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1 Peter 2:19
The apostle Peter, who witnessed the life of Christ firsthand, had a certain approach to life in which events like Christ's resisting evil made a great impression on him. Thus his epistles, both I and II Peter, are full of advice on how to be diligent in overcoming and growing. In the three middle chapters of I Peter, he tells us how we are to resist evil, how we are to do good, and how we are not to be as the rest of the world is. Perhaps these things were tough for him to do too, which is why they made such an impression on him and thus why he passed these instructions along. It is a good thing that he did! God inspired it to be included in His Word because we need the admonition. Notice I Peter 2:19-24, where Peter speaks about submitting to masters. What does he say we are called to? Suffering! One could say we are called to be hit over the head for doing good. In reality, God's way is so antithetical to the way of Satan and this world that it is only natural that doers of good will suffer rather than be rewarded for their good works. Of this, Jesus Christ was the most extreme example—and not just on the last day of His life! He suffered every day He drew breath. Satan never stopped tempting Him for long, and His flesh never stopped trying to pull Him toward evil. Peter says that Jesus overcame these things by committing Himself to the One who really knows the quality of our character, what our hearts are really like. In that commitment was great faith that the Father, knowing Him intimately, would guard Him and help Him to the very end—that considering Him as the apple of His eye, God would be with Him even through the grave. Note, too, Christ's reaction to the evil done to Him: He did nothing like it in return. He did not return evil for evil; out of Him came no defiling sin. What did He do? He did self-sacrificial acts of goodness toward His revilers and persecutors—and not only for them, but as Peter goes on to say, He also did it for us, His brethren. Throughout His life, He consciously performed self-sacrificial acts of goodness for others. As the same apostle says in Acts 10:38, Jesus "went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil." There is our pattern to follow! He did not allow evil to get Him down or change His course—He just kept on doing good. That is how He fought it: He faced it down with the Word of God, committed Himself to His Father's will, and repaid evil with good. His method will work for us too.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Evil Is Real (Part Five)
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