1 Peter 2:18-20
Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
If you have ever had to work for a jerk this set of instructions from Peter might come to you as odd. Peter is telling us to not just "endure" under bad "masters" but to realize that this is our chance to grow patient and find favor with God. It is tough for us to "bear up" under sorrow ... "when suffering unjustly." Is there anything more irritable and exhausting as working in a place where there is no justice and, in fact, a practice of unjust behavior? An employer or supervisor or leader who deliberately wants to hurt us or hinder us or hamper our activities, is hard, if not impossible, to endure. Yet, this is the time God wants us to shine. He wants us to mirror the same attitude Christ had during His suffering in front of the master Pilate. God is pleased when we endure under pressure. We think we don't deserve it. We may not. But neither did Christ and He endured. So, too, must we.
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