How is it to your credit if you are beaten for doing wrong and you endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
Parallel translations
- WEB For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God.
- KJV For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
- NKJV For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
- NASB For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
- NLT Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Enduring punishment for wrongdoing earns no credit, but patiently bearing suffering for doing good is commendable to God. Only undeserved suffering borne patiently pleases God.
Overview
Peter distinguishes deserved punishment from unjust suffering: there is no honor in enduring the consequences of sin. But to suffer for doing good and bear it patiently 'is commendable with God,' echoing the value he places on conscience-driven endurance. This sets the standard that Christ himself perfectly embodied.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- 1 Pet 2:19For if anyone endures the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God, this is to be commended.
- 1 Pet 3:17For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
- Matt 5:10–12Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Luke 6:32If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.
- 1 Pet 4:14–16If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
- 1 Pet 3:14But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken.”
- Eph 5:10Test and prove what pleases the Lord.
- Matt 5:47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same?
- Matt 26:67Then they spit in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him
- 1 Cor 4:11To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.
- Mark 14:65Then some of them began to spit on Him. They blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists, and said to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers received Him with slaps in His face.
- Rom 12:1–2Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
- Phil 4:18I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
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The lamb without blemish foreknown before the world, who bore our sins in his body on the tree, by whose wounds we are healed — the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
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Original language
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