Serve with Grace

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 Peter 2:18–25
+
Serve with Grace
The Lord Jesus serves by dying on the cross. He gives life to everyone by his own death. He calls us to a life of cross and denial of self. The Christian life is marked by suffering. If our Lord suffered for us, we should expect that as he conforms us to his cruciform shape we would also suffer. In our callings, we count suffering an honor and in joyful anticipation of our life with Jesus in heaven, serve with grace in gentleness and peace. Your God suffered for your sins and died that you might die to sin and live to righteousness. He comes to you as a great Shepherd and overseer to defeat your enemies and be healed. In our sin, we strayed. Yet in our straying and wandering, Christ gathers us to himself in forgiveness and peace.