CITIZENS TO THE GLORY OF GOD

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 5, 2018 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: December 5, 2018 from 1 Peter 2:13-17

Theme: We are to submit to the earthly human government in such a way as to please our heavenly Father and proclaim our heavenly King.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

This morning’s passage is about the government. But what it has to say to us transcends politics as we usually understand it. In fact, it deals less with government itself than it does with our relationship to it as believers—and with our higher calling from God.

Before we look at it, consider the greatest political statement in all of human history. It was spoken by the greatest of all authorities: the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 22, the religious leaders were trying to trap Him in a controversial debate. They asked Him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”; thinking that either way Jesus answered the question, He would get Himself into trouble with either the people or with Caesar. In response, Jesus called for a Roman coin, held it up in the sight of all, and asked, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” And He told them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:19-21).

This amazing statement—truly the greatest single statement concerning politics in all of human history—puts things into perfect balance for us. Because the Lord Jesus said that we are to render to both God and Caesar what is properly each one’s respective due, then unless we faithfully render to the government all that it should properly receive from us, then we cannot say that God Himself has received all that is due from us either.

In obedience to God, then, we rightly owe to the government everything that God says that we owe to it. So; how do we properly relate to our human government in such a way as to truly honor our primary duty to God? How do we, in obedience to the Lord Jesus, render all that we legitimately owe to Caesar—and thus also to God?

The apostle Peter answers that question for us in these words:

Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king (vv. 13-17).

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As you’ll remember from our last study in 1 Peter, this passage is a part of Peter’s instruction to us—given to us in verses 11-12—to live as sojourners and pilgrims on this earth who abstain from fleshy lusts; so that those who observe our works will praise God in the day of the Lord’s return. He goes on to expand upon that idea in several areas of life; but first, he teaches us about …

1. THE NATURE OF OUR DUTY TO HUMAN GOVERNMENT (vv. 13-14).

Peter here touches upon our recognition of governmental authority at two levels. At the top level, he speaks of “the king as supreme”. In the case of the people to whom Peter was writing, this ‘king’ would have been Caesar Nero. There were lesser kings scattered across the known world; but the exercise of their authority was all under the authority of Nero as “supreme” leader of the reigning world empire. And at the lower level, Peter speaks of “governors”. These are the subordinate authorities that were set in place under the emperor. They were sent by the emperor to execute the proper functions of human government—that is, to punish evil and praise and protect those who do good. These functions are also true of human government and its political structure today.

Then, Peter speaks of our duty to government as believers. He says, that we are to “submit” ourselves “to every ordinance of man”. To “submit”, in this case, means to make the conscious choice of action to willingly ‘subordinate ourselves under’, or to ‘rank ourselves under’ legitimate governmental authority. And Peter puts this, not in vague terms, but into specific and practical application. He says that we are to do this in respect to “every ordinance of man”, or “every human institution”—whether from the king, or from those who are sent in his name.

Now; this requires some further explanation. Our duty to human government should never be taken to mean that we, as Christians, are to render absolute obedience to the governing powers in all cases and without any exception whatsoever. To do that would be to render unto Caesar what rightfully belongs only to God. Rather, Peter would mean that we are to offer qualified and limited submission to every institution of human government. We are to wholeheartedly submit to it as long as it does not require us—at the same time—to disobey the clear commands of God contained in His revealed word. Peter made this clear in what is probably the second greatest political statement in all human history. When he was commanded by the governing authorities to cease fulfilling the Great Commission of our Lord, he responded respectfully, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Whenever we are put in the position of choosing to obey either a clear commandment of God or a God-defying commandment of men, we must be faithful to God and choose to obey Him every time. That is what we properly owe to God. But unless and until we are actually commanded by human government to disobey God, we must be faithful to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man. That is what we—in obedience to God—owe to Caesar. We never owe absolute obedience to any human institution. Rather, we owe it our rightful submission under absolute obedience to God.

And notice finally that our motivation for doing this is “for the Lord’s sake”. This is because it is the Lord Himself who has granted authority to human government. If we would render to God what we owe Him, then we must submit ourselves to those He places over us—even when those He places over us don’t always obey Him as they should. As Paul has taught us;

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil (Romans 13:1-4).

Now; in order to keep us from feeling as if Peter is commanding us to become the mere slaves of men, he then goes on to affirm to us the ‘apologetic’ purpose behind his command. Peter shows us …

2. THE REASON WHY GOD HAS GIVEN THIS DUTY TO US (vv. 15-16).

He writes in verses 15-16, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.” As it turns out, a proper, God-reverencing submission to human government is a vital part of our defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now; notice how we are to view those to who are to be silenced by our obedience. Peter says that those before whom we defend the gospel are behaving with ignorance and foolishness. This doesn’t mean, however, that unbelieving people are necessarily unintelligent or dim-witted. Far from it! Rather, ‘foolishness’ and ‘ignorance’ are meant here to be understood as moral in nature. Such people are “foolish” in the sense that, even though they can see outwardly the evidences of God’s existence and know inwardly what it is that He requires of them, they nevertheless deliberately turn from the truth. ‘Foolishness’ is the suppression of the truth about God in unrighteousness. The word that Peter used for “foolishness” is agnōsia—the word from which we get “agnostic”. It’s not a matter of being unable to know the truth. Rather, it’s a matter of not being willing to know it—a matter, really, of intentionally refusing to know it. From out of a heart and mind darkened by foolishness, unbelieving people often speak in ignorance against those who follow Jesus. They refuse to understand our Lord or our devotion to His word; and think of us as trouble-makers who won’t go along with the crowd in rebellion against Him.

And then, notice how God our Father wants us to silence such foolish talk. It’s not by answering back in kind, or by isolating ourselves from unbelievers. Rather, it’s His expressed will that we silence such talk “by doing good”—which, in this context, means being submitted as much as we possibly can to all institutions of human government, and being cheerful and faithful in fulfilling all our civil duties as if unto the Lord. It’s God’s will that His people—His sojourners in this world—be the very best earthly citizens in whatever human government He places them; and to do so to the glory of His Son Jesus Christ. When the unbelieving people see us behaving in that way, we go a long way toward silencing their ignorant accusations.

And finally, notice what our attitude should be in doing this. We are to live “as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God”. We always need to live carefully; and make sure that the accusations that are laid upon us by unbelieving people are not justified, but rather, prove to be false because we are—by God’s grace—shining a light upon their darkness.

In this respect, we should remember that the whole life of each one of us is a ‘gospel tract’ that is being placed under the scrutiny of the unbelieving world. If unbelieving friends and family members and neighbors hear us say that we are ‘free in Christ’—but then watch us as we exercise that freedom by badmouthing our leaders, or by compromising obedience to the law, or by working the system to our own advantage—and all while treating other people unjustly, and fussing and fighting whenever we’re called upon to do our civic duty; and daring to do all of this under the cloak of ‘freedom’—then we really can’t expect them to be very interested in hearing about our Lord. We must live in such faithful submission to the governing powers that God has placed over us that, when unbelieving people take a closer look at our lives, their accusations against us are proven to be the product of sinful ignorance. Perhaps God will then mercifully open their hearts to His saving grace—a grace which they manifestly see at work in us.

And finally, in verse 17, Peter tells us …

3. THE WAY WE ARE TO KEEP THIS DUTY IN PRACTICE (vv. 17).

In profoundly simple terms, Peter tells us, “Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” Based on the original language, the first phrase, “Honor all people”, should be taken as a general commandment that teaches us to give to everyone what is due them in their proper sphere of civil and social life—to treat all people, in all positions of life in this world, with the respect that we truly owe them and that is properly due them.

Peter then goes on to break this command down into three specific applications. First, we’re to “love the brotherhood”. We’re to give the priority of love to our brothers and sisters in Christ; and obey our Lord’s command to love and serve one another as He has loved and served us. Galatians 6:10 says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” This is in keeping with what the Lord Jesus said; “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Second, we’re to “fear God”. By “fear”, Peter may mean that we are to hold God our Father in the utmost reverential awe and respect. We are to give Him the chief place of reverence in our hearts and lives that we will not give to anyone or anything else on earth. But the word “fear” could also suggest that we so respect and honor Him that we would truly ‘be afraid’ of disobeying Him. As the Lord Jesus told us, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). If we ‘fear’ our heavenly Father as we should, then we need fear nothing else.

And third, we’re to “honor the king”. We should carefully note that, in the original language, the word that’s translated “king” is a different word than was used in verse 13. In that verse, the word means a “monarch”; but in verse 17, it means something more like “the monarchy”. In other words, we are being commanded to honor the office of king or emperor or president or public servant—even though the person who occupies that office might not be particularly worthy of it. (Note that the emperor at this time was Nero; who was a very wicked and cruel ruler!) We can—and even should—address the wrong behavior or bad decisions of those in governmental authority. It is not wrong for us to speak out against unjust policies or against wrong-doing. In fact, our form of government allows us the freedom of speech and the right to petition our government for a redress of grievances. But we’d better be very careful, before God, how we exercise this right. We must always remember what God Himself commanded in Exodus 22:28, “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.” God doesn’t honor prayers from mouths that issue forth both blessings and curses. We should always “honor the king”; and talk about our political leaders, in everyday conversation, in the same way that we would when we bring them before God in prayer.

Now; consider those last three things together. We’re not commanded to “love” the king as we are to love the brethren, or “fear” the king as we are to fear God. But if we obey the command to “honor all people”—and do so by making sure we habitually love the brethren as we should, and habitually fear God as we should—then we will learn to habitually honor the king as we should. We will not give more honor to our rulers than is due them, or give them less than we ought to give them. These three commands are like a three-legged stool; and in doing them faithfully, we will be in perfect balance in our obedience to the command “Honor all men.”

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As fellow sojourners and pilgrims, let’s always remember that the world is watching us. Let’s make sure we please our God—and testify to His love in this world—by being submitted to our governmental leaders. Let’s properly render to God what is due to God by being good citizens who faithfully and obediently rendering to Caesar what God says is due to Caesar.

EA