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Jan 27, 2013

For God and Country: Balancing Our Freedom with Our Faith (Part 10)

Passage: 1 Peter 2:13-17

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Strangers in a Strange Land

Detail:

I’m going to ask you to open your Bible to 1 Peter 2:11-17. We’re going to be looking at verses 13-17 but we’ll be reading all seven verses. As you’re turning there, I want to read another passage for us to put into our hearts in order to prepare us because what I’m going to talk about will strike many as almost foolish in the way of the world. First Corinthians 1:18 reminds us as Christians, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” What I’m going to share is going to sound foolish to the world, but it will become the very power on which we stand and live our lives. Let’s remember that as we look at 1 Peter 2:11-17:

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

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.

Father God, we come before You. We have sung Your praises. We have heard of Your ministry in places far from here in places like Uganda. Lord, we recognize that Your Word is not an American text. Your Word was living and active long before the founding fathers of this country put pen to paper. We are a people of God from every tribe, tongue and nation. Remind us of that truth. Remind us that Your Word is bigger than our democracy and Your ways are bigger than the American way. Lord, remind us that You have called us to live in holiness—no matter how we feel on a subject—so that our lives may bring glory to You. Lord, these words are going to be hard. They’re hard for Your servant because I look at the way we pursue the issue of politics and the subject matter of government and submission and it strikes at the very heart of what I call freedom—what I call independence. But Lord, let us push away what we think of human independence and remain steadfast in dependence on You and Your Word. So Lord, I pray that You would speak through Your servant and speak to Your people. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

Over the last few weeks we have been studying this series—Strangers in a Strange Land—in 1 Peter and we’ve been learning what it means to be the people of God. We’ve been reminded how we are to live differently in this world by not pursuing the thoughts, patterns, practices and pursuits of the world even though they may be incredibly appealing to us. But Peter reminds us in verse 11 that these pleasures and pursuits wage war against our souls. God’s plan within this is that His people would band together, that they would love and serve one another with one goal in mind and that you and I would become a more holy and righteous people as we “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24 NIV).

Yet this isn’t something we are going to be able to produce on our own. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:2 that this holiness and righteousness which is to be lived out in our lives took place because of the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sanctifying work of the Spirit and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. You and I no longer have to try to figure out how to be holy on our own but now—based on the holiness of God and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ—we are sent out into the world to live holy lives.

As we have found the light and live in light of the truth of Scripture, we need to understand in this world there will be alienation. Peter’s audience originally was experiencing this alienation. They were seen as aliens and strangers in far greater ways than we are today. If you think people think you’re weird because of your Christian beliefs today—in your workplace, school, neighborhood or family—you’re going to hear some things now that I’m sure you’ve never been accused of because in the days of Peter, the original readers were dealing with some pretty horrific accusations on a daily basis.

According to ancient historical writings, unbelievers accused Christians of cannibalism because they gathered around a table and partook of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. So have you—because you partake in communion—been at work and someone says, “Hey, there’s that cannibal. That’s the guy who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of a Man Who lived 2,000 years ago.”

Early Christians were also viewed as insurrectionists and revolutionaries because they would only call Jesus their Lord while the rest of the world called Caesar their lord.

Now if you think that was bad, there were other things. They were viewed as home wreckers because of the turmoil that would ensue when one member of the family would come to know Jesus and the radical change that would take place in his or her life. People would say, “If you become a Christian, you will ruin your home and the family dynamic that is there.”

Early Christians were also accused of incest because they would speak openly to each other and call one another brother and sister. These are the things that were going on in Peter’s day. Peter’s audience who was reading this letter were enduring great struggle, so their standing would be totally affected. Employers wouldn’t want to hire them. People wouldn’t want to be around them.

So when we think we’ve had persecution or trouble, we need to understand that the early Christians were truly alienated because of their walk with Jesus Christ. The church in those early years was not only in the world but they were enduring the hostility of that world each and every day. Peter says the only way to deny the charges is to live a godly life—a virtuous life which would shut the mouths of the critics from having any legitimate accusation against them (verse 12). They wanted to live a life so rich in spiritual quality that there was nothing anyone could ever use to slander them.

Can I suggest to you that the hostility toward Christians is still here today? It may not be as big and up front as it was in Peter’s day, but men and women still hate God and reject Jesus. Maybe the form has changed a little bit. Maybe they’re a little more tolerant of religious systems of Christianity, but they’re no more tolerant of the truth of righteousness. You see it every time we talk about where we stand on particular issues. People begin to challenge us and call us bigots and haters. The challenge for us as we read this text is that we’re still aliens and strangers in this land. But we are called to be different. We are to be citizens who live a life that is above and out of this world in many ways, yet we are called to live in the world.

Here’s the problem. We are to live in such a way that—in spite of all the false accusations around us about who Christians are, all the hostility and hatred—we must turn the hearts of people back to Christ through the evident transformation of God in our lives. Peter is saying, “Live such good lives that though they accuse us of all kinds of wrong, they’ll glorify God.” Peter wants to remind them that there is a two-fold reason for all of this:

  • We want to shut the mouths of those who accuse us of doing wrong
  • We want to bring glory to God

It’s because of all this bad press for the Christians that Peter is now speaking words that need to be heard loud and clear.

Peter’s going to deal with the subject of submission—something that is almost a four-letter word in our day and age. He’s going to speak about submission because it is our submission—even to the hardest of leaders—that will allow us to bring glory to God. But here is the inherent struggle: we see ourselves as aliens and strangers and as not wanting to be part of the world. In one sense that’s good but the danger is that we can remove ourselves from all that the world is. We can begin to put ourselves in a bubble and protect ourselves from all the ills of this world. But what Peter says is very clear,

“Serve God and honor Him as you live in this world. As you go about your life in this world, you honor Him by honoring those who are around you.”

As Christians, some of us have protected ourselves and put a bubble around our lives so we live in isolation from the rest of the world. That idea is not found in New Testament Christianity. New Testament Christianity says, “I live in a sinful world yet I will not participate in the sin. I will live my life within my community so they will see what true Christianity is. I’ll have them as my friends; I’ll engage with them as business individuals. I will live life with them but I will live life in accordance to the Scriptures.” While it’s true we need to protect ourselves from the pursuits of this world, we must also strive with great energy and effort to reach the world for Christ. This is what Peter says.

1. The Government’s Authority

To be able to do this, Peter is going to teach us about this subject of submission. As we balance our freedom with our faith, we’re going to need to understand some things from this text. The first thing we need to understand is what I call the government’s authority. Notice in the text,

“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” (verses 13-14).

Now let’s stop here for a moment. Growing up, one of the biggest cardinal sins of any preacher was to preach on the subject of money. You just didn’t do it! Every time I heard a preacher preach on money, he would apologize for it. He would give caveats to it. I tell you though that a close second these days is to talk about the subject of politics and government. I find it funny that it’s hard to preach about or listen to these things if we are a people who love the Scriptures as much as Village Bible Church does. It makes the subject of money and government a whole lot easier to preach because the Bible talks about those two subjects all the time and is very clear on each of those issues. So we need to ask the Lord to open our hearts and minds to the subject matter of government.

With money and government, we have a tendency to listen to a message and say, “Well, those two things—they’re mine. Preacher, you can talk about holiness or tell me not to lie and steal, but Preacher—stay away from my money. It’s mine.” I’ll tell you to read the Book. You might get a different story. “But Preacher, stay away from my politics. You can’t have that; that’s mine!” But brothers and sisters, the Bible tells us over and over again that the use of our money, the pursuing of our politics and the respect we are to give the government are all intrinsically connected to the way we are to live lives of holiness.

There are few things in the entire Christian life where more of us are skewed in our views than in the subject area of politics and government. These messed up views have led us to become involved in spewing hatred, promoting discord and spreading rebellion. The issue of government in our day has caused us to amass a great number of teachers to tickle our ears with conspiracies and innuendos. Peter lived during a time—please listen to this—where Christians lived in utter terror of their government officials. Utter terror. If you think you can stand and say the United States is a place where we live in terror, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

What does Peter say to those people where Christianity was a bad word? This was a time when admitting you were a Christian could put you in jail, have you lose your job and family and even lose your life—even as Peter did one day. What does Peter—a man who lost his life at the hands of government officials for preaching Christ— have to say? Does he set up large protests? Does he hand out banners? Does he break out into a diatribe against the emperor? Does he use his time in the pulpit to pound the platform of a political action group or political party? Not at all, brothers and sisters. What Peter says is the opposite, “Honor the emperor and be good citizens.” Let me remind you that we stand not on what a political party does or says, but on the Word of God. Peter reminds us we are to honor the emperor and be good citizens.

So how are we to do what Peter instructs us? We need to understand the authority the government has, no matter what authority it is—including the authority of the government of the United States.

Government is mandated by God. Please understand this—the plan and purpose of human government was not started by our founding fathers. It was started in the mind of God when He created people. Romans 13:1 reminds us of this truth, “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” No authority except that which is instituted by God will ever exist. God doesn’t wonder on Election Day who’s going to be the winner. God doesn’t say, “Oops, we should have campaigned a little harder. Why did that bad guy get into office?” God mandated that authorities would be placed over us and He is the One Who puts them in place.

Notice how this mandate comes out in Jesus’ conversation with Pontius Pilate. Jesus has been beaten and abused and now He stands before the most powerful person in the region—Pilate. Pilate says to Him (John 19:10), “You know I have all the power to release You or condemn You?” What is Jesus’ response in John 19:11? “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” Let it be heard from this pulpit to every king, president, senator and congressional representative that you hold no authority unless God our Father in Heaven gives it to you. It would be good for our friends in Washington to remember that.

Government is the middleman, not the end-all. Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.” So if God is supreme, does as He wills and His plans and decrees most surely will come to pass, then what role does government play? The role is that of God’s middle management. They’re stewards given charge over part of God’s creation. Peter addresses them and reminds the middlemen that whether it’s the emperor who is supreme or his group of governors, they are all to know they are to be in submission to the supreme rule of God. It begins with the head honcho and in our government, that is the President. It goes all the way down to the local dogcatcher. Every authority that has been established is a middleman or middle-woman of God.

Governments can be moved by God. So if God is the boss and the authorities are middle management, that means all authorities and governments can be moved by God. Because He is supreme and He is the only Authority, they can be moved by God. God holds the right and prerogative to do with the leaders of this world what He will. God reserves the right to increase a man or woman’s authority and give them even greater ability. Sometimes that even means greater ability to do evil. God says, “I reserve the right to place that difficult, hateful or evil person into leadership and I do so because I have a plan and a purpose. I may allow that to take place.” But He also reserves the right to impeach a leader and take him out of leadership.

Proverbs 21:1 reminds us of this truth. It says, “The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” We may think that our President has supreme authority but God says, “He’s in my hand. I’m the One Who rules.” To the greatest dictator in the world, God says, “You’re just my middle manager and I hold the terms of your contract.” We forget that as Christians. The problem we have with our politics and government isn’t the government itself; our problem is we don’t have a robust theology of Who’s in charge. If we understood Who’s in charge, then we wouldn’t be so pushed, pressed and downtrodden when middle managers seem to get their way because we will remember that not only do we know the Boss, we’re in the Boss’ family. He knows us and promises that He will care for us no matter who rules over us.

Turn in your Bible for a moment to the Book of Daniel. In Daniel 2, we see another great example of a man who has to live under a very difficult ruler. Daniel proves that at times it is difficult to be a Christian when the leader above you does not like the things of God, but we notice Daniel is able to do great things because God is with him. In Daniel 2, we have a situation with Nebuchadnezzar who is a wicked king. There are no checks and balances with Nebuchadnezzar. He’s the go-to guy, the head honcho of the group. He can do whatever he wants and nobody will question it. The problem is that God has given Nebuchadnezzar a dream. He doesn’t know what to do with this dream. God says, “The way I move a person or a leader is by giving them dreams to trouble them and then I give the interpretation to one of My own.”

So Daniel—who’s an exile, a foreigner in Nebuchadnezzar’s nation—is the one who gets the answer. Notice the words of Daniel 2:19-21,

“Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said: ‘Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; [listen to what he says] he removes kings and sets up kings.’”

How would you like to utter those words to King Nebuchadnezzar who could have you killed in an instant? “Hey, my God can take you down and raise you up.”

Notice he goes on in verses 21-23 to say:

…he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
he reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and the light dwells with him.
To you, O God of my fathers,
I give thanks and praise,
for you have given me wisdom and might,
and have now made known to me what we asked of you,
for you have made known to us the king's matter.

God is in charge. If you understand that, then the things of this world won’t get you so fired up. When you turn on the TV and they talk about the chaos of this world, you can say, “That’s fine. God predicted that. God says He will bring us through safely to the end.” We need to understand that God moves people, especially in governments. We can take solace in the fact that no matter how badly our leaders mess up, we have a God Who is in charge. Each of those leaders are held in His hand and are there for as long as He will allow them to be, no matter if they are kings, presidents, dictators or judges.

Government should maintain liberty and justice for all. So what is the government to do as God’s middlemen? I want you to understand this because we often think, “If I was in government, I would do things a lot differently.” We sound all cavalier and say, “I would do this or that. They’re a bunch of morons and I’m a smart person.” I want you to understand that God places a high respect on the issue of government because they have the job of dealing with two extremes: anarchy and tyranny.

In anarchy, everybody does what they want with no thought or regard for anybody else’s feelings, safety or concerns. In tyranny, you have a group of individuals doing all they want with no thought of what it will do to the rest of the people under their care and oversight. The job of the government is to balance those things in a very difficult spot. We can allow people to have freedoms which will allow anarchy because they will do what they deem right and necessary. We can also have it where a government says a person can’t do anything without being first told by the government that they can do it. I want you to look at every political debate out there and understand that the difficulty our government has is balancing those two things. That doesn’t mean we can’t give our two cents or have our positions, but let’s understand the job these people have been given is a difficult one. What may seem like anarchy to one person is freedom. What may seem like tyranny to another person is protection.

What we need to understand is they’re never going to get it perfect. That’s why we need to be careful we don’t look at the speck in our government’s eye before we look at the log in our eye (Matthew 7:1-5). We need to understand we don’t do everything perfect. Do we live a life of holiness and perfection? No, there are good days and bad days. We’re going to have good days and bad days in government. Our desire and hope shouldn’t be that God just keeps kicking people out, but that God would allow us—no matter what the political sphere or situation—to bring glory and honor to Him.

So the government’s job is twofold:

First, the government is to punish vice. The word “punish” (ekdikēsis) is a Greek word that is incredibly strong. It means to avenge, to literally squash. When a wrongdoer preys on society, God expects—He demands—the government to deal with it in such a way that they inflict the avenging of that wrong as if it’s done by God Himself. That’s a lot of room God has given to governments. Notice the text says they are “to punish those who do evil” (1 Peter 2:14). So what God says is, “I know there’s going to be evildoers and I don’t want vigilante reactions.” In other words, He doesn’t want me going around saying, “Well, you’ve done wrong so I’m going to punish you.” So He says, “I’m going to set up a system that allows a group of people to be as objective as sinful people can be to arrest those individuals; to bring them to a place of punishment and even—in some societies—bring them to a place of death.” God gives what seems like a great amount of latitude to a society. What is His response in Romans 13:1-7? He says, “If you don’t like their punishment, then don’t do evil things.” It’s the evil ones who are getting into trouble.

That’s one side of the government, but notice the other side of what they do is to promote virtue. They punish vice and evildoers, but Peter says they also need to promote virtue. They need to be speaking well and lifting up those who are good citizens. Peter is saying, “Government, pursue those who are doing wrong.” I want that. I don’t want anybody just breaking into my house. I don’t want people hurting my children. I want people to have fear if they’ve committed a crime and a police car comes down the road.

But I also want society to know it’s not just that we live out of fear but we live out of a deep desire to be known as good and faithful citizens. So Peter says, “I want you to pursue good and I want governments to applaud that.” It would do well for kings and presidents to speak well of their people who serve well in their communities and nation. They should show kindness and favor to people who are willing to help out their brothers and serve their communities at large. Here’s the place the government holds. This is their authority. This is what God has given them as their job to do.

Yet, we need to bring into total perspective that all Peter is saying in this passage about the government is being done by one of the most ruthless leaders of all history. This isn’t where he’s sitting there saying, “Hey, do this because my guy’s on the throne.” He’s saying, “Do this and the guy that I’m talking about is going to hang me upside down on a cross and take my life.” Peter’s telling the audience to honor this emperor—Nero—who is in Rome. Peter’s reminding them Nero has authority given to him by God. This same Nero is going to take Christians and make them into lanterns. He’s going to light them on fire so they can have chariot races. This is human history. The man Peter’s telling them to honor and respect is the man who’s going to burn down Rome and blame the Christians for doing it, which causes worldwide persecution for Christians. Peter has every right to stand here today and tell us the government of America has authority because the American government is a kid’s show in comparison to what Nero was doing in Peter’s day. Peter says, “You’ve got to understand the authority they have. It’s God-given, whether you like it or not.”

 2. The Christian’s Responsibility

So here’s the rub—what’s our responsibility? Notice what he says in verse 13, “Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution…” As aliens and strangers, you and I are called to pay our allegiance to God and give Him all the praise and honor that’s due His name. But we also have the responsibility to serve those in authority as well. How are we to do it?

We are to submit to authority. This responsibility begins with submitting to those in authority. “Be subject…” Peter uses the word hypotassō. It’s a military word. I want you to understand what this word means. When he says, “Be subject…” he’s telling you, “Okay, get the military in your mind for a moment.” First, hypotassō means that you know your proper rank. In the military, you’re told right away you’re a private. You’re at the bottom of the pecking order. There are corporals, captains, lieutenants, generals and all those who are in between. You have a certain rank within that army. Christians need to understand their rank in the world. While each of us are equal before God, there are some of us—in fact most of us—who have authority over somebody, but we are also under the authority of someone else. We need to know who we have authority over and who has authority over us.

So let me give you an example. I have authority over my children, in my business and within this church. But when I head out on Route 47 and drive 49 miles an hour and I see a car behind me with lights, I can’t say, “Well, you just pulled over Tim Badal. I’m an important person.” He’s going to say, “I don’t care who you are. I’m the authority and I have authority over you in this way.” Now the police officer can’t say, “I think your kids should eat more vegetables and you should take your wife out for Valentine’s Day.” He doesn’t have authority in that way. He does have authority to maintain order on the roadway. We need to recognize where our proper place is—who has authority over us and whom we might have authority over in our own lives.

We are to silence foolish talk around us. The second thing about hypotassō is that it’s not only knowing our proper rank, it’s also doing what we’re told. When Scripture says, “Be subject to all earthly authorities including that of government,” you need to know that you’re under government because God has mandated that government to be over us. But then it is also our job to do what we’re told. The idea is that when an authority tells us to do something, we do it in a present, imperative way. Hypotassō means it is done on a continual basis. We don’t think about it; we do it. We’re told to follow laws, so we follow the laws. What if we don’t like the laws? We follow them anyway. We are to obey them. Peter is using the commanding voice to tell us as spiritual fathers, apostles and church leaders that we are to submit to the governing authorities on a continual basis.

Finally, hypotassō speaks of the heart behind such action. He doesn’t say, “Cross your arms and say, ‘Peter told me I have to follow the government, well then I guess I’ll do it—but I don’t want to.’” That sounds like my four-year-old’s response to many things. “I guess because you told me I will, but I’m not going to be happy doing it.” When he uses the word hypotassō, Peter is speaking of submission being done willingly. It’s an attitude that says, “You know what? I’m going to willingly do that. I’m not going to fight you every step of the way, calling you all kinds of names and pursuing all kinds of sin. I’m going to do what I’m told.” Why? “…for the Lord’s sake,” Peter says (1 Peter 2:13). We do it for the Lord’s sake.

Again bringing the military metaphor into picture, Peter is telling us, “As a private, you need to obey your colonel or lieutenant. Maybe that colonel or lieutenant isn’t the greatest leader; maybe they are absolutely abysmal at leading. Maybe they’re leading in all kinds of seemingly sinful ways of debauchery and evil.” God says, “You submit to them. You do what you are told and do so in a willing way, not because you’re serving them—they’re just a colonel or lieutenant—I’m the Commander in Chief. I’m the One Who’s in charge. I’ve built a system with lieutenants, colonels and generals. Wherever you find yourself in that system, you’re not the Commander in Chief and neither is the man above you. So you need to listen to him as if you’re listening to Me.”

That’s a hard thing for us as Americans. I’m cringing just from speaking these things, because this goes against the very nature of who we are as citizens in the United States. Notice that Peter doesn’t say this just with government, he says, “…every human institution.” What that means is…

  • children are subject to their parents
  • wives are subject to their husbands
  • Christians are subject to their church leaders and elders
  • employees are subject to their employers
  • students are subject to their teachers and
  • citizens are subject to their political leaders

Notice in verse 15 why he says this. Because it “is the will of God.” This is God’s will: that we would live righteous lives with those who are in authority over us.

Let me explain. I’ve heard it said before that, “I can submit—but I submit to the office, not the person.” If that is your response, you are going against exactly what Peter is saying because he is not talking about those offices but the people who hold those positions. So we have to understand this—our leader is Barack Obama. He’s our President. You don’t have to like everything he says or does and you don’t have to vote for him. You have a lot of freedom here in America to do what you want with Barack Obama when it comes to your feelings. Let us understand exactly what Peter is saying though—he says, “You need to submit to Barack Obama.” “Ooh, I don’t like that! That makes me cringe!” But what we need to remember is that it is God Who placed Barack Obama into the presidency and God says, “He’s my guy whether you like it or not. He’s is there according to My will and decree. I have placed him there and I expect you to respect and honor him—not just the presidency, but honor him as the placeholder of that office. Do so with respect and submit to him.”

I’m speaking heresy for some of you, I know. But this is exactly what Peter is articulating to us. Why would we do this? Notice verse 15, “…to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” In Peter’s time, people have made a hobby of speaking down to Christians. Nero was known to openly disparage Christians by impugning national crimes against them. The Jewish people who lived around him were anti-Christian because they saw Jewish Christians as people who had left the faith, walked out on the people of God and now pursued the heresies of a different teacher and leader. The title of Christian was not a good one, especially to those who had never met a Christian before.

So Peter reminds us twice now —in verses 12 and 15—that when accusations come, our job is to live good lives. Paul says we are to “lead a peaceful and quiet life” (1 Timothy 2:2). Why? We are to do this because people are going to say, “Those Christians are bad people. The things they believe are not good for our community.” There’s going to be a day here in America—and it’s coming very quickly—when people are going to say of Christians, “They’re no good. You don’t want to be around them.” I hope in that day the people of Hinckley will say, “You know what? I know the Badals and they’re Christians. They’re not bad people. I can trust Tim when he runs his business because he’s a man of integrity. I’ve watched how they raise their kids. They love their family. He loves his wife. They’re hospitable, caring and they protect the well-being of the community and the people around them. I don’t know what you’re talking about here, but that’s foolishness because I know the Badals and they’re not anything like you say they are.”

Nero was saying all kinds of things like, “Hear ye, hear ye everybody! Christians are bad; stay away from them. Don’t get close to them.” But then people who had Christians as neighbors said, “That Nero, I don’t know what he’s talking about. The Christians I know love in ways even greater than the world loves. They care. They’re giving, kind, sacrificial and honest. So what Nero and those government officials are saying is complete nonsense.”

We are to serve God by serving others. So what is the job of Christians? Notice verse 16, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” Here we are as citizens and we may not like the world system that we’re under. We may not like the people who are over us. But God says, “How you serve Me is by serving others well. You want to know how you serve Me and bring glory to Me? Be the best employee you can be for that jerk employer you have.” That means you can’t call him a jerk anymore. I know what you’re thinking, “Tim, you don’t know what kind of boss I have!” Peter says, “Serve him well and in doing so, you serve God.” “But You don’t know the government that we’ve got, God!” When you start saying that kind of thing, it’s just messed up because God absolutely does know.

What does God expect? He expects us as Christians to serve our country well. He expects us to be the best group of people possible. As Christians, we shouldn’t have to lobby at all because people see our good deeds and are in awe of them, “Wow!” Every time a Christian gets involved with something, God just blesses it. Remember Joseph and Potiphar. What do Joseph and Potiphar have going on? Joseph is just a servant but the servant blesses the master because he serves well. We are called to do that. We are to serve God by serving others well.

We are to show appropriate regard to all. In verse 17, Peter reminds us we live in a multi-faceted world. He says, “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” Peter has a little play on words here. He creates a tier of how we are to have relationships. “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” Notice that he uses the same word for honoring (timaō) everyone as he uses for honoring the emperor. God does not expect us to elevate the people who are in authority over us—including the emperor or the president—but what He says is, “You need to honor them as you honor everyone else.” That person is just a man or a woman; they’re no different.

So how do we honor everyone? Remember what the Scriptures say, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:9). “What if that neighbor is an enemy of mine?” Scripture reminds us, “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:43-48). “Bless those who persecute you” (Romans 12:14). One of the easiest sins right now at Village Bible Church—and at most evangelical churches—is to speak words of hatred, discord and rebellion about our government. It’s easy because you won’t find anybody who will say, “You know, we probably shouldn’t say that.” We think it’s okay to have some sort of religious and righteous indignation and can say whatever we want about our President. The Bible says, “No, you can’t. You’re to honor everyone and you’re to honor the one who’s in charge.”

Is it hard? Yes! Sometimes it’s hard to honor the salesperson who comes into my office. It’s hard to honor my employer. It’s hard to honor that person who drives me absolutely crazy. But I’m called to love, serve and give them the honor God says is due to them. If I were stepping into the White House to say hello to the First Family, I need to honor them. “What if they do all kinds of crazy things?” You honor them. Remember who Peter is talking about—Nero! Nero gave Hitler a run for his money. This isn’t some nice and warm, fuzzy guy everyone was glad to have in power. People ran in fear of Nero and Peter says, “You have to honor him. You don’t raise him above anybody else, but you honor him as everyone else.”

Notice what else Peter says, “Love the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17). We serve our community well, but we should do an even better job at loving and caring for our community of believers. We are to serve one another in this body in an even greater way. If we’re known as good neighbors, we should be known as even better Christians in our church fellowship. “Wow, Tim’s a great neighbor. He lets me use his power tools and helps shovel my driveway.” I hope that is said of me as a neighbor in Hinckley, but I hope that you in the church would say, “That may be true of Tim, but let me tell you what he does in the body of Christ. He goes way beyond the call. He loves in a way that God has called us to love one another.”

All of this is done because we remember Who’s in charge. Peter says, “Fear God” (2:17). I think it’s quite amazing that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10). If you want wisdom to know how to serve your government and your country well, then you need to fear God. In that moment that we fear God and notice that He reigns supreme, everything else will figure itself out.

Now, I know there are a lot of questions out there. . I know people say, “Wait a minute Tim. You haven’t addressed this, this or this.” So I want to address a couple of these issues briefly:

3. Is It Ever Okay to go Aganist the Government's Authority?

Let me give you a very short answer: Yes, it’s okay at times to do so. I’m not saying that we just take a beating and don’t ever speak. There are biblical reasons to go against the government but we need to caveat it in the way the Bible does.

We need to remember to speak greater words of repentance and not revolution. Do you know that the Bible never calls us to revolt? Show me a Bible verse that says, “Tim, as citizens, we’re called to revolt.” It’s not in the Scriptures. We do a lot more talking about revolution—especially in our day and age—than we ever have before as Christians. What are the words we are supposed to speak? We are supposed to speak words of repentance. Turn to Jesus.

We are to engage in the political process but we shouldn’t expect much change. I don’t know of any national revival that has happened here in America because there’s been a particular president in the Oval Office. You may say, “Tim, how much history do you know?” I don’t know many things well, but I know history. Revivals have taken place because the people of God have gotten on their knees, prayed and sought the Lord’s face (2 Chronicles 7:14). In that day, God has healed the land. That’s God’s way. It seems foolish to man, but it’s the power of God.

God’s power—not man’s politics—will change the world. Peter was in jail one day in the Book of Acts. Do you know what happened? He didn’t say, “Hey, everybody bring your banners and let’s start protesting!” A group of people in a small little home behind a locked door got on their knees and started praying. In a cell far away, Peter was praying as well and would see his chains fall off, the doors open up and he would be released. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

Let me close with this thought. It’s an anonymous letter that was written in A.D. 130 to a man named Diognetus who was a tutor of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Not much is known about the author or why he wrote this. It says:

For Christians are not differentiated from other people by country, language or customs; you see, they do not live in cities of their own, or speak some strange dialect…

They live in both Greek and foreign cities, wherever chance has put them. They follow local customs in clothing, food and other aspects of life. But at the same time, they demonstrate to us the wonderful and certainly unusual form of their own citizenship.

They live in their own native lands, but as aliens… Every foreign country is to them as their native country, and every native land as a foreign country.

They marry and have children just like everyone else; but they do not kill unwanted babies. They offer a shared table, but not a shared bed…They are passing their days on earth, but are citizens of Heaven. They obey the appointed laws [notice what he says], and go beyond the law in their own lives.

They love everyone, but are persecuted by all…they are put to death and gain life. They are poor and yet make many rich… They are dishonored and yet gain glory through dishonor.

Their names are blackened and yet they are cleared. They are mocked and bless in return. They are treated outrageously and behave respectfully to others. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when punished they rejoice as if being given new life. They are attacked by Jews as aliens, and are persecuted by Greeks [notice what it says]; yet those who hate them cannot give any reason for their hostility.

Let that be true of us in the year 2013. Let’s pray.

Father God, I know this is hard to hear. I know the political arena today is as heated as it has ever been and probably more divided than it’s been since the Civil War. But Lord, let us be reminded that our call is not to change the policies and practices of political parties, but to live upright and holy lives. Lord, I pray that we would be a discerning people. I’ve not addressed every issue; I’ve stayed true to the text. In doing so, many questions are left unanswered. Give us wisdom to understand how to engage the political process, how to know when it is right to protest or when to stay quiet and know when it’s right to rebel. We have words of Scripture and I pray those words would be found and spoken. I pray that we would be Bereans who would study the Scriptures and see for ourselves what You have to say to us. Lord, let the truth of this Scripture remind us that we are to be submissive to all in authority. Let that be our banner this week so even though people accuse us of doing wrong, the world may glorify God on the Day of Visitation. Lord, we pray that we will honor You in this way. In Christ Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.