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1 Peter 2:21 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
²¹For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his footsteps,

For to this you were called. Such a spirit is required by the very nature of your Christian vocation; you were called into the church in order that you might evince it. See Notes, 1 Thess. 3:3.

Because Christ also suffered for you. The latest editions of the Greek Testament adopt the reading ‘for you.’ The sense, however, is not essentially varied. The object is to hold up the example of Christ to those who were called to suffer and to say to them that they should bear their trials in the same spirit that he evinced in his. See Notes, Phil. 3:10.

Leaving you an example. The apostle does not say that this was the only object for which Christ suffered but that it was an object and an important one. The word rendered example (ὑπογραμμὸν) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means properly a writing copy, such as is set for children; or an outline or sketch for a painter to fill up; and then, in general, an example, a pattern for imitation.

That ye should follow his footsteps. That we should follow him, as if we trod exactly along behind him, and should place our feet precisely where his were. The meaning is that there should be the closest imitation or resemblance. The things in which we are to imitate him are specified in the following verses.

By Albert Barnes and Edward D. Andrews