On Sunday we looked at the overall message of 1 Peter. Standing firm in our gracious suffering is one of the key elements in Peter’s message (cf. 1 Peter 2:21-25).

We referenced that there may be no greater example of what 1 Peter 2:21-23 looks like in the history of modern America than in the actions and words of the Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King.

We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory.

-The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Selected by Corretta Scott King

Such actions point us to Jesus Christ himself who wins our hearts

• By enduring our rebellion, rather than retaliating against it, and 
• By taking our sins on himself, rather than throwing our sins back in our face. 

He has worn us down by his capacity to suffer for us. 

By his wounds we have been healed. 

Hallelujah! What a Savior!