TUESDAY
Remember, this week we are seeing the practical implications of living in our new identity as the people of God in the tension of modern society. Yesterday, we saw Peter has an eye towards how the believers will be perceived in their society. He wants them to give Jesus a good reputation in the hopes they will glorify God when he returns. For the rest of this week, he will apply this to two key areas of society in that day, government and the household. Today, let’s talk about the relation to government.
1 Peter 2:13-17 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.
This, of course, is a loaded passage that we could spend weeks discussing, but we will do our best to just say what it says in its original context and for us today.
The first phrase, “Be subject, for the Lord’s sake to every human institution,” likely governs the rest of what he says, not just in regards to government but to household as well.
The Christians are to have a posture of submission. It’s worth noting that submission doesn’t mean “obedience in every circumstance.” Instead it refers to a general posture. As we referenced last week, this submission is “for the Lord’s sake.” Christians are primarily citizens of God’s kingdom. We are his people first, so our reason for submission always goes back to God. It is God’s will that Christians do good. Again, this goes back to Jeremiah and seeking the welfare of the city where the people of God are in exile. We are to live as servants of God (v. 16).
Governments are called to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. Therefore, in general Christians who are being good citizens and doing good work have nothing to be worried about. Paul says something similar in Romans 13. One could easily accuse Peter of being naive or shortsighted here. He is speaking generally, not going through every possible scenario. He has been put in prison himself by the governing authorities of Jerusalem. Persecution will soon break out against Christians in the Roman world. Nero will light Christians on fire to light up the streets of Rome and he will feed them to lions in the Colosseum. Peter knows governments don’t always follow their God-ordained responsibilities. Even if he knew what was about to happen, however, I think his exhortation would be the same. As we will see tomorrow, he grounds his teaching squarely in the life of Jesus. Jesus submitted to governing authorities and was put to death by them.
We are to live, as Calvin has said of the Christian life, in a serving freedom and free servitude. As citizens of the kingdom of God, we are free from the restraints of living solely for human institutions. Yet, we are not to use that sense of freedom as an excuse for evil against those institutions, instead we are to live as servants of God and submit to those institutions out of that service to God.
We are to honor everyone, love fellow believers, fear God, and honor the emperor.
This text has a few very important implications for how we are to relate to government today:
- Our general posture should always be one of submission. We should seek to obey the rules of our governing authorities and be good citizens. We should even go above and beyond simply obeying the rules and “do good” (v. 15) for the community so people who accuse us of evil will be met with suspicion from the rest of the community. In our culture we are so prone to civil disobedience that we often look for opportunities to disobey that just aren’t there. Perhaps it is because we have been more formed by our cultural values than by the way of Jesus. Our culture values revolution and rebellion. The way of Jesus is submission and entrusting ourselves to God. We must know Jesus so well that we are counter-formed from the former into the latter.
- That said, because we are primarily servants of God and the kingdom is our higher allegiance, when our governing officials mandate we do something contrary to God’s law we are required to disobey. The manner in which we disobey is just as important however. We must not go against the teaching of Jesus in our disobedience. We are not justified in violent retaliation. Instead, we must practice peaceful protest as Jesus did. He didn’t capitulate to Pilate’s demands or the demands of the Sanhedrin. Yet, he also didn’t respond with violence and a military uprising.
- Doing good in our culture today involves advocating for the change of unjust laws. Our system of government has mechanisms for change that foreigners living under the Roman government never dreamt of. So the good deeds we are to do involve using those mechanisms to change unjust laws. This involves knowing what is “good” and peacefully advocating for it through our votes, advocacy, etc.
- We need to clarify our view of government within our faith. We need to keep the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man separate. This is where Christian nationalism is so toxic to the faith. If we believe America is a Christian nation and the government has a responsibility to keep it that way, Christians will invariably violate the law of Christ in attempting to do so. The kingdom of God and the government system of America are not the same. We cannot blend the two. We are called to submit to the governing authorities “for the Lord’s sake” but not make them lord. Our allegiance must first and foremost be to king Jesus. When we blend the two, it’s like blending ice cream with dog poop. It doesn’t affect the dog poop much, but it sure does ruin the ice cream. Instead, as Justin Giboney describes, a Christian should view government as a tool to promote kingdom values in our society. This means Christians can engage in our government systems promoting kingdom values. But we must always maintain good theology and keep the two separate, with our primary allegiance to the kingdom of God.
Reflection
Reflect on your general posture towards the government. In general, do you have a posture of submission to governing authorities? Do you know the way of Jesus so well that you feel confident in discerning the values or laws of the culture that need to be resisted? Jesus and the apostles who were willing to suffer persecution and even death unjustly because they entrusted themselves to God. Is your faith and trust in God that resilient?