Living as Citizens of Two Worlds
1 Peter 2: 13-17
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 ignorant talk of foolish men. 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
Do you believe that God is sovereign over all of heaven and earth?
Is there anything beyond Him? Does your God go to sleep or on holiday and loose sight of what is going on in civilizations around the world?
How do we live as Christians and citizens of our country
If you haven't noticed, everything that happens in Canada, or US or any country is not always consistent with God's ways or laws.
What kind of response should we have as Christians in an non-Christian culture?
There are 2 worlds we now live in - a physical world with all its values and systems and a spiritual world with all its values and systems. As a Christian, these two worlds collide. The question is how will you navigate your days and decisions - Peter spends the rest of his letter talking about very practical application to our spiritual condition.
The most important thing this text does is put all of our social and political life into relation to God. The Bible is not a book about how to get along in the world. It is a book inspired by God about how to live to God. I love that phrase "live to God." It's not mine. It's Paul's. He said in Galatians 2:19, "Through the law I died to the law that I might live to God." The aim of life-including our social and political life-is to live to God. To live with God in view. To live under his authority. To live on him like we live on air and food and water. To live for his good reputation.
Peter is beginning a very practical section of his letter, where the first section was theological in basis, Peter is bringing some very practical applications to his message of hope. If hope doesn't exist in the practical aspects of life - then it doesn't exist - and he begins at a very foundational point of life - submission and authority.
‘For the Lord's Sake'
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority
the key phrase in this verse is ‘for the Lord's sake'
this is the reason we as Christians do what we do.
When we do something ‘for the sake of', it lifts our purpose higher and it draws on greater resources.
Mostly, I don't think about what I do for anyone's ‘sake' as I go through my day - I just do what seems good or right to me.
To do something for the sake of someone else means I operate under their values, good name, their resource and strength.
Christians do not submit to another authority simply because they feel like it, or because they are compelled to as a good citizen, or that the authority has some coercion or influence. Christians do not submit to the authorities around us because we like them or agree with them.
We do not look first at ourselves to see what we feel like doing, nor do we look first at the institution (like government) to see if it there are consequences for not submitting. We look first to God. We consult God about the institution. And we respond in submission for his sake.
What makes this issue so urgent for Peter that he brings it up right here is what he has said in the previous four verses. In verse 9 he said that Christians are "a chosen race, a holy nation, and a people of God's own possession." In verse 10 he said that we are "the people of God." In verse 11 he said that we are therefore aliens and strangers here among the social and political institutions of this world.
All that raises the question whether we have any allegiance to the institutions of this world at all. If we are a separate "holy nation" and if we are "God's people" and if we are "aliens and strangers," perhaps then we should withdraw into our own Christian communities and enclaves and have nothing to do with the powers and institutions of the world. Peter's answer to that is NO.
While you are in this world, you are (in different senses) citizens of two orders, two systems. This world with its necessary institutions, and the order of the kingdom of God with its necessary values. This is not because the two orders have equal authority, but because God is the ruler and owner of both, and when you belong first to him and his kingdom, you can be sent by him, for his sake, for his purposes, for his glory into the kingdom of this world.
In this way Christian submission to the institutions of this world becomes an act of recognition of God's authority over the institutions of the world. You look a king or a governor in the eye and say, "I submit to you, I honor you-but not for your sake. I honor you for God's sake. I honor you because God owns you and rules over you and has sovereignty raised you up for a limited season and given you the leadership that you have. For his sake and for his glory and because of his rightful authority over you, I honor you."
This was Jesus' example in Jn 19
Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
John 19:11 Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.
Lets remember, Peter is writing this letter in Rome under the persecution of Nero, who would eventually crucify him upside down.
This is not the first time Peter has been in prison for his faith.
‘everything' leaves no exceptions
So verse 13 puts everything as subject to God when it says, "Submit for the Lord's sake." We keep the speed limit for God's sake, not because we might get a ticket. And all our driving becomes an act of worship.
Authorities established by God
, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
God sets up governments - and authority structures
Rom. 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, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
Peter wrote these words under the reign of Nero - not particularly one of Romes best leaders. -considering he burned half of the city to the ground.
So what verse 14 expresses is not necessarily what Nero and his provincial governors aimed to do. It expresses what God designed government for. Nero, in fact, beheaded Paul and crucified Peter upside down.
The proper aim of government is to dam up the river of evil that flows from the heart of man so that it does not flood the world with anarchy.
Governments do not save; they are to maintain external order in a world seething with evil so the saving message of the gospel can run and triumph on its own power. That is why Paul urged us in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 to pray for kings and those in authority-because he desires that the gospel not be hindered by upheaval, so that more people can be saved.
The Will of God
15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
We are to get our bearings in our world today from the will of God (1 Peter 4:2). We are aliens and strangers. We consult our true Sovereign how to live. He tells us what is right and what is wrong through his book-our ultimate charter of rights and freedoms.
Through our relationship with God and living according to his will we seek to do good. It is very difficult to talk against good. Through our relationship with him we get the strength and guidance to live the good - do the good.
Prov. 14:22 Do not those who plot evil go astray?
But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.
Live Free
16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
This verse tells us we belong to God and not our society or government. We are slaves to God and not to man. We do not submit to human institutions as slaves to those institutions but as God's free people. We submit in freedom for his sake, not in bondage for the ‘kings' sake.
Like Jesus - who for the joy set before him when to the cross - he was free to go to the cross for our freedom.
Our whole perspective of freedom and joy and fearlessness and radical otherness from this world is rooted in our belonging to God-which in one sense is slavery (because his authority over us is absolute) but in another sense is glorious freedom (because he changes our hearts so that we love doing what he gives us to do).
As Martin Luther said in his wonderful little treatise called "The Freedom of a Christian":
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
This message speaks to us all
There is an inborn dislike for authority in all human beings. We are rebels by nature. Adam and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit in order that they might be like God and determine for themselves what is good and evil. That has been our nature ever since. It's what we need to be saved from by the cross of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
This text, with the whole Bible, calls us to humble ourselves first before God, who has absolute authority and absolute rights over us, as the potter over the clay, and then, for his sake, to humble ourselves before any institution that God tells us to. In short, the one remedy to rebellion is the grace of God making us submissive to the authority of God so that we can enjoy the all-satisfying fellowship of God and submit in freedom to institutions designed by God.