The previous two weeks in 1 Peter 2:18-25 we’ve looked at how God advances the gospel through unjust suffering.

Jesus Christ is not only the greatest example of this, but his substitutionary death is our only hope.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.”

1 Peter 2:24

We also mentioned two people in the modern era who’ve modeled proper responses to unjust suffering:

• An African-American Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., and 
• A White Anglican British politician named William Wilberforce. 

In his famous Letter from A Birmingham Jail (16 April 1963), Dr. King wrote:

Though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label.

Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”

Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.”

And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.”

And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.”

And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal …”

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?

In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime—the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

You can learn more about William Wilberforce in this…

• Documentary: The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce
• Book (by Eric Metaxas): Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery 
• Film (starring Ioan Gruffudd): Amazing Grace

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!