1 Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men 16 as free men, and not as using the freedom as a cover-up for evil, but rather as slaves of God. 17 Honor everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
Introduction
Have you ever had someone just really put you in your place? Think, for a second, about that phrase – “put you in your place.” That is a painful thing to have happen, right? Anybody wake up this morning and say, “Man, I hope someone puts me in my place today”? What a strange figure of speech that is. Why would it be bad to be put in your place? Where else do you want to be? In every other context, things being in the right place is always good. If things are out of place in your house, you say, “I’ve got to get organized.” If you get in your car and the steering wheel is lying on the floor in the back seat, you say, “That’s not good.” If one of your ankle bones comes loose and lodges in your hip somewhere, you don’t say, “Good for you! You’re working your way up!” Being in your place is a wonderful thing… if you were designed for that place.
And that is really the rub. If this life is one giant, evolutionary accident, then your place in this world is random, purposeless, and meaningless. You are just a scrap of junk sitting randomly in the middle of the junkyard, and there is nothing special about your place. But if this world was created, and human society was created – designed by an infinitely wise God who designs complex systems like the ecosystem or a living cell or the human body – if there is a Creator who runs this world, then your assigned place is perfect. You do not want to mess with your assigned place any more than you want to randomly take portions of your brain and move them around to some other part of your body. You being in your place is a marvelous thing. And the more you trust in the wisdom of God the more you will believe that. If you are an ankle bone, and God has placed you way down the chain, below the hip, below the knee, then your happiest, most effective, most fulfilling life is the life of an ankle bone. And you can praise God for all the people who are over you in authority because it is all by His design.
If you are just joining us in this study through 1 Peter, Peter has been repeatedly telling us that we are aliens and strangers in this world. This is not our home, we are just passing through, we exist here as foreigners who are temporarily residing here. So that brings up a very fundamental question: What is our relationship to the authorities here? If I am a citizen of another kingdom, then do I need to submit to the rules of this kingdom? Do I have to follow their laws, or pay their taxes? What is my relationship to the government authorities?
Submit to the Government Authorities
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men:
The command in verse 13 is very simple – submit. It means to subordinate yourself or place yourself under their authority. Get used to that word because it is going to keep showing up. Here he tells free people (non-slaves) to submit to the governing authorities. Now look down at verse 18.
2:18 Slaves, submit to your earthly masters.
Now look at 3:1.
3:1 Wives, in the same way, submit to your husbands.
So Peter introduces this whole section in verse 12 by saying, Live such good lives among the gentiles, then he goes on to describe what he means – submit to government authorities, submit to masters, submit to husbands. Why? Why all the submission and obedience? Why is that such a big deal? Peter gives us two reasons.
Reason #1 – Cooperation with God
The first one is in verse 14. But before we get to that, let’s make sure we understand who it is we are submitting to.
Government Authorities
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men.
Two things we need to notice about that command. Peter emphasizes every authority. Whether it be the king himself, or some lower official who represents the king – it does not matter who it is or what his level is, any government official who is in a position of authority over you is included - Everyone from the president to the police. The men and women in positions of authority over us in the government have been placed there by God. Even though the systems have been set up by human beings, God is sovereign over that process, so much so that whether the person gets the position through a vote, or by being appointed, or through a military victory, or a coup or whatever – even though it was human activity that placed that person in that position of authority, it is also accurate to say God placed the person there. That is implied in this passage, and it is explicitly stated in Romans 13.
Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted
6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants
That is a reason for us to regard them highly, and at the same time for them to be humbled. We should have high regard for them because they are God’s servants. But they should not get puffed up with pride or imagine they are gods or something special, because apart from God giving them that position they are nothing. They are mere created beings who depend on God for their existence.
That helps put it in perspective. God is saying, “I am calling you to submit to and obey some fellow created beings. It’s not because they are smarter or stronger or greater or more important. You need to obey and honor them just because I say to obey and honor them.”
For the Lord’s Sake
That is why Peter says submit for the Lord’s sake. There is a bumper sticker that says, “Obey God’s laws, not man’s.” God does not agree with that bumper sticker. God’s Word says, “Obey man’s laws for God’s sake.” It is kind of like if you have a 12 year old and an 8 year old, and you have to leave for a little while and you tell the younger one – “I want you to do what your brother says until I get back.” Normally the 12 year old has no authority over his brother at all. But now the younger one has to submit to the older one while you are gone only because you said so. Presidents and congresses and police – none of them have any claim on us naturally. But our Lord has said, “I want you to do what they say while I’m gone.” Why? Peter tells us in verse 14.
Government is for Justice
1 Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
God has given us secular, human government for a purpose. When there is no government, it becomes mob rule – that is the worst situation you can possibly live in. With no one in charge, human beings do not spontaneously govern themselves in a good way. As soon as the restraints of government are off – what do people do? If there is some kind of disaster or event where all the police are busy, what always happens? Looting and rioting – every time. If there are no police available, there will be looting and rioting. And it is never a pleasant thing. When is the last time you saw a really organized, safe, pleasing, well-run riot? It does not happen. Without government, the impulses of the fallen, human heart just run wild, and the weak are overrun by the strong. The tyranny of the majority is the worst kind of tyranny there is. If you doubt that, just read about Somalia during the 90’s, when they had no federal government. It was probably the worst place in the entire world to live. Or you could just read the book of Judges.
Judges 21:25 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Women are being chopped into pieces and mailed around the country and all kinds of sickening things. The book of Judges is rated R for violence and gore, and it is hard to read it without getting sick to your stomach.
Even horrible, oppressive dictatorships are much better to live under than anarchy. That is why totalitarian governments form. When there is no government and it is mob rule, it is so horrible that the people just say, “Any government is better than this – somebody just get a handle on this out-of-control mob.”
And so mercifully, God has given mankind government. If He hadn’t, the whole world would be one, giant Somalia. If you have a bad attitude toward policemen, just go to parts of Zimbabwe or Egypt or Libya where the mob can do whatever they want to you and your family, and in one day you will fall in love with police. The police are the only reason why there are not people right now breaking into your house and taking everything
And so the most fundamental purpose of government is to punish wrongdoers and commend those who do right. In other words – justice. All the way through the Bible, whenever you read about God punishing a particular government, it is always because of injustice – failure to protect the weak from injustice. And that is best accomplished by doing exactly what verse 14 says.
14 … punish those who do wrong
Set up laws to protect people from injustice, and enforce those laws by punishing those who break them.
How should you vote?
And this is a good time for us to be studying this because we have a presidential election coming up this year. You might have really strong opinions on economics, immigration, health care, foreign policy, education, or whatever. But who should you vote for? I think the answer is simple – vote for whichever party is more likely to punish wrongdoers, bring about justice, and protect the weak from the strong or from mob rule.
People in our country have all kinds of ideas about the purpose of government. Sadly, more and more people think the purpose of government is to give us things. I heard last week of a woman who was caught stealing – tens of thousands of dollars. She had been doing it for years, and when they caught her she said, “I wouldn’t do this if the government gave us more money.” People think the government exists to supply us with money or jobs or houses or whatever.
That is not the purpose of government. The purpose is justice. And the reason this is important is because in a country that has votes, each person who is eligible to vote has a certain amount of political power. And everyone who has political power is held responsible by God to use that power for what God intended governments to do. Whatever political power you have must be used for justice. So if we take our little bit of political power (our vote) and we use it for selfish purposes rather than for justice, we are guilty.
When a politician promises to give you money, keep in mind – the government does not earn any income. They only get money through taxes. And it is fine for them to collect taxes for government expenses. But if they start taking money from a wealthy minority so they can hand that money out to other people to get their votes, that is the exact opposite of the purpose of the government. That is the very thing God expects them to protect people from. So you do not want to ever participate in that sort of thing with your voting.
Punishing Criminals
Just vote for whatever party you believe will be more likely to protect the weak from the strong, and punish wrongdoers. It is a very wicked thing for a government to fail to punish criminals, because that increases crime. Crime is really not a very hard problem to solve. If there is an activity that will bring swift, severe punishment – that activity is not going to be a problem in that culture. Very few people will do it. But if there is 1 in 100 chance of actually being punished any time soon, then people will commit that crime. It seems compassionate to be lenient with criminals, but in reality it is cruel. If someone is a rapist or murderer, and he gets off on some technicality because of too much bias in favor of the accused in the legal system, and that guy goes and rapes or murders someone else – that second victim’s blood is on the heads of the people in charge of that lenient legal system. If it is a situation where it is obvious this guy did it, and we know he did it, but because of the system, he gets off, if you are in charge of that system, and that guy murders or rapes another victim, it is your fault.
And if it happens because of the way you voted in elections, then you bear a little bit of the guilt. This is why for most Christians, abortion is such a big deal in elections. If you have one candidate or party that is in favor of allowing millions of helpless, innocent children every year to be killed by being cut to pieces without any anesthetic, and the other side opposes that, you do not want to have to stand before God and give an account for why you supported the side that fails to protect the weakest and most innocent people in the whole culture from being put to death.
“What if I don’t know which party or which candidate will be more likely to punish criminals and protect the weak from the strong?”
Simple – don’t vote. If you do not know, then don’t vote. I don’t think God wants everyone to become an expert on politics. And if you are busy with other things and don’t have time to look in to that – that’s fine. But do not just throw in a random vote, because you might vote for the wrong side. So if you vote, make sure you know which side is more likely to punish wrongdoers.
Commending the Righteous
And not just punishment, but also the positive side.
14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
That is the other side of it. It is also the responsibility of government to commend or praise those who do right.
I don’t think this is talking about an official commendation, like giving out plaques or medals or whatever. I think more likely this is just talking generally about what is considered good in a culture. The government is not going to pin a ribbon on your chest every time you pay your taxes or wear your seat belt. The commendation is simply implied by the fact that your activity is legal. Simply by making some things legal and other things illegal, the government is making a statement that affects the way the whole culture thinks about things. Sometimes people will say, “Why not legalize drugs or prostitution? People are going to do it anyway, but if we legalize it, then we can tax it and regulate it and keep better control of it.” The problem with that is when you legalize something, that moves the whole culture in the direction of greater acceptance of that behavior. The next generation will grow up with a more positive attitude toward that behavior. It will not seem as bad to them, because by declaring it legal, there is a sense in which the government is implicitly commending those who do it. That is what is happening right now with gay marriage. The more places that legalize that in the United States, the more the culture as a whole starts to accept it rather than seeing it as an evil.
Therefore, Cooperate!
OK, so the primary purpose of government is justice, which is a wonderful gift to humanity. And Peter’s argument here is very simple – if that is God’s purpose for the government, cooperate! The authorities exist for a good reason, so do not get in the way of that. Do not hinder their work – it is a good, God-ordained work. God has sent them to punish lawbreakers, so don’t break the law. Instead, we must honor them and do what is good.
What about Wicked Leaders?
Now I know many of you are uncomfortable with that. There are some of you who cringe at the idea of honoring Barak Obama. And there are others who cringe at the thought of honoring George Bush. Chances are you believe one of those two men is evil, and you cannot imagine honoring him as a servant of God.
Also Agents of Satan
When Romans 13 calls them God’s servants, you might hear that and think, “How can you say President Obama is a servant of God? He seems more like an agent of the devil!” Well, actually, he is an agent of the devil. He is under the control of the evil one (1Jn.5:19). We see that emphasis in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 2:10, and in chapter 13-18 – all through the book of Revelation the unbelieving government leaders are agents of Satan.
If a politician hinders any effort to protect the unborn, that is the work of Satan. Or in the case of our president, when he pushes for legislation that says if a baby survives an abortion, another doctor should be brought in to finish the job and kill that baby who is now out of the womb – that is the work of Satan. It is flat out rebellion against the will of God and is detestable to God. And it is the exact opposite of what government exists to do – protect the innocent and weak from injustice. So yes, unbelieving government officials are just like all other non-Christians – they are doing the work of Satan. And that includes Barak Obama, Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan. The whole unbelieving world is in the lap of the evil one, doing his work.
So what should we do in this kind of situation? Peter is clear that the reason we submit is because they punish evil and reward good, so if there is a government body that is punishing good and rewarding evil, does that let us off the hook? Do we only obey them and honor them if they are doing what they are supposed to be doing?
What sort of government was Peter under when he wrote this? No doubt Peter had heard all about the horrors of Herod the Great when he was growing up. Herod ordered all the boys two and under in Bethlehem slaughtered. And that is the tip of the iceberg on his brutality. Peter lived under the direct authority of Pilate, who had Jesus murdered simply to win favor with the Jewish leaders. When Peter wrote this, the Emperor was Nero, who ended up having Peter crucified. Peter was no stranger to really bad governments. Neither was Paul. Paul received all kinds of horrible injustice at the hands of government officials. In his case they frequently punished good behavior and rewarded bad behavior. And yet he wrote this:
Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities … 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4 For he is God's servant to do you good.
How can Paul and Peter say that governments punish wrongdoing and commend good deeds when both of them experienced the exact opposite? The answer is those statements are not absolute statements. Obviously no secular human government does a perfect job at punishing evil and rewarding good. If that were the standard, no government would qualify as being a government. Every government fails at this, some in small ways and some in huge ways. But even with their many failures, still, the general function of government is to restrain wrongdoing, and even bad governments do much more restraining of evil than perpetration of evil.
Neither Paul nor Peter say, “Obey the government if they punish wrongdoers.” They both say, “Obey the government because they punish wrongdoers.” They are not saying, “As soon as a government fails to punish evil and reward good then it loses all its authority and you are free to disobey.” What they are saying is that even with all their failures, human governments – even bad ones - still have a very important restraining influence on evil, and therefore we should not hinder them by being rebellious or disobedient. Even really bad governments are better than anarchy, and so we obey even bad governments. Even while those men are being used by Satan to carry out his plans, they are also being used by God to carry out His greater plans. Even bad governments are a gift from God to humanity.
Now, if the government commands you to sin, then of course you must disobey at that point. When they told the Apostles they could not preach the gospel any more…
Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!
Does that mean they were totally out from under all government authority after that point? No. They disobeyed only that one command that conflicted with God’s command, but in every other area they still obeyed. If the United States government told me I could not preach that homosexual behavior is sin, I would break that law. If they pass a law saying you cannot spank your children, if I had young children I would not only break that law but I would preach that you must break it as well, because God’s Word is very clear. But while I was breaking those laws, I would still drive the speed limit, and still pay all my taxes. And I would speak respectfully to and about the government officials. For the most part, even with their failings, they punish evildoers, and so we should not get in their way. That is reason #1 Peter gives us for why we should obey the law.
Reason #2 - Submission is for Praise
Reason #2 is a bigger reason. This is the one that is going to take up much of Peter’s thought for the next two chapters. In fact, it has already been a major part of what he has been saying. Just think back to what we learned our purpose in this world is. Why did God call us out of the darkness – to accomplish what? The answer is back in verse 9 – we are here to publish the excellencies of God and to increase His praise in this world. That is why verse 13 says, Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake. What happens if we fail in this area of submission? The world will use that as an occasion to blaspheme God. That is the opposite of our reason for existence. But what happens if we are submissive to the authorities in our lives? Well, according to verse 12 they will glorify God on the day He visits us. In verse 15 their ignorant talk will be silenced. In 3:15 they will ask you for an explanation of how you can have so much hope. In 3:16 they become ashamed of their slander against you. And in 3:1 they will be won over to the faith and be saved!
You see, submissiveness to authority is not a secondary issue over on the side. It is right at the core of our purpose in life! If we fail at this, God will be blasphemed and His praise will be diminished. But if we are faithful in this, more people will come to repentance and be saved, and the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ will grow louder and wider and deeper.
Wives, submit to your husbands not mainly to just make your home life go a little more smoothly. It might make home life worse. You submit to your husband to worship God. You follow your boss’s policies at work even when no one is around – why? To worship God. You drive the speed limit not mainly for safety or to get better gas mileage; you drive the speed limit to worship God. We do all that to worship God, and to cause others to worship God. Please keep that in mind in the coming weeks as we go through all these passages about submission, because if you forget that it is all about worship, you will miss everything.
Muzzle Fools with Good
So Peter tells us to obey governing authorities for the purpose of shutting the mouths of blasphemers.
15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men
The word silence is the word for putting a muzzle on an animal. People who hate God are always looking for opportunities to blaspheme Him and speak against His people. So God says, “Live good lives to shut those people up.”
This is an example of Romans 12:21, where we are commanded to overcome evil with good. When there is some godless, ranting fool on TV who mocks God and Christians – what is the best way to shut him up? Boycott all his sponsors? Picket the studio? Write angry letters? The best way to silence him is by loving God and loving your neighbor and loving your enemy. The first time I ever saw Jerry Falwell on TV, he was on the Phil Donahue show. For those who are too young to know those names – Jerry Falwell was a famous televangelist, and Donahue was an obnoxious, godless TV talk show host. And I always hated it when Christians would agree to go on his show because he controlled the mic and the format, And the studio audience was even more godless and obnoxious than he was, so the Christians would be mocked and lampooned and they could never even finish a sentence.
So when I saw Jerry Falwell on there, I thought, oh brother, here we go. Not just a Christian, but a televangelist. Donahue is going to have a heyday. I did not know anything about Falwell at that time, but it was fashionable at the time even among Christians not to like him, because he was a televangelist. So I just kind of started out not liking him. But as the show progressed, he just kept proclaiming the gospel. No matter what they said, he would bring it back to the gospel, and he was not vague at all. He gave some of the clearest, most accurate presentations of the gospel I had heard. And I became an instant fan.
Finally the topic turned to abortion. And when Falwell gave his view that abortion is sin, the audience became rabid. And Donahue started tearing into him – “You Christians condemn these poor women who get pregnant, and you have no compassion.” And Falwell just smiled at him and said, “Our ministry has set up a home for women in a crisis pregnancy. Those women can come and we will give them a place to live for a year rent free, we will provide medical care for them, food, etc.” Donahue was speechless. He had no response for that. And so he turned it over to the audience, and this one lady stood up just full of anger. And through clenched teeth she said, “That’s great for a few girls who live in your area, but what about all the other women in a crisis pregnancy across the United States?” And Falwell, still smiling, turned away from that lady and looked straight into the camera and said, “Any woman, anywhere in the country – if you are pregnant and you need help, just call, toll-free 1-800-… , [and gave the number] and we will arrange for transportation to get you to our facility and we’ll take care of you.” Then the whole studio was muzzled. In fact, if I remember right, I think some of them actually clapped at that point.
Why? Because with all their talk about how much compassion they supposedly have for pregnant women, none of them set up a home for women in trouble. None of them were doing anything like that.
Now, did Jerry Falwell set up that home so that he could go on the Phil Donahue show and say that? No. He set it up because he had a compassionate loving heart. He was just living a holy life – loving God, loving neighbors, loving strangers, loving enemies. That was his life. And that silenced his critics when it was exposed. That does not happen when we block abortion clinics or blow them up or break the law in some way to protest abortion. It happens when we are respectful and submissive to the government and we living godly lives. That’s what accomplishes God’s will.
God’s Will
15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men
If you are trying to figure out God’s will for your life, that is it. Silence the critics of Christianity by doing good. This is the way God desires the critics to be muzzled.
Do we also need to have good arguments? Absolutely. We will see that in chapter 3 verse 15. We have to be ready to give good, compelling, sound reasoning to defend the faith, but that reasoning will be empty apart from personal holiness. If you can run circles around your neighbor in debate, but he sees you be short with your wife all the time, or your weeds are moving over into his grass, you will never win his heart with any argument.
As Free Slaves
God’s will is accomplished when our method for silencing the critics is a godly life. And what will make that effective is verse 16. Verse 16 is a description of how to carry out verse 15. The NIV adds the word “live” at the beginning of verse 16, but it is not there in the Greek. This is how it sounds in the original:
15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men 16 as free men, and not as using the freedom as a cover-up for evil, but rather as slaves of God.
We silence them as free slaves of God. We do it as free men, but free men who are slaves. That is a fascinating verse. It has three parts.
1) As Free Men
First, we do all this as free men. The next section is written to slaves; this part is for people who are not slaves. That is us. In fact, it is especially for us because we live in a country where we have a great deal of personal liberty.
How did we get this freedom? God gave it to us. It was not by some accident of birth that you were born in a free country. God arranged that. It is a gift He gave you. He has not given that gift to everyone, but He gave it to you. And like all His gifts, He gave it for a reason. He wants you to use it. Your freedom to travel where you want, your freedom to live where you want, all the various liberties that you have – use all of them to do good and silence the ignorant talk of fools.
2) No Cover Up
So the first statement – do this as free men. The second statement – do not use your freedom to cover up evil. That word cover-up is used of throwing a blanket over something to hide it. It is not uncommon for people to act in selfish or unloving, or ungodly ways, and then point to their freedom as a defense.
“It’s a free country. I’m free to do this. There’s no law against that. The Bible never says I can’t do this. It’s not specifically forbidden.”
Any time you find yourself making a big point about all the freedom you have – take a very close look at your heart. Is there some selfishness, or some foolishness, or some recklessness, or some failure to distance yourself from sinful influence – some sin in the heart that is being covered up by all this focus on your freedom? Our freedom is not for the purpose of indulging in questionable things. It is for the purpose of doing so much good that we silence the critics.
A truly righteous person will have a constant pattern of setting aside freedoms for kingdom purposes. Paul was free to marry, but he chose not to (1 Co. 9:5; 7:8). He was free to be supported in his ministry, but he often chose not to (see 1 Co. 9:1-18). He was free to travel where he pleased, but he chose to go to the place where he knew he would be arrested and imprisoned (Acts 21:10-15). The great thing about freedoms is you are free to give them up! You are free to set them aside for good purposes.
3) As Slaves of God
So we muzzle the critics as free men and women, not as people who use freedom to cover up evil, but rather as slaves of God. That is the freest kind of freedom anyone can ever have – to be a slave of God. Every Christian is a slave of God. We give Him our absolute, unqualified obedience. Anyone who is not a slave of God is not saved. When people think, “I became a Christian years ago, but I haven’t yet given my life to Him as my Lord” – those people are not saved. The heart and soul of what it means to be a Christian is to have faith, and faith believes God when He says He is the Master.
But if we are slaves of God, how is it that we can be called free? It is because God is unlike any other slave owner. The way He wins our absolute allegiance and obedience is by opening our eyes to see the beauty and goodness of His will, and working inside us so that our hearts are transformed to delight in that will, so that His burden is easy and His yoke is light. We obey Him out of desire.
So how does all that fit together? As citizens of another kingdom, the United States of America has no claim on us at all. The government has zero natural authority over us. In fact, we are sons in God’s household and they are His enemies, so if anything we have a higher position than them. However – it pleases God if we obey them, and so we obey them. It pleases God if we honor Barak Obama, so we honor Him. We do not refer to the president with mocking nicknames. We honor those over us, and we obey the law – every law we can possibly obey without sinning.
Honor all Around
“But if a government leader is anti-God, and I obey him and show respect to him, isn’t that disloyalty to God?”
17 Honor everyone, love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
It is not disloyalty to God if you honor the king. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Caesar and the president of the United States and the police officer who pulls you over – honor them. Fear God, and honor your authorities – that is not a conflict.
Nor is it a conflict to honor unbelievers even after all we have learned about the importance of loving the saints in the Church. You can do both. Our fear of God is greater than our honor for the king, and our love for the brothers is greater than our honor of all people, but we still must honor unbelievers. Every human being bears the image of God, and for that reason deserves respect and honor. Especially those God has placed over us.
So honor everyone, love the brothers and sisters in the Church, fear God, and honor the king, and rejoice in being in your place!
Benediction: 2 Thessalonians 3:16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.
1:25 Questions
1. Which laws are you most tempted to break? And how could you learn to make obedience to those laws an act of worship?
2. Are you happy with the place God has assigned you in this world and its authority structure? What could you do to increase your appreciation for the goodness of the role God has granted you?
3. Have you ever seen the critics silenced by the goodness of your or another Christian’s life? If it would be an encouragement, share the story with the group.
Appendix 1: Civil Disobedience
Even those who would oppose the idea of civil disobedience would probably support breaking the law in some cases. Surely it is morally acceptable to jay walk to stop a rape, or to break the speed limit to rush a dying wife to the hospital.
Civil disobedience as a political tool, however, is more controversial. Should a Christian break trespass laws by blocking access to an abortion clinic in order to save lives?
Submission to any authority is more than merely following rules. Submission has to do with the will of the one in authority. If a father tells his kids, “No yelling in the house,” it is not rebellion if a child wakes up in the middle of the night and sees the house is burning down and yells, “Fire!” at the top of his lungs. This is not rebellion because when the father made the “no yelling” rule, he did not intend for that rule to apply in such an extreme situation. Similarly, when the powers that be set the jaywalking laws, it was not their intension for those laws to prevent someone from stopping a rape to wait for the “walk” sign. Jaywalking, in that case, is not rebellion against the will of the lawmaker.
The trespassing laws, however, were intended to prevent the sort of thing abortion protesters do when they block access. The law against trespass is not an immoral law that requires sin. It is true that lives are at stake, so more extreme measures might be justified. But I think it is questionable whether blocking access to a clinic even saves lives. Women can simply go somewhere else. A far more effective use of that time, I believe, would be to volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center and share the gospel with women who have a crisis pregnancy. That is perfectly legal, and probably saves more lives.
This country allows so many effective means of protesting and changing bad laws that breaking the law is not really necessary.
Appendix 2: Revolution
In most cases, Christians would be forbidden from participating in a revolution, as doing so would violate the principle of this passage. The question arises, however, regarding the American Revolutionary War. Was it justified?
Those who argue in the affirmative sometimes point to the fact that England was not functioning as a government is supposed to function at the time. As argued in the sermon above, I do not agree with that argument.
Another justification that has been offered is along the line of self-defense. The Americans never fired the first shot – Boston, Charlestown, Williamsburg, Concord, Lexington – they never fired until fired upon.
If a Christian at that time was submissive and obedient to the government of England, and found that one day the British soldiers were coming to kill him, self-defense would be justified. But on the other hand, obviously the king of England did not just randomly send his army to America to fire on the Americans for no reason. The Americans had done some things to provoke England. But no doubt those things were provoked by some things England did. I am not enough of a historian to figure out who started it or who was mostly in the wrong, but my guess is there were good people and evil people on both sides doing good things and evil things in various instances. So I doubt everything every American did was justifiable leading up to the war. But I also think it is entirely possible that some Christians could have been perfectly justified in acting in self-defense at some point as well.
Prayer
For Your sake, O Lord, I will obey Your servants who are over me. But how does it profit You if I obey them? You do not need my obedience. You are capable of law and order apart from my cooperation. You are capable of everything You decide to do, regardless of what I do or don’t do. My assistance or cooperation does not make Your work any easier for You. So in what sense is my obedience for Your sake?
It is for Your sake because if I do it out of love for You and fear of You, that increases Your honor in the eyes of Your creatures.
Oh Lord, increase Your glory in the eyes of men through my obedience to Your servants who are over me. Let my attitudes toward them, my prayers for them, and my responsiveness to their leadership all redound to Your glory.
How great is Your wisdom, dear Father, in ordaining human authority structures. You did not seat us at a round table as equals. Instead You assigned us roles and stations. And You have entrusted each of us with a certain amount of influence. And as You require others to respond wisely to my influence, so You require me to respond wisely to others’ influence. Continually teach me my place. When you have made me a round peg, forgive me for insisting on inserting myself into square holes. Teach me my place.
Forgive me for resisting that place – trying to elevate myself above it in pride, or failing to live up to it in laziness and irresponsibility. Forgive me for hindering the work You are doing through those over me by my negative attitudes, sluggish obedience, grudging submission, or outright disobedience.
Teach me to see all resistance to authority as a defacing of Your great artistry. Let me see it as throwing a wrench into the machinery of Your ingenious engineering. Who am I to question whether on gear should turn another. I’m not the watch maker – I’m just a minor little gear. It is unfathomable grace that I could even be included in Your grant machine at any level. Forgive me for trying to usurp some other role than the one Your perfect mind assigned to me.
