1 Peter: Christian Submission (Part 1)
Notes
Transcript
Exegetical Point: Everybody should submit themselves to God by submitting to human authorities, and in that submission you will live out the calling of Christ.
Homiletical Point:
Sussing out Submission
Sussing out Submission
“Submission” is a dirty word!
When was the last time someone spoke to you about the beauty of submission? When was the last time you encouraged a brother or sister in Christ to submit themselves?
The idea of submission is so foreign that it feels like a taboo topic. It must be talked about in hushed tones with so many layers of caveats that the idea of submission is lost in qualifications.
To be sure, the idea of Christian submission, can be, and has been, abused to cause hurt to people in an ungodly way.
But...
...the abuse of something should not lead us to ignore it! We don’t ignore food even though some of us (like me) are prone to abuse the good gift of food.
Submission is a beautiful and godly thing! And we should not ignore it even though it has been abused!
I don’t know you all as well as I’d like, but I reckon it’s a pretty safe bet that several of us have been hurt by misused authority and submission - it often involves manipulation, emotional abuse, or physical abuse. It may have been suffered for many years in silence.
If that’s the case for you, I am truly sorry.
I hope that you never have to endure it again.
Please know that God takes misused authority very seriously. They will have to give an account to God for what they have done.
I recognize that for you who have suffered, it may be very hard to work through this topic, let alone actually face the prospect of submitting to another person or institution again.
So, today I ask you to do a very hard thing: acknowledging that there is real hurt and damage in your heart - give over your burden to Jesus, ask him to help you, to take this heavy load. Ask him to help you live out of your identity in Christ, and not out of your pain. Ask him to do a healing work in your life, so that you might be free to embody the submission of Jesus.
Let’s do that now… <pray>
Culturally speaking, we are indoctrinated to resist. It’s almost seen as an Aussie virtue to tell people what they can go do with their rules and laws.
And, when we think about our own character, and the sin which each of us are tainted with, it’s natural to resist.
In our sinful nature we know that when someone tells us “no” or puts limits on us, we automatically want to resist, and push boundaries.
We want our own way, and if you won’t let me, i’ll do it anyway just to prove no one is the boss of me!
But the irony is, when we resist submission, we are actually still submitting! Just to different masters!
To resist Jesus is to submit to sin and Satan.
But the converse is true too:
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Submitting to God is a good and beautiful thing.
But before we go any further with that, let’s just take a moment to demystify submission.
As much as we don’t like submission, we do it all the time. It is built into all our interactions and society. Without submission there is anarchy!
We submit ourselves to road rules, even stupid ones, for public safety and order.
We submit ourselves to our employers, turning up before work starts and fulfilling the responsibilities that we have been given.
We submit ourselves to our teachers at school, don’t we kids, we come to class when the bell goes, and we listen to our teachers so that we can learn.
Even right now, there is some informal submission going on right here, where you are submitting to the social convention of being quiet and letting the person up the front speak to you.
Submission is a normal part of everyday life, and it’s a key ingredient in a functional society, in a healthy church and in a godly family.
Submission is a beautiful thing, and it does not necessitate inequality.
Parents are not more valuable than their kids.
Policemen are not more important than regular citizens.
I’m not more precious than anybody in this room.
There can be different levels authority and submission with equality of value and dignity.
And, the ultimate example of this is Jesus himself. Jesus, Son of God was subordinate to God the Father, if not in eternity, at least for his time on earth - for example Jesus said:
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
If there can be submission in the Godhead - in God himself - then we can rest assured that submission can be a beautiful thing.
Sooo...
I know we’ve spent several minutes without talking about the passage yet, but I’m sure you can agree that it’s important to get this background in mind. While the message of Peter’s letter has a rather direct application to us as Christians today - this part of Peter’s letters is probably the part we will have most trouble making the jump.
It’s easier to dismiss it as “ancient wisdom” that’s not relevant anymore, but as is clear in the text, Peter sees this idea of Christian submission as connected to our calling in Jesus Christ.
Here Peter is calling Christians to live out their Christian Identity in the world through the way they submit: They submit to God by submitting to earthly authorities.
Now this portion of the letter about submission is quite substantial, so I’m planning to deal with part of it this week, and a second part next week.
This week is one examples of Christian submission Submit to Governing Authorities - and we’re going to explore that idea under 4 main headings.
Submit to Governing Authorities
Submit to Governing Authorities
Peter sets up from the get-go what to do and how to do it:
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
Why do we submit? For the Lord's sake, for God’s advantage, for the Lord’s purposes, Peter calls the Church to submit to human authorities.
Those authorities are, he gives the example, both the top-dog like the roman Emperor, and the local authorities, the governors who acted on his behalf.
Or to translate it for you and I: Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the the Queen & Prime Minister, or the local Mayor & Judges.
Christians are to allow their lives to be shaped by the laws of the land. We are to be obedient, submitting to authorities great and small. We both follow the laws that are made in Canberra, and the ones made in Melbourne and the ones made down the street in the council chambers.
To be sure, we have a great advantage, by God’s providence we live in a representative democracy. So other than the Queen and her Governors, we get to have a say in who our leaders are. We also live in a relatively open society where we are able to speak publicly asking for the laws we want and sharing our opinion on the direction of the country. But that does not change the fact that we must submit to our leaders and respect them. Even if the candidate who we don’t like gets in, we must submit our selves to God, whose providence brought them there, and in submitting ourselves to God, submit to that leadership.
Authority in Action
Authority in Action
Now authority, like submission is a beautiful thing. Both authority and submission will be in the New Creation, did you ever consider that?
No time to get into that, but it is worth remembering that here and now, even on this side of glory we can see the beauty and advantage of godly authorities.
You can see it in families, where the parents have authority over the children. It is in that context, where the parents lovingly protect and nurture their children so that the kids can thrive. In that the children can be trained up in godliness. But, when the kids rule the roost and the parents submit to them, the kids turn out messed up, selfish and unprepared for the world.
You can see it in churches, when there is biblical leadership that is servant hearted, the people of God, the sheep, are shepherded well. They are protected from false teaching and wolves, as well as directed toward the rich pastures and living Water of Christ so that their thirst is quenched and hunger satiated.
Here in this passage we get a taste of the beauty of civil leadership.
“whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.”
When it is functioning well the higher leaders ensure that there’s local leaders to promote justice and virtue. Leaders who tackle crime & punishment, as well as leaders who celebrate what is good and noble in society.
Now like any kind of earthly authority, this can be abused, by outlawing what is good and celebrating what is evil, which is an increasingly common occurrence in Australia.
Nevertheless, we are to submit to these authorities even though they may be evil.
The emperor in Peter’s day, when he was writing this letter was most likely Nero. Apart from being quite cruel, he was a poor leader, and more so than others, claimed to be a god. If Peter could command the church to submit to Nero, persecutor of Christians, and open blasphemer, then surely we should be thankful that we have comparatively good governments. It should be easier for us!
God’s Will in Submission
God’s Will in Submission
Why do we submit? Because It’s God’s will to demonstrate Gospel truth in the way we live. It will shut down ignorance.
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.
People often get hung up on what God’s will is for their life - here is a great place to start! I know that when someone says “I want to know God’s will for my life” they mean they want to know the special path that God has laid out for them individually, but I think that this is still the answer - if you want to know what God wants you to do, search the scriptures! You will find plenty of occasions where God says specifically what you want us, you, to do. Get out there and do it!
In this case, it’s God’s will is that by doing good, as a exemplary law-abiding citizen, (i.e. submitting to earthly authorities), you will silence ignorant talk of fools.
When you live, as pilgrims in this world, who are exemplary members of the community, you show the world that the lies about Christianity are untrue.
You show the world that we are not hate-filled hypocrites stuck in the past, but we are loving, recovering-sinners who are the best members of our society. Our lives in our community should show up the ignorance of our detractors.
And, as we mentioned earlier - this is for the Lord’s advantage: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake” - because we are representing Christ well! We’re showing that the crazy stuff that we believe about Jesus rising from the dead has teeth! It changes people! It transforms society! It makes the world better!
The way we live will show up persecution: If you have this group of people, who are amazing citizens, abiding by the law, working for the good of the community, why would you attack them? It would reveal that persecution is motivated by hatred of God, and not because Christians are a menace to society.
Live in God’s will - do good to silence ignorance.
Freedom in Slavery
Freedom in Slavery
Now, as I’m sure you’ve already been asking in your head, “what about when submitting to God conflict with earthly governments?”
There’s a simple answer to that - always do what God says, over any earthly authority. We are humans, and our leaders are humans. They will inevitably make mistakes and sin will be mixed up with our earthly laws. But God:
He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
He is the higher authority, the one who installs and removes earthly leaders. We follow those leaders only insofar as they don’t prevent us from submitting to God.
Our government says “don’t steal” - we don’t steal. This lines up with God’s law spot on.
Our government says “drive on the left side of the road” - we do it. It does not prevent us from submitting to God.
Our government says “you have to have exit signs for safety in your worship space” or “you have to wear masks while singing” - we say this is getting a bit uncomfortable, you’re getting dangerously close to telling us how we can and can’t worship God”, but its not preventing us from submitting to God, so we will submit to you.
Our government says "you cannot meet to worship God” and we say “sorry, you’ve overstepped your bounds. We’ll take your command into consideration, and we’ll try to work with you to find a good solution if there’s a good reason to vary the way we meet to serve God, but ultimately God tells us to gather regularly, and we’re going to obey Him, not you”
When governments try to restrict Christians from sharing the Gospel, we say “Sorry, this is not negotiable, we must go and make disciples of all nations!”
Remember in Acts? John & Peter were taken to court:
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Peter and John rejected the authority of the community and religious leaders to follow God. This is the start of a pattern that would continue through the pages of Acts and throughout the lives of the Apostles. They would abide by earthly laws, insofar as it didn’t prevent them from obeying God.
You see, we’re a free people. We’ve been freed from slavery to sin, slavery to death, we’re citizens of Christ’s kingdom and only pilgrims here. We answer to a higher power and are not enslaved to the powers and principalities of this corrupted world.
But even though we belong to God, and we have such freedom in this life and the next, our freedom to God over and above the earthly authorities does not then give us an excuse to resist the government whenever it doesn’t suit us.
Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
Our freedom as citizens of heaven should not be a cover for selfishness and sin - it would be easy to fight against any number of government rules and regulations with an air of spirituality, but we must take great care to be serving God & his authorities faithfully, and where these two things conflict, to act from true service to God not sinful desires.
We might not like paying taxes, but we can’t just turn around and say “you spend tax revenue in ungodly ways, so I’m not going to pay” - that’s trying to use our freedom in God as a cover for our evil selfishness - I wanna keep the cash.
Jesus is the higher authority, and we are free in him, but that doesn’t excuse bad behavior.
Our freedom doesn’t fit with sin. It’s like the addict who is says “I’m clean, but I’m still doing a bit on the side”. It doesn’t compute.
Instead we are to actually see our freedom in Christ to be slavery to God - that is to be serving him and controlled by him - not our own evil desires. And serving God, following his will is that we submit to the governing authorities.
Show proper respect - even for us in a world that is bent on being irreverent. Stick out like a sore thumb for being kind and honoring both each other and the authorities that God has put in place for our good.
Then we will be wonderfully ready to share the Gospel. We want no barriers in the way for people to hear the Gospel. Perhaps our leaders will be ready to hear about Jesus when we show them proper respect. Who wants to listen to someone who’s disrespectful, unloving and a lawbreaker?
Instead, we show proper respect hoping that we can speak to them about Jesus and they can see that our lives show the fruit of Jesus the vine.
They should be able to see that the death of Jesus, and his resurrection has changed us.
What now?
What now?
Submit to Governing Authorities to silence ignorance.