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.”
Christian duty summarized (2:17) . . .
If you really want to boil it down to the basics, there are four of them. I suggest that we think of these basics in terms of “hitting a home run” for the cause of Christian Duty. If we touch all the bases, we will:
Honor all men. Apparently, Peter felt he could not take it for granted that Christians would treat other people with respect and dignity.
When we stop and think about the fact that there were 60,000,000 slaves in the Roman Empire – and many of the new Christians were Romans who themselves were either slaves or masters of slaves – we begin to understand why it was so important then, and has continued to be important through the centuries, that the duty to honor all people should be laid squarely on the shoulders of Christians.
We realize, of course, that this has not always been the case, but thank God for those Christians who have taken a stand for the right through the centuries.
Love the brotherhood. If we treat one another with respect and dignity, as we should, without having to be reminded of it, first thing you know we begin to love each other. Love must always be the dominant theme of the Christian Church. If we as Christians are not living in harmony as the family of God, that should be our number one priority. Let’s get with it!
Fear God. What was it the writer of Proverbs said long before Peter wrote this letter to the churches? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). The word he uses here has nothing to do with being afraid of God. God is not a terrorist. The Lord God has demonstrated his love for us in so many ways. His love for us is so great that we bow in awe and reverence before Him; and it is a simple fact of life that we will never reverence a fellow human being until we reverence God.
Honor the king. This is a tough requirement. It is so hard at times to honor those in authority who occupy their position for selfish gain or who use their power in ways that we disagree with. Yet, as I have said before that, if a person in authority walked into a room where I was sitting, it would be my Christian duty to be polite and show respect to that person. There’s a lot more to be gained by courtesy than by disrespect.
Christian duty as servants (2:18-25) . . .
In the days of the Roman Empire, which was the case in the first century when Christianity was born, to be a slave was not necessarily a bad thing.
Believe it or not, among the slave population there were professionals such as doctors, teachers, musicians, actors, and other people who became a part of the family whose master owned them in the sense that their services were paid for by the head of the family.
Even so, it was wrong in the sense that these folks had become the property of Rome because of conquests by the Romans of other nations.
The analogy that Peter uses here would, therefore, be understood very clearly by those to whom he was writing in New Testament times.
The real point he is making here does not really have to do with slavery as a political or social issue; it has more to do with the Christian’s role as a servant to the Lord Jesus Christ who is our Master. We are to be subservient and obedient to Him as if we were His slaves.
Those who had endured hardships because of the system of slavery that had been thrust upon them by Roman rulers would readily identify with Peter’s analogy.
What Peter wants these new Christians to understand is that they have been bought with a price, but that they were bought due to God’s love for them and God’s desire to provide a way for them to be set free from bondage to sin.
Now that Christ has set them free, they will want to use their freedom to show their love for one another inasmuch as they now belong to the family of God their Maker, who has become not only their heavenly Father but their shepherd, who will guide them and protect them rather than harm them; and their guardian, who will watch over them with tender loving care rather than treat them as if they were nobody.
As a child of God, I am somebody; and now that I am treated as an individual created in the image of God, it is with love in my heart that I will now voluntarily adopt submission as a way of life – if everyone understands that, in Christ, we are all equal in the sight of God and that we are therefore expected to practice mutual submission! Amen.
