Be Subject...(Part Two)
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We are continuing the message of last week, so, as I promised, if I did not step on your toes last week, then I will probably be successful this week.
Again, we must remember two critical points from last week.
We are sojourners and exiles who are representatives (Ambassadors) for Christ’s Kingdom.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
We must understand the difference between a heart of obedience to God and a heart of disobedience towards God-established authority.
12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Again, I love the concept of chapter and verse in the Bible, but there are times it adds separation that makes context difficult.
I could not combine the message of last week and this week into one combined message, this is why I have these as part one and two.
Hopefully, you will see the reason as well.
Be Subject…no exceptions
Be Subject…no exceptions
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
Peter continues his command of Be subject by moving from the government to another authority, the boss.
We need to understand that the general concept of slavery as mentioned here is not what we imagine when someone mentions slavery.
This was typically an economic relationship, similar to an employee—boss relationship. This does not mean that there were not restrictions or limitations of rights, but it was not the man selling we think of today. This did exist, but it was not prevalent and the Bible condemns this action.
Peter uses a different word here for Servants.
οἰκέτης--household servant — a servant who lives in the same house with their master; probably whose duties are primarily restricted to the household.
οἶκος—house
Elsewhere we see
δοῦλος--slave (bondservant) — a person who is legally owned by someone else and whose entire livelihood and purpose was determined by their master.
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,
22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
1 Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.
9 Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,
Think about this for a second, Peter is using the word of house servant.
Why does this matter? This would be the ones who knew of the master well.
Many people have a public and private face, these would be the ones who had the closest interactions with the master.
Steinbrenner story.
The word used for respect is φόβος.
φόβος reverence ⇔ fear — a feeling of profound respect for someone or something, often a deity, conceived of as fear.
This is the same word, tense and the word used in 1 Peter 1:17.
17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
What about.....?
What about.....?
Last week I included a discussion about how to stand for God by being obedient to God when human institutions want you to sin.
This week, we have a similar and different conversation.
We are not to sin to obey human bosses, but we are still called to have respect.
σκολιός crooked (immoral) — dishonest, immoral, or evasive.
We have no excuse for disrespect.
1 Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. 2 Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these things.
I know some of you are bosses, well you are not off the hook.
1 Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Why are you suffering?
Why are you suffering?
19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
Christians are called to suffer for Christ. (Phil 1:29, 2 Timothy 2:3)
We are blessed when we suffer for the cause of Christ.
English Standard Version Chapter 5
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The hammer said, “I will break the anvil.” The anvil did not answer, but abode in its place, while the hammer smote it day after day. Month after month, year after year, the anvil patiently received the blows, but after a while the hammer broke. And though it did not say so, for it was too quiet to speak, the anvil might have said, “I have broken hundreds of hammers before, and I shall break hundreds more by patient endurance.”
It is so with Christ, and His church, and His gospel. The persecutor may smite, and smite, and smite. The true Christian makes no reply, but patiently bears, and in the long run that patient endurance will break the persecutor down.
Charles Spurgeon
We can also suffer for our heart of disobedience.
All of this is under the shadow of Christ’s example.
Christ is our example of suffering and suffering for obedience.
Christ is our example of suffering and suffering for obedience.
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Christ was sinless.
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Christ was silent before His accusers.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Christ bore our sins for our healing.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
Here is the ultimate reason why we are to Be Subject.
I we are truly Christ’s Ambassador’s, then we must act like our Master. Christ suffered for our healing (salvation), He honored the leaders above Him. We must to the same.
Our Shepherd
Our Shepherd
1 Peter 2:25 (ESV)
25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.
Our actions need to be reflective of our Shepherd, not our disobedience.
The sufferings of Christ should quiet us under the most unjust and cruel sufferings we meet with in the world. He suffered voluntarily, not for himself, but for us, with the utmost readiness, with perfect patience, from all quarters, and all this though he was God—man; shall not we sinners, who deserve the worst, submit to the light afflictions of this life, which work for us unspeakable advantages afterwards?
Matthew Henry