Christian Conduct as Slaves
The Ambassador's Handbook • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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This week will continue last week’s topic and also get into some new stuff. We’ll actually be covering six verses today since they all fit together and it would be hard to stop at four or five.
c. It is God’s will that submission bring unbelievers to a knowledge of the truth. (2:15, Jude 10)
This is really another angle on what we saw last week. In v. 12, we saw that good works will lead unbelievers to glorify God and receive His mercy. Now we see one specific breed of good works that will display the truth of Christianity before the world—submission to the government.
“So” is referring back to verse 13. Obedience to every ordinance of man (with the exceptions we considered) is the will of God, and to fail to do it is sin. There can be a lot of discussion among Christians on how to find the will of God, how to decide on big decisions, or even small decisions. How does God direct the ways of His children? Through a vision? A feeling? Godly counsel? One definite way He does is by telling you what to do in His word, and then as we follow that revealed will, He directs our path into His specific plan.
Therefore, if we want to be living in God’s plan for our lives—which I’m sure we all do—then we must submit to the civil authorities, even those policies which seem stupid and pointless. And we can rejoice while submitting because we are not just obeying the government and checking all their boxes. We are pleasing God and doing His will.
The idea of putting to silence the ignorance of foolish men is interesting. What are these men ignorant of? Usually, when the New Testament authors speak of ignorance, they mean the ignorance of the ways of God.
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Also think of Jesus on the cross, saying His murderers did not know what they were doing.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Chapter 2)
[They do not have] “the knowledge of God,” and therefore ignorant of the children of God, and misconstruing their acts; influenced by mere appearances, and ever ready to open their mouths, rather than their eyes and ears. Their ignorance should move the believer’s pity, not his anger.
These ignorant men are those who do not know Christ. They do not understand that Christianity is not a threat to their wellbeing, but rather the only source of life and joy. They do not understand that Satan is using them to oppose God. So, because of their ignorance, they accuse Christians of wrongdoing and dismiss them. Think of how many times today someone says they don’t like Christianity because all the people in churches are hypocrites. There are also some of the well-known atheists like Richard Dawkins who will say Christianity is bad for the world and is a source of oppression of people.
We can respond to these claims with reasonable defenses of our faith. That isn’t necessarily wrong. But like when Nathaniel asked Philip if any good thing could come of Nazareth, it is valuable for us to just say “come and see.” We should show the goodness and truth of Christ through our actions, and specifically our submission to the government, thus proving all their accusations unfounded.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Five: Somebody’s Watching You! (1 Peter 2:11–25)
In the summer of 1805, a number of Indian chiefs and warriors met in council at Buffalo Creek, New York to hear a presentation of the Christian message by a Mr. Cram from the Boston Missionary Society. After the sermon, a response was given by Red Jacket, one of the leading chiefs. Among other things, the chief said:
“Brother, you say that there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agree, as you can all read the Book?
“Brother, we are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors. We are acquainted with them. We will wait a little while and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again of what you have said.”
d. Freedom in Christ should be used in service to Christ. (2:16, Romans 6:16-19, Galatians 5:13-15)
This well doing comes from an understanding of our freedom in Christ. We are free from slavery to sin.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
But what do we have freedom to do? To do whatever we want? To get our own way? No—that is to put ourselves back in bondage to sin. Peter says that we should not use liberty as a cloak of maliciousness. What does this mean?
badness, evil, wickedness, depravity, malice
pretext, formally, a covering or veil
Our Christian liberty can be used to hide maliciousness. We may have a pretense of kindness and consideration that hides a true intend of evil. This is the opposite of charity out of a pure heart we are commanded to have. So, if this is not the object of our freedom, then we ask again, what are we free unto? This time, Peter answers the question. We are free to serve.
This seems like a contradiction. Freedom means doing what I want, right? It means no one can tell me what to do, and I am my own master.
But no, it doesn’t mean that. There is no true, complete freedom. We will never not be subject to something or someone else. The freedom of Scripture is not a freedom from being a servant, but freedom from being a servant to sin and to being a servant of our loving Father.
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
“Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.”
Lord Acton
Thus, the point for this verse. Each one of us is free insomuch as we are free from the necessity to sin. Now that the bondage of sin has been cast off, we have the ability to do what we should.
e. Christians have a duty to esteem all men. (2:17, Galatians 3:1, Philippians 2:3-4; 1 Peter 1:22)
Here we have four rapid-fire commands that explain how we should use our freedom. You could really characterize the first one as the general heading, and the following three as different aspects. Or you could consider each one a separate command. But either way, these are very simple, very clear standards of the well doing we must display to the world.
First is “honor all men.” Or in other words, honor everyone. To honor someone is to show them respect, recognition, or esteem. To prefer them to yourself. To be clear, this is not the mythical command, “Thou shalt be nice to everyone.” Honoring someone can involve rebuke.
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Peter also spoke hard words in his sermons, far from the squishy nice guy that some modern preachers try to be. Yet, even while speaking these hard words, we must regard people as made in the image of God and realize they have value.
This feels like such an obvious point. But it’s so easy to become completely self-focused and forget all about honoring one another, putting one another over ourselves.
Jesus called a private meeting with His disciples. Hidden away in an upper room, in the shadows of candlelight, only his most trusted apprentices would receive this secret instruction.
Before he began, Jesus sent Judas Iscariot out of the room. With only the true believers remaining, he confided in them these secrets.
A young man named John sat next to Jesus, leaned against his chest and listened. Decades later, he wrote down these secrets in an ancient manuscript and finally published them to the world.
As recorded by John, Jesus said:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Second is to love the brotherhood. This brotherhood refers to other believers. This is really a subset of the command to honor all men, but deepened and expanded. As Christians, we have an even greater duty to love one another.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Thirdly, we must fear God. This might at first seem a bit out of place on this list.
One will never truly respect people until he reverences God.
A high view of God leads to a high respect of His creation. It is those who do not know God who value human life the least. It’s kind of a stereotypical mark of villains within stories to not value the lives of even their own soldiers.
Finally, we are to honor the king. This just recaps what we looked at last week. We must honor the king even if, and especially if, we must disobey him.
3. Christian Conduct as Slaves (2:18–25)
Before getting into the real content of what Peter says here, it’s worth stopping for a minute to consider the status of slavery within the New Testament. Some people criticize the Bible for condoning slavery and discouraging slaves from trying to be free, and sometimes it seems that it does. How should we answer this?
First of all, we see that servitude is the standard to which all Christians are held.
(Craig Evans)
John’s Gospel, Hebrews–Revelation (2:18–25. Witness of Slaves)
We should note carefully, though, that the slaves become the model for all believers, which is appropriate for a movement whose leader came “not to be served, but to serve.”
And as we saw earlier, the ability to be your own master is not the ultimate goal of a Christian. We should be servants to Christ, so ultimately, what difference does it make to serve a human master as well?
Additionally, slavery in the ancient world was not generally what we think of as slavery. In early America, slavery was from buying people who had been kidnapped from overseas. However, in ancient times, a lot of slaves came from other sources.
As C.R. Wiley writes, there were two main sources for slaves--debt and displacement. Slaves because of debt had to work to pay their loan, and slaves who had been displaced from their country because of war, famine, etc. had to work because they had no other way to make a living. The Old Testament explicitly condemns stealing someone to make them your slave, but does not condemn, someone having a servant through one of these other sources.
Now, masters are commanded to be gentle and loving. They should not strip all rights from their slaves and treat them poorly. Even ancient secular philosophers taught that slaves should be treated well, some even saying slaves should share in the profits of the master as a tool for motivation. This is not a blank check for masters to do whatever they want because the servants must obey.
And finally, there’s the consideration that fighting for the freedom of slaves would not end well. I’m sure you’ve heard of Spartacus and how that ended. Slave revolts were a common thing in the Roman world, but they never resulted in social change. America was the first nation to figure out how to run an economy without slavery. Thus, simple obedience would result in a much better life than trying to reform the culture.
With all that said, let’s consider the commands given to servants.
a. Servants should submit to both good and evil masters. (2:18, 1 Corinthians 7:20-23, 1 Timothy 6:1-2, Titus 2:9-10)
The point pretty much says it all. Submission to the government is the Christian calling, and submission to masters or employers is too.
Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
The wording of that passage is so interesting. A servant being faithful to his master adorns the doctrine of God. It makes Christianity beautiful, like ornaments and lights on a Christmas tree make it look prettier. It comes back to Peter’s earlier point that these good works will turn others to Christ.
Firstly, Christian servants should submit to good masters. This is easy. Only the most discontented of servants would make trouble for a gentle, loving master. But that’s not the extent of our calling—servants must also submit to froward masters. Froward means morally corrupt or evil. Why is this? Peter explain in the next verses.
b. Suffering injustice is one spiritual sacrifice believers can offer unto God. (2:19–20, Luke 6:32-35)
“Thankworthy” actions are meritorious. They are good actions that are worthy of praise. Obeying an evil master is worthy of praise from God.
The next phrase speaks of a servant, seeking to follow His conscience and obey God, is forced to disobey some command of his master. That may be doing something his maser said not to, or not doing something he was ordered to do. But the key is that he does it for conscience toward God. This, like in submission to government, is the one time we are allowed to disobey.
But the main point of this verse is what happens when the servant disobeys such an unjust command. If his evil master punishes him for refusing to take part in the pagan household religious rites, it is no shame. It is glory to him because he obeyed God rather than men.
Peter asks an interesting question here. Why should you be proud of yourself or expect praise from anyone for enduring punishment for wrongdoing? If a servant is lazy and is thus punished, it is his own fault. But if he suffers for Christ’s sake, if he suffers because he is obeying God as the Master of all masters, then God is pleased.
For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
John’s Gospel, Hebrews–Revelation 2:18–25. Witness of Slaves
Peter encouraged such slaves to excel in their service and respectful attitudes towards their masters so that, if they suffered any mistreatment, it could only be on account of their commitment to Christ, and not for any negligence in their duties or rebelliousness in their bearing.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Five: Somebody’s Watching You! (1 Peter 2:11–25)
Anybody can fight back; it takes a Spirit-filled Christian to submit and let God fight his battles (Rom. 12:16–21).
This sort of totally selfless love is one of the spiritual sacrifices we can offer to God. He is pleased by this behavior. This might seem like a weird sentiment at first. Is God happy that we are suffering for Him? God doesn’t take pleasure in our suffering, but He does take pleasure in our commitment and loves to support us through that suffering.
So how does this apply to today? If you have a difficult boss at work, you have the freedom to leave that job. Since the abolishment of slavery, we have certain rights as employee that we can defend in court. And we can thank God for those rights, since many people have not had them. However, if you do need to stay in that job for some reason and are forced to suffer mockery from your boss for your faith, patiently accepting that mockery while working hard and doing right is something God loves. Or if you’re bound to any other authority who is making your life difficult because of Christ, you can take heart in this passage.
Peter next gives an example of this submission in the life of Jesus, which we will get into next week.
