1 PETER 2:3-17

January 26, 2020

You’ve likely paid attention to the news this week – the
past several weeks – as our Congress recently impeached President Trump in the
House of Representatives and sent the case to the Senate to be tried.  The two charges against the President
include:

Abuse
of Power in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden.Obstruction
of Justice in not providing documents requested by the House in their
investigation.

Of course, those are the indictments leveled by the House –
it’s up to the Senate to determine if the President is guilty of the charges, and
if not, to acquit him.  As I’m sure you
know, the vote in the House was almost purely on Party lines, and if it follows
suit in the Senate, the President will be acquitted.

Now, depending on who you listen to – CNN, Fox News, or
FaceBook, you likely have strong opinions about the proceedings, as do most
Americans.  In fact, I’ve read some of your
opinions on FaceBook. The question for us is how do we respond in the public
arena to such proceedings?  Perhaps a
better question, how do we respond and preserve our Christian witness? Does
that even matter?  Is it true religion
and politics don’t mix – and so we can act righteously regarding religion, and
throw spiritual propriety to the wind regarding politics?  You say, I have a right to my opinions, to
express those opinions, as an American citizen. 
Of course you do, but how does the manner of such expression affect your
Christian witness, and does that matter? 
Does the Bible have anything to say to the 21st Century American
church regarding such issues?

I believe it does. 
And I would suggest further, I know of no other country in history in
which Christians can act like Christians, in the public, political square.  I could ask it this way, to spark your
thinking:  What kind of government is
best?  You say, duh, Scott, we do live in
the good ole U.S. of A. – of course that would be a democracy, or republic – a
government of the people, by the people and for the people – where we elect
others to represent us.  So, a republic –
like the one we have, in which those duly elected officials are currently
quarreling at the highest levels like school children.  Or the one where name-calling and mocking at
the highest levels on Twitter is acceptable. 
Ok, is it Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Independent?  And I would suggest we have all represented
in this room.

You say, oh well, I’m more of a socialist anyway – maybe not
communism which is really just a guise for totalitarianism – socialism, where
we look out for the laborer, where we all share equally.  I won’t get into all the philosophical and
historical reasons why a forced redistribution of wealth and a mandated
equality has yet proven to work – many of you are much better suited to the
task – but it does seem to have its challenges.

Ok, how about no government – anarchy?  Maybe ANTIFA is right.  You know, where no one is really in charge –
where all just agree to get along, eliminate laws and allow the natural
goodness of people to come to the fore? 
Will that work?  Probably not.

Ok, how about a monarchy, you know, divine right of kings?  Or better yet, how about a theocracy – that’s
where we’re headed anyway.  Where the
King of kings and Lord of lords rules? 
But until then, how about a rule of law based on religion.  Which one, Islam – Sharia law?  We’ll have a burka sale in the Atrium after
the service.  No, what about law based on
the Ten Commandments – yeah, maybe we should post them in courthouses and
public buildings – after all, our country is founded on the Judeo-Christian
ethic, right?  The only problem with the
Law is people can’t keep it, which is why we need the grace and forgiveness of
the New Covenant.

Maybe deciding which form of government is best would be a
bit challenging, although to be clear, I’m deeply thankful to be an
American.  But again, back to the
question:  What is our response, as
Christians, toward government – regardless of form?  Whether we live in the United States or Iran
or Russia or China or Cuba?  Again, that’s a better question, because the
Bible actually tells us. 

We’ve been in a study of I Peter.  We know it’s a letter written by Peter to
Christians in Asia Minor – modern-day Turkey. 
They were facing opposition, so he writes to encourage them, reminding
of their salvation, and their fellowship as believers.  We got to the body of the letter last week,
and he’s turned his attention to how to live, not within the church, but
without.  That is, how do we live among
unbelievers, especially those who oppose us.  We looked at the introduction to the topic
last week – the umbrella verses which cover the topic from chapter 2 verse 11,
to chapter 4 verse 11.  We read:

11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts
which wage war against the soul.

12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in
which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as
they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Keep your behavior excellent, beautiful among the Gentiles –
unbelievers – so that even though they mistreat you – slander, ridicule, oppose
you – they may see your good works and glorify God when He returns.  I suggested that means, they will be
attracted to the Christian faith by your beautiful life, and believe the
gospel, glorifying God by their faith when He comes back.  Our good lives can actually be used by God to
draw people to Himself.  Conversely, if
we say we’re Christians and don’t live like it, we do damage to the gospel.  We’ve all known people who say, I would have
been a Christian if it wasn’t for Christians.

Now to be clear, people are not the enemy – they are held
captive by the enemy, and by their own sin – as we once were.  Our desire should be to live such beautiful
lives before them that they want what we have.

So now, Peter tells us what beautiful lives look like.  He talks about relationships with three
groups of people:  believing citizens and
unbelieving governments, believing slaves and unbelieving masters, and
believing wives and unbelieving husbands. 
And in the middle of all that, he gives us the wonderful and challenging
example of Jesus Himself.  And we’re going
to see words/concepts repeated – honor or respect, and submission.  I know, that’s not a popular word today, especially
in a culture which highly values independence, liberty, freedom, and
rights.  But if this is God’s eternal
Word, and it is, then it speaks to us now as much as it did then.  It’s not outdated nor archaic.  And so, verse 13 starts with, submit yourselves
to every human institution.  Verse 18
says, servants, be submissive to your masters. 
And chapter 3, verse 1 says, in the same way, you wives be submissive to
your own husbands. 

But he starts with the relationship between people and
governing authority.  You see, Peter’s
readers were under the rule of Rome – the Roman Emperor and Senate – complete
with local ruling officials. And so Peter writes, I Peter 2:13-17. 

Our outline looks like this:

Submit to Governing Authorities (13-15)Serve as God’s Slaves (16)Honor Everyone (17)  Not agree with everyone, but honor everyone.

Notice, Peter says, submit yourselves – in other
words, you take the initiative.  Yes,
governing authorities can demand your submission – they can make you bow to
their authority by force.  But Peter
says, if you want to live beautiful lives before unbelievers, submit
yourselves. You make a willful decision to live a life of respectful
submission.  I’ll come back to that. 

So, submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake, interesting
phrase.  It probably means two
things.  First, we submit for His sake –
that is, for Him.  It is ultimately
Christ we are serving, and we want to make Him known by our beautiful lives –
so our submission is ultimately for His sake, His glory.  But it also likely includes the idea of
submitting under His will.  In other
words, our submission to governing authorities should be consistent with our
submission to the Lordship of Christ.

Meaning, we submit as long as those commands or that
obedience does not violate God’s commands. 
If they directly violate God’s commands or His character, we do not submit.  There is a place for civil disobedience.  And so, for example, on one hand, if the
government demands paying taxes, we pay our taxes.  Jesus even said that – render to Caesar the
things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s.  If the government commands us to obey traffic
laws, we should as faithful, law-abiding citizens.  Further, if in a democracy/republic, we have
the right to vote, we should exercise that right – giving us, incredibly, a say
in our government.  Do you know how many
people across the world throughout time would love that right?

But there are times when the government demands things which
are inconsistent with our Christian faith. 
Lots of biblical examples.  One is
found in Acts 4.  We talked about that a
couple weeks ago.  Peter and John went to
the Temple to pray – and along the way, the healed a man lame from birth.  It caused quite the uproar.  So Peter and John were arrested, put in jail
overnight.  The next day, they were made
to appear before the Sanhedrin – the high priests the chief priests and the
elders.  After testifying they had indeed
healed this man in the name of Jesus, whom they crucified, they found themselves
in further hot water.  We read in Acts 4:

15 But when they had ordered them to leave the Council, they began to
confer with one another,

16 saying, "What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a
noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in
Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. [I mean, the guy is walking around.]

17 "But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us
warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name."  [Now you have to know Rome granted local
governments, i.e., the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body, limited
authority.  They had the full might of
Rome behind them in such matters. They had the legal power to make such a
command. What would happen?  After all,
the last thing Jesus told His disciples before returning to heaven was to take
the gospel to all nations – make disciples of Jesus.  So, what would they do now?  Clearly, the command of governing authorities
contradicted the command of Jesus.]

18 And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach
at all in the name of Jesus.

19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in
the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge;

20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard."

21 When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis
on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all
glorifying God for what had happened;

Did you see?  You have
commanded us to do something we cannot do. 
We cannot stop speaking about Jesus. 
And by the way, you should know they didn’t, and most of the disciples
gave their lives for disobeying the command.

We could talk about the book of Daniel, where two
significant events happened you probably heard as children in Sunday
School.  First, in chapter 3, the people
of Babylon were commanded to bow in worship before a 90-foot image of
Nebuchadnezzar.  When the music played,
which was the signal to bow, there were three Hebrew boys who refused to
bow.  You see, the first commandments of
the Ten Commandments clearly say you shall not worship any other gods.  You know this part of the story – Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego were cast into a fiery furnace.  But God walked with them, and they came out unscathed.  What’s interesting is this:  when they were dragged before the king, and
given a chance to recant and bow, or face the furnace, they responded with
these incredible words:

13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach,
Meshach and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king.

14 Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach,
Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden
image that I have set up?

15 "Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn,
flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down
and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not
worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing
fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?"

16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, "O
Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.

17 "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from
the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  [one way or the other.]

18 "But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O
king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that
you have set up."

Did you see?  Our God
is able to deliver us from the fire, but even if He chooses not to, know this,
we will not bow down and worship the image. 
Come what may, we will obey God rather than men.  The same thing happens in Daniel 6 – everyone
in the Medo-Persian empire is commanded to pray only to the king for 30 days –
anyone who prays to a God other than King Darius would face the lions’
den.  Daniel prays – you know the rest of
the story.  He spent the night with the
lions, and came out unscathed.  He could
have been eaten alive, as many other Christians were later when they refused to
recant their faith in Jesus and bow to the Roman Emperor.  They were thrown to wild beasts, and
devoured.  They were dipped in pitch, a
flammable material, and burned alive – serving as torches for Nero’s garden
parties.  God does not, to the present
day, always deliver.  But it is always
right to obey God.  

How might that look today? 
What if you’re living in China, and they mandate abortions because you
can only have one child?  What if your
governing authority demands you recant your faith in Jesus or face stoning or
beheading?  What if they command you to not
teach everything in the Bible, because it’s considered hate-speech?  What if they command you to not meet in
Christian gatherings – worship services or the underground church?  What if they tell you evangelism is
punishable by imprisonment or death?  What
if they outlaw the Bible?  What would you
do?  These are clear examples of things
requiring civil disobedience.

We must keep moving, I’m still on verse 13.  Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to
every human institution. That’s an interesting translation – the word is
actually creation or creature.  So the
idea is, submit yourself to those humans having authority, like
governments.  Emphasis on human – but
there is a higher authority.  Then he
goes on to list a few examples of those in authority.  Whether to the king.  Now, these were people in Asia Minor, under
the harsh rule of Rome.  So everyone knew
the king then was referring to the Roman Emperor.   

If our dating of the letter of Peter is right, then he wrote
when either Claudius or Nero were king – emperor.  Both of them, by Christian standards, were
awful emperors.  Nero is the one who
started the fires in Rome and blamed it on the Christians.  He’s the one who started the first official
persecution against Christians.  He’s the
one who had them arrested, sewn in wild animal skins and thrown to the beasts
in the arena; who lit them alive on fire. 
He’s the one under whose persecutions Peter and Paul were executed.  And under this authority, Peter writes,
submit to those in authority.  Paul wrote
the same thing in Romans 13.

Sometimes we excuse submitting to those in power because we
consider them unworthy of submission or honor. 
But there is a sense in which we honor the position, without necessarily
being impressed by the one filling the position.  Respect the position if you cannot respect
the person.  As I suggested earlier –
there has perhaps been no other country in history where submission and honor
to those in authority should be easier.

So, this submission is due to the highest authorities, down
through their designees.  The entire
structure and hierarchy of government deserves our faithful, honorable
submission.  After all, Peter tells us
they are sent by the king to govern – to maintain some semblance of order.  Governments generally punish evildoers – that
is, those who break the laws; and praise those who do right.  That was more common back then – governments
more readily recognized good behavior.  You
see that every once in awhile with medals given to soldiers, and medals or certificates
of honor given to citizens.  The point is
– be like those who deserve praise from governing authorities by your
submission.  Don’t be like those
considered evildoers. 

Now immediately, I know your objections.  What if we don’t like those who govern, and
we don’t like the laws?  It doesn’t
matter.  Almost any government is better
than pure anarchy.  And ours is to
submit, inasmuch as those laws do not contradict God’s commands – whether we
like those in power or not – Nero or Constantine, Republicans or Democrats.

Why? Verse 15 tells us – this is the will of God that by
submitting – that is obeying – by doing right you silence the ignorance of
foolish men.  That’s not meant to be a
slam.  Remember, unbelievers will malign
us – accuse us of evil.  But by our good
deed,  to include our obedience, we silence
them.  You see, they are simply ignorant
and foolish in their willful disobedience. 
Again, that’s not meant to be disrespectful – it’s simply a biblical
principle – those who don’t know God – who refuse to know God though He has
made Himself known – remain in willful, sinful, foolish ignorance.

Bringing us to verse 16, quickly, our second point.  Because about now, Peter’s readers, and you,
are saying wait just a minute.  I’ve got
my rights.  What do you mean I have to
submit?  I mean, am I not free because
I’m a child of the King of kings?  Yes,
that’s true.  And it’s true you have been
freed from the tyranny of sin.  And so
Peter says, act as free men, because you are, but don’t use your freedom as a
covering for evil.  In the context –
don’t use your freedom as an excuse to not submit to those in authority.  And by the way, Paul makes it clear those in
authority are ordained by God.  He raises
them up, and He takes them down.  He used
nations like Babylon and Assyria.  Ours
is to allow God to know the big picture, and to trust Him in the midst of
governmental challenge. 

In fact, Peter goes one step further – you may be free men,
but you are still bondslaves – and the word is slaves – to God. To Him we are
ultimately responsible.  To Him we give
an account.

Bringing us to our last point – verse 17 – Honor Everyone.  In the midst of submitting – in the midst of
obeying – and by the way, you cannot separate obedience from submission – in
the midst of submission, do it with a proper attitude.  This is especially true for us, given our
freedoms in America.  Look at the four,
very clear commands:

First, honor all people. 
From the king, to the lowest of the low. 
How can Peter say that, especially when such people may be oppressing
us?  Ridiculing and persecuting us?  How?  Remember,
they too, are made in the image of God. 
We can at least honor that.  Remember
the overriding principle through these chapters – it is our desire to live
beautiful lives, honoring people – respecting people – because we want them to
come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Secondly, he throws in, love the brotherhood.  Not only are we to honor all people, but we
pay special care to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Peter is the only person to use this word.  But he loves these corporate words.  We are a brotherhood.  Now, some of those in authority to whom we
submit – are brothers and sisters in Christ. 
Don’t just honor them, love them. 
By the way, that doesn’t mean because they are brothers and sisters,
they will do everything right.  They
won’t.  But we honor and specially love
them.

Third, while we may honor all people, and love the
brotherhood, God alone deserves our reverential fear.  I think Peter is adding a word of
encouragement here.  Yes, I know you are
oppressed and opposed.  Yes, I know I’m
telling you to honor all people.  But you
need not fear them – fear God alone.    

Fourth – and I close with this – honor the king.  Notice he starts with honoring all people,
and ends with a special admonition to honor the king.  He may not be worthy of honor, but we grant
it anyway.  Remember, it’s our desire to
live beautiful lives so that we may win some.

Let me talk about this for just a moment.  Not only do we submit to the king and his
representatives – we show honor or respect to those in governing authority. This
is important for us.  Somehow, we have the
idea while we may submit, because we have to, we don’t have to honor.  Nowhere is this lack of honor more readily
seen than on social media.  I don’t know
if it’s because we feel some kind of freedom, anonymity, lack of
accountability, but some of the things Christians post on FaceBook or
Instragram or Twitter is unacceptable.  I
want you to think of the following people or issues:

Immigration and Border ControlImpeachment and Trump or ClintonRepublican or DemocratAdam SchiffNancy PelosiDonald TrumpJoe BidenHunter BidenElizabeth WarrenBernie SandersAbortion and Women’s RightsLGBTQ Rights and Gay MarriageGun Control and the Second Amendment

I think you get the point. 
I could go on.  Most of these issues
or people divide the country.  Some are
even moral issues.  But there is no place
for Christians to show dishonor and a lack of respect.  We are commanded to honor all people.  We don’t have to accept or affirm
positions.  But can we focus on
positions, without the disrespectful attitudes and sarcastic humor that plagues
our society.  We are supposed to rise
above all that.  We are Christ-followers,
and His grace has changed our lives.  Can
we act like it?

In fact, right now I’m going to ask you to stand as we
pray.  I’m going to pray for our
repentance, our biblical positions, our leaders, and our witness.  Can we participate in the public arena in way
that honors our Christ?