Today, I managed to finish my Sunday School march through 1 Peter 2:18-25. Why on earth would Peter tell his readers, “this is favor with God – if, when you’re doing right and suffering, you endure it. This is why you slaves were called to salvation!” The Apostle answered that question by drawing a parallel to Christ, our Savior.

Christ lived, suffered bled and died on behalf of all people, many of whom couldn’t care less.  In the same way, Christian slaves (and, by extension – all Christians) have been called to salvation to do right (i.e. be faithful Christians who live holy lives), and (if necessary) endure hardship. And, we’re supposed to do it all for the sake of the people we have influence with – some of whom couldn’t care less, either.

Christ is our example.

Along the way, I made some brief comments about how this vision of the Christian life (i.e. we’re slaves for God, and He called us to salvation so we can be witnesses for Him) is extraordinarily counter-cultural. Christian pop-culture in America is largely consumed with narcissism, and the Gospel is so often framed as a tool to give you success. God is the Cosmic Butler, and is Jesus the Divine Therapist.

I suggest two books which discuss this unfortunate state of affairs; Christless Christianity by Michael Horton, and Soul Searching – The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, by Christian Smith.

The audio for the lesson is below. As always, all the audio and teaching notes are on the 1 & 2 Peter Teaching Series page. Cheers!