1 Peter 2:13-17 Submission to Kings
So here we are again in 1 Peter 2, verses 13-17, page 1015 in the pew Bibles.
Last week we talked just briefly about the church’s dirty word, and honestly one of the greatest strategies for separating the church from the world with behavior. Meaning that the world will certainly see that Christians are different if they embrace this controversial, and quite honestly, super popular philosophy.
There are limits to this philosophy, there are limits to our submission and we’ll talk about that, even though that’s usually where our hearts want to start. “How far do I have to go?”
Peter breaks submission down into three categories in his first letter, submission to the government, submission to masters, and submission to spouses. This morning we are only going to focus on the first one, submission to the government.
So let’s look at our text.
13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Let’s pray.
Jesus gave us in the Great Commandment a wonderful, simple, complicated, beautiful way to be as His disciples, a way of love. At the Last Supper He gave us an new Commandment, a new mandate, to love one another.
Oddly, we have no problem with this philosophy but still bristle at submission to authority. Don’t think they’re related?
The love that Jesus commands us to exercise is not affection, it’s not feelings, it’s to consciously choose to prefer someone over yourself, it’s to put others first, it’s to submit to serving them for their good.
So when Peter instructs us to submit to the government it is simply a practical extension of what Jesus taught us, what He commanded us to do.
John Calvin wrote, “He that fears God, loves his brethren, and embraces all mankind with becoming love, will not fail to render also to kings the honor that is due them.”
Verse 13 says to be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.
To be subject means to submit, to obey, all our favorite things, there’s no mystery here. But what’s most important is the next phrase, “for the Lord’s sake.”
Motivation is very important. When we submit out of compulsion, when we are almost forced to submit, it is not the same as submitting for the Lord’s sake. When we submit for the Lord’s sake it’s an act of worship, when we submit under compulsion it’s only out of fear of punishment or other negative consequences.
Martin Luther said, “Although you are free in all externals, for you are Christians, and ought not be forced by law to be subjected to a secular rule, for there is no law for the justified, yet you ought spontaneously to yield a ready and uncoerced obedience, not because necessity compels you, but that you may please God, and benefit your neighbor. Thus Christ did act, as we read in Matthew 17:24-27.”
Just so we can see exactly what Luther meant, listen to Matthew 17:24-27.
24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” 26 And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”
Peter says to 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.
It’s clear here that Peter means to subject to the government for the Lord’s sake, the form of government is irrelevant whether it’s a democracy, a monarchy, or whatever, it’s our responsibility to voluntarily submit as an act of worship and obedience to our Lord Jesus.
Plenty of people throughout history have twisted this text to only apply to the authority of the church or in the church and not secular government, but it’s obvious from the plain reading of the text that that is not at all what Peter meant.
Paul wrote about this same subject in Romans 13:1-7,
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 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.
PJ Lange wrote, “The form which power may assume, and the person who may be appointed to exercise it, may be ordinances of man; but the authority itself is from God.”
We can be confident in our freedom from obeying sinful laws and commands because we know that sinful laws and commands are not from God. But sinful laws and commands are not just mandates and regulations that we don’t like or that we feel cost us too much.
The duties of obedience ceases where God from heaven decisively forbids it. Last week I quoted Acts 5:29 as a proof text from that t-shirt that said “Obey God, Defy Tyrants.” The context of that verse shows that those who were in authority were commanding Peter and John to stop preaching in Jesus’ name. There’s no way that they should have submitted to that command, and they were willing to accept the consequences.
Think about this quote from Jacob Mombert: “Christ was crucified by the power of Rome, as He fortold He would be. Peter and Paul, as they also foreknew, were martyred by Rome; but yet they preached submission to Rome.”
Submission to every human institution, to man-made social structures, is not only an act of worship to the Lord, but it is also a testimony to the watching, and sometimes critical, world.
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Doing good, in this way, in submitting to our government, is a way to “put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”
Let’s break this down. The phrase, put to silence is fairly straightforward but it’s much more graphic in the Greek, it literally means, “to muzzle.” Muzzles keep oxen from eating and dogs from biting. Clear enough?
Aphronon anthropon agnosian. The ignorance of foolish people, I told you Peter liked alliteration!
Often times the foolishness of ignorant people, those who are the most vocal in their criticism of the Lord and His church makes us angry, but honestly, it should move us to pity. They slander God because they are uneducated as to His love, they are unaware of His grace and goodness to them. The last thing we ought to do is to perpetuate that ignorance with our anger, instead we ought to display the love of God and our worship to Him by submitting to the authorities that HE has put in place.
16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Live as people who are free, there’s a reason that we love New Hampshire so much!
But what should we live like we are free from, free from responsibility, free from accountability, free from rules and laws?
How about free from Satan, sin, ceremonial law, free from death and the grave! Our freedom must never be used as a cloak for any wickedness and sin, nor the neglect of duty towards God or our superiors.
We are free from Satan’s dominion, we are free from the Law’s condemnation, we are free from the wrath of God for our sin, we are free from the terrors of death, not free to keep on sinning especially through insubordinance and disobedience.
We may not agree with the politics or practices of those who are in power but we are still responsible to respect the position and obey the office as servants of God.
17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Honor everyone, respect everyone, not just the chief, everybody.
Love the brotherhood, our fellow believers, siblings in Christ, don’t just feel it, demonstrate it.
Fear God, exercise profound reverence and awe, let that motivate you towards obedience.
Honor the emperor, respect those in authority because they are not there by chance, they were placed there by God.
“He that fears God, loves his brethren, and embraces all mankind with becoming love, will not fail to render also to kings the honor that is due them.”
Amen
