Perhaps you have noticed a theme throughout 1 Peter? Following Christ will most likely result in some form of suffering. Finally, Peter wraps up this theme by helping us to see that our suffering should be purely because of our connection to Christ, not our foolish behaviour.
The suffering of the faith community is supposed to help us in the pursuit of holiness as our faith muscles are worked and we understand the power of God in our weakness. However, this holiness will cause the world to push back against us. We need to understand why this backlash comes if we are to know how to live out faith in spite of it.
We have a keen sense of justice and rights in our world. We know our rights and know how to gain justice for ourselves when they are taken from us. But at the same time that Peter has been calling the new believers to understand that they will have to submit to authorities who may threaten their rights, he now calls them to not seek vengeance. AUDIO COMING SOON