In verses 19 and 20 Peter says, “For this is grace, if anyone because of conscience toward God bears sorrows, suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if sinning and being buffeted you shall endure it? But if doing good and suffering you shall endure, this is grace with God.” Here Peter is saying that if, due to our conscience toward God, we are willing to bear sorrows and suffer unjustly, that is, suffer unjust treatment, this is grace. The Greek word rendered “grace” in verse 19 is charis, referring here to the motivation of the divine life within us and its expression in our life, becoming in our behavior gracious and acceptable in the eyes of both man and God (v. 20). The same Greek word is used in Luke 6:33-34 and Romans 7:25 for thanks.
As we have pointed out a number of times, grace is actually the Triune God becoming our life for our experience and enjoyment. With this understanding of grace as our basis, we can say that here grace is the motivation of the divine life within us and its expression in our living. Therefore, this becomes in our behavior something gracious and acceptable in the sight of both God and man.
The words “conscience toward God” also mean consciousness of God. This is the consciousness of our relation to God. It indicates that a believer is living in an intimate fellowship with God, that he has and keeps a conscience toward God that is both good and pure (3:16; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3).
According to the context, the unjust suffering spoken of in verse 19 must be the mistreatment inflicted by the unbelieving masters. These masters opposed and persecuted their believing servants because of their Christian testimony (1 Pet. 3:14-18; 4:12-16).
These verses speak about our behavior in our daily life as Christians. The Christian life is a matter of behavior. Suppose we did not have the divine life within us. This would certainly make family life very difficult, especially in relation to our in-laws, and particularly, to the mother-in-law. It is rare to find a man who desires to have his mother-in-law live with him and his family. Likewise, married women do not like living with their mother-in-law. For both a husband and a wife, a mother-in-law can create a difficult situation. For this reason, humanly speaking, it is better that a married couple not have a mother-in-law live with them.
The point here is that if we are those without the divine life, we shall face problems in our married life, no matter how much we may love one another. We shall have at least five major problems: temper, disposition, habit, background, and our way of understanding things. No matter how much alike a husband and a wife may be, there will be differences between them regarding temper, disposition, habit, background, and understanding. The husband will have his way of viewing things, and the wife will have hers. Likewise, the wife will have her habits and disposition, and the husband will have his. Therefore, they will have difficulties with the five troubling factors of temper, disposition, habit, background, and way of understanding. This will be the situation, even if the husband and wife love each other very much and are refined, educated people. Sometimes at least they will find the situation intolerable and will quarrel with one another. If a mother-in-law is visiting at such a time, she will find the situation altogether unpleasant and unacceptable. She would not even want to observe such an ungracious situation.
But suppose a husband and wife both have the divine life and live according to this life. In spite of the differences in temper, disposition, habit, background, and understanding, grace inwardly motivates both the husband and the wife. Furthermore, this grace is expressed in their living. If the mother-in-law of either the husband or wife observes their way of living, she will find it gracious, pleasant, and acceptable. This is grace.
Here Peter seems to be saying, “You Jewish brothers are suffering persecution. Some of you have crooked masters who treat you unjustly. Nevertheless, you are willing to suffer this unjust treatment. In the sight of both man and God this is gracious, pleasant, and acceptable.” This is what Peter means when he says, “This is grace.” Anyone observing a believer living this way in a situation of suffering and persecution would have to recognize that this is grace. It is also something worthy of our thanksgiving to God. If a mother-in-law sees her daughter and son-in-law living such a life, she may say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your grace.”
As we have seen, in verse 20 Peter says, “For what credit is it if sinning and being buffeted you shall endure it? But if doing good and suffering you shall endure, this is grace with God.” It is not a credit to us if we endure buffeting because we have sinned. But if we do good and yet suffer and endure, this is grace with God. Such a situation indicates that our living expresses the working of God’s grace within us and through us. Therefore, concerning this manner of life, Peter says, “This is grace with God.”
If we do not have the knowledge that the divine life is in us as grace working out what God is, and if we do not have the experience of this grace, we shall not be able to understand what Peter means in these verses, even though we may read them again and again. In order to understand Peter’s writing here, we need the sufficient knowledge and proper realization of the divine facts. Moreover, we need adequate experience of these facts. Only then shall we be able to understand what Peter is saying and be nourished by it.