1 Peter: Living as Examples

In this chapter Peter is writing to a group of churches that have begun go experience persecution from a pagan culture. To help them cope, he reminds them that 1st, this world is not their home. We are strangers and aliens in a culture that is becoming increasingly distant to us as we live in Christ and for Christ. 2nd, while we live in this culture we are to be different than our lost neighbors — we are to be counter-culture radicals. And make no mistake about it ... if you are a Confessing Christian, who believe that the Scriptures are our source for faith and practice in every area of life — you are a counter-culture radical!

One way for the Church to live out its faith in the world is by living exemplary lives among the people of our society. So let’s start with the most important — the central — and then work our way out to these other practical matters of Christian living today.

• Live to God in the Culture

• Live to God in the Work Place

• Live to God in the Home

I. LIVE TO GOD IN THE CULTURE

1. the most important thing this text does is put all of our social and political life into relation to God

a. te Bible is not a book about how to get along in the world

b. it is a book inspired by God about how to live to God

2. I love that phrase “live to God”

a. in Galatians 2:19 Paul wrote, “Through the law I died to the law that I might live to God.”

b. the aim of life—including our social and political life—is to live to God

1) to live with God in view

2) to live under his authority

3) to live for his good reputation

3. so the most important thing these five verses do is put our social and political life into relation to God, so we can live to God even in this seemingly secular part of our lives

a. let me simply take each verse just as each comes and point at this Godwardness in Peter’s dealing with these social matters

A. “FOR THE LORD’S SAKE”

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, (14a) or to governors.”

1. Peter begins with the grounds our submission

a. the key phrase in this verse is “for the Lord’s sake”

1) if you miss that, you miss the most important thing

b. there is a kind of allegiance to human institutions that is not for the Lord’s sake

c. it may resemble Christian submission on the outside, but it is not

1) we can develop a kind of antinomianism that we convince ourselves is of God, but it’s really of our own selfish desires or political ambition

2. Christians do not submit to human institutions simply because they feel like it, or because they have compliant personalities or because the institutions have coercive powers

a. we do not look first at ourselves to see what we feel like doing

b. nor do we look first at the institution to see if it there are consequences for not submitting

c. we look first to God

1) we consult God about the institution

2) and we submit for his sake

3. what makes this issue so urgent for Peter that he brings it up right here is what he has said in the previous four verses

a. in verse 9 he said that Christians are “a chosen race, a holy nation, and a people of God’s own possession”

b. in verse 10 he said that we are “the people of God”

c. in verse 11 he said that we are therefore aliens and strangers here among the social and political institutions of this world

4. all that raises the question whether we have any allegiance to the institutions of this world at all

a. if we are a separate “holy nation” and if we are “God’s people” and if we are “aliens and strangers,” some would make the argument that we should withdraw into our own Christian ghettos and communities and enclaves and have nothing to do with the powers and institutions of the world

1) Peter’s answer to that is NO

ILLUS. When the Prophet Jeremiah writes his prophecy, the people of Israel of living in exile in the land of Babylon. The question is, “Do we assimilate into the culture, or do we live as aliens in the land?” They are not to assimilate, but they are to live lives that will help the culture they find themselves in to flourish. He tells them, ““Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce, he says. “Marry and have sons and daughters … seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (5-7).” (5-7).

2) Peter essentially tells the Church, “Look, don’t assimilate into the culture. Much of the culture is wicked, and to assimilate into it is to join yourself to that wickedness. However, it’s perfectly all right to build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce, he says. “Marry and have sons and daughters … seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (5-7).

b. while you are in this world, you are citizens of two orders, and two systems

1) we live in the city of man, but ...

2) we also live in the city of God

c. God is the ruler and owner of both, and when you belong first to Him and His kingdom, you can be sent by Him, for His sake, for His purposes, for His glory into the kingdom of this world

5. in this way Christian submission to the institutions of this world becomes an act of tribute to God’s authority over the institutions of the world

a. you look a king or a governor in the eye and say, “I submit to you, I honor you—but not for your sake

1) I honor you for God’s sake

2) I honor you because God owns you and rules over you and has sovereignly raised you up for a limited season and given you the leadership that you have

3) for His sake and for his glory and because of his rightful authority over you, I honor you

5. for the Lord’s sake we are subject to every human institution ... to emperors and to governors

a. until ... until that is, that human institution demands an allegiance that belongs only to God, or it demands a behavior that our God expressly forbids

6. Peter does not expressly deal with the Christian's proper response to a situation in which a government decree clashed with Christian principle and Christ's express command for his Church

a. but there are some hints in the passage of how we are to behave in general

1) 1st, We Are to Silence the Ignorance of Foolish People by Doing Good

a) we never respond to the evil actions of the State by committing evil

2) 2nd, We Do Not Use Our Christian Freedom and a ‘Cover Up' for Evil

a) literally Peter says, don't use your freedom as a cloak of maliciousness

b) in other words, the believer's freedom in Christ is not a license to do as we please

c) there were things perfectly legal in the Roman empire that Christians were not free to do

ILLUS. Peter lived in the openly sinful, decadent Roman Empire — a society infamous for evil — homosexuality, infanticide, government corruption, abuse of women, immorality, and violence. Peter does not offer any exemption in which believers were free to commit that which is evil in God's sight even though it might be "good" in society's sight. This falls under the category, "The more things change the more they stay the same."

d) Peter is urging believers to be different than the culture

3) 3rd, We Live as Servants of God

a) Peter uses the term bond-slave in this passage

b) a bond-slave was someone who willingly sold themselves into slavery

c) if we are going to live as examples of Christ in this world, we do as Jesus commanded and become servants of all

1) we find a way to, metaphorically speaking, wash the feet of those around us

II. APPLICATIONS

A. Honoring the President

1. how do pro-life christians honor a pro-choice President?

a. it wasn’t easy when this President was inaugurated and it has gotten harder since

1) we can rejoice in the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade, but this administration remains hell-bent on widening abortion access at all costs

2. that said, we must find a way to express our dismay at some of his views and some of his behavior while also communicating a basic respect for him has a person and a respect for his office which is ordained by God

a. “Honor all men … honor the king” is not merely a suggestion

3. one way to do that is to refer to him as “President” and not, “Let’s go Brandon”

B. Repent of Our Anti-authoritarian Rebellion

1. to be counter-culture radicals does not mean to be in rebellion against established authority

a. Paul was clear in the letter to the Romans, to resist the authority of the government is to resist the authority of God

2. there is an inborn dislike for authority in the American experience

a. we are rebels by nature

1) Adam and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit in order that they might be like God and determine for themselves what is good and evil

2) we’ve been rebelling ever since

3. some cultures foster this rebellious spirit more than others — ours fosters it profoundly

a. this text, with the whole Bible, calls us to humble ourselves first before God, who has absolute authority and absolute rights over us, as the potter over the clay, and then, for his sake, to humble ourselves before any institution that God tells us to

b. in short, the one remedy to rebellion is the grace of God making us submissive to the authority of God so that we can submit in freedom to institutions designed by God 1 Peter: Living as Examples

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