Christian Challenge Sermon Viii: Christian Duty Series

CHRISTIAN DUTY

I Peter 2:13-25

One of the major goals of the Christian life is for those of us who call ourselves Christians to live in such a way that by our actions – our conduct and our behavior – we commend Christianity to those who still do not accept Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.

Hopefully, if our actions speak louder than our words, and thereby others see us individually as an example of all that Christianity stands for – faith, hope and love, these three, but they see that the greatest of these is love – they who witness our example will want to experience the same kind of relationship to God that they see in and through us.

So, it is fitting that, after Peter has drummed it in his first century brothers and sisters in Christ that God expects them to be holy, he now lectures us on Christian duty within all the spheres of life. Christian duty as a citizen (2:13-15) . . .

Most of us will recall that Jesus had said, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

The apostle Paul was certain that those who governed the nation were sent by God, had received their responsibility from God, and that they were no terror to the person who lived an honorable life (Romans 3:1-7).

In the pastoral epistles, Christians are instructed to pray for kings and all that are in authority (I Timothy 2:2).

The instruction of the New Testament is that the Christian must be a good and useful member of society. Would you agree that government is divinely appointed to provide and maintain order within society?

Would you agree that we as citizens ought to accept the privileges which government provides but also, we ought to accept the responsibilities that go along with the privileges?

Yet, we must recognize that government in the first century versus government today was quite different. In New Testament times, government was authoritarian. The ruler was an absolute ruler; and the sole duty of the citizen was to render absolute obedience to the state and to pay taxes. Thus, in that culture two thousand years ago, the people had no choice but to be subject to the state.

But we do not live in an authoritarian state. Ours is a constitutional republic!

In a constitutional republic, something uniquely better than subjection and submission is essential for us to function as a democracy: Government must be of the people, by the people, for the people.

Now, the implied demand of the New Testament is that Christians should fulfill their obligations to the state, and live according to the laws of the state, in which they reside. Back then, that could only mean subjection.

Today it can only mean that we submit ourselves to that with which we the people have agreed to – by a majority vote.

Back then, the Christian had no choice. Today the Christian does have a choice. If the Christian does not agree with that which he or she has to choose from, then it becomes the Christian’s obligation to exercise the privilege found only in a democracy to take necessary initiatives to change the choices available to the people.

As Christians, we must never forget that our highest obligation is to the Lord God. Yes, we are supposed to cooperate with or change decisions made by government, but we are also to be ever mindful that we are also to render unto God the things that are God’s.

When Christians find themselves caught in a conflict of loyalties between government and God, it becomes the Christian’s duty to exercise loyalty to God by standing up and speaking out and working together to influence and even compel the state to change its ways. That is the way of a Christian democracy.

Christian duty in society (2:16) . . .

A statement made by a professor of mine in a college course on political science has stuck in my brain for almost a half century – and from time to time I have relied on the wisdom of that statement to keep me in touch with reality. The statement was this: “Liberty is not license.”

No one has been freed to do as we please in the sense that we are free to do wrong, simply if we choose to do so, with no accountability whatsoever.

No individual in society has a right to lord it over any other person or group of people; nor does that individual’s freedom give him or her a license to invade another person’s privacy. Let me share a statement that I made on many occasions when I served as a minister-counselor in a Georgia Regional Youth Development Center: “Your freedom ends where my freedom begins.” In other words, “Don’t mess with me, buddy.”