CALLED TO SUFFER

For to this [suffering] you were called. 1 PETER 2:21 Though today’s verse seems to point out that we are called to suffer, it actually refers back to the last part of verse 20, which says, “When you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.” When Christians endure suffering with patience, it pleases God. That shouldn’t surprise us. Earlier in this chapter of First Peter, the apostle Peter states that Christians “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (v. 9). Our dark world resents and is often hostile toward those who represent the Lord Jesus Christ. That resentment and hostility may be felt at certain times and places more than others, but it is always there to some extent as a part of the privilege of being His own. John MacArthur, Truth for Today : a Daily Touch of God’s Grace (Nashville, Tenn.: J. Countryman, 2001), 79.