Peter exhorts believers to suffer tribulations and persecutions after the pattern of the Lord Jesus. He did not reply in kind when others reviled Him, and when He suffered, He threatened not.
But that does not mean that Jesus didn't ignore injustice. When He was improperly questioned about His teaching and His disciples at His trial, He pointed out that it wasn't His duty to make their case against Him. They had no witnesses to give testimony that could convict Jesus of anything, but that was, as He pointed out, their problem, and their fault.
And when He was assaulted before the court for His truthful answers, He rebuked the court official for resorting to violence when His answers couldn't be rebutted.
In another place, we observe Christ's response to violence against His person, when He appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus. In the blaze of His glory, He confronted Saul: why are you persecuting Me?
Jesus made it clear to Saul that He considered attacks against His people as personal assaults against Himself!
But rather than strike Saul dead in judgment, in mercy the Lord Jesus saved him, and appointed him to be an apostle to preach the gospel to the Gentiles!
Paul wrote to Timothy that Christ's preachers must be gentle, patient, and seek to teach the Gospel in meekness to those who oppose it.
Arrogance, rudeness, bluster, and abusive behavior do not gender repentance and faith in those who have been snared by the devil.
In Romans 12, Paul admonishes Christians to return good for evil, and to treat everybody with kindness and fairness and honesty. We are never to return evil for evil, in other words, to try to "get even" with our persecutors. |
