Sermon by Rev. Daniel L. Sonnenberg | October 9, 2011

Notes: 

Last week we looked at the general introduction to this section that describes our relationship to the unbelievers with whom we live and work and go to school. We saw in verses 11-12 that the Christian life is both a battle and a witness. Though we live in a fallen world with many temptations, we should live such good lives among unbelievers, that even though they may accuse us of doing wrong, that might see our good works and become followers of Christ. It is God’s purpose that we live out our testimony to Christ AMONG unbelievers in the world – so that they might see and give glory to God. Though we are aliens and strangers in the world, we are sent by Christ as ministers of reconciliation and his ambassadors to the world.

In the next chapter or so, we’ll be looking at our relationships with several different social institutions that we encounter nearly every day – civil authorities; employers, teachers, principals and other authority figures; and marriage spouses – some of whom may be unbelievers. Scripture gives us clear instructions that guide our relationships with the people in these groups.

This week we’re looking at our relationship with civil authorities. Civil authority is defined as is the centralized and recognized control in human society with the power to formulate and enforce the basic, formal rules of that society. Their job is to protect us from evil and help bring order to our society.

People like the President, governors and mayors; the Congress and state and local legislators; the Supreme Court, state and local courts; the military forces; federal and state taxing agencies; federal, state and local police; county and city inspectors; and on and on. Seventeen percent of the American workforce is employed by federal, state or local government agencies. That’s one out of every one six working persons in America. So we’re talking about a rather large number of people.

I encountered a number of them a few months ago shortly after my move to Ohio. I had to go to three different government offices to get my new driver’s license, transfer my car title and register my car. Fortunately, I was able to register to vote while I was there!

Historically, there have been two equally erroneous viewpoints about our relationship with the state. One says Christians are never in principle to obey the state since the state itself is evil. The other says it is always right to obey the state (i.e., that disobedience is never justified).

So we need to know what Scripture says about our relationship to the state. This passage tells us five things about our relationship.

1.    The foundation for submission

2.    To whom we should submit

3.    Why we should submit

4.    How we should submit

5.   The implications of submission

^ESV 1 Pet. 2:13-17 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,  or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.  Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.  Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Outline

1. The foundation for submission

We are to be subject to every human being out of obedience to Christ.

Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution,

The key verb in this passage is “submit,” or “be subject.” It is in the imperative mood and in the passive voice. So it’s a command from God that we should obey, yet it is done passively by allowing something to be done to us or for us. We are to submit to something that follows.

The reason we should submit, it says, is “for the Lord’s sake.” As the Lord’s servants – his representatives in the world – we must honor him in the world by behaving in appropriate ways.

ILLUST: How many of you moms or dads have said to your children in the store or anywhere in public. “For my sake, please be quiet – or don’t pick a fight with your brother or sister – in the store or the library?” Since the way the child behaves in public reflects on mom or dad, the child, in obedience – or fear for her life – behaves properly in order to honor and obey his parents.

We are commanded to submit in this passage “for the Lord’s sake” because the way we behave in public reflects on our Lord. To honor him, and out of obedience to him, we should maintain a good reputation among those outside the family.

The object of our submission is general in this sentence – the ESV reads, to every human institution. Literally, it says, submit yourselves to “every human creation,” or “every human being”; meaning either everything created for mankind or every creature who is human.

What the reference to every human creation implies is that all authority belongs to God and that he can assign authority to his creation as he wishes. As the creator, he is sovereign over all creation and possesses in the words of Jesus, “All authority…in heaven and earth.” (Matt 28.20).

So we are commanded to submit in some way to every human being in order to honor God.

The next verse tells us specifically…

• To whom we should submit

We should submit not only to the highest civil authorities, but to civil authorities at all levels who are appointed to create and uphold the law

whether it be to the emperor as supreme,  or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 

The king, in this verse, represents the highest civil authority in the land. The governors, who are sent by him are his representatives to uphold the law he has established.

Since we live in NW Ohio, we are subject not only the President of the U.S., the Congress and the Supreme Court, but also the lower state and local levels of government. We should not say therefore to the county sheriff’s deputy who stops us for a traffic violation, “I’m a friend of the President, so you should let me off.” We should show honor to people at all levels of civil government out of obedience to Christ.

Proverbs 24:21, and other passages make this clear: “My son, fear the Lord and the king.” In Titus 3:1-2, Paul commands Christians to “be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” And in the opening verses of Romans 13 he writes:

Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

The purpose of ruling authorities is found in this verse as well – it is to punish evildoers and commend those who do right.

WCF 23.1 tells us the purpose of civil authorities: God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil government, to be, under him, over the people, for his own glory, and the public good: and, to this end, hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evildoers.

They are under God, over the people, for the glory of God and the public good. They wield the power of the sword to protect the people and to punish those who do evil.

They are not to carry out the purposes of the church. WCF 23.2  says “they may not assume responsibility for the administration of the Word and sacraments; or the discipline of the church; or, interfere in matters of faith. They should protect the church without giving the preference to any denomination and provide that all church leaders may enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of performing every part of their duties, without violence or danger. No law of any should interfere with, or hinder, the voluntary members of any denomination of Christians, according to their own profession and belief.”

WCF 23.4  and 1 Timothy 2 tell us further that it is our duty “to pray for authorities, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute or other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority….”

To honor Christ, we are to be subject to the laws of the land and to all those who create and enforce those laws.

We’ve looked at the foundation for submission and to whom we should submit. Let’s look at…

• Why we should submit

Because it is God’s will which results in silencing their false accusations

 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 

We submit because it is God’s will. As his servants we are under his authority first of all. We should do whatever is his will.

But a resulting reason is added. The result of our doing God’s will in obeying the laws of the land is that those who slander us will be silenced as we saw last week in verse 12.

It’s common for unbelievers to think of us as evil or off-base because it assuages their guilt. In NT times, those who overheard their conversations concerning “eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ accused them of murder and cannibalism. Those who over-heard them calling one another “brother” and “sister” and participating in “love feasts” accused them of incest and adultery. In a word, they were accused of breaking the law.

Some accusations against Christians today are true. Some have broken the law by embezzling money, committing fraud, committing adultery and a number of other crimes. However, unbelievers would love to roll all Christians into the same lump of dough in order to assuage their own guilt before God.

By submitting to government, we demonstrate that we are good citizens and counter the criticisms of those who are ignorant and slander us. Good behavior of Christians will minimize slanderous attacks on believers. Our opponents will be discovered to be motivated by their underlying hatred of God, lacking any objective ground for their criticism of believers.

Peter  will write later (1Pe 3:17), “For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”

We’ve looked at the foundation for submission and to whom and why we should submit. Let’s look at…

• How we should submit

As free servants of God but not using our freedom to cover-up evil

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 

Rom 6:22 tells us, “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”

And 1Co 7:22 says, “For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave.”

Because Christ’s death on the cross purchased our salvation, we are no longer slaves of sin and the world, but slaves of God. (cf. Rom 6:15–23). God’s slaves are free from obligation to anyone else. Because we belong to the Lord, we answer ultimately to him. We are free to do what is right, but our freedom does not permit us to disobey God, nor by extension those whom God has appointed as authorities.

However, we may not say as a general rule that since we answer to a higher authority, we are permitted to break the laws of the state. We cannot say for example – again to the sheriff’s deputy who stops us for a traffic violation – “Sir, thank you for the ticket, but I won’t have to pay this or show up in court because God is my authority, not you.”

No. Our freedom does not give us a license to break the law. Rather, it gives us the ability to freely choose to obey the law and to serve the Lord by doing so as we saw earlier – so that unbelievers will see that we are model citizens and will stop their slander against us.

Finally, let’s look at…

• The implications of submission

Verse 17 tells us…

We should demonstrate appropriate honor, love and fear to those whom it is due.

Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

This verse puts our submission in perspective. Each of these verbs is a separate imperative or command telling us we should honor everyone, love Christians, fear God and honor the civil authorities. To each group or person God has assigned us a proper level of honor.

As Jesus said, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Luk 20:25 ESV)

And as Paul wrote, (Romans 13:7) Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”

Notice that in this verse that the lowest level of submission is “honor” – that is what we owe both to all men and to those in civil authority. We should give them due honor and respect. All men deserve our respect because, though fallen, they are created in God’s image. Civil authorities deserve our respect because, though they accuse us of doing wrong, they are established by God to maintain order in society.

However, fellow Christians deserve a higher level of respect. It tells us we should love them. As members of God’s family they deserve greater honor than unbelievers. Gal. 6:10 says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

So we should honor all men and civil servants, and we should love fellow believers.

But God alone we should fear since he is our ultimate authority. Jesus said, “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.  “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!” (^NAU Lk. 12:4-5). Therefore, we need not fear the IRS or law enforcement unless we are doing evil. We should fear God as the ultimate judge of all creation. He and he alone determines our final destiny.

Finally, let’s look at what Peter does not say in this passage.

He mentions no exceptions in which we might be required not to submit to civil authorities, even though Peter himself could be said to have broken the law. He escaped from jail twice (Act 5.17-21; 12.1-17), and twice he and the other apostles defied the Sanhedrin’s commands.

“And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; 20 for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:18-20).

And when they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered and said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:27-29).

Like the midwives in Egypt who disobeyed Pharoah’s repeated command to kill Israel’s newborn sons, the only examples we have in Scripture of civil disobedience are those where obedience to God is directly forbidden by a human command.

I agree with one writer who suggests that Peter gives no exceptions, “not because there are none, but because he does not want the exception to become the rule.” (Deffinbaugh). He wants the rule to stand so that we have to grapple with it if we find something that might be an exception. Our default position as Christians, is to “bend over backward to be model citizens” (Sproul) to honor the Lord and stop the false accusations of unbelievers.

To Summarize:

• All authority belongs to God.
• God has established civil authorities for the general welfare of society in which we live
• We should submit to their authority to stop the mouths of our accusers
• We should not use our freedom in Christ as an excuse to break the law
• If we believe we should break the law when we are directly commanded to disobey God, we should not do so lightly, but in serious consideration of all the pertinent passages of Scripture that bear on the subject

Categories: 1 Peter, 1st Peter: The Church in the World, 2011, Sermons