Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
He Left You an Example
1 Peter 2:21-23
21 For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, · WEB
The pattern is offered to slaves first, and what they are asked to copy is not the endurance itself but where it was directed.
The word for example in verse 21 is a teaching word — the tracing pattern set under a child's hand for copying letters. It is used here of following in footsteps, and the astonishing thing is the addressee. The most exalted description of Christ's suffering in the letter is offered as instruction to household servants.
Verse 22 quotes a line about the suffering servant word for word: no sin, and no deceit found in his mouth Isaiah 53:9. It is the second half that matters for the argument, because the following verse is about speech.
Verse 23 gives the copyable part, in two parallel clauses. Reviled, he did not revile back. Suffering, he did not threaten. Both refusals are verbal. What these readers are asked to imitate is not the atonement — the next verse will place that beyond imitation — but the silence.
And the final clause explains how the silence was possible, which is the sentence the whole block turns on. He handed himself over to the one who judges justly. The restraint is not resignation and not indifference to the wrong. It is a transfer: the case is not dropped, it is filed somewhere else. Readers already told that God judges impartially 1 Peter 1:17 are being shown what that doctrine is for.
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