"Grace Under Pressure" - 1 Peter 2:18-25

18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. 19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.  21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, 22 who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; 23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

     This is a high order indeed.  Peter tells servants to be submissive to and respect their masters despite how they are treated.  That no matter what, across the board, you are to respond with humility and kindness; that the way you are to behave is not contingent on the way you are treated.  This is "turn the other cheek," this is allowing yourself to be taken advantage of, or perhaps even abused, suffering injustice, for the sake of God and for the sake of love.  This is a hard pill to swallow.  It is a complete denial of self.  When justice is on your side, when it is completely within your rights to not have to put up with something, but you do anyway, that is a surrender to something bigger than yourself.  That is imitating Christ, and it takes a deep security in knowing that no matter what happens to your earthly body, your forever is safe in Christ.
     When you do wrong, you suffer consequences.  It is not righteous to suffer these consequences because they were already due to you.  But, when you suffer anyway, even when you did nothing to deserve it, and you come through it with quiet grace under pressure, you emulate Christ who "was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth."  Christ bore every sin of ours, and he was innocent of them all.  He took the punishment for all of the rape, all of the murder, all of the adultery, all of the lies, for every single one of my sins, your sins, and the sins of every person who has ever walked this earth.  He silently took the blame and punishment for all of them, and gave himself up to bury them.  This is why we can endure unjust suffering, because Christ suffered the ultimate injustice and we were given the ultimate grace.  He replaced us.  Let us remember that while we undergo trials, that Christ suffered thousands, even millions, of times more injustice, and so much more pain, as He took our sin to the cross.  Our suffering is but momentary, so even when we do nothing to deserve it, we can accept it humbly and respond with love and patience.