Example is perhaps the most powerful means by which one can be taught. To show is more influential than to speak. The best teachers are not skilled orators, but those who can successfully SHOW the concepts or principles being taught. A student may memorize factual material, but the teacher's example is what enables the student to know the HOW of things. God be thanked, we have such a teacher in Jesus Christ, who not only told us the will of God, but showed us in His own life. The Lord said, "I am the way, the truth and the life..." (John 14:6) Jesus has shown us the way (by His example), told us the truth (by His word), and thus is able to give us life (by His shed blood and our response to Him).

"...To this you were called..." (v 21)
In the immediate context, Peter speaks to servants, who may suffer unjustly. He says, "...when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God." (v 20) In this, Jesus became our example. He suffered unjustly, and bore it with patience. We are told to look "...unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2) Jesus endured great hardship, the climax of which was to die on a cross for our transgressions.

The apostle Paul promises, "...all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." (2 Timothy 3:12) We have been called to this! And thus, Jesus speaks to His disciples, "...If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25) We have been called to follow in the steps of Jesus.

"...Leaving us an example..." (v 21)
Jesus commanded, "...whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them..." (Matthew 7:12) Too often in the hearts of men, this text becomes, "...whatever men do to you, do also to them..." And so, when reviled, we revile back. When troubled, we threaten in return. Yet Jesus became our example, for He "'...committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth'; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, he did not threaten..." (1 Peter 2:22-23) On the contrary, He "...committed Himself to Him who judges righteously..."

Peter continues, later in the same epistle, "...love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For 'He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek eace and pursue it....if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed..." (1 Peter 3:8-11, 14)

"...by whose stripes you were healed..." (v 24)
The cure for our sin was beyond our own resources. Jesus Christ bore in His body that which we could not. The prophet penned, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5) Upon seeing Jesus, John declared, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)

Having our past transgressions dissolved, we ought now live for righteousness. Paul contends, "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? ... he who has died has been freed from sin ... reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus ... do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God ... Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slave to obey, you are that one's slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" (Romans 6:2, 7, 11, 13, 16) We are called out of sin, that we might live for righteousness, that we might be as He is (1 John 2:6; 3:6-7).

"...The Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." (v 25)
Throughout the Bible, God's people are compared to sheep. David confesses, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep..." (Psalm 119:176) Isaiah acknowledged our waywardness as the cause for the Lord's suffering foretold in that text, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6)

The Bible speaks of man apart from the Saviour as "...weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd." (Matthew 9:35) And so, Jesus became the Good Shephard (John 10:11, 14). How beautiful the confidence that the His oversight can bolster stimulate, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to like down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." (Psalm 23:1-4)

Will you follow the steps of Jesus? Are you willing to do good and suffer patiently? Will you do for men as you would have men do for you? God has not only commanded us regarding such a life -- He's given us an example, Jesus Christ. Let us seek His example, that we "...should follow His steps..."

Click here for this week's Answering The Atheist
Why couldn't the men on the road to Emmaus recognize Jesus? Was it His appearance (Mark 16:12), or was it their eyes (Luke 24:16)? Is there a contradiction?