Being an Excellent Citizen

You get what you pay for. You have used that line before, right? I think we all have. Quality is an investment. Listen, we all want great products for as little as possible. But there are some things worth investing in. I have learned that there are some things you should pay the extra money for.

For example, Marci and I don’t go cheap on mayonnaise. We did that at the beginning of our marriage. Cheap mayonnaise tastes like garbage. I’ll pay for a quality mayonnaise. I also have learned not to go cheap on shoes or some consumer electronics. I know the Walmart brand TVs are cheap, but that’s because they’re cheap! Invest in something like Vizio, Toshiba, or Samsung. You get what you pay for.

I spoke last week about being a people of excellence. God calls us to keep our behavior excellent. In the original context, Peter says among the Gentiles. For the original audience, he meant the people they were living amongst as they were Gentiles, people of non-Jewish heritage. Today, we would take that as those who we live among that are not the people of God. There is the people who are in covenant relationship with God through the blood of Christ, and there are the people we are sent into the world to reach. We should conduct ourselves with excellence so that what they observe from us may lead to God’s glory.

We addressed the why question last week, and for the next two weeks we will address the how question. Yes, we should be a moral people, but how do we live out excellence in our relationships? The next example Peter provides is in our relationship to the government.

To live out excellence as Christians, we are called to respect and submit to governing authorities.

The way we live out excellence is by paying attention to our everyday conduct. The first example of that is by paying attention to our relationships with our governing authorities. Look at what Peter says,

1 Peter 2:13–17 NASB95

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

The command is to submit ourselves to every human institution. But right in the middle there is a reason. We do so for the Lord’s sake. In other words, because he told us to. But he gives us more than that.

Today we are going to see six ways to live out excellence in our relationship with governing authorities.

Recognize God’s hand in authority.

The command is to submit yourself to every human institution, that is the king or governors sent by the king. Everything happens as God ordains it. No ruler in human history has ever risen to power outside of God’s will. We might ask why God allows certain people to rise to power, but none of them have ever done so without God willing it to be. The Pharaoh at the time Joseph was in prison was in power at the right time for Joseph to become second in command of the most powerful nation on earth. But this also means that the king of Babylon, Assyria, and Persia were leaders at the right time to play a role in the exile of Israel. We may not understand why leaders come to power, but they never do so outside the will of God.

The apostle Paul famously said in the book of Romans, chapter 13,

Romans 13:1 NASB95

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

We see the same command to submit ourselves to governing authorities (also in Titus 3:1), but we see that our submission stems from the reality that God ordains governments. He is in charge, and each government has its own purpose and each leader fits into the grand master plan God has. So because every leader is put there by God’s sovereign will, we ought to recognize his hand in authority.

In two days, the votes will be cast for our next President, vice-president, and a number of other governing positions. Whether we know who won the election on that night, or whether it is weeks later, we can rest assured that the leader who takes the white house is chosen by God to so. Regardless of who wins, you can live out excellence by recognizing God’s hand in authority.

Respect every leader’s role.

Verses thirteen and fourteen say that we should submit to every human institution. When we read whether kings or governors sent by him, we can rightly conclude that he means from the top down. When we vote, we should do so for the entire ballot. We get to elect our leaders. Not just the President, but senators, house reps, state officials, governors, mayors, and so on. I agree that because we have been given this privilege, it is part of our civic duty to vote.

As we recognize God’s hand in authority, we also must respect every leader’s role. Just as God ordains kings and Presidents, he ordains every leadership position in which we are subject to. But notice what is lacking here. There is no qualification on likability. God does not require that you like a leader, just that you recognize his hand in authority and that you respect the office that person holds, because it is God’s office.

Support government’s role in justice.

The latter half of verse fourteen tells us why government exists in the first place. It exists for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. God uses government as an agent for dispensing justice. In Romans 13:3-5, Paul says,

Romans 13:3–5 NASB95

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.

I want you to pause and consider which government Peter and Paul are writing about. Remember who they are writing to. Remember what they have gone through that brought them to the position they are in. They are churches dispersed throughout five Roman provinces as a result of persecution they faced in their homeland. So the government that Peter and Paul are calling persecuted Christians to submit to is the government that persecutes Christians! The church was born out of persecution and it grew out of persecution, both from zealous Jewish leaders and Romans. Yet the message is not “Revolt!”

What does that mean for us? When the government upholds justice as God has designed it to do, we should celebrate that. When government perverts justice, we are right to call that out and stand for true justice. As we do, we are salt and light in a world that is otherwise decaying. The role of government is to punish evildoers and praise those who do right. I know today it doesn’t feel like the government does that. But it also doesn’t mean that there are not good parts of government. Our duty is to encourage our leaders to punish evil and promote good.

So what do we do when they don’t? I’m glad you asked.

Exercise discernment in submission.

We need to understand what the apostles are advocating for. They are not arguing that submission is absolute. We are not called to submit to government in every situation. Rather, we are to use discernment in our relationship with governing authorities. Does a law require that we betray biblical principles? We are called to follow the law up to the point that it would require us to violate our conscience or biblical principles.

You exist as dual citizens. On the one hand, you are a citizen of the United States. On the other, you gave your life to Christ, and transferred your citizenship to the kingdom of Christ. So we are citizens of an earthly nation, but we are citizens of a greater kingdom whose king is Christ himself. We are called out of the world to be ambassadors to our neighbors. The day we came to faith in Christ, our allegiance changed. When a law from the government we live under contradicts biblical teaching, we must choose to follow God’s law over the government.

We can see examples of this in both the Old and New Testaments. The Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:15-22 refused to kill Hebrew babies at the Pharaoh’s command because they feared God. Moses’ parents defied the Pharaoh’s orders in Exodus 2:1-2 by hiding him for three months. In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon made a statue of gold of himself and commanded that everyone bow down and worship it. Failure to comply resulted in being cast into a fiery furnace to be burned alive. Daniel’s friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, refused to comply. They went into the furnace, but as the story goes, they were miraculously saved from the fire. Later in Daniel 6, Darius the Mede becomes king and Daniel serves under him. A decree went out that nobody should pray to anybody but Darius. Daniel, a man of faith in God, refused to comply. He was famously thrown into the lion’s den, but God saved him by shutting the mouths of lions.

Twice in the book of Acts, first in Acts 4:1-22 and then in Acts 5:17-42, Peter and John and the other apostles were thrown in jail for preaching Christ. In both instances they were ultimately released, but they were commanded to cease preaching in the name of Christ. In Acts 4:19-20, Peter said,

Acts 4:19–20 NASB95

But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

In the second instance, in Acts 5:29, Peter again said,

Acts 5:29 NASB95

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego defied the Babylonian king, they were given a chance to comply.

Daniel 3:13–18 NASB95

Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king. Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? “Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. “But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Men of otherwise exemplary character defied orders that would have required them to betray clear biblical principles. Be of exemplary character, but use discernment as to when it is time to civilly resist government.

View submission as a lesson in faith.

Let’s jump back to our text today. Verse sixteen says to act as free men. I want you to know that if you are a believer in Christ, born again, the old has been made new, then you are a free person. But you are not free to do what you want. You are free to do what Christ commands, and often times, experience is the best teacher.

Nobody truly fails unless they quit. As it pertains to the Christian faith, I don’t think you fail in Christianity unless you quit. Thomas Edison famously said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” Perhaps you haven’t failed. You’ve just found 10,000 things that don’t work. Experience is a great teacher. But Thomas Edison also said, “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

When we come to faith, our identity changes and our way of life changes. We have to learn to walk with God. Christian maturity does not come on a UPS truck. We have to work at it. Yes, God established government to promote justice, but he also provided government to teach you submission to authority. By submitting to government, we learn submission to God. So we should view submission to government as a lesson in faith, and it is a good lesson for us to learn.

Let submission reflect God’s character.

Verse fifteen says that our doing right silences the ignorance of foolish men. When we live out excellence as Christians, we will ultimately silence our critics. They may accuse us of believing all kinds of things, but our actions in public will demonstrate that we are a good and moral people, that even those who don’t believe have nothing to fear from us. So may we commit ourselves to living with excellence in the sight of everyone.

Verse seventeen sums up how quite nicely.

1 Peter 2:17 NASB95

Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

Honor all people. They are made in the image of God just like you and me. Love the brotherhood, that is the body of believers, the church. Fear God. Cultivate a healthy reverence of who God is by spending quality time with him. Honor the king, or in our case, the government God has established over us. By doing this, we will live out Christian excellence.