When a group faces external pressure, criticism, or perhaps even persecution of some kind it may lead to internal fractures and schism. The Apostle Peter was aware of this possibility among the congregations in (modern) Turkey. He has been urging them to respond appropriately to those outside the congregation but in this section he turns his attention to those within the congregation. How ought they to relate to one another? Continue reading →
Our Lord himself is the model for this response to evil. He was repeatedly insulted by the Pharisees, who sought to do far more to him than insult, and even on the cross, while he was coming to the close of his active, suffering obedience for us, the chief priests and the scribes mocked him. Even those who were being crucified with him, who were guilty of crimes, reviled him (Mark 15:31–32). As Peter says in 2:23, when he was reviled, he reviled not in return. “Eye for an eye” (Ex 21:24) belongs to the covenant of works, not the covenant of grace. Continue reading →