through these kinds of miseries and sicknesses. But when it comes to the emotional stuff, it says who can survive a broken spirit? There is something just traumatizing about emotional suffering and emotional pain. I am not saying that it's worse always than physical suffering. It's not a lot of times, sometimes physical suffering comes along with emotional suffering. But Jesus endured everything on the cross. He endured the physical suffering, he endured the emotional suffering and he endured the spiritual suffering as well. So I am under the belief that Jesus truly did have the worst most excruciating death that anybody could ever possibly imagine because he cries out to God on that cross and he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So something traumatic even beyond the physical suffering was happening to Jesus up on that

16:44cross. Now whether or not Jesus went to hell, that is debatable, some people wonder that. I am under the opinion that he did not only because of the fact that Jesus said it is finished when he gave up his spirit, which means I think that what he came to do was done. So maybe he didn't have to go to hell. However, it does say elsewhere in Scripture that he descended down to the depths of shawl. Right? So it could be that he went to hell, but even so, the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross by taking the blame of all of humanity's sin is something that you and I can never, ever understand. But coming back to 1 Peter, chapter 2, Peter is actually saying that we suffer a little bit with Christ, a little bit when we experience persecution for something that we did not do wrong. That's what it says right here in verse 20, if you do well, you patiently endure suffering and this is commendable with God and you are called to this because Christ also suffered

17:46for us, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. We are to become like Christ in every way that we can. And Jesus actually did say that if you want to follow him, you will experience persecution. Here in America, that might not be the physical persecution like it is in some other countries. But if we want to follow Jesus, we definitely will experience persecution, the emotional persecution where people reject you or cancel you or mistreat you or slander you or say something nasty or try to get you fired, it could be all of these things combined. You will experience persecution if you want to follow after Jesus. But that's not something that we should be afraid of. It's actually something that Christ considers commendable as Peter says right here. It is commendable for us to suffer for Jesus because he suffered indescribably for you and I. And when he suffered, he didn't threaten, it says in verse 23, but he committed himself to the judge who judges righteously.

18:47So now to conclude in verse 25, Peter says, for you were going astray like sheep, but now you've returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. And this brings me now to Isaiah 53. And I'm not going to read the entire chapter, even though the entire chapter is beautiful and talks completely about Jesus. It is just prophecy of Jesus hundreds of years before he even was born. Beautiful chapter. But I'm only going to read a few verses for you guys. So starting in Isaiah 53, 5 and 6, it says, but he was pierced for our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone has turned to his own way and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So that shows us right there the depths of suffering that Jesus had to experience, that he was abandoned, tortured, mistreated and completely blamed for all of our sins.

19:52In his suffering, it says right here, actually brought our peace and continuing in verses 7 through 9. It says he was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth as a lamb that is led to the slaughter and as a sheep that is before its shearers is silent so he didn't open his mouth. He was taken away by oppression and judgment as for his generation who considered that he was cut off of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth. He was perfect in every single way. He did not sin. In any way, shape or form, there was no lying found in his mouth. He had done no violence. He had done nothing that had warranted his death and also his suffering for humanity. And yet he did it anyway and why did he do it? Because he wanted to bring us peace.

20:53Because he loves us and he cares for us. And here's what verse 6 says, all we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And Peter actually finishes that verse right here in verse Peter 2.25 by saying, for you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Isn't that a beautiful conclusion to that verse? That yes, we were once doing whatever we wanted to do. And now as sheep, we are no longer doing that. Instead now we are following the ultimate shepherd. So in conclusion to everything we just talked about in this passage, slaves should continue to treat their masters with respect because they are suffering in a similar way that Jesus suffered. And to God, that is considered commendable. So these slaves actually have a greater reward in heaven because of their position than any

21:58slave master ever did. That's what Hebrews 11 towards the end says that some people to receive a better reward actually endured more persecution and didn't take the way out because they knew they would receive a better reward in heaven. And that's a really interesting thought and something that I don't know that I'd be able to do. If I was given the way out, kind of like what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, I would certainly take it. But some people actually had such a resolute faith that they chose not to take the way out, which is fascinating to me. And I don't know if I'll ever be able to achieve that kind of faith in my life, but I guess that is something that I can strive for in the future. Faithlessenaries, thanks for listening to this episode. I hope that you guys learned something from it. But before I end today's episode with a happy listening and God bless, I'm just going to ask all of you faithful listeners to hang on for a second while this next sponsored ad plays. Well, faithful listeners, I greatly appreciate all of you guys and I'm thankful that

23:02you are here through the Bible explained with me. And you know what? I actually made a mistake about a month ago. I said that the podcast is seven years old. But when I was thinking about it, I was like, wait a second. No, it's actually six years old. Because I started it on August 20, 2020. And for some reason, my brain was broken and I thought that I started it in 2019. I did not. I started it in 2020. So it just hit its sixth birthday. And we were about halfway through the Bible at this point. So it might be another six years before we are done with the entire Bible. As you can tell, I am not rushing through Scripture because there's so much here and I don't want to rush through it. I want to really take time to analyze these bite-sized bits of Scripture that sometimes we don't hear about on Sunday services. But it's really just fun to delve into these little portions of Scripture. So I hope that you guys have been enjoying this podcast as much as I have been enjoying

24:03making it. So faithful listeners, if you do appreciate the podcast and would like to support it further, I do have a membership available for everybody where on Fridays, tomorrow, I go through the Psalms with the faithful members. It's called Bible Explained on Fridays, but you cannot gain access to it unless you are a faithful member. So if that's something that you're interested in is going through the Psalms with me on Fridays, then check out the link in the description that says Ko-fi. Or you can also go over to p40ministries.com slash plans, I think it is, and sign up over there as well. And you will gain access to the Bible Explained on Fridays through all of that. So check out those links listed in the description. But faithful listeners, I have a fantastic and wonderful day. I will see all of you, if I don't see you tomorrow, on the Bible Explained on Fridays. I'll see you guys on Monday for the regular scheduled episode from Esther, chapter 7, I believe we're in. Until then, happy weekend, happy listening, and God bless.

25:08I just want to take a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast. In fact, if you go to LifeAudio.com, you will find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more. Hi, I'm Dr. Michelle Bankson, a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and host of your Hope-filled perspective podcast. After 30 years in the mental health field, I am passionate about helping you regain hope and transform your life. Join me in my amazing guest as we tackle real-life struggles with compassion, vulnerability, and biblically-based insights. If you're ready to renew your mind and find practical solutions to life's most common concerns, subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform.