“…and while being
reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats,
but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously…”- 1 Peter 2:23
I was doing my daily routine of scanning my Facebook News Feed and noticed a story about Christians being attacked by atheists due to
the way they are teaching the students at a Christian school. I am not going to
talk about this issue because I think both groups are in the wrong in certain
aspects of the story. However, I will talk about the reactions to the atheist
group “attacking” the Christians. This is the world we are living in and, if
you have read any of my other posts, you will find that I believe we as “Christians”
are at fault for some of these reactions to our actions.
In Peter’s first letter to a scattered group of disciples we
find an amazing message of hope and encouragement. There is great wisdom being
shared through this letter to people trying to fit in to new communities and
societies that may or may not accept their faith. Peter had the foresight to
write this letter to give guidance and motivation in following the good news of
Jesus. Then, he shares the words in chapter 2 verses 21 through 25 which is
aptly captioned in our Bibles today as “Christ is our example” or something to
that effect which was possibly written to draw the readers of this letter back
to the message of Christ’s ministry.
In Christ’s ministry He was “reviled”, yet “He did not
revile”. While He was being persecuted, beaten, hung on a cross, spit on, made
fun of, attacked (literally), He did not “utter any threats”. We as followers
of Christ need to lean on this example. We must lean on His teaching and follow
in His footsteps. Whether we are attacked figuratively or physically, we must
always maintain the attitude of Jesus. He said these events would happen in our
lives. He shared we would face persecution. He said there would be tension. He
never said “When you face these troubles; be ready to fight back because ain’t
nobody got time for that!”
I think, if I could take the opportunity to speak on behalf
of Jesus (something I rarely ever do), I would think that if He were to use
that new catchy phrase found in a viral YouTube video He would say “Don’t worry
about the people and the things they say. You need to continue loving the
unloved, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and caring for the poor. If we
are doing those things, then how can people talk bad about you? You can’t spend
all your energy fighting off attackers, haters are gonna hate, and ain’t
nobody got time for that!”
Just in case you don't know what I'm talking about with the YouTube video...here's the link...
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