Suffering is a running theme through the whole book of 1 Peter. In this passage, the second half of the chapter, the followers of Jesus in are encouraged to let Christ’s light shine through their lives, despite the problems they face.
Shining light despite suffering
The apostle starts off by returning to an idea, from the previous chapter, of Christians being like foreigners because they are both citizens of where they live on earth and also of God’s new world. He says:
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
The theme is picked up in Graham Kendrick’s Shine Jesus Shine, perhaps the most popular new hymn in the 1980s and 1990s.
In the third verse, we come across:
As we gaze on your kingly brightness
So our faces display your likeness
Ever changing from glory to glory
Mirrored here may our lives tell your story
Shine on me, shine on me
What Peter – and Graham Kendrick – are saying is that despite all the suffering and hurt and injustice we face in this world, let’s live as mirrors of Jesus. The Messiah was hit by something far worse than most of us will face – an undeserved crucifixion.
A pastoral approach to suffering
Peter develops the argument by explicitly telling his readers to submit to human authority. In general, the Roman authorities are sent by the Emperor, he says, “to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right”.
But Peter recognises that many Christians face difficult situations. He’s keen for Christians not to get in unnecessary trouble even though the non-believers may “accuse you of doing wrong”, so that what elsewhere is called the fruits of the spirit may shine forth.
Peter, himself, was no stranger to mistreatment the authorities. King Herod, we read in Acts 12, had him arrested in an attempt to persecute the church. And, ultimately, Emperor Nero would have him crucified. He had seen his teacher, Jesus, arrested, falsely accused and killed, and had been afraid. This Jewish fisherman is not someone who’s writing from a sheltered life: this is someone who’s experienced unfair suffering himself.
In this passage Peter, then, addresses Christian slaves, recognising their treatment as involving “unjust suffering”.
He is being pastoral here rather than trying to give the last theological word on the subject of slavery.
First, by addressing slaves directly, he’s giving them a status that others would not. As The Biblical Theology Study Bible (edited D. A. Carson) puts it:
By addressing Christian slaves directly as free moral agents, Peter dignifies the most vulnerable members of the Greco-Roman society.
Secondly, Peter is empathising with the pain that slaves go through as a result of following Jesus. Slaves were expected to follow their household’s religion, but those who converted to Christianity put themselves at odds with the social norm.