Submission For Christ's Sake

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"Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority"

1 Peter 2:13

Main Readings: Romans 13 & 1 Peter 2

Supporting Readings: Psalm 15 & Titus 3

So here we are, back in Peter’s first letter again after our Easter break.

And so let me remind you that the way Peter is talking, here in his letter, is by assuming that his audience already believe. They already know, and have a living relationship with God – through faith in Jesus.

The world has just watched on as four astronauts left this world for another world, on a mission.

And they were very focussed and very prepared to make sure that their mission was fruitful.

Peter wants us to be like that. Prepared and focussed. Not for the honour of NASA, but for the honour of Jesus.

The way Peter has described the Christian in this world, in his letter so far, is as a ‘foreigner and an exile’. You can see that in verse 11.

And what he means by that is that Christians are not meant to think of this world strictly as their home.

They are meant to think of heaven as their home, and themselves on mission here in the world.

That’s why Jesus’ parting words to his disciples were missionarywords: go into all the world and make disciples of all nations – Matthew 28.

Think of it like an ambassador. The UK ambassador’s home is the UK. His home is not the country he is representing the UK in – whether that be France, or India, or somewhere sunny like Australia, or wherever.

We are Christ’s ambassadors. And our home is heaven, and we are representing Christ in this world.

What this does is, it frees us up to live as though we don’t belonghere.

That is to say, we’re not so attached to anything in this world, such that if we lost it, our disappointment would somehow exceed our confidence in Jesus.

Our hope and what we count as ultimately precious, simply does not exist in this world.

And it’s this freedom that Peter wants to explain to us this morning a little more fully so that we don’t go beyond what God has intended by it.

You know one of the things that changes in the person that has become a Christian – especially as they engage with God’s revelation about himself in the bible – is the attitudes of their minds.

The mindset we once had, broadly matched that of the world around us. And that mindset was quite fluid – changing to sit comfortablywith the prevailing views.

But a Christian quickly realises, after faith in Jesus, that the mindset of God is narrow and it doesn’t change with the times.

It’s a mindset that results in views that are substantially different to the world around us.

So, for example, when Dave mentioned last time he preached, about abortion, he’s not riding a hobby horse at that point.

He’s actually telling us what God thinks about abortion, so that we can make sure we think the same way God does about that.

Freedom from the world does not mean: free to be whatever we want to be.

It means free from the constraint of having to think like the world thinks. And that freedom exists because we’re constrained by a newmaster now. And that master is God.

So, you can see, for example, that in verse 16 Peter says, live as ‘free’ people. But back in verse 13 he says, ‘submit yourselves’.

And so that leads us to ask some questions:

1.          Who does God want us to submit to?

2.          Why does God want us to submit, when we are said to be free?

3.          What does freedom in God mean then?

4.          Therefore, what should our posture as Christians be?

And I’ll try to answer these as we move along with Peter this morning.

Peter tells us that we are to submit ourselves to every humanauthority.

And by way of example, he gives us the supreme authority.

Now in his day and his land, that supreme authority was the Roman emperor, Caesar.

In our day, and our land, it is the democratically elected government of the UK.

And as we sit here this morning, that’s a Labour government.

And it’s the Prime Minster of our country. Which as we sit here this morning, is Kier Starmer.

Peter goes further in fact. He points out that, ‘every human authority’ certainly includes governors appointed by the supreme authority.

So, in our case that would be civil servants invested with authority. Authorities like the police, HMRC, locally elected councillors, district planners, and others besides.

And what Peter points out about these people is that they have authority to maintain law and order.

They can punish what they deem to be wrong, and they can commendwhat they deem to be right. That’s what he’s saying in verse 14.

And this is the case in all nations on earth.

All nations function as nations when they have an order to them which is maintained by an authority that both punishes and commends certain behaviours.

Even when that authority is not democratic like it is in our country but is autocratic like it was in Peter’s day.

And Peter is saying to Christians who live in whatever country they find themselves, submit yourselves to these authorities.

He doesn’t say, ‘think the way they think’. He doesn’t say ‘approve of what they approve of’. He says, ‘submit to them’.

And what we’ve got to notice is, this submission is not rooted in the worthiness of the authority in view. It is rooted in the worthiness of God alone. That’s super-important!

It’s not ultimately about them, it’s about him!

Civic submission is an act of worship before it’s a civic duty for the Christian.

We don’t submit because the authorities are always right, but because God is always right. Not because they are always just, but because Godis always just.

And we know that to be the case because of that little phrase in verse 13 – ‘for the Lord’s sake’. Submission to authorities is first and foremost for God, not for them.

So, the next question becomes, why does God want this submission?

Especially when you think that so much of the government’s notion of what is right is so often godless, and baseless, and hopeless!

So why should we obey these people?

And Peter really unpacks that for us in verse 15.

Let’s not forget what the people Peter is writing to are going through.

They are being misrepresented, and slandered, and socially pressured for belonging to Jesus by their society.

We already saw back in verse 12 of this chapter that people within their society who rejected Jesus were undermining these believers by falsely accusing them of wrongdoing.

And we can see in verse 19, that it had led them into the pain of unjust suffering.

Maybe you know what that feels like. It’s not comfortable at all!

Peter alludes to it again in chapter 3, verse 16 where he says that people had spoken maliciously against their good behaviour.

And then again in verse 17 of that chapter, he reminds them that it's better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

So, there’s no doubt in my mind that Peter is wanting us to know what they had been facing when he says in verse 15: ‘It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people’.

They had been facing severe opposition for faithfully promoting Christ and his gospel.

And let’s observe that Peter is happy and willing to call the anti-Christian sentiment they were receiving ‘ignorance’. And the people who propounded it, ‘foolish’.

These are people who are anti the gospel of Jesus Christ. They’re anti Christ’s followers. And ultimately Anti-Christ!

They are proactive in their attack on the truth of the gospel, and the way it changes people’s lives.

Peter calls them ‘foolish and ignorant’. Which is strong language. But it’s appropriate language!

Some Christians want to be so welcoming and benign that when targeted opposition comes the way of Christ and his Church, they don’t want to say anything.

But look at Peter. He’s going to call that kind of sentiment out for what it is. It’s darkened and its irrational because it opposes God and his Son Jesus Christ.

You know, one of the main ways people who are proactively anti the gospel are going to behave, is to call Christians who love the truth of God’s word out as evil wherever they can.

They’re going to be looking for opportunities to undermine your testimony by painting you in the worst light possible. They’ll exaggerate. They’ll nit-pick. They’ll twist. They’ll switch categories. They’ll accuse. They’ll report you. They’ll do whatever they possibly can to make you look bad.

Now, I know that we live in a society that is basically quite tolerant of Christianity - currently.

And in that sense, we find ourselves in slightly easier times than those believers Peter is writing to. Maybe.

However, that might not always be the case. Things can change pretty quickly. So, what Peter is saying here is valuable to have in our consciousness, for when things do change.

But also, the more we engage with society, from a Christian standpoint, on topics that are precious to the freedoms our society has asserted for itself – like abortion for example – the more we’re going to face this kind of opposition.

It's even possible to find opposition coming your way from inside the church when people in the church have drunk deeply at the well of contemporary culture! Which is pretty sobering.

But let’s notice that the primary way Peter instructs them – and us – to silence these falsehoods, is to do good. To do good.

In fact, Peter says, ‘it’s God’s will’ that we should silence these people, specifically by doing good. That’s God’s will! Do you see that?

In other words, it is not by joining them in their evil that we counteract their evil. It’s the opposite of that. It’s by doing good that we counteract their evil.

What he has in mind is living in a way that is recognisably good – especially in the eyes of the civic authorities.

They are the ones, he says, who commend what is right.

So, it’s by doing what they commend as good, that you silence the ignorance of these foolish people.

So how does that work?

Well, one way, is that when you do commendable things in the eyes of the authorities, those things become a character testimony or witnessin your favour.

And it makes the mud of false accusations, that’s being flung at you on account of Jesus, that much harder to stick to you. That’s one thing.

But also - and more importantly - it makes your witness for Christ even more credible.

Listen, nobody likes to be defamed! It’s demeaning. Unsettling. It feels like your reputation is being dragged through the mud.

And so, what everyone expects is that this pressure that is coming to bear on you because of your commitment to Jesus, will cause you to reject Jesus.

Your accusers are expecting that – that’s why they’re bringing the accusations.

And those watching on are expecting that too.

But real faith in Jesus is not whimsical.

The Apostle Paul uses this phrase in Colossians to describe a true Christian, he says, ‘when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory’.

For a Christian, the connection between you and Christ is the assurance that you will appear with him in the eternal age to come with a resurrected body. Alive! Forevermore!

Therefore, Christ is our life!

That’s how deep this faith goes!

So, when, in the face of ignorant, and foolish, and evil opposition, you stand firm for Christ by doing good in the name of Christ, and don’tresort to evil under the pressure of the opposition, you show that Christ is real. And you show that he is worth believing in!

And that’s the great goal of this teaching. That Christ be seen to be worth the cost of this kind opposition. By this, our testimony for Jesus deepens even further.

So, it’s not just that, by doing good it makes it a whole lot harder for the mud to stick.

But also, that by doing good you show that Christ is your all in all; and is worthy to receive the honour you profess him to have!

When we hear Peter saying ‘submit’ in this very definite, and forthright way. And when we hear him saying, ‘It is God’s will’. We might be forgiven for thinking that, far from being free, we are actually being constrained to live in a certain way.

And that would be right.

We are being constrained.

And Peter punches that idea home in verse 16.

First, he says, ‘live as free people’ and then he says, ‘live as slaves’. Do you see that in verse 16?

Specifically, he says, ‘live as God’s slaves’.

So, we need to understand clearly what it means to be ‘free’ in Christ.

Jesus talked about himself ‘setting us free’. So, Peter’s right to talk like this.

But clearly, to then immediately – even in the same sentence – talk about us being ‘God’s slaves’, we’ve got to understand what he meansby ‘free’.

An ambassador lives or dies by instructions he’s been given by is homenation, not the nation he temporarily and loosely lives in.

In that sense, he is free.

Free from the demands of the country he is ambassador to.

He is not free though, from the demands of his own country. And that’s the sense in which we have to understand this freedom that Peter refers to here.

It’s a sign of the relationship between a Christian and Jesus when they can say: ‘Yes, Jesus is my friend. Yes Jesus is my hope. Yes, Jesus is my treasure. But also yes, Jesus is my Lord.

There is a sense in which all Christians – as exiles in this world - from another world (which is heaven) – are free from this world’s demands.

They are certainly free from the constraint which pressures every single person in this world to conform to the thinking of the world, and the behaviours of the world; the speech of the world, and the attitudes of the world.

All Christians are free from those pressures.

And if we find we’re not free from those pressures then we should probably think that something isn’t quite right. And seek to discover why that’s the case.

It could be that there is some value that we’ve invested in this world that is misplaced.

But that sense of freedom from the constraints of the world should never manifest itself as liberty to conduct ourselves in ways the world would consider evil. Never.

That’s what Peter says in verse 16. ‘Do not use your freedom to cover-up for evil’.

So, for example, this church is not going to try to dodge its taxes because we’re exiles in this world and free from the constraints of the way our society thinks about taxes.

No, we’re going to make sure we toe the line when it comes to our taxes.

It's not because we are citizens of the UK that we pay our taxes; it is because we are slaves of God that we pay our taxes.

Peter says, ‘live as God’s slaves’. We are not our own, we were bought at a price.

The price was of the precious blood of Jesus.

There is nothing more costly than his blood shed for sinners like us. Nothing more valuable than that!

And therefore, we belong to him, and are slaves with a new and glorious master, whose name is Jesus. Praise be to God!

We make it our goal to please him Paul says. And he’s right!

That kind of living – as slaves of God – at least in part, is going to look like what Peter is calling us to here. It’s going to look like submitting to every authority.

So, this is the baseline principle for living in this world. And what it assumes is that there is, in all countries and all societies, more or less overlap between what God considers right and what the governmentconsiders right.

I think we can say that with some degree of confidence. Peter is instructing us in this way with confidence.

And since God has seen fit to include this teaching in his abiding Word, it seems more than likely that it applies to all Christians at all times.

But also, we can say it with confidence because, there was a time when Peter himself departed from this baseline principle. And he did that with good reason.

So, if there was an occasion when he did depart from this teaching and he says it here with such universal confidence, I think we can be confident that he intends for this to be the normal way for us to conduct ourselves.

In Acts 5, the apostles got arrested and thrown in prison on account of Jesus.

But then during the night, an angel of the Lord came and brought them out of the jail.

And so, the next morning they were brought back in again and made to appear before the authorities. Who reminded them that they were given strict orders not to preach any longer in this name – by which they meant, the name of Jesus.

So, you can see easily how, what Peter is saying here in his letter could apply in that situation.

But Peter and the other apostles responded to them by saying, ‘we must obey God rather than human beings’.

The reason why Peter did that, and yet now says this, is because, when there is a direct conflict between what God has explicitly told us to do – in this case to witness to the risen Lord Jesus Christ – and what the authorities have told us to do – which in this case, is not to preach in that name any more, then we must obey God.

So, Peter clearly knows that kind of conflict will come up – and in some countries, more often than in others; like in China and Iran right now, for example.

The witness of the book of Acts is that direct conflict between what God commands and what the authority commands does arise, but it is notthe pattern of everyday Christian life.

By and large there will be enough overlap for us to be able to submit to the authorities out of regard for Christ, and for his sake. And that’s what we should do.

So, what does that look like?

Peter says in verse 17 it means proper respect for everyone. Love for the family of believers. Fear for God. And honour for the emperor.

General people. Church. God himself. And the government.

And notice the four nouns that Peter uses: Respect. Love. Fear. And Honour.

Words that convey a certain posture, wouldn’t you agree? It’s not a posture of arrogance but a posture of humility.

It’s a posture, I would submit to you, that Christ himself demonstrated in his humanity whilst here on earth.

As we interact with the people around us, it commends Jesus bestwhen we show the respect due to people - as those made in the image of God.

As we interact with our fellow believers, there should be a posture of love towards them. Esteem them. Think the best of them. Strive to live at peace with them. Seek their good and pursue it. Practice hospitality.

As we behold our great God, in all his glory and majesty, let our hearts be reverent, as they should be. Let everything we do, be for the sake of the Lord, like Peter says.

For the sake of his name. For the sake of his glory and honour. Let thatbe our pure and abiding motivation for everything we do.

Peter does not call us to obedience out of duty but out of love.

It is our delight to do what he commands us to do here because it is God’s will that by doing these things we will glorify the worth of his name.

And finally, honour the emperor. Honour the prime minister. Honour the police man. Honour the HMRC guy. Honour the local councillor.

Abide by the law. Take care of your taxes. Live a life that is above board in this world.

God has appointed them according to his all-wise and all-sufficient will. And they wield authority for a reason. And we should hold them in high regard. Obey them and pray for them as we have opportunity.

In other words, we can sum this posture up like this:

have the same mindset 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 servant.

I think the background to Peter’s letter demands that we expect this humble posture to really be costly. That is the road Christ has walked ahead of us.

And I don’t think there could be a better spur to live like this, than to look squarely at Jesus.

Everything we need to know about humbly walking in the face of opposition and doing good, is set before us in the life of Christ. We just need to keep our gaze fixed on him to know how to walk in the path Peter has shown us here.

If we conduct ourselves with this kind of posture, we commend Christ to the world.