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Using 1 Peter 2 to quell rebellion against abuses of rights<\/h3>\n
The sermon <\/a>was preached in February 2024. The pastor said that Peter\u2019s instructions meant his congregation should \u201cthink long and hard before participating in any kind of labor strike.\u201d\u00a0 He went on to say: \u201cAny rebellion against authority is ultimately rebellion against God.\u201d<\/p>\n On the Biblical Gender Roles website<\/a>, you can find an article by an author <\/a>who writes under the pen name \u201cLarry Solomon\u201d and claims to have reached over 7 million people. In \u201cWhy God Wants You to STAY in an Abusive Relationship,\u201d<\/a> he turns to 1 Peter 2 to help make his case.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cthis is acceptable with God.\u201d\u00a0 God is not excusing the actions of the abusers. \u00a0But 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.<\/em><\/p>\n When it comes to this matter of suffering abuse \u2013 we, both men and women, actually model Christ when we suffer abuse from others taking it patiently as he did. And that is\u00a0why God wants you to stay in an abusive relationship.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 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 4th<\/sup> Sunday of Easter, often known as \u201cGood Shepherd Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n We also need to note that this pericope carefully cuts out the verse that comes just before this reading:<\/p>\n Slaves, be subject to your masters with all respect,\u00a0not only those who are good and gentle but also those who are dishonest.<\/em><\/p>\n So, we can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s actions are rationalized, excused, and even lifted up as revealing God\u2019s glory.<\/p>\n It may seem strange for me to give this passage from Peter\u2019s letter any attention at all.<\/p>\n But I assert that Peter\u2019s words can be reclaimed to emphasize God\u2019s solidarity<\/em> with the abused. Using an interpretive lens informed by liberation theology reveals that 1 Peter 2 is about God\u2019s concern for justice, rather than promoting a spirituality of silent suffering under abuse or oppression.<\/p>\n Consider the historical context of this passage.\u00a0 Peter\u2019s letter contained \u201chousehold codes\u201d \u2013 instructions for Christians in small, house-church communities. As New Testament scholar, Jeannine K. Brown notes<\/a>, \u201cChristians 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s 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<\/em>, urging him to treat his wife, children, and slaves with fairness.<\/p>\n Yet Peter also addressed the wives and slaves.\u00a0 Why was this important?<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 Thus, he acknowledged them as persons, not property. Implicitly, this recognized a sense of agency for these vulnerable members of the household.<\/p>\n 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<\/em>. Until you get to: Christ.<\/p>\n Peter asserts that Christ calls us to follow his example of patient suffering and selfless sacrifice, trusting God\u2019s justice. Through Christ\u2019s wounds we are healed and empowered to live righteously.<\/p>\n In other words, the way of Christ is not the way of submission unto death to preserve the paterfamilias <\/em>system.\u00a0 His death was so that we might live <\/em>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<\/em> the paterfamilias powers that killed him.<\/p>\n In this way, Christ opened a path toward healing and freedom. His wounds revealed both the depth of human cruelty and<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/em>Christian nationalism provides the underpinnings of religious authoritarianism and justifies crimes against humanity and our planet.<\/p>\n Being willing to submit oneself to the retaliation of the state by doing things that align God\u2019s 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 \u2013 an ideology of superiority<\/a> that justifies misogyny, racism, ethnocentrism, domination, cruelty, and violence.<\/p>\n Today, Peter\u2019s instructions point us not to submissiveness for the sake of preserving the power structures.\u00a0 Rather, they encourage strategic nonviolent resistance to that structure. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n As an example, consider a video<\/a> that went viral in September of 2025.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThey shoved us down, slammed protestors into the concrete and maced us with so many chemicals that I was drenched,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cI 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?\u201d<\/p>\n 20<\/sup><\/em>If 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.<\/em><\/p>\n Consider another video that went viral in January 2026. Episcopal Bishop Rob Hirschfeld spoke<\/a> in Concord, N.H. at a vigil for Renee Good just days after an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed her.<\/p>\n Hirschfeld called out the \u201ccruelty, the injustice and the horror \u2026 unleashed in Minneapolis,\u201d and warned his clergy to prepare for \u201ca new era of martyrdom.\u201d He announced: \u201cI\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, do the right thing, even if it results in your suffering.<\/p>\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n 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\u2019s way.\u00a0 Each of us must determine what Christ\u2019s call means for us in our ministry, given the risks that come with the body we inhabit and the responsibilities we have.<\/p>\n What I am saying is that just as Peter addressed those under the paterfamilias<\/em>, we must find our agency under today\u2019s structures of authoritarianism and Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n Each of us has some questions to ask ourselves prayerfully and with trusted colleagues and mentors. Questions like:<\/p>\n Or maybe your questions are:<\/p>\n On Jan. 27, 2026, the\u00a0Clergy Emergency League<\/a>, an organization I co-founded,\u00a0invited a panel of Minnesota pastors and faith leaders to share what they\u2019ve 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.\u00a0 But one of them said, \u201cI have never felt so alive in my ministry.\u00a0 The sense of purpose I feel in this moment is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n The Minneapolis pastors and community organizers told us: You are not called to do everything<\/em>. But everyone is called to do something<\/em>. And God calls each of us to be faithful, prepared, and accountable. They reminded us that this work is collective\u2014and it is holy.<\/p>\n Rather, in a vulnerable house-church setting, it provided a nonviolent witness that entrusts justice to God and identifies Christ with the oppressed.<\/p>\n Today, Peter\u2019s letter speaks to us with subversive yet powerful words \u2014 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.<\/p>\n May the Good Shepherd bless us with resolve, responsiveness, and resilience as we do the good to which God has called us. Amen.<\/p>\n 3 New Testament Messages for Resisting Autocracy<\/a><\/p>\n Palm Sunday Was a Protest March! Analysis of #NoKings Speech<\/a><\/p>\n Poetry to Resist Fascism? Hannah Arendt Shows the Way<\/a><\/p>\n The Bridge for Early Career Preachers seeks to support those who are in their first seven years of congregational ministry and preaching at least one third of the opportunities in a calendar year. To learn more or apply for the next cohort, click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade<\/strong>\u00a0is a seminary professor, ordained minister, and co-founder of the\u00a0Clergy Emergency League<\/a><\/em>. Her opinions are her own.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Leah is the author of<\/em>\u00a0Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice<\/a>\u00a0(Rowman & Littlefield, 2024),\u00a0<\/em>Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide<\/a>\u00a0(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019)<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit<\/a>\u00a0(Chalice Press, 2015). She is the co-editor of\u00a0<\/em>Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis<\/a>\u00a0(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Her book,\u00a0<\/em>Introduction to Preaching: Scripture, Theology, and Sermon Preparation<\/a>, was co-authored with Jerry L. Sumney and Emily Askew (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s time to reclaim 1 Peter 2:19-25 from those who use it to normalize abuse and justify oppression. This is a sermon for resistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2929,"featured_media":14387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[485,311,249,1328,1399,31,133],"tags":[2930,2936,2939,2933],"class_list":["post-14381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-ecofeminism","category-jesus","category-leadership","category-religion-and-politics","category-sermons","category-women-and-religion","tag-1-peter-219-25","tag-countering-abusive-interpretations-of-scripture","tag-household-codes-in-the-bible","tag-resisting-oppression"],"yoast_head":"\nUsing 1 Peter 2 to rationalize staying with abusive partners<\/h3>\n
Using 1 Peter 2 to justify slavery and sanctify slaveowners<\/h3>\n
So, why give any attention to 1 Peter 2?<\/h3>\n
Addressing wives and slaves in the household codes<\/h3>\n
A tool for resistance \u2014 if you pay attention<\/h2>\n
A path to healing and freedom<\/h2>\n
Nonviolence holds a mirror up to the violent system<\/h2>\n
What does active, transformative resistance look like today?<\/h3>\n
\u201cGet your affairs in order.\u201d<\/h3>\n
Discern what actions are right for you<\/h2>\n
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Questions for discernment<\/h2>\n
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Count the cost<\/h2>\n
1 Peter 2 does not sanctify abuse or oppression.<\/h2>\n
Read also:<\/h4>\n
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