How to Shame Evil Speakers
Read 1 Peter 3:8-22.
How well do you handle suffering?
If you're like most people, the true answer is, "Not well." Especially in western culture, we've been taught and come to believe that suffering is evil, and some very well-intentioned religious people even will teach that if you're suffering, it must be because you did something bad. It's your fault. "You get what you earn, what you deserve" is how the thinking goes. Sometimes our suffering might be our fault, but not always. And it nothing to do with karma. (That's Hindu thinking, not Christian theology.)
I remember around the time Mother Teresa was being considered for sainthood in the Catholic church that there were blog posts and social media comments talking about her "awful" theology of suffering. Teresa believed, they said, that suffering was not necessarily evil, that it could be redeemed and used for God's purposes. Those angry posts reminded me how far we have drifted from our Christian heritage, for those ideas come straight out of Christian theology. Jesus is the ultimate example of how suffering can be redeemed and made to turn out for good. There isn't anything God can't use!
In today's reading, though, Peter says it's not so much whether or not we will suffer. We will—count on it. Peter says what matters are really the things on both sides of the suffering. Why we are suffering. And how we respond.
In Peter's estimation, there are two reasons we suffer: either because of evil or because of good. Sometimes, we suffer because of our own evil actions. And sometimes we suffer because we've done good even in the face of the world's evil or someone else's evil. Peter's perspective is simple: it's better to suffer for doing good than doing evil. When we do what Jesus calls us to and we still end up suffering, Peter says, we're still to respond in the way Jesus did. We don't resort to speaking evil about others, or responding in evil ways back toward the other. We keep our conscience clear. We do what we would do if Jesus were physically standing in front of us.
That, then, Peter says, will shame those who speak ill of us. If we simply and clearly do what Jesus would do, then those who continue to speak evil about us will be put to shame. Their slander will be shown to be false because of the way we continue to stand for the truth. That's hard to do, believe me, especially because it doesn't always (usually?) happen right away. Our natural or first inclination is to want to lash out, to do whatever we can to end our suffering or at the very least, cause the other person(s) to suffer, too. We want to "get them back" or vindicate ourselves. But Jesus calls us to a higher standard, and the only way to shame evil speakers is to stand firm even in the face of their evil. It might not happen today, or tomorrow, but we know in the end, righteousness wins. Jesus' death on the cross is all the proof we need of that truth.
How well do you handle suffering?
If you're like most people, the true answer is, "Not well." Especially in western culture, we've been taught and come to believe that suffering is evil, and some very well-intentioned religious people even will teach that if you're suffering, it must be because you did something bad. It's your fault. "You get what you earn, what you deserve" is how the thinking goes. Sometimes our suffering might be our fault, but not always. And it nothing to do with karma. (That's Hindu thinking, not Christian theology.)
I remember around the time Mother Teresa was being considered for sainthood in the Catholic church that there were blog posts and social media comments talking about her "awful" theology of suffering. Teresa believed, they said, that suffering was not necessarily evil, that it could be redeemed and used for God's purposes. Those angry posts reminded me how far we have drifted from our Christian heritage, for those ideas come straight out of Christian theology. Jesus is the ultimate example of how suffering can be redeemed and made to turn out for good. There isn't anything God can't use!
In today's reading, though, Peter says it's not so much whether or not we will suffer. We will—count on it. Peter says what matters are really the things on both sides of the suffering. Why we are suffering. And how we respond.
In Peter's estimation, there are two reasons we suffer: either because of evil or because of good. Sometimes, we suffer because of our own evil actions. And sometimes we suffer because we've done good even in the face of the world's evil or someone else's evil. Peter's perspective is simple: it's better to suffer for doing good than doing evil. When we do what Jesus calls us to and we still end up suffering, Peter says, we're still to respond in the way Jesus did. We don't resort to speaking evil about others, or responding in evil ways back toward the other. We keep our conscience clear. We do what we would do if Jesus were physically standing in front of us.
That, then, Peter says, will shame those who speak ill of us. If we simply and clearly do what Jesus would do, then those who continue to speak evil about us will be put to shame. Their slander will be shown to be false because of the way we continue to stand for the truth. That's hard to do, believe me, especially because it doesn't always (usually?) happen right away. Our natural or first inclination is to want to lash out, to do whatever we can to end our suffering or at the very least, cause the other person(s) to suffer, too. We want to "get them back" or vindicate ourselves. But Jesus calls us to a higher standard, and the only way to shame evil speakers is to stand firm even in the face of their evil. It might not happen today, or tomorrow, but we know in the end, righteousness wins. Jesus' death on the cross is all the proof we need of that truth.
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