Peter’s admonition for slaves to submit even to harsh masters leads him to discuss the slave’s proper attitude toward undeserved suffering. A slave who suffers, even though undeservedly, with the consciousness that he is following God’s will in what he is doing, will receive the blessing of God.
God will bless you for this is literally “for this is grace.” “Grace” is a word used in many ways in the New Testament, but most often with a theological meaning: God’s undeserved love for people. Here it is not used with this full theological meaning, but describes instead a good action which is worthy of praise and approval. Some translations render it simply in this non-religious sense, for example, Jerusalem Bible “there is some merit”; Phillips “A man does something valuable”; Barclay “A man deserves praise”; New English Bible “it is a fine thing”; Knox “It does a man credit.” Others take God as the implicit subject of “grace” and this is made explicit in some translations (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “God is pleased with you”). “This” may refer back to the slave’s submission even to the harsh master, or forward to the endurance of pain, with the second being preferred in most translations (for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “God is pleased with you when you suffer…”).
If the phrase for this is interpreted as looking back to the manner in which the believers submit themselves to masters, one may translate God will bless you for this as “if you do this, God will bless you” or “because you do this, God will bless you” or as in some languages “… God will be good to you.” If, however, for this is interpreted as relating to the suffering which the believers endure, one may then translate “God will bless you if you endure the pain” or “… when you endure the pain.”
It is not only undeserved suffering that is talked about, it is the pain that arises out of such experience. The word for pain can also mean “grief”; it summarizes all the difficulties a person experiences because of such treatment (compare New American Bible “hardship”; Knox “ill treatment”). The if in if you endure may be interpreted as purely conditional, or as in 1.17, a conditional form which introduces a well-known fact. If one can assume that Peter knew for a fact that the Christian slaves were indeed enduring undeserved suffering in the manner in which he spoke, then he would have used if in the latter sense, and a better translation of it would be “when” (for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Phillips, New American Bible, Moffatt, Knox). A literal translation would of course make the former sense primary (for example, Good News Translation, Barclay, Revised Standard Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy).
It may be difficult to render satisfactorily the expression you endure the pain of undeserved suffering, since pain and suffering are in a sense synonymous, and a literal translation may appear to be entirely too repetitive. Therefore, if you endure the pain of undeserved suffering may be rendered as “if you suffer in a way that you do not deserve” or “if you suffer for something that you have not done.”
It is not simply enough to endure the pain, however; in order that such endurance deserves approval by God, it has to be done with the consciousness of God’s will. Conscious translates a Greek word (suneidēsis) which is often translated “conscience.” Literally rendered then, conscious of his will is “conscience of God,” which is a very difficult expression, since “conscience” would refer to God and not to the believer. Some commentators have tried to retain “conscience” here, but restructure its relationship to “God,” for example, “a conscience responsive to God” (Beare); “for conscience’s sake before God” (Selwyn); “for conscience toward God” (AV, Revised Version). Others, however, retain the genitive sense here, but interpret suneidēsis as “knowledge,” “awareness,” or “consciousness”; and the whole expression therefore refers to a consciousness of God or to an awareness of his will (compare Revised Standard Version “mindful of God”; New English Bible “God is in his thoughts”; New American Bible “awareness of God’s presence”; Barclay “continual consciousness that he is living in the presence of God”).
There are a number of problems related to the final clause of verse 19. In the first place, because you are conscious of his will should not be understood as the cause of a person’s suffering, that is to say, being conscious of God’s will is not that which causes a person to suffer, but it is the reason why the believer willingly endures suffering which he does not deserve. For example, one might render the latter part of verse 19 as “if you endure undeserved suffering on the basis that you are aware that this is God’s will.” This means essentially that the clause because you are conscious of his will must be clearly related to the endurance of pain and not to the undeserved suffering, or stated in a different manner, “because you are conscious of God’s will” is the reason for a person enduring the suffering, but it is not the cause of a person’s suffering.
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The First Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .