1 Peter 2:19

For this is thankworthy The word charis, commonly translated "grace," is here used in the sense, which attaches also to the Latin gratia, as in ago tibi gratias, and the French mille graces, of thanks or cause for thanks. So in Luke 6:32 the same word is used in "what thankhave ye," where the context shews that it is equivalent to a "reward," and in that case, as in this, a reward from God. It is not unreasonable to suppose that St Peter's choice of the term was determined by the use of it which St Luke records in his report of the Sermon on the Plain.

for conscience toward God Literally, consciousness of God, i.e. of His presence as seeing, judging, helping, rewarding, His suffering servants. The phrase is analogous to the "conscience of the idol" in 1 Corinthians 8:7.

suffering wrongfully Natural impulse, one might almost say natural ethics, sanctions the burning indignation and desire to retaliate which is caused by the sense of wrong. Here, as in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:39), which this teaching distinctly reproduces, that is made the crucial instance in which the Christian is to shew that the law of Christ is his rule of life. It is obvious that in this case the allowance of any exception to the rule would make it altogether inoperative. Each party in a dispute or quarrel thinks himself at the moment in the right, and it is only by acting on the principle that the more he believes himself to be in the right the more it is his duty to submit patiently, that a man can free himself from an endless entanglement of recriminations and retaliations.