1 Peter 2:21-23 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For even hereunto Namely, to suffer wrongfully, and to bear such treatment with patience and meekness; are ye Christians called; because Christ Whose followers you profess to be, pure and spotless as he was; suffered for us Not only hard speeches, buffetings, and stripes, but deep and mortal wounds, even the ignominious and painful death of crucifixion; leaving us When he returned to heaven; an example of suffering patiently for well-doing; that ye should follow his steps Of innocence and patience. Who did no sin And therefore did not deserve to suffer any thing; neither was guile Any insincerity, or dissimulation, or the least mis-spoken word, found to drop from his mouth This is an allusion to the words of Isaiah, concerning the Messiah, Isaiah 53:9; neither was any deceit in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled As he frequently was, being called a Samaritan, a glutton, a wine-bibber, a blasphemer, a demoniac, one in league with Beelzebub, a perverter of the nation, and a deceiver of the people; he reviled not again In any one instance: he did indeed once say to the Jews, Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye will do. This, however, was not a reviling speech, but a true description of their character, and a prediction that they would murder him; and when he suffered All kinds of insults and tortures, till they ended in his death on the cross; he threatened not the vengeance which he had it in his own power to have executed; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously The only solid ground of patience in affliction. In all these instances, the example of Christ was peculiarly adapted for the instruction of servants, who easily slide into sin or guile, reviling their fellow-servants, or threatening them, the natural result of anger without power.