Praise the Lord Who Suffered for Us

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:21-24) 

In light of suffering for doing good, Peter encourages his readers to look to the example of Jesus, referencing Isaiah 53:5-6 to do so. There may very well be times when we experience suffering even when we’ve done nothing wrong and sometimes even for doing good! This seems unfair because, realistically speaking, it is! We have all sinned and our sin does have consequences, but there will also be times when we experience suffering and it makes no sense to us at all. 

Peter’s encouragement was to look to Jesus, who suffered for sins that he didn’t commit and received insults and shame that he didn’t deserve or retaliate against. Because he suffered for us, we are healed and have comfort knowing that we will be healed of every suffering we experience! We won’t experience perfect relief from suffering this side of eternity but praise the Lord Jesus who suffered for us so that we could be healed! Through him, we can endure all suffering with him as our hope and example. Let us praise him for what he has done for us!