I Peter 3:16-18
“Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones.”
“But do this in a gentle respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong! Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned but he died for sinners to being you safely home to God.”
I’d always thought these words equivalent to Christ’s in the Gospels, to turn the other cheek. Here I’m struck that suffering engendered from turning the other cheek is parallel to Christ’s suffering for sinners. When I am innocent yet suffer accusation, it is like Christ, the righteous one, suffering for the unrighteous. I do not turn the other cheek because Christ commanded it, though this is reason enough. It is also to picture and innocent Christ taking upon himself a suffering he did not deserve.
Lord, help me, in the moment, to turn the other cheek. My anger can flare, get-even feelings blosson. Forgive me and change me to respond not with anger but love.