1 Peter 2:20 · World English Bible
1 Peter 2:20 Meaning For What Glory Is It If
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.
What does 1 Peter 2:20 mean?
Sīla: Virtuous conduct Sīla is conduct kept clean on purpose. Doing well is measured at the point where you do it, and it stays intact whether the master nods or reaches for the rod.
From the Buddhism reading below.
1 Peter 2:20 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Buddhism
BUDDHISM
Buddhism
Sīla: Virtuous conduct Sīla is conduct kept clean on purpose. Doing well is measured at the point where you do it, and it stays intact whether the master nods or reaches for the rod. A household servant who works honestly and is struck anyway has lost none of the honesty; the blow lands on the body and leaves the conduct standing where it was.
Kamma: Action and its fruit Kamma is intention ripening into result. Beaten for your own wrongdoing, you are paying a bill you ran up yourself, and bearing it well only settles the account quietly. Nothing fresh is put in, so nothing fresh comes back, and that is why taking that particular beating earns no credit.
Khanti: Patient endurance Khanti is the strength to bear pain and provocation without breaking. Anyone holds steady on a day when the work is praised; the test arrives with the undeserved blow. Absorbing that without striking back and without going to pieces is the whole of the training, compressed into one moment.
Akkodha: Freedom from anger Akkodha is holding no anger toward the one who harms you. Standing still under the beating while storing up a grudge is just a blow delayed, and the stored anger keeps working inside long after the bruise fades. Endurance counts when the master walks away and nothing is left burning against him.
Puñña: Merit Puñña is the wholesome weight a good deed leaves in the person who did it. Commendable with God points to a ledger the master never sees: the good act is complete the moment it is done, and no beating reaches back to undo it. Approval in the household is a thin and shifting wage, while this part cannot be withheld by anyone, however unjust.
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Buddhism lens
Live 1 Peter 2:20 today
- When you do something right and nobody sees it, let that be enough. The quiet work you did on the report at eleven at night counts fully even if the credit lands on someone else in the morning.
- If someone snaps at you after you went out of your way for them, let the fairness of it go unargued. You can say "okay" and keep the kindness you already gave, instead of trying to get it recognized.
- In a meeting where you get blamed for a call that was actually careful and correct, stay steady and do not start keeping score inside. Taking the hit is one thing. Storing it up for later is a second thing you can decline.
What good thing have you done lately that nobody thanked you for, and can you let it be whole anyway?
The same truth in other traditions
Stoicism · Epictetus
What someone does to you belongs to them. Whether your own conduct stays honest belongs to you, and no beating can reach across that line to spoil it.
Bhagavad Gita
Do the work that is yours to do and let go of the harvest. The act is complete in itself, and its worth does not wait on anyone's approval or depend on what comes back.
Pirkei Avot
The reward of a good deed is the deed. Its weight settles in the one who did it, in a place no master or employer can dock.
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