Submission to bad bosses

1 Pe 2:18-21

18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

• How were free-in-Christ servant/slaves supposed to deal with their masters?
  
• What is different about submission with respect?
  
• How did the master's behavior change things?
  
• How do you treat your employer?
  
• How submissive are you?
  
• How submissive are the following:
  - active aggressive responses
  - passive aggressive responses
  
• How respectful is the submission you give your employer?
  
• What was the purpose for this submission?
  
• How does your conscience towards God change your work life?
  
• Why would God seem to be unconcerned about your suffering at work?
  
• Why are your to bear up under unjust suffering?
  
• When might you suffer unjustly at work?
  
• When have you been "slammed" after you did the right thing?
  
• How well do you patiently endure unjust suffering?
  
• What is essential to this type of endurance?
  
• What sort of daily suffering do you endure just because you are a Christian trying to do right?
  
• What temptations do you have to suffer through and not give in to?
  
• What activities must you avoid that your friends enjoy?
  
• What ridicule must you endure for not being like the crowd?

Unconventional Proverbs

Eccles. 7:1-4

7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment,
and the day of death than the day of birth.
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind,
and the living will lay it to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

• How is a good reputation important to you?
  - How is it better than soothing medicine?
  - How can a bad reputation affect you physically and emotionally?
  
• Why is the day of a person's death better than the day of their birth to Solomon?
  - How might this be true for Christians today?
  
• Which would you prefer: a house of mourning or a house of feasting? Funeral or party?
  - How do funeral impact the living?
  - What should a funeral remind the living of?
  
• Why is sorrow better than laughter to Solomon?
  - How does laughter push aside reality?
  - Which is wiser, an honest appraisal of mortality or an attempt to escape facing mortality?