reproach – Ministry of Grace Church

For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on Me."

Truth to Learn

Christ is our supreme example of humility for the sake of others.

Behind the Words

The Greek word translated “reproaches” is oneidismos, which is based on the verb oieididzō, meaning “to defame, deride, disparage, or reproach.” In other words, it means to attack with abusive words.

“Fell” is from epipiptō, which is made up of epi, meaning “over or upon” and piptō, meaning “to fall.” Thus, epipiptō, means “to fall upon” or “to land upon.”

Meaning Explained

Paul has been showing us that we ought to consider the wellbeing of others as more important than our own wellbeing. Even as we read through this passage, all of us are at one time or another going to say, or at least think, “But what about me? Don’t I have to take care of myself? I can’t expend all of my energy taking care of others; I need to take care of good old number one!”

I suspect that Paul’s response to that would be that good old number one should always be good old number last! If we take care to always do good and be well pleasing to others, then God will take care of us. (Clearly, we need to ensure that we are taking good physical care of ourselves so we can meet the needs of others.) Paul now gives the supreme example of selfless love and the considering of the welfare of others more than self; that is Jesus Christ Himself. His quote here is from the Psalms.

Because zeal for Your house has consumed, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. (Psalms 69:9)

This entire Psalm is a Messianic psalm. When Christ hung on the cross, in fact before he hung on the cross, while he was going through the illegal mock trials the night before and the morning of his crucifixion, He suffered many reproaches for our sakes. He was beaten in the face with both open hands and closed fists and was spat upon (Matthew 26:67). He had the hairs of his beard plucked out (Isaiah 50:6). He was beaten with the scourge (John 19:1) until his flesh was like bloody hamburger meat! He was mocked and ridiculed (Psalms 22:7, 8; Matthew 27:31; Matthew 27:41-43). And yet, He did not strike out at them nor retaliate in any way. In fact, He remained silent when falsely accused (Matthew 27:12-14; Mark 15:4, 5). Instead of striking back, He took the reproaches which we should have received. God in the flesh took on the reproaches of men so that we sinful men could avoid the reproaches of a righteous God. Truly Christ was more concerned about us than He was about pleasing Himself.

If He was willing to take such abuse for our sakes, then surely we should be willing to subjugate our own desires and pleasures for the sake of our neighbor, shouldn’t we?

Application

Paul has spent a lot of time and effort teaching us how important it is for us to humble ourselves before God and before our fellow Christians. Do you suppose that it might be a good idea for us to learn how to do that?

In God's service, for His glory,

1 Peter 4:14

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.

Truth to Learn

Our obedient, righteous suffering glorifies God.

Behind the Words

The word translated “reproached” is the Greek word oneididzō, which means “defamed, taunted, or put down.” It refers to people saying slanderous or derogatory things about you because of your beliefs or actions in obedience to God.

The Greek word markarios is translated as “blessed” in this verse. It does not mean that we are happy, but that we are in a position of blessing. It specifically refers to someone “who is supremely fortunate.”

The expression “rests on you” is from the Greek eph humas anapauetai. The first part of this, eph huma,s means “upon you (plural)” with the sense of motion toward. The word anapauetai means “he rests himself.”

Meaning Explained

If your desire in life is to see God get the glory and honor that He is due, then today’s verse should pop into your head whenever you suffer for righteousness sake.

If you are being obedient to God, speaking and acting in obedience to Him, and you are verbally treated with contempt for it, either to your face or behind your back, you are supremely fortunate. This verse, like several of the preceding verses, seems to imply that there is pleasure in pain. However, you will notice that in all of Peter’s writings on suffering for righteousness, he never once says that it is pleasurable. Physically and emotionally it is painful, just as it was physically and emotionally painful to Christ when He suffered for us. What Peter is trying to get across is that in spite of the pain, we can feel a sense of peace and contentment knowing what the spiritual result will be.

We are told that the reason we are supremely fortunate when we are verbally buffeted in the name of Christ is because the Spirit of God, the spirit of glory, rests on us. There is something very beautiful about this that I don’t want any of us to miss. When we are suffering for righteousness sake, because we are being obedient to the Spirit of God, He comes upon us imparting a sense of inner peace in spite of the physical or emotional pain. That’s how martyrs of the faith in days gone by have been able to sing and give praise to God even while they were being consumed by flames.

In the last part of today’s verse, Peter tells us that even though those who are reviling us are intentionally blaspheming God, in reality He is being glorified by our obedience and faithfulness. We all tend to think that we will give God much glory when we do some great spiritual work in His name and to this end we work hard. What Peter is telling us is that simply by being humbly obedient, especially if we suffer for it, we are glorifying God.

Application

Let’s all commit ourselves to humility and obedience to God regardless of the potential consequences, knowing that He will give us peace in the middle of it and that He will be glorified if and when we suffer for His sake!

In God’s service, for His glory,

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Ministry of Grace Church

Tag: reproach

Romans 15:3 – Humility Personified

1 Peter 4:14 – Suffering For His Glory