¹⁸ Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse. ¹⁹ For this is praiseworthy, if any one, on account of conscience to ward God, endure sorrows, suffering unjustly. ²⁰ For what praise is due, if, when you are punished for your faults, you endure it patiently? But if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you endure it patiently, this is praiseworthy in the- sight of God.

²¹ To this, indeed, you have been called; because even Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his footsteps. ²² He did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth. ²³ When he was reviled, he did not revile again; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. By his stripes you were healed. ²⁵ For you were like sheep that had gone astray; but now you have returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.