The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 Peter 2:18-20, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. 19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. 20 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.”

How often do you think of yourself as a “servant”? My guess is: more often than you think of yourself as a master.

I just counted and discovered that I’ve spent 66 years as a student in formal education. (You’d think I would know more than I do!) Yet, it each of those years, I was a “servant”; my teachers were my “masters.” Masters are those in authority. It does not necessarily mean they know more, but it does mean they have been given control, as long as you are in their class.

Have you ever been sick, so that you had to go to the doctor? You were his servant; he was your master. Has your car ever needed repair? You were the master, so far as to where to go for that repair; but, when you put your car in the mechanic’s hands, he became the master and you were his servant. “Ah,” you say, “but what about the police?”

No policeman is in control of you unless or until you break a law. At that point, he becomes your master. At the same time, he has officers above him, so he is simultaneously a servant and a master.

We’ve all had masters who were harsh and ugly to us at times. Peter says we are still to be submissive to them. They may not deserve respect, but we are to respect them and their authority anyway. Passing through the gate at an army base, the guard salutes his superiors. They have identification on their vehicles that he sees and respects. A guard once told me that while he might not have personal respect for an officer, he nevertheless respected his rank. That’s what Peter meant when he said, “for the sake of conscience toward God.” It’s easy to be nice to masters we like, but when we are respectful to those we don’t like, we “find favor toward God.” And when all is said and done, isn’t what pleases and honors the LORD what it’s really all about?

We honor Him by remembering you in our daily prayers,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”