Reclaiming 1 Peter 2:19-25 From Abuse: Sermon For Resistance

It’s time to reclaim 1 Peter 2:19-25 from those who use it to normalize abuse and justify oppression.

1 Peter 2:19-25 is the Epistle reading in the Revised Common Lectionary for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A. I preached this sermon for the gathering of pastors in the Bridge for Early Career Preachers program in April 2026.

1 Peter 2, hands praying — Reclaiming 1 Peter 2:19-25. Photo by Leah D. Schade

Using 1 Peter 2 to quell rebellion against abuses of rights

The sermon was preached in February 2024. The pastor said that Peter’s instructions meant his congregation should “think long and hard before participating in any kind of labor strike.” He went on to say: “Any rebellion against authority is ultimately rebellion against God.”

Using 1 Peter 2 to rationalize staying with abusive partners

On the Biblical Gender Roles website, you can find an article by an author who writes under the pen name “Larry Solomon” and claims to have reached over 7 million people. In “Why God Wants You to STAY in an Abusive Relationship,” he turns to 1 Peter 2 to help make his case.

When we endure grief or suffer wrongly at the hands of others, in other words when we endure mistreatment which is abuse and take it patiently, the Scriptures tell us “this is acceptable with God.” God is not excusing the actions of the abusers. But God is saying when we are on the receiving end of various kinds of abuse and we take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

When it comes to this matter of suffering abuse – we, both men and women, actually model Christ when we suffer abuse from others taking it patiently as he did. And that is why God wants you to stay in an abusive relationship.

Using 1 Peter 2 to justify slavery and sanctify slaveowners

This is what we must keep in mind when the passage of 1 Peter 2:19-25 appears as the Epistle reading in the RCL for the 4^th Sunday of Easter, often known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.”

We also need to note that this pericope carefully cuts out the verse that comes just before this reading:

Slaves, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only those who are good and gentle but also those who are dishonest.

So, we can’t read 1 Peter 2 without acknowledging that during the time of chattel slavery in the U.S., slave owners used this passage to make obedience to masters a religious duty.

We must be particularly alert to how this passage has been used against women and especially women of color in contexts of domestic abuse and racialized subordination. When read out of context, the pain of the abused gets normalized while the abuser’s actions are rationalized, excused, and even lifted up as revealing God’s glory.

So, why give any attention to 1 Peter 2?

It may seem strange for me to give this passage from Peter’s letter any attention at all.

But I assert that Peter’s words can be reclaimed to emphasize God’s solidarity with the abused. Using an interpretive lens informed by liberation theology reveals that 1 Peter 2 is about God’s concern for justice, rather than promoting a spirituality of silent suffering under abuse or oppression.

Consider the historical context of this passage. Peter’s letter contained “household codes” – instructions for Christians in small, house-church communities. As New Testament scholar, Jeannine K. Brown notes, “Christians were a small struggling messianic sect of Judaism in the first century. . . Their calling was to live out the gospel as those without much cultural power.”

Addressing wives and slaves in the household codes

Here’s the thing. In other historical documents of that time containing household codes, the instructions are only addressed to the head of the household, the paterfamilias, urging him to treat his wife, children, and slaves with fairness.

Yet Peter also addressed the wives and slaves. Why was this important?

Because addressing the people positioned below the male heads of the household may have been a subversive act of resistance. Peter intentionally addressed the people who had no power and no agency. Thus, he acknowledged them as persons, not property. Implicitly, this recognized a sense of agency for these vulnerable members of the household.

A tool for resistance — if you pay attention

Peter also embeds a tool for resistance within the letter to this vulnerable community. All this talk about the endurance of beatings being commendable to God seems to endorse the reign of paterfamilias. Until you get to: Christ.

Peter asserts that Christ calls us to follow his example of patient suffering and selfless sacrifice, trusting God’s justice. Through Christ’s wounds we are healed and empowered to live righteously.

In other words, the way of Christ is not the way of submission unto death to preserve the paterfamilias system. His death was so that we might live and live righteously. That means living without domination. Jesus absorbed violence without becoming violent himself. In this way, he exposed injustice while refusing to contribute to it or escalate it. And the resurrection repudiated the paterfamilias powers that killed him.

A path to healing and freedom

In this way, Christ opened a path toward healing and freedom. His wounds revealed both the depth of human cruelty and the possibility of restoration. The shepherd who was struck down becomes the one who gathers the wounded back into a life of justice, mercy, and wholeness.

What Peter is saying is that when people suffer for doing what is right, God takes notice. And others see it as well. This has important implications when applied to our own context today where Christian nationalism is the latest iteration of paterfamilias. Christian nationalism provides the underpinnings of religious authoritarianism and justifies crimes against humanity and our planet.

Nonviolence holds a mirror up to the violent system

Being willing to submit oneself to the retaliation of the state by doing things that align God’s purposes of justice and righteousness holds up a mirror and shows us the truth. It reveals the truth about the ideology at the heart of the state – an ideology of superiority that justifies misogyny, racism, ethnocentrism, domination, cruelty, and violence.

Today, Peter’s instructions point us not to submissiveness for the sake of preserving the power structures. Rather, they encourage strategic nonviolent resistance to that structure. It’s not about passive obedience to the Powers or sanctifying oppression. We can read the passage as supporting an ethic of nonviolent faithful witness in a hostile world. It is a letter of active, transformative resistance.

What does active, transformative resistance look like today?

As an example, consider a video that went viral in September of 2025. Presbyterian pastor David Black was praying outside of an ICE facility in Chicago when agents shot him in the head and body with pepper balls.

“They shoved us down, slammed protestors into the concrete and maced us with so many chemicals that I was drenched,” he said. “I want Chicagoans to be thinking: if this is what they are doing to pastors, journalists, teachers, mothers, and elders who are gathering to sing and pray outside of this facility, what might they be doing to our neighbors who are behind those walls?”

²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do good and suffer for it, this is a commendable thing before God.

“Get your affairs in order.”

Consider another video that went viral in January 2026. Episcopal Bishop Rob Hirschfeld spoke in Concord, N.H. at a vigil for Renee Good just days after an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed her.

Hirschfeld called out the “cruelty, the injustice and the horror … unleashed in Minneapolis,” and warned his clergy to prepare for “a new era of martyrdom.” He announced: “I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order to make sure they have their wills written because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”

In other words, do the right thing, even if it results in your suffering.

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

Discern what actions are right for you

Now, I want to be clear. I am not saying that every Christian, or even every minister, is supposed to put their body in harm’s way. Each of us must determine what Christ’s call means for us in our ministry, given the risks that come with the body we inhabit and the responsibilities we have.

What I am saying is that just as Peter addressed those under the paterfamilias, we must find our agency under today’s structures of authoritarianism and Christian nationalism.

Clergy leading prayer circle — Clergy and congregations can assist with community organizing and spiritual support

Questions for discernment

Each of us has some questions to ask ourselves prayerfully and with trusted colleagues and mentors. Questions like:

What is God calling me to do in this moment?
Given my own social status, my personal risks and limitations, and my responsibilities to those who rely on me: what is appropriate for me to do in seeking the good to which God calls me?
Am I willing to endure maybe not suffering but perhaps . . . discomfort? Awkwardness? Uneasiness? Angry emails? Anonymous notes slid under my door? The knowledge that I am not pleasantly pleasing everyone?

Or maybe your questions are:

What suffering have I already endured to this point, and is it time for me to rest?
Is my calling at this time to heal from those wounds? And to trust that Christ will lead others to step up in their prophetic witness?
Can I offer the wisdom I have gained from my experience so that others can learn and receive guidance for their calling?

Count the cost

On Jan. 27, 2026, the Clergy Emergency League, an organization I co-founded, invited a panel of Minnesota pastors and faith leaders to share what they’ve learned about organizing faith-based resistance to ICE. Each of them shared what it was like for them: the exhaustion, the fear, the emotional and physical toll. But one of them said, “I have never felt so alive in my ministry. The sense of purpose I feel in this moment is incredible.”

The Minneapolis pastors and community organizers told us: You are not called to do everything. But everyone is called to do something. And God calls each of us to be faithful, prepared, and accountable. They reminded us that this work is collective—and it is holy.

1 Peter 2 does not sanctify abuse or oppression.

Rather, in a vulnerable house-church setting, it provided a nonviolent witness that entrusts justice to God and identifies Christ with the oppressed.

Today, Peter’s letter speaks to us with subversive yet powerful words — if we have ears to hear. When I read his letter, I hear him saying that this is a moment for faithfulness. This is the time for discipline, humility, and collective action.

May the Good Shepherd bless us with resolve, responsiveness, and resilience as we do the good to which God has called us. Amen.

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