Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Sermon Questions:
1. When do you feel most powerless? Who in your life holds power over you?
2. What are some ways you try to regain power or invert the power hierarchy?
3. Thinking of the passage, what ways have you used your words to grasp at power?
4. What would it look like for you to follow Jesus’ steps into submission at work, in school, in marriage, at home?
5. Have you ever experienced the Grace of God through submission and humility? either your own or someone else’s toward you?
