"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps."
1 Peter 2:21
This theme of suffering runs deep in Peter’s writings. No doubt he learned much about the what, why, and how of suffering from our Lord’s example. In this paragraph, where today’s verse is found, Peter is explaining the importance of suffering for the right cause. If we suffer because of our cantankerous, hostile, or troublemaking spirit, that’s on our heads. God gets no glory from that. But when we suffer for right, for Jesus Christ and His testimony, this is a worthwhile reason to suffer.
In our verse Peter makes it clear that as believers in Jesus Christ, He has called us to suffering. Why?
“Because Christ also suffered for us…”
Jesus’ life was one of suffering. From His birth there were those who hated Him and wanted to destroy Him. As we read through His temptation, even then was Satan trying to kill Him before He could get to the cross. All through His ministry wicked men, out of their hatred for Him, wanted to slay Him. And then the Passion Week and His crucifixion is the greatest example of suffering that I can think of. Surely Jesus was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” (Isaiah 53:3). All of His suffering served God’s purpose for Him.
“Leaving you an example…”
Jesus through the New Testament shows us how to suffer. We are to follow His example in suffering. The ancient word Peter used here for “example” is used only one time in the New Testament. This Greek word means literally, “to write under.” If you have ever been a student, or a teacher of young students, you will understand this word picture. I can still remember my first grade teacher, Miss Lee, handing us great big pencils and paper with wide spaces between the lines. When she went through the alphabet she gave us a paper with each letter as dotted lines. She told us to trace the dots to form the letters properly. Then we received a paper which had all the letters at the top, these were our example (an exemplar), the pattern for us to copy. We looked carefully at the letter then painstakingly copied it, trying our best to make it look just like the letter up above…. If you understand this picture then you understand what Jesus did for us. He is our example (the Exemplar), our pattern in suffering for us to copy.
“That ye should follow in His steps.”
In everything we do we should be following our Lord. Even in our suffering we follow Him. As He responded to His suffering so He wants us to respond to ours. We are “following in His steps.” The word “steps” here is the old word for “tracks” or “footprints.” When my brother and I were children and hiked in the woods with our dad, we would sometimes get to fast moving streams that needed to be crossed. We were fearful of crossing but each time our dad would say, “Just put your foot exactly where I put mine, follow my footsteps and you will be safe.”
Jesus’ example is not the only reason He suffered for us. Peter said, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot…,” (1 Peter 1:18-19). He suffered for us to pay for our sin, to be our Savior providing salvation for the lost. But His pattern of suffering is the example He wants us to copy.
“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked,
(1 John 2:6).
Don’t you believe that if our loving Lord calls us to suffer that He will give us the grace to endure when the time for suffering comes?
Believer, let’s walk and talk like Him, and even suffer like Him.