1 Peter 2:19

1 Peter 2:19. For this is acceptable. The ‘this' refers to the case immediately to be stated. The Greek for ‘acceptable' here is the usual word for ‘grace.' Hence some take the sense to be=it is a work of grace, or a gift of grace (Steiger, Schott); others, =it is a sign of grace, a proof that you are Christians indeed (Wiesinger); others, = it conciliates or wins grace for you; Roman Catholic theologians using it in support of their theory of works of supererogation. In the present passage, however, it is evidently used in the non-theological sense. We have to choose, therefore, between three ideas, that of gracious or attractive (as in Luke 4:22; Colossians 4:6), that of favour, i.e securing favour with one (so Huther), or that of thankworthy, as the A. V. puts it, or better, ‘acceptable,' as the R. V. gives it in harmony with the repetition of the word in the end of 1 Peter 2:20. Though the second of these can plead the analogy of the O. T. phrase, ‘find favour, or grace with one' (Genesis 6:8; Genesis 18:3; Genesis 30:27, etc.), and its N. T. application (Luke 1:30; Luke 2:52; Acts 2:47), the third is on the whole the best, as most accordant with both the idea and the terms of Christ's own declaration in Luke 6:32, which Peter seems here to have in mind. For the present, too, the statement is given generally, such endurance being presented as a thing acceptable in itself, and the person (whether God or the master) being left unnamed.

if on account of (his) consciousness of God one endureth pains while suffering wrongfully. Endurance, therefore, is not of itself a ‘thankworthy' thing. In the case of any one, slave or other, it is so only if it is endurance of wrong, and only if it is animated by one's sense of his relation to God, not if it is due to prudential considerations or of the nature of a sullen, stoical accommodation to the inevitable. The motive which gives nobility to endurance is put in the foreground. By this ‘consciousness of God' is meant neither exactly the ‘conscience toward God' of the A. V. and R. V., nor ‘conscientiousness before God,' far less' the consciousness which God has of us' (as some strangely put it), but that consciousness which we have of God, which at once inspires the sense of duty and elevates the idea of duty. Though the Greek word is always translated ‘conscience' in the A. V., it cannot be said ever to have in the Bible precisely the sense which is attached to it in modern philosophical systems. Neither can it be said to convey even in the Pauline writings quite the same idea as in the language of the Stoics, although it is possible that Paul may have been familiar with the ethical phraseology of that school (see Lightfoot's Essay on St. Paul and Seneca in his Comm. on Philippians). Not unfrequently, however, it covers much the same conception as the ‘conscience' of our current popular speech. The idea at its root is knowledge, knowledge specially of the moral quality of our own acts. It is the ‘understanding applied to the distinction of good and evil, as reason is the same applied to the distinction of truth and falsehood' (see Godet on Romans 2:15). Though it occurs often in the writings of Paul, repeatedly in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and thrice in Peter (here and 1 Peter 3:16; 1 Peter 3:21), it is never found in the Gospels, except in the dubious section John 8:9. The Old Testament expressed a similar idea by a different term, namely the ‘heart.' Hence this word occurs only once in the LXX., viz. in Ecclesiastes 10:20, and there it has a sense only approaching that of the moral consciousness, namely, that of the ‘quiet inner region of one's thoughts.' As this is put emphatically first, another quality of acceptable endurance is equally emphasized by the ‘wrongfully' (the only instance of the adverb in the N. T.) which closes the sentence. The ‘grief'' of the A. V. should be griefs, grievances, or p ains. It carries us back to the ‘pained' of 1 Peter 1:6, and points to objective external inflictions. It is the phrase used in Isaiah 53:4. The verb ‘endure' here (which occurs only twice again in the N. T., 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Timothy 3:11) means to bear up against, and expresses perhaps the effort required to withstand the natural impulse to rise against injustice.