The passage above provides one of the most helpful insights in Scripture for Christian life. It challenges the human feeling of justice and fair play, when applied to a personal, even group, context. If righteousness is not somehow rewarded there is less interest in its stories. We prefer that the bad guys receive comeuppance and some sort of reward accrue to the good guys. Virtue is its own reward, is a common saying, but experience suggests that the general public doesn’t believe it. To do good means, in consequence, to be treated well, at least with justice – or doing the good is not perceived as truly rewarding. If there is no benefit, what difference does our good conduct make? Such perception omits the concept that there is a God to please, no matter what the outcome, in finding and practicing righteousness and ethical conduct. Commonly, even Christians are caught up in the concept that doing right reaps pleasant consequences, and doing wrong, unpleasant. Illness, accident, the loss of property may be seen as results of sin. A man was told that the illness of his wife unto death was his fault because his faith was flimsy. Good fortune, and long life, for a person are seen as consequences of good genes and luck. A man was told that the reason he was prosperous was because God was pleased with him. These good things (and more) are possibilities, but the reward/retribution principle is not that easy or sure. We, as finite beings, do not usually have enough evidence and knowledge to determine the causes and meanings of the experiences of either ourselves or others. It is little wonder that Scripture reminds us not to judge others. God sifts it all out in the end. He is competent for the purpose. There are too many scenarios for us to identify as the only one to be visited, or invited, by us.
It is clear from Scripture, in the reporting of concepts and experiences, that a person may do all the right things and gain suffering for doing right – as Jesus did. The Apostle Peter, having recited well the precept, followed it up with the prime model of Jesus, who did right in his life and teachings, but was arrested, judged by men and crucified. The Apostle added that if that can happen to Jesus it can happen to his followers. As he took injustice, leaving judgment to the Father, so should we. To be distracted by seeking self-justification in an imperfect society is to waste time, and places flimsy hope in a system that is temporary and imperfect. The World system can never sift through the machinations of arrogant persons who may not know if they are right or wrong. History records biographies of many, wrong in their lifetimes, found right in ours.
One of the great directives of Christianity is to set personal focus on God. If he permits us to suffer we are thus permitted to enter into his sufferings, which are somehow related to the innocent suffering for the guilty. It has virtue with God, and it shields the faithful person from distraction. When we defend ourselves too sternly, in human atmospheres and contexts, we must fall to attitudes that are defeating, perhaps carnal. We are called to accept personal injustice without rancor, through love, forgiveness, and prayer. We ought to explain ourselves if the explanation serves the context of faith and truth, but the process is in humility and personal acceptance of whatever God permits. To accept personal injustice is an evidence of effective Christian faith. We work in our way for justice in an imperfect world, but God works in marvelous ways his wonders to perform. If we are well instructed and obedient to God, we will know when the fault is our own, or merely the opinion of fault from another. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020