Untitled Sermon (8)

Announcements

Wednesday Bible Study

Churches able to begin meeting again on May 20th

For May, we will only be meeting for Sunday Worship (no bible study, choir, etc.)

Asking our elderly and vulnerable to remain home for this time

Will continue to publish sermons online.

Will continue practicing safe standards during this time. Full list of precautions upcoming

Looking for hand sanitizer

Prayer

Call to worship (Psalm 23)

Affirmation of Faith (Apostle’s Creed)

Tithes and offerings

Scripture reading (1 Peter 2:11-3:7)

Sermon

Benediction

Honor the Emperor

“Subordinate yourselves” means accept your place under, but does not mean “obey unquestioningly”

Such obedience would mean not being Christian, after all!

Anti-imperial undertones? “Caesar” depicted explicitly as human. Only God is Lord.

Peter does not go so far as Paul, who suggests that human governments are ordained by God.

Even when God does use governments, those same governments often come under judgement themselves.

Jeremiah could urge us to be obedient to Babylon, but also not urge us to join Babylon. So also Peter.

Why obey the governments then? Freedom in Christ is not equal to Freedom for Freedom’s sake.

American notions of freedom are imbalanced:

Freedom to do as I please

Freedom to be what I want to be

Even freedom to the point of the defiance of nature

Freedom in Christ is the freedom from sin and freedom to live as we were meant to live

Living in this freedom shows the world that we are who we say we are. Even those who punish Christians cannot deny the goodness of those truly following Christ.

Biblical Slavery?

We must acknowledge the difficulty of this passage, and also its history of abuse, particularly in our society (even the ways it continues to be abused!).

For Roman society slaves were not people, for the Church slaves were full and equal persons

There is no longer slave nor free, but all are one in Christ

Aristotle argued that no injustice could be done to a slave, v. 2:19 argues differently.

Peter sets slaves who endure hardship up as the ideal model for Christians. This is because Jesus also took the position of a slave and servant, and Jesus also endured unjust punishment without saying a word.

Our culture teaches a “might makes right” philosophy. Jesus teaches us “love your enemies” and “turn the other cheek”.

Does this mean that we must simply stand by at the sight of injustice? No! It only means that as we work towards justice, we do so in a way different from the world.

We speak out against evil practices even while loving and praying for those who do such evil

Slavery was and still is unjust. While Peter may not rally the troops and call for a radical revolution as some may want him too, and though his advice to “accept the authority” of even harsh slave masters sounds troubling to many, he nevertheless undermines and speaks against the evils of slavery.

Peter’s advice is not for slaves to obey their masters blindly, but that they would suffer non-violently as Christ did.

Honor Your Husbands

Noticeably, this command only applies to wives of unbelieving husbands, and verse 7 implies that this kind of “head of the house model” is not how a Christian husband and wife should live.

Again, “subordinate” here does not mean “obey blindly”

Husbands got to choose what religion their wives followed, so blind obedience would necessarily mean not being Christian!

That Peter even wrote this implies that some women had the idea that they didn’t have to be subordinate to their pagan husbands. Why?

Neither male nor female, but all are one in Christ

Other Christian couples did not live this way (Romans 16:3, Prisca and Aquila)

Free in Christ

So why obey your husbands? Missiological purposes. Cultural perception

For the husband:

Wives are coheirs, equal in God’s eyes.

Husbands, do likewise

Live together according to knowledge that she is weaker, i.e. don’t be a tyrant

Paying honor to the wife

Honor Everyone. Love the Family of Believers. Fear God. Honor the Emperor.

Exegesis -> Application

Confronting the Difficulty of Scripture -> Reclaiming difficult passages

A-Honor the Emperor

B- Biblical Slavery???

C- Honor your Husbands

D- Honor Your wives

E-