1 Peter 2:13-25

Subject: Why are Christians supposed submit to authority figures?

Complement: Because we silence the ignorant talk of foolish men, and because we glorify God by imitating Jesus, who suffered on our behalf.

Idea: We can freely submit to authorities because Christ set us free through his submission.

One of the best ways to learn is to follow the example of someone who knows how to do what you want to learn. Lets say for example, that you want to learn how to cook. You might try to follow the example of someone like Rachael Ray or Emril Legassi. If you want to learn how to host a party you can learn from the example of Martha Stewart. If you want to learn how to invest in the stock market, you can follow the example of Warren Buffet or Ron Baron. When we follow the advice and the example of experts, then we can also learn how to do what they do. When you follow someone’s example, you want to make sure they are setting an example worth following. That means if you want to learn how to put together a championship baseball franchise you are probably wise to follow the example of the Boston Red Sox or the St. Louis Cardinals instead of the Chicago Cubs or Kansas City Royals. We can learn a lot by carefully following the example of an expert.

When Peter wrote this book he was addressing a group of Christians who needed to know how to live for Christ in a world that was so often opposed to him. According to 1 Peter 1:1 Peter was writing to the churches in the Roman provinces of Asia. The Christians in these churches were living in a society that was consumed with worldly power and pleasure. These were Christians who needed to learn how to live for Christ in a prosperous but pagan world. Just prior to this passage, Peter has reminded his audience that they are a “Chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God.” He urges them to live good lives. And then, to show them what that means, Peter points to the example of Jesus and says, “Follow in His Steps.” He points to Jesus and tells Christians, we must freely submit to human authorities because Jesus Christ set us free through his own submission. In a world that was hostile to Christ, in an empire ruled by a tyrant, Peter tells believers to do a surprising thing he says, freely submit to your rulers and masters because Jesus gained his greatest glory and he accomplished our redemption when he submitted to human authorities. If we want to follow the example of Christ, we must freely submit to human authorities because Jesus Christ set us free through is own submission.

Peter instructs Christians to live good lives by showing proper respect to all people. Verse 17 is at the hart of what he is saying. “Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.” Peter’s main concern in this text is how Christians ought to show respect to those who are in authority over them. That’s probably because most of us instinctively know that we ought to fear god and love our fellow Christians. But should Christians really submit to other human authorities, even tyrants like Nero? Peter says yes. If we want to follow Christ, we must show proper respect to those who in authority over us. And Peter provides two examples, two groups of people that Christians must submit to, government officials and slave owners. It is kind of a hard pill to swallow, but it is clear that faithful Christians must follow the example of Jesus by submitting to human authorities.

In verses 13-17 Peter tells us, that we must honor government officials. Now in the NIV the text says, “Submit … to every authority instituted among men.” But let’s be careful, Peter isn’t talking about submitting to an institution or an organization, Peter wants Christians to give the proper respect to people. Peter does not go on to talk about submitting to a form of government, or a set of legal codes, but he says Christians must submit to the king and to governors. Christians must honor government officials by submitting to their authority. But Peter is not talking about blind submission. He says submit, ‘For the Lord’s sake.’ Christians are not called to submit without thought or reason or cause. Christians first and foremost are citizens of God’s Kingdom. Only Jesus is truly the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is our ultimate master. Peter is very careful to draw this distinction between human authorities and God in verse 17 when he says, “fear God, and honor the king.” Only God is worthy of our ultimate allegiance, of our wholehearted worship, and of our unwavering respect. But for the sake of the Lord, for the sake of Christ who we serve, we are called to show the proper respect to government officials by submitting. But how do we do that? What does it mean to “honor the king” when we live in a country that has never had a king? How can North-American Christians show proper respect to our government leaders today? This is not the thrust of Peter’s message so I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but I want to quickly suggest five ways that we should honor our government officials.

First we honor government officials by praying for them. This is what we read in 1 Timothy 2:1-2. “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and al those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” Is there really any better way to respect our officials than pray for them? I encourage you to pray for our leaders. I encourage you to join in during the national day of Prayer on May 1^st when we pray for our country and its leaders. We submit to our officials by praying for them.

Second, we honor government officials by obeying the laws they make. We are called to obey the law of the land. In verse 14 we read that kings and governors are supposed, “to punish those who do wrong and commend those who do right.” The best laws do just that. They punish the evildoers and commend the righteous so we should obey the laws. We should even pay taxes as Jesus reminds us in Mark 12:17 “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” We honor our officials by obeying the law.

Third, we honor government officials by getting involved in the political process. Yes, we are citizens of another kingdom, but we are called to be salt and light in this world. We of all people should be involved in choosing our leaders. We have the joy and the burden of living in a democracy so we must act as a voice of morality and holiness for both Democrats and Republicans. And we should be involved by voting. We honor our leaders by being involved.

Fourth, we honor government officials when we don’t demonize our political leaders. In the current political climate we tend to see a leader as either all good or all bad. I have a few acquaintances that have a vitriolic hatred of George W. Bush. They place him on par with people like Hitler and Stalin. On the other hand I have some dear friends who believe that Bill Clinton was a pathological liar and pervert who was morally bankrupt. Scripture tells Christians us not to give false testimony. Christians can and should criticize our leaders and their actions, but we should not try to demonize them. We honor our leaders when we speak truthfully about them and don’t engage in character assassination.

Finally, we honor government officials when we protest injustice in a righteous way. Christians who live in a democracy should from time to time engage in righteous protests. Occasionally the normal political process will not be enough and Christians must disobey unjust laws. Peter, the author of this very book did the very same thing when he was on trial back in Acts 4. In Acts 4:18-20 we read this. “Then they [the Sanhedrin] called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’” Christian history is filled with other examples. During the early 1800s a hundreds of Christians disobeyed the law by harboring run-away slaves as part of the Underground Railroad. During the Nazi reign in Europe faithful Christians risked their life and freedom by hiding Jews. During the 1960s many Christians were jailed and beaten because they were a part of the Civil Rights movement. We honor our leaders when we fear God, and righteously protest unjust laws.

But Peter is not done. In verses 18-20 he tells Christian servants to honor their masters by submitting to them. We must honor the people we work for. For us it means that we need to give proper respect to our employers. Now I don’t have time this morning to talk about the Biblical ethics of slavery, and I in no way want to say that working as an employee is like being a slave. Clearly slavery, particularly the way the western world practiced slavery, was a terrible evil. But Peter’s principle here is giving proper respect to those who are in authority over us. Christians must even honor those even those who don’t deserve it. Look at what he says in verse 18. “Submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.” The word Peter uses there for “harsh” literally means crooked. He’s saying we should even respect and honor our employers who are unreasonable, or corrupt, or dishonest. Let me briefly provide two guidelines in what it means to honor our employers. First of all, we must strive to do the best work we can. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” No matter what your job is, as a student, a housewife, a teacher, a garbage collector, an engineer, or the CEO of a major corporation we are called to do excellent work. Christians are called to work hard and to be at the forefront of our professions because we don’t ultimately serve a human boss, we work for the Lord. That’s the first guideline; honor our employers by doing the best work we can. Here’s the second guideline, we must not participate in evil schemes. Because we work for the Lord, we must not be involved in illegal, immoral, or unethical practices at work or at home. Earlier in this book Peter said, “be holy in all you do.” Scripture gives us several examples of faithful believers who refused to go along with evil schemes. Joseph refused to sleep with Potiphar’s wife even though she begged him too. Daniel and His friends refused to bow down to false Gods even though their master commanded them to. Now, in both cases those men faced some severe consequences, and Christians who refused to go along with evil schemes must also be prepared to suffer the loss of a job. But we can still honor our employers and avoid evil schemes.

So, Christians are called to live good lives by showing proper respect to all people. We must respect the government officials, and we must respect our employers. Why? Why should Peter’s audience submit to kings and slave owners? After all we are Christians and in the end all of the kingdoms and rulers of this world will pass away. Why is Peter so insistent that we submit to authorities? He gives us three very good reasons.

First, we must submit as a witness and testimony to others. We must respect our authorities to be a good witness to unbelievers, and to provide a good testimony against false accusations from others. This is what Peter is getting at in verse 12 and verse 15. Look at those verses. Verse 12, “Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Then on to verse 15, “It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.” You see our good deeds are a witness to unbelievers. When we submit to authorities and show them the proper respect we serve as messengers of the Good news. Unbelievers see the freedom we have in Christ, they see our good lives and want to become Christians too. This is what Peter says in Chapter 3:1-2. Turn there for a moment. Look at what Peter says to wives. “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands…” Right, just like citizens should submit to the king, and servants should submit to their masters, wives should submit to husbands. Why? Going on “…be submissive…so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” We submit so that others can be won over to Christ. This happened for me when I was in High School. I went to high school with a girl named Francesca. She was a nice girl, in fact I kind of liked her, but she always seemed worried and stressed out to me. The Lord laid it on my heart on pray for Francesca, so I did. Every day of my senior year I prayed for her, and the Lord provided me some remarkable opportunities to honor her. I took her family a meal when her grandfather died. I went to a few of the J.V. girls’ basketball games. I even gave her a ride home from school when her car was in the shop. All the while I was praying that she might come to Christ. One afternoon, she asked me. “Todd, why are you always so happy? Why are you always so nice to people?” I simply said to her, “I’m happy because I have a relationship with Jesus. He lives in me and I want others to know that.” Imagine my disappointment when she simply said, “oh.” However, shortly after that conversation Francesca began to change. She was more joyful, and she told me that she was reading her Bible and was getting closer to God. So our good deeds serve as a witness. But our good deeds also serve as a testimony against false accusations of unbelievers. When we live outstanding moral lives, when we are good citizens and good employees, then people who want to malign the Christian faith will be put to shame when they accuse us of wrong doing. So we must submit as a witness and testimony.

Second we must submit because we are slaves of God. Verse 16 tells us, “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.” The word translated servants in the NIV, is actually the normal word for slave – or bondservant. Live as bondservants, slaves, of God. You see, as the Heidelberg Catechism reminds us, we are not our own, but we belong to God. Before we belonged to God we were going astray, we were in bondage to sin. Earlier, in verse 10, we read, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” But things have changed. We have been rescued and delivered by the precious blood of Christ. That is what we read in verses 24- 25. “He himself [Jesus] bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” We don’t ultimately look to human rulers and authorities to provide and care for us. We also know that when we suffer injustice at the hands of human authorities, that we will experience ultimate deliverance. Jesus is the Shepherd of our souls. He provides all that we need and he rescues us from evil. Jesus is the Overseer of our souls. He watches over us and leads us in the paths of righteousness. We can freely submit to our authorities, we should honor and respect them, because God has made us His Own.

Finally, we must submit because we honor and glorify God by imitating Jesus. This is what we read in verses 20b-21. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” Christ set an example for us to follow. He is our trendsetter, our overseer, and our leader. And it was by suffering, and submitting to human authorities that he rescued us from sin. Peter says four things about the example of Jesus, four things we are supposed to emulate. Number 1, He lived a holy life (verse 22). Number 2, He did not take revenge. (v. 23a). Number 3, He did not demand His rights (v. 23b) and Number 4, He t rusted God in the midst of his suffering (v. 23c). That’s our example. Jesus did not sin. He did not lie; he did not give false testimony about those who put him on trial. He did not exchange insult for insult. He did not call down the heavenly hosts to deliver him from His unjust punishment. Instead, he placed his welfare and his trust in God. He knew he belonged to God who alone is the all-just Judge. And in all of that Jesus brought Glory to God. By submitting to human authorities, Jesus glorified God and he was exalted to the highest place. That’s what Phlippians 2 tells us. Interestingly enough in Philippians 2, Paul also says we should be like Jesus. Turn to Philippians 2:5-11 if you are able. Look at this marvelous passage. “You attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Ands being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! THEREFORE! God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father.” Now that is glory. That is a wonderful reward for enduring unjust suffering, and humbling yourself to human authorities. You see God is glorified; Christ is magnified when we honor human authorities. We submit because we honor and glorify God by imitating Jesus Christ.

So why should we submit to the authority figures in our lives? Why should we listen to our teachers, obey our parents, submit to honor our leaders, and serve our bosses? We submit as a witness to others, we submit because we are ultimately slaves of God, and we submit because, and this is the best reason, we honor and glorify God by imitating Jesus. As Peter tells us; How is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. We submit because we follow the example of Christ who brought ultimate glory to God in his submission.