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In this world, there is a price to pay for doing the right thing. It is easier to copy a friend’s correct answers than to struggle through difficult schoolwork. It is not cool to shun gossip, drunkenness, and popular but morally suspect TV shows. It is convenient to be evasive when people seek our opinion on “controversial topics” – gay marriage, for example – when Christians are associated with archaism at best or bigotry at worst. It is costly to be merciful when someone hurts us deeply. It is difficult to respond kindly to harsh words from friends, family, or colleagues.

We should not find it strange that doing good will cost us (1 Pet 4:12). We should be prepared that we may even suffer (1 Pet 2:20, 3:17). In fact, the Apostle Peter goes further to say that we are called to this: “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps” (1 Pet 2:21).

If there were any human who should protest against his suffering, it would be Jesus. But He did not. As the novelist Graham Greene wrote: “It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization – it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and corrupt.” Jesus suffered an unjust, undeserved, criminal’s crucifixion – not for any fault of His own, but for a world that unblinkingly does evil and tramples on His sacrifice. He suffered so that He might bring us to God, reconciling us to our Creator and Heavenly Father (1 Pet 3:18).

The next time we are faced with the cost of doing good, let us continue to do the right thing and be glad with exceeding joy (1 Pet 4:13). We can rejoice because Jesus is our example. If we are reviled and rejected, let us take heart. Our Master has gone before us and He suffered much more than we ever can. We go through only a poor shadow of what He intimately understands. We respond to the call of Jesus, our example, with thanksgiving and joy.

The Master hath called us, in life’s early morning,
With spirits as fresh as the dew on the sod:
We turn from the world, with its smiles and its scorning,
To cast in our lot with the people of God:
The Master hath called us, His sons and His daughters,
We plead for His blessing and trust in His love;
And through the green pastures, beside the still waters,
He’ll lead us at last to His kingdom above.