When You're Treated Unfairly (1 Peter 2:18-25)

I want you to think about a time you were treated unfairly. It could be something small like somebody taking credit for something you did. It could be a teacher or coach that made a decision that wasn’t fair. Maybe your boss criticized you for something that wasn’t your fault. Or even someone telling a story about you that left out some key details. 

Or, it could be something bigger. Maybe someone you trusted betrayed you. Maybe someone lied about you. Maybe someone with power used that power against you. Maybe someone who should have protected you mistreated you. I want you to think about a time this happened to you.

One of the unique things about injustice is that long after the event has ended, the injustice keeps living inside us. That’s why we replay conversations and arguments over and over again in our heads. We want other people to know what really happened. We want the person who hurt us to acknowledge what they did. I can think of a couple people who wronged me and I would replay those conversation in my mind and what I wished I would have said and just nailing their butt to the wall. But it didn’t actually give me any kind of lasting peace that I wanted. It was more like having these additional browser tabs in our minds always open and running and draining my mental and emotional batteries. Do you know what that’s called? That’s called wanting justice.

Now, before we go any further, we need to deal with something here because I know some of you are already thinking it. Peter says, "Servants, be subject to your masters." And passages like this have sometimes been used to argue that the Bible endorses slavery.

The word Peter uses here refers to household servants and their situation was not identical to American race-based chattel slavery. But we shouldn't solve the problem by pretending their situation wasn't deeply unequal or sometimes terribly unjust. Peter himself acknowledges that in this passage. He talks about masters who are "unjust" and servants who suffer while doing good.

So why doesn't Peter simply tell them to overthrow the whole system? Because Peter isn't writing a political manifesto here. He's writing to Christians scattered throughout the Roman world, many of whom had almost no social power at all, and he's teaching them how to follow Jesus faithfully inside circumstances they did not choose and could not easily change.

And that's very different from endorsing the circumstances themselves. Telling someone how to live faithfully within an unjust situation is not the same thing as saying the situation is just.

And notice something remarkable about Peter’s argument. He compares the suffering of these servants under unjust masters to the suffering of Jesus under the people who falsely accused, abused, and crucified Him. In Peter’s analogy, the servant stands with the innocent Christ, and the unjust master stands with those who mistreated Christ. So Peter may be teaching Christians how to live faithfully within a broken institution they could not escape, but he is certainly not giving moral cover to that institution. Peter isn’t blessing the master’s power; he’s identifying the suffering servant with Jesus.

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In fact, the seeds that eventually undermine slavery are already present in the New Testament: master and servant stand under the same Lord, they belong to the same family, and they possess the same dignity before God. But Peter's immediate concern here is pastoral: What does faithfulness look like when someone has power over you and uses that power unjustly?

1. We remember that God sees us 18-20

Peter begins with Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. Now, even though the context here isn’t a one to one with our modern workplaces, that doesn't mean there isn't an obvious application to our work. Our workplaces are very different. If your boss mistreats you, you can quit. You can go to HR. You have legal protections Peter's original readers didn't have. And sometimes faithfulness means using those things.

But work is still one of the most obvious places where we experience what Peter is describing. Someone has authority over you. They evaluate you. They can promote you or pass you over. They can take credit for your work. They can misunderstand you or criticize you unfairly.

And Peter's question becomes incredibly relevant there: How does a Christian respond when the person with power over them treats them unfairly? We don't become lazy because our boss is difficult. We don't sabotage them. We don't poison everyone else's opinion of them. We can confront. We can appeal. We can even leave. But we do all of those things as someone who knows that God sees us.

Peter says, For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. If this were 25 years ago, I would have everyone circle the phrase ‘mindful of God’ in their paper Bibles. Everything hinges on those three words. 

When someone wrongs us, our world has a tendency to shrink down to two people: me and them. What they did, what I said, what I should have said, what they deserve, and what I need them to understand. But Peter is bringing a third person into the situation. God. God saw what happened. God knows what was said. God knows what was true and what wasn’t. God knows whether you were faithful even if nobody else does. 

And that fundamentally changes the question. The question is no longer simply, “How do I make them see what they did?” It becomes, “How do I remain faithful to God in the middle of what they did?” That’s what it means to be ‘mindful of God.’ In the moment when this other person feels like the biggest reality in your life, Peter is telling us to remember that God is the greater reality. 

And what this does is prevents us from letting someone else’s behavior determine ours. This is why Peter makes this important distinction. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? Now, to be fair, not all suffering is persecution. I know a lot of self-righteous jerks who get what they are asking for and call it persecution. But, if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 

Notice those last words: In the sight of God. Maybe nobody else sees it. Maybe everybody believes the wrong version of the story. Maybe you never get the apology. Maybe you never get the vindication. Maybe somebody walks away thinking they won. Peter says your faithfulness is still seen by the person whose opinion ultimately matters most. 

People may misunderstand you, they may misrepresent you, they may never apologize. But, there is no injustice in your life that occurs outside of the sight of God. We don’t have to become unfaithful because someone else is unfair. We don’t have to lie because they lied. We don’t have to gossip because they gossiped. We don’t have to destroy their reputation because they damaged ours. We don’t have to become cruel because they were cruel. 

One time in my former church, we had to fire a non-ministerial staff for stealing money from the offering. Now, I know the power dynamic is switched in that scenario. But, this person who was caught red handed, began to say the worst things about me and the Senior Pastor. Saying we made it up and we just wanted this person gone. And I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to tell everyone the truth. I wanted to correct the narrative and destroy this person’s reputation. And, honestly, I might have if not for the patient wisdom of the Senior Pastor. He just said, “Jim, the truth is on our side and we have to trust God and that people can see we have only ever told the truth to the church.”

That was hard for me because my inner voice was saying, “Somebody needs to fix this! Somebody needs to make sure everyone knows what actually happened!” And I don’t think I’m alone in this. Sometimes it’s easier to trust God with our salvation, our future, and even our eternity than it is to trust Him with our reputation here and now. 

But, God sees it all. And faithfulness to Him matters even when nobody else recognizes it. But, this raises the question, “But if I don’t make it right, who will?” Well, Peter anticipates this question. 

2. Trust God with justice 21-23

This is where Peter points to Jesus. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example, so that you might follow in his steps. Jesus personally understands unjust suffering. In fact, no one has ever been treated more unjustly than Jesus. This is why Peter pulls this quote from Isaiah 53. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. Jesus wasn’t mostly in the right, He was completely innocent. And yet He was betrayed. He was falsely accused. He was mocked, beaten, stripped, and crucified. 

Think about how comprehensive the injustice against Jesus was. One of His closest friends betrayed Him. Witnesses distorted His words. Religious leaders manipulated the process. Political leaders knew He was innocent and condemned Him anyway. The crowds mocked Him. The soldiers humiliated Him. And almost every human institution that should have protected an innocent man failed Him. 

And Peter wants us to remember how Jesus responded. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten… Think about what makes this so remarkable. Jesus actually could have defended Himself. He could have exposed everyone around Him. He could have called lightening from the sky and destroyed everyone who hurt Him. And unlike any of us, he would have been completely justified in doing so. But He didn’t. Why? 

Peter tells us. …but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. I think that is the central phrase of the entire passage. Jesus didn’t respond to injustice by pretending justice didn’t matter. He entrusted justice to God. Those are very different things. 

Christian forgiveness is never pretending something wasn’t evil. It isn’t saying things are fine or that they didn’t hurt or even that there shouldn’t be consequences. It’s simply refusing to become the final judge. 

Now, I need to be very clear about what Peter is not saying. He’s not saying injustices are not a big deal. He’s not saying just get over it. He’s not saying that we shouldn’t ever confront anything. He’s not saying we shouldn’t establish boundaries when we can. And he is certainly not saying that we shouldn’t report abuse or criminal behavior. He’s also not giving us Christian platitudes like, “Well, it’s better than hell, so suck it up.” What he is saying is that we can pursue justice without needing vengeance.

There is a big difference between wanting things to be made right and feeling like I’m the one who needs to make them pay. There is a difference between seeking accountability and needing somebody to hurt the way they hurt you. There is a difference between telling the truth and needing everyone to hate the person to hurt you. There is a difference between wanting a wrong to be acknowledged and needing to win. But this is really hard because we feel like if we don’t hold onto this, who is going to make sure this wrong really matters? Well, Peter’s answer is God. 

This is hard for us because sometimes letting go of vengeance feels like letting the person off the hook. Letting go of the anger feels like saying what they did wasn’t really that bad. Forgiving them feels like saying what they did was acceptable. When we stop rehearsing the story, it can feel like no one is ever going to know how badly they hurt us. But Peter is saying we can release our need for vengeance precisely because the wrong still matters to God.

There is a Judge who knows the whole story, who cannot be manipulated or deceived, and who never forgets. He judges justly. So Christianity uniquely teaches that justice matters and evil is real, but we also know that we are not the final judge. So we do tell the truth, we confront sin, we establish boundaries, and we seek appropriate justice…but we don’t have the carry the burden of ultimate justice because God sees everything and He is the ultimate judge. 

Many of you have probably heard the old saying that refusing to forgive is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Reliving these arguments and holding onto the anger is only hurting us. And I can tell you from personal experience that the times I have been able to truly let it go and give it over to God, the mental, emotional, and spiritual peace that comes back into my mind is so much more sweet and satisfying than any desire for vengeance. Because I have handed that burden over to the only One who is actually qualified to carry it. 

But Peter doesn’t stop there. If all Peter told us was that God will eventually judge the people who hurt you, we might walk away feeling morally superior. Feeling like they are the bad people and we are the good people. Like we are the victims. And we would also lose all the real motivation to turn the other cheek. 

That’s why Peter then takes us to the cross. 

3. Remember the mercy we have received 24, 25

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.. Our sins. For the first part of this passage Peter is talking about their sin against us. How they treated us unfairly and how they hurt us. Now, Peter brings us to the cross and says before we talk any more about their sin against you, remember your sin against God. 

That’s not meant to minimize what happened to you. There are situations where you are genuinely innocent. And Peter explicitly acknowledges that. But there is something spiritually dangerous that can happen when we’re wronged. Being right about one thing can make us feel righteous about everything. 

And that is one of the subtle spiritual dangers of being genuinely wronged. You may actually be right and they may actually be wrong. But being right in that situation can begin to give us a sense of moral superiority that extends far beyond that situation. 

We can begin to see the world in two categories. Me, the righteous one and them, the sinners. And the cross tears down that illusion. We can be simultaneously sinned against…and genuinely sinful. And Jesus’ response to our sin was not vengeance, but mercy. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.. Not only did Jesus not retaliate against His enemies, He bore the sins of His enemies. 

Which means the deepest Christian motivation for giving up vengeance isn’t simply, “Don’t worry, God will eventually get them.” It’s “I myself live everyday because God has shown extraordinary mercy to me. The cross changes the defining story of our lives. The defining story of my life is not the worst thing someone else did to me, it’s what Jesus has done for me. 

And Peter says He did it that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. If we really understand this we see that we are not only forgiven for our own sins, but that He is freeing us from the power their sin has over us. Now we can be sinned against and not become bitter. Now we don’t have to spend the next year or ten years replaying it in our minds. Now we don’t have to make sure everyone knows our side of the story. Now we don’t have to let the worst thing somebody did to us become the defining thing about us. 

Their sin may have wounded you, but it doesn’t have to own you. That person may have taken something from you, but they don’t get to take the next ten years too. They don’t get to determine the kind of person you become. 

Why is that? Because By his wounds you have been healed. Then, Peter lands the plane by saying, For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. This passage began with people living under unjust earthly masters, but it ends with those same people being reminded that they ultimately belong to a perfectly good Shepherd. 

Your boss isn’t ultimately in charge of your life. Those who betray you, critique you, lie about you, or mistreat don’t ultimately shepherd and oversee your soul. Jesus does. And there is actually something so beautiful and so easy to miss about this. Being treated unfairly can be so lonely because it feels like nobody really understands what happened. Nobody knows the whole story. But Jesus does. He knows what it is like to be betrayed, falsely accused, misunderstood, and mistreated. 

So, sometimes the places where we feel most alone can become the places where we feel closest to Jesus. The Shepherd and Overseer of our souls has walked this road before us.

So, when we’re treated unfairly, we remember that God sees us, we trust Him with justice, and we remember the mercy we have received. Their sin may wound us, but it doesn’t have to own us. In fact, God can even use the places where we have been hurt to draw us closer to the One who sees us, understands us, and has walked this road before us.

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