1 Peter 2:21

1 Peter 2:21. For unto this were ye called. Patient endurance of undeserved suffering should be deemed no strange thing (cf. 1 Peter 4:12). Painful as it was, it was involved in their Christian vocation. In being called by God to the grace of Christ, they were called to take up His cross (Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24, etc.). The fact appeals with special force to slaves; for He Himself ‘took upon Him the form of a servant' (Philippians 2:7). For the turn of expression here, cf. Colossians 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:14. The A. V. needlessly inserts even, as Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Bishops' Bible introduce a verily which is not in the text.

because Christ also suffered for you. The best authorities give the second person here instead of the ‘for us' of the Received Text. The phrase means here, too, not ‘in your stead,' but ‘in your behalf,' or ‘for your good.' The idea is that the servant cannot expect to be greater than the Master. They do not stand alone in suffering. They are only called to endure as Christ endured. He suffered, and that, too, not on His own account, but in their cause and for their benefit.

to you leaving behind (Him) an example. The pronoun (which again should be ‘you' not ‘ us') is put with a strange prominence first, taking up the immediately preceding ‘for you,' and applying the fact most emphatically to these bond-servants. The ‘leaving behind is expressed by a verb which is found nowhere else in the N. T., but which occurs in reference to death in the apocryphal Book of Judith (Jdt 8:7). The idea of an example is conveyed by a term, of which this is the one N. T. instance, and which denotes properly the sketch given to students of art to copy, or trace over and fill in, or the head-lines containing the letters of the alphabet, which were set for children who were learning writing. The idea of an example is expressed by different terms in John 13:15 (where it = sign, or pattern), and 2 Thessalonians 3:9 (where it = type; cf. also 1 Corinthians 10:11). The object of this bequest is next stated,

in order that ye might follow; or, follow closely, as the verb strictly means, which occurs again in Mark 16:20; 1 Timothy 5:10; 1 Timothy 5:24 (in this last verse pointing to the closeness with which some men's sins pursue them to judgment).

his steps, or footprints. Compare also Romans 4:12; 2 Corinthians 12:18, the only other occurrences in the N. T. The change of figure from a teacher setting a copy to be imitated, to a guide making a track to be intently kept by those coming after him, is to be noticed. Huther calls attention to the fact that, except in 1 John 2:6 (where the idea is more general), it is with particular reference to ‘His self-abasement in suffering and death' that the N. T. presents Christ as an example, e.g. John 13:15; John 15:12; Philippians 2:5; Hebrews 12:2; 1 John 3:16.