No sir, it is just an opinion. We know that Jesus set the example, and it is true that since we are sinners and he was not, we certainly cannot follow them perfectly, but we should try to do our best at it.
I agree with you completely that Jesus is to be our example. Amen. But we are to handle God's word carefully, too. This means, in part, not taking Scripture out of its immediate context and stretching it in order to make it say what we want it to say. There are many places in God's word that speak directly and plainly of the example that Jesus is
generally to every born-again believer. But
1 Peter 2:18-24 isn't one of those places. Peter has in mind a
very specific respect in which Christ is to be our example:
1 Peter 2:18-24 (NASB)
18 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.
19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.
20 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.
21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
22 WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;
23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;
24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
As a part of the larger subject of submission of believers to human institutions of authority (
1 Peter 2:13-17), in the passage above, Peter was speaking specifically to Christians who were
servants (
vs. 18)
. He commanded such believers to "bear up under sorrows when suffering unjustly" (
vs. 19), and pointed out that there was no virtue in suffering for sinful behavior (
vs. 20). Instead, following in the steps of Christ, the Christians who were servants were to patiently endure suffering for doing what was right, knowing that such suffering found favor with God (
vs. 20-21). Peter then described how Christ had suffered, refusing to return evil for evil, bearing the sins of the world upon himself on the cross (
vs. 22-24). Following in Christ's steps, then, was,
in context, an injunction specifically to Christian house-servants to
bear up patiently under unjust suffering.
Peter, then, did not have
evangelism in mind in the passage above but how Christians ought to handle unjust suffering (and, more generally, the proper response of Christians to those in authority over them).
I don't know why you do not think he was an example for us to follow in all things, but I certainly hope I do not follow him in his unimaginable suffering.
Nowhere have I ever said that Christ is not the Christian's example. My pointing out what Peter was talking about in no way denies that Jesus is the example to all of his disciples. Why have you jumped to such an unfounded non sequitur concerning my views? See above.
