Proclaiming His Excellences in All You Do

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

This world is not my home. I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. Those words are part of the lyrics to the song, This World Is Not My Home by the Gospel Scene or Jim Reeves. It was a staple in the earliest years of my Christian walk as a conservative Baptist. I went from Catholic to conservative Baptist. That was a pretty good swing. And it expresses a sentiment of so many Christians then and now that our existence here on earth is akin to the Israelites walking and wandering the desert for 40 years in search of a home. Now there’s certainly some truth to the sentiment in that song.

After all, our passage tonight does start with, “‘Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles.‘” And yet, the same passage in the following verses goes on to describe our Christian duties in very earthly terms. We are sojourners, yes, but we’re also citizens on earth. We’re servants, husbands and wives, brethren, sufferers for righteousness sake, and those waiting for the coming of Christ. These are all things that Peter outlines and gives us responsibilities in. None of those things, except for brethren, will be, we will be or do in heaven. Most of those we can only do here on earth. Tonight, we’re gonna be looking at the first two of those in that list that I just read, and that is our duties as sojourners and citizens.

Now those terms of themselves sound like a contradiction or a conflict of interest. Wouldn’t the interests and concerns of sojourners and citizens be quite different? And yet Peter outlines our duties as members of both groups. Given that we have duties in both categories, we need to be careful to avoid falling into then one of two ditches. The first ditch is where we say that this world is not our home, so it does not matter really what happens here. I have really very little concern with it. We’re sojourners in it. It’s not our home, and therefore, we need to keep ourselves disentangled from it to the maximum degree possible.

Believers in this ditch argue that it’s of no interest to Christians to involve themselves in any area of civic life beyond maybe just raising their families. Let the dead bury the dead, you could say is their mantra. The monastics would be a pretty extreme example of this kind of mindset, although there are plenty of other ordinary Christians even today that might hold to a similar view. The second ditch that we want to avoid is where we become so engrossed in the affairs of this world that we begin to think and act like that this is all we have to look forward to and so we better make sure that it’s a good ride.

Any thought of our eternal state is so far back in the recess of our mind that it doesn’t make much of a difference in how we think or operate in the world today. Even when those in this ditch keep an eternal perspective, they can often conflate what it means to be a Christian with perhaps what it means to be an American, the two concepts begin to get blurred in their mind. Loyalty to Christ and country take on equal weight. And this can lead then sometimes not so godly conduct because we’re mixing up those identities. In 1 Peter chapter two verses 11 through 17, that’s our passage tonight, Peter gives us instructions as to how believers should function both as sojourners and citizens and keep us from falling into either of those two ditches that I just described.

Now common to all of the instructions that Peter gives to the various categories of living on earth, that list I just read, there’s a common instruction he gives to all of them, and it’s the call to do all to the glory of God. Every thought we have or action we take should have as the impetus what will bring him the most glory.

If we do this, then all aspects of our life on earth will be imbued with significance and purpose, even if we are just to pass them through. Now that may just sound to you like some kind of Christianese platitude, but it is part and parcel of what it means to be a holy nation and a royal priesthood, which he’s already described as being part of.

So far in our study of 1 Peter, we have looked at our salvation in Christ and the realities contained therein. Peter has reminded us that we have been born to a real and a living hope that produces the highest joy even in the midst of heavy trials and sufferings. He has shown us how the prophets of old longed to look into the mystery of the gospel they wrote about and even though their understanding was veiled, they knew something unheard of in human history was going to be revealed. He spoke of our position and calling or duties if you will when he wrote, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God, and you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy, a phenomenal statement of who we are in Christ. Notice the so that in what I just read. That indicates to us a purpose to our calling. The reason we are given our high and noble calling is so that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. So this raises a question, several questions. We are supposed to proclaim His excellencies, but when, where, how, to whom, or would you proclaim those excellencies? Now you can certainly argue that we will be doing it in heaven for all of eternity, declaring its excellencies.

But in light of what follows in Peter’s letter, it appears he has in mind now is the when, here is the where, our manner of living as the how and non-believers as the to whom. This brings us to our passage for this evening, which I just said, 1 Peter 2, chapter two, verses 11 through 17, so you can turn there if you haven’t already. In this passage and following, Peter is going to address various roles we have in this life and how we should live out our duties within these roles in order to properly proclaim his excellencies. And so tonight, again, we’re just gonna focus on two particular roles as sojourners and as citizens.

So kids, if you got your corners, there’s two points tonight. The first point is our duties as sojourners. So let me read the few verses that are pertaining to this. Starting in verse 11, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passion of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. The idea that the people of God view themselves as aliens here on earth, goes all the way back to the earliest days of the nation of Israel. In Leviticus, we find the laws pertaining to land ownership and the right of redemption should a piece of land be sold.

Leviticus 25, 23 says, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with me. The Jews didn’t really technically own the land, God did. they were strangers in the land that they occupied. Now typically land ownership signifies belonging and permanence. It’s linked to a sense of identity. God’s system of the land being on loan helped instill in the Jewish mind that their identity was not to be tied up in the land and by extension the broader culture. Psalm 3912 and Hebrews 1113 also reinforced this idea that they still had this sense of sojourners and exiles, even if they were gonna be here for a while.

Nevertheless, the Jews were expected to live as though they would be around and to go ahead and function in life, even though they were in a state as spiritual exiles. You may recall from the book of Jeremiah how the Israelite captives in Babylon were told to build houses, plant gardens, marry, have children, and seek the welfare of the place where they were exiled. Now that mindset as one who is an exile is very contrary to some cults and others today who have a very different mindset when they think of themselves as sojourners. They think about we need to escape this place. And I’m going to give you an example of one crazy, quote unquote, Christian cult that took it to an extreme.

Some of you have been around for more than 20 years. Maybe remember the cult called Heaven’s Gate. Does that ring a bell to anybody? buddy, a few of you nodding your head. This group held too many Christian beliefs that we would hold, but they had mixed some other stuff into it that was clear heresy. Their two founders believed that they were actually the two witnesses from the book of Revelation. And they originally, one of their core beliefs was that they could transform themselves from this human form into some higher state simply by some process of by denying their human nature and going through some kind of meditation that they would transform and leave this body and make it to some higher level of existence.

That idea worked for a while, well it never worked, but the belief was valid, I guess, for them for a while until one of their founders died of cancer, and hadn’t transformed yet. So they had to tweak the doctrine a little bit. So then they decided, well, the transformation actually happens when you physically die on this earth, then you evolve into this higher state. And so they, for years and years, they met. It was a fairly small cult, but they held onto this belief. And then in 1997, you remember, well, you may or may not remember that, there was a celestial event, the comet Hale-Bopp appeared, and it was all over the news, and everybody was out to look at the comet.

Well, they believed that this was a sign that God or whatever higher power they turned to, what had sent the comet to transport them from this earth to the higher plane. Well then on March 26th of 1997, the police discovered 39 of their dead bodies in a house in San Diego. They had all committed mass suicide so they could catch a ride on the comet to this higher state of being. Now that’s taking this place, this world is not my home, I’m just passing through a little bit too far. Don’t recommend you take it that far. We’re getting back to the example of the Jewish exiles. If living like an exile looks fundamentally like a non-exile, how should Christian living here be distinguished from the world?

I mean, if we’re gonna be here for 80 years, it doesn’t feel like it, it doesn’t look like an exile. Yeah, we’re told we’re exiles. So how is our life gonna fundamentally look different than those who do not hold to this belief that we’re exiles. Remember that Peter has prefaced all of what he is about to say by telling us that we are to proclaim his excellencies. The key difference between the believer and the unbeliever’s life is the mindset and the manner in which they live their lives. We’ve already discussed the mindset. We’re aliens. We don’t get so wrapped up building houses and planting gardens that we lose sight of the glory that is yet to be revealed someday.

We don’t despair like one with no hope when life under the sun disappoints because it’s not the telos of our existence. This isn’t the end, the 80 years is not the end of the game. This is just a brief period of time in light of eternity. And so it’s not our final purpose here on earth.

As to the manner of how we live our lives, Peter says abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. If we are first and foremost spiritual beings, and we are, then anything that wages war against our soul is going to be contrary to our best interests, and it’s certainly not going to then proclaim the excellencies of God to anybody. The kind of passions of the flesh that Peter has in mind is likely akin to what we find enumerated over in Galatians 5, 19-21. You know that passage. He says there, now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

When we are characterized by any of these passions, we give the unbeliever the ammunition they need to deny the God that we proclaim. I recall a job performance that I had with a manager many years ago. He had scored me well on the technical components of my job, but as we talked about some of the soft skills involved in my job, he started beating around the bush. And it turns out, when he finally spilled the beans, he didn’t know what to make of my lack of cussing.

It was so odd and so out of place on the team that he wondered if it would somehow impact my ability to lead, because I was on a track to become a part of leadership. He and the team knew I was a Christian, and I hope what made them uncomfortable was our conscience being pricked by my lack of joining in their coarse language. Peter is saying that our life should, in a godly way, be alien to the world. It should, when the unbeliever is being honest, be an occasion to glorify God.

Now his admonition, Peter’s admonition, restates what Jesus himself said in Matthew 5, 14 through 16, where Jesus said, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house. In the same way, you let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Somehow, some way, and at some point in time, our good deeds, our good works are gonna result and the unbelievers giving glory to God. We’ll have more to say about how godly living affects the unbeliever in just a moment. Now not only does yielding to fleshly passions ruin our witness to unbelievers, it also makes us personally miserable because those passions wage war against our soul. The Apostle Paul described this personal turmoil in Romans 7, 21 through 25 when he wrote, So I find it to be a law that is that when I do what is right, evil still lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being.

But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

This dilemma that Paul describes is common to all believers. Until such time as we are raised with new incorruptible bodies, we will have to deal with this war between the inner man and the flesh. Nevertheless, Peter calls us to keep our conduct honorable among the Gentiles. We’re not to give the Gentiles any cause to slander the name of Christ. This doesn’t mean that they’re not going to slander him. Those who hate the gospel message are going to hate. We just need to make sure that we don’t give them the reason to deny Christ because of how we are living.

Peter uses the generic term ethnos here that is translated as Gentiles. In this context it refers to any person who does not believe in Christ. He gives us this reason why we should keep our conduct honorable among the Gentiles. And take a look at verse 12. So that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. At first this seems like an odd statement. How does our good conduct for which we are being called evil doers by the unbeliever ultimately result in them glorifying God? And what is the day of visitation? When does that occur? Notice how good conduct starts out by being condemned by believers as evil.

We live in an age where that’s pretty much the norm. You might have seen my recent Facebook post where I shared an article titled, “‘Understanding the Mother Wound, “‘the unique trauma we inherit from our mothers.’ “‘It’s a lengthy article, but the gist of it is this. “‘Because of the evil patriarchy, “‘women have been taught to put others first, denying their full potential. These subdued women in turn pass the sin or wound down to their daughters. And I really quote like the author’s statement here, quote, these strategies hammer home dysfunctional patterns like self-sacrifice, self-denial, and self-abandonment which become highly dysfunctional traits in adulthood, end of quote.

In essence, this author is saying that when women are being Christ-like, they are being dysfunctional. This is typical of how good is being called evil today. So how does this perversion of good ultimately result in the name callers glorifying God? Peter says it will happen on the day of visitation. And then there’s two possible ways that I can think of where we could maybe understand day of visitation. One way is to equate it to what the Bible calls the day of the Lord. This is the day when Jesus comes to judge all the world. Most of the references in the Old Testament portray that day as a fearsome day for those who don’t know God.

Second Peter 3.10 says it will come like a thief in the night and all the works done on earth will be exposed. It’s hard to imagine how a day of visitation like this will result in unbelievers glorifying and God, unless when confronted with their own wickedness, they then are forced to acknowledge that they were wrong and finally call, they were wrong to call good evil. A second possible meaning is the day of the visitation is personal. It’s the day when a non-believer comes to faith in Christ. It makes sense that such a person would gladly admit how wrong they were to hurl abusive believers and thus give glory to God for the truth that they now recognize and accept.

Many of us have heard testimonies of new believers who describe how they hated being around Christians, but then, once they were saved, praised the very acts that they once condemned. Whichever interpretation you choose, Peter plainly says that our good conduct will result in God being glorified. That is reason enough for us to strive as sojourners to let our light shine brightly with the righteousness of Christ. So then let’s go on to our second point, which then our duties as citizens.

Starting at verse 13, be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him, to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good, for this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

I mentioned earlier that it seems odd at first glance for Peter to address us as sojourners and citizens. And you might wanna point out here that Peter doesn’t actually call us citizens in this passage, but the way he lays out our duty, It’s hard to escape the fact that we are both a sojourner and a citizen at the same time. And I would even support that claim by pointing out that Paul over in the book of Acts used his Roman citizenship to claim his right to appeal to Caesar. So even Paul understood and saw himself as a citizen here on earth, while also understanding himself to be an exile.

Verses 13 through 16 lay out our duty to kings and governors, and it involves one imperative, be subject. Now as a good American patriot, you might want to jump ahead to verse 16 where you think you see another command which says, and live as free man. You’d say, wouldn’t it be nice if we had two commands that balanced each other out? On the one hand in verse 13, we find the command to be subject, but then down in verse 16, we see the balancing verse that says, but Liv is Freeman. But unfortunately, Liv is Freeman is not a command in this passage. It is, I believe, grammatically in an adverbial form that describes how we are to put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

So we do not have two commands in that passage, be subject and Liv is Freeman. We have one command, be subject. And the Liv is Freeman, we’ll talk more about in a minute. Whenever you hit a section like this that deals with being subject to the government, it stirs up great debate about whether this is a carte blanche command to submit, or are there any limits to it? And I’m going to address that question as we work our way through the text, but don’t miss Peter’s main emphasis. Submission to authority is a hallmark of the Christian testimony. If we strip the command down to its most basic form, It simply says to be subject to every human institution.

The command to be subject there is something that you do, we do. You choose to place yourself under that authority. Peter says to do this for the Lord’s sake. In what way is this subjection for the Lord’s sake? The Greek word at the ESV translates as forsake is the preparation dia, which can mean by, through, or because of. In this context, it does mean because of. We are to be subject because of the Lord. It is his will that we be subject and it is his example of submission to the Father that we follow. This is similar to the idea expressed in Ephesians 5.22 where he tells wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, as to the Lord, that phrase, and for the Lord’s sake, that phrase.

Those both express the same idea, the same reason for the command.

There is something about being subject that grates against our flesh, but perhaps because it is so much opposed to our flesh, therein lies the power of our Christian witness. It is so contrary to human nature that it really stands out. It makes others take notice and perhaps ask why we subject ourselves and do it in a way that doesn’t look like we are enslaved. What are we to be subject to? He says every human institution. Now I think this translation misses an important point, the phrase every human institution. Again, I’m on dangerous territory here, trying to do a little bit of Greek exegesis. Shawn will correct me later if I get this wrong. But the the noun institution and the adjective human are both in the date of case. And again, I’m not a grammar expert, but I believe it would be more precise to take every human institution and translate it as every institution created for people. This then raises the question, who did the creating to which we would all then hopefully say the Lord? Now, if my translation

is more accurate, then it shows that these institutions don’t just erupt spontaneously. They gain their legitimacy from the one who creates them. And their legitimacy exists only insofar as they are honoring the purpose for which they were created. That’s an important idea I just threw out there. The reason I camp on this point is because I think it is important to our later discussion as to what Peter is calling us to be subject to. I think we would all agree, hopefully we would agree, that if some man wandered into our meeting tonight and pronounced himself our king, we would not feel under obligation to be subject to them.

Would you tend to all agree with that? All right. We would rightly assume that the Lord has not established them as any kind of authority or institution. Now technically human institution could refer to a wide range of civil structures established for the benefit of society, but Peter here is limiting his commands, his command be subject to here he’s talking about emperors or governors and we see some qualifying characteristics of these governmental institutions.

We see that they are sent by the Lord and that they punish those who do evil and reward those who do good. We see where their authority flows from and we see in simple terms what their job is. Now let’s assume for a moment that this kind of a godly institution is what we are dealing with and finish looking at Peter’s instructions. So I don’t want to deal with, well what if it’s a corrupt government? Let’s just assume right now we’re talking about it’s been established by God and it’s doing what God told it to do and let’s keep talking about what Peter has for us. Now, and again later, then I’m going to go ahead and turn my attention to the corrupt government. Now picking up in verse 15, Peter gives us a reason, a result, and a requirement, a reason, a result, and a requirement concerning being subject to these institutions. The reason is straightforward. It’s the will of God.

It’s pretty hard to argue with that. When God says, I said so, it’s kind of end of discussion. We’re simply told to do it. We subject ourselves first and foremost because that is what God has called us to, but there’s also, it’s a purpose or a result that God has in mind, which is to silence ignorance or foolish people. Now exactly how does our obedient subjection to the ruling authority silence the ignorance and foolish people? One possible explanation lies in how Christians were thought of in the early days of the church. By and large, Christians were viewed as a threat to the social order of the day because they would not participate in the civic events which were steeped in pagan worship.

There were very few ways for a Christian to involve themselves in everyday life without being required to participate in some aspect of paganism. Holidays, community events, education, and more were all problematic for a Christian to be a part of. In addition, there were false rumors spread about some of their liturgical practices, such as claims that they were cannibals because they talked about eating and drinking somebody’s blood. These and other issues made them stand out as misfits in society, even though they were actually probably model citizens in most regards.

In order to silence these ignorant accusers, Peter tells his readers to live honorable and obedient lives so that those accusing them will be silenced as they see that Christians can live quietly and peaceably within the community. Now a modern day example of what Peter would say not to do would be to copy the group you’ve heard of them, you’ve seen in the news, the Westboro Baptist Church, you heard of that group. They show up in the news for all the wrong reasons. One of the things that they’re notorious for is showing up at military funerals and having signs and saying that the dead person, the dead soldier, is God’s judgment on our nation because of our nation’s acceptance of homosexuality.

That’s just one example of the nonsense they put forth, and it’s understandable why unbelievers would dismiss, if not hate, Christians. To date, this group has only succeeded in portraying Christians as wackos. Clearly, Christianity will offend, be a cause and offense to the culture, but it should be offended by the gospel itself and not followers of Christ who are being jerks. Now that covers the reason and the result for our submission. The requirement is found in verse 16. I mentioned earlier that this verse does not give us another command in addition to be subject, but is still part of Peter’s initial command to be subject.

As we are being subject, we are to do it as a people who are free, but that freedom comes with two stipulations. One is we’re not to use our freedom as license to do evil, and two, we’re to use our freedom as servants of God. The freedom Peter has in mind, the freedom Peter has in mind is the freedom that comes from knowing that you are not under compulsion, but rather you are free to choose to do something. Coming under authority is not burdensome when you do it voluntarily for the right reasons. Evil men submit to authority for fear of punishment. Righteous men submit to authority because it pleases God and it produces the most benefit for all.

Evil men think they are free when they pursue their evil acts, but we know that they are in fact slaves to their own appetites and the wages of sin is death. That death manifests itself in numerous natural consequences now, but then ultimately in eternal damnation. Conversely, using our freedom to serve God produces blessing to us and to others.

Well Peter finishes up this section in verse 17 with a quick burst then of four short commands and these are actually all imperatives. So actually for tonight we had there’s gonna be five imperatives, be subject and then these next four. The commands are honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the Emperor. Recall to honor everyone. This command obviously would include God, the brotherhood, and the emperor, the other groups. To honor means to show due respect. Now this is perhaps an area that we can do better in when it comes to the emperor in our current climate, political climate. Given our climate, it’s easy to fall into the same pattern of disrespect that is widespread. Chanting, let’s go branding at a football game may be funny at one level, but it’s not honoring, it’s not honoring to the authorities.

From tweets to talk shows to school board meetings, honor seems to be no longer in vogue. As Christians, we should stand out by the honor we show others, even when we disagree with them. And I know that’s really hard to do in this day and age, given the leaders we have. Beyond honor, we’re told to love the brotherhood. This is one more. This is more intuitive since we’re all joint heirs in Christ. Love should be our signature character trait since Jesus said they will know that we are Christians by our love. So it shouldn’t be too astounding for us to hear him command us to love the brethren. But even here, Christians have room for improvement.

We too easily allow differences in doctrine and practice to separate us into the us and them. This does not mean that we shouldn’t contend for sound doctrine, but we must not let doctrinal disputes diminish our love for those who are true brothers or sisters in Christ. And then lastly, we’re told to fear God. Of course, we’re to honor and love God, but in addition to those, we are to fear Him. This is a holy and a reverential awe of God and our relationship to Him. It’s not a fear that makes you want to run and hide from Him. It’s not a dread, but it is a fear, as Mr. Beaver expressed when he said of Aslan, he’s not safe, but he is good.

You sort of know that you’re dealing with something serious here, and yet fortunately for us as believers, we can still call Maba father, but there is that sense of he’s not totally safe. The fact that Peter does not elaborate on these four commands means that it should be self-evident to his readers that he intends, what he intends for their conduct. I mean, he just blurched them out there like, no explanation necessary, you just need to do these things. These four traits are clearly not the norm among unbelievers today, which is all the more reason that we should make sure they are characteristic of us. Excuse me, with the time remaining, then let me turn my attention to the question about, well, what happens when tyrants rule or leaders are not doing what God asked them to do?

And then the question that follows on as we talk about this is does the situation of a tyrant or a leader who is, I always get this wrong, it’s punishing good and rewarding evil, does that have any considerations or does it affect our understanding of the command to be subject? This is something that’s been debated in Christendom for at least 500 years. It’s a fascinating topic to explore. There’s lots of things you can read and hear what different people thought about it. What has struck me in my reading on the subject is the contrast of opinion between modern day conservative Christians and those in the past. In general, modern opinions today lean toward being subject always, unless doing so would cause you to personally sin.

The example usually cited is when the apostles refused to stop preaching the gospel when ordered to by the Jewish leaders over in the book of Acts. They said, nope, we got a verse here. We’re supposed to preach, so you can’t tell us we’re gonna have to disobey. Christian thought in the past was much more nuanced and grappled with what makes for a legitimate authority that we are obligated to submit to.

One modern day argument for submitting even to a tyrant claims that Christians were being turned into human torches by Nero when Paul wrote Romans 13. Surely if Paul wrote to the Romans when that was going on, he expects submission even in the diarist of circumstances. And I’ve already shown in a previous message that this argument isn’t valid because Paul wrote Romans some years before Nero’s reign of terror even began. Nero was still actually reasonably popular at the time Paul wrote Romans.

What seems to be ignored in today’s argumentation, but is included in arguments from the past, are the qualifiers that Paul and Peter placed on God-ordained authority. In both of their writings, we are told that government is given to punish evil doers and reward those who do good. Today, we are simply taught all authority is from God, period, and that is true. But does it follow that we are commanded to follow all authority when it is the evil doer? And the answer can’t be yes in the case where we’re asked to disobey God, so we already proved that the command, whatever it means, can’t be absolute. Because if they say, violate some verse, we say no.

So it cannot be an absolute statement to be subject. How do these authorities come to power in the first place? Yes, all authority comes from God, but how does he establish authorities on earth? Does it wanna be emperor, ride into town and assume the throne? Historically, that has happened quite often, but did that automatically make them the God-ordained authority?

I’m just raising questions here, okay? What if China invaded Washington DC tonight and took over the government? Would we be obligated to be subject to the new government? Now, I realize that’s a hyperbolic example, but our understanding of to whom we are to be subject needs to be able to stand up, even in extreme examples like this. What about cases where the laws are not righteous, but you can’t put your finger on an exact verse?

Consider these words from Charles Spurgeon’s, his own exposition of the same passage that I’m teaching on tonight. He wrote, true Christians give no trouble to the state. They are not lawbreakers, but they strive to do that which is honest and upright. Where the laws are not righteous, they may cause trouble to bad lawgivers and lawmakers, but when rulers ordained that which is just and righteous, they find that Christians are their best subjects. Spurgeon says, we should obey when the laws are just and righteous, but that we can, quote, cause trouble when they aren’t.

This gets things interesting really quick. Our mask mandates and lockdowns just and righteous. What about vaccine mandates? What about firing people for not being vaccinated? What if the day comes like in a country like Germany? What if in America, public education is mandatory for your children? What about restricting, putting restrictions on worship for the sake of public health? More and more information is coming out showing how our leaders response to COVID has caused serious harm in numerous other ways, in ways that we could begin to legitimately question, are those decisions just and righteous, given the harm they’re doing?

In order to achieve compliance with mandates, they have to resort to bribing, shaming, and threatening. In many cases, they do not follow their own orders. Does this sound just and righteous? There are other examples we could use to illustrate that we live in a time where emperors and governors are not being just or righteous in the various dictates that they’re mandating. One of the core questions in the debate about when to submit and when to resist centers around this. Has the emperor ceased being basically an emperor or being the kind of authority we’re called to be subject to when they stop punishing evil and rewarding good?

Do you follow the question there? Just because they still have a crown on their head, are they actually the king? Are they still the emperor? When they’re no longer doing what God is told to do or have they stepped out of their lane, they’re no longer functioning as the God-given authority. That’s kind of the big question that the people are debating about.

The question is a valid one. If you read the Roman and Peter’s passage in their full context, it’s clear that both assume the leader is acting in accordance with God’s job description. Do Peter and Paul put qualifiers on when we submit or is the emperor given carte blanche?

At least me personally and perhaps you, you typically hear Romans 13 referred to and they always stop at verse one. No authority has existed except that was ordained by God and submit, period. They don’t read then all the other four statements that Paul gives following. Why do you submit? And it goes on to then outline what the ruler’s job is. Now these passages do not tell us what the rules are when we live under a tyrant. They tell us what to do when the ruler is just and righteous. Other scripture passages now do speak of how we should respond if we suffer under a tyrant. But being subject to them in every way is not one of the things I believe we’re being told to do.

I found it interesting that Christian thinkers and writers on this topic in ages past went so far as to say it was the duty of Christians to resist tyrants and to seek their removal. That’s really different than current Christian thought. Now my goal in visiting this topic is not to come down dogmatically on the answer, but rather stimulate us to think deeply about our duty to be subject to the emperor, and if necessary, when to resist. There’s much more that really needs to be considered, such as who decides when it’s time to resist the emperor. All the authors I’ve read agreed that it will almost never be a single person, or even a small group of people who decide it’s time to resist.

If the emperor is being truly unjust and unrighteous, then it should be agreed upon by a significant number of the individuals under that emperor’s authority. You can imagine the societal chaos that would ensue if every person cherry-picked what they deemed to be unjust or unrighteous. The decision to resist the emperor should not be taken lightly, for the consequences will not only be the punishment that he renders, but also the possibility that we’re going against the will of God and we should in fact be submitting. The culture we live in today is defined by at least two core values. One is the deeply ingrained mistrust of authority symbolized by the chant, question authority, from the 1960s.

Dave, did you have that bumper sticker on your car? The second is the rise of the modern self that is all about me and rejects social mores and expectations. Both of these values militate against Peter’s instruction for how we should live as sojourners and citizens. This is why true believers today, like in the early days of the church, stand out as weird and or threatening. Some within the modern church, in an attempt to make the gospel more appealing and producing or preaching another gospel that Paul condemns in Galatians. The gospel will never ever be appealing to those who are perishing. But to the elect, it will eventually bring about their repentance.

Our conduct as sojourners and as citizens serves as a main means to God’s sovereign plan for how he’s gathering his elect. If we become so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good, or if we are inclined to rebel against authority unless constrained, then we’re sinning and we’re neglecting the two important ways that we, as His chosen race, proclaim His excellencies. Let’s pray. Father, as we have considered this section of Peter’s admonition, our roles as exiles and as citizens, Father, it’s easy today to sure feel like a exile, feel like a sojourner. as Christians are more and more on the out with our culture.

And Father as Americans, specifically in our context, it’s easy for us to get pretty riled up against the emperor. And we need your wisdom, Father. We need your grace. We need your mercy to know how we should function wearing those two hats. May you give us that wisdom that we would not confuse and conflate what it means to be an American, we’re through being a Christian, that we would embrace responsibilities and duties that you’ve given us.

But then we would know our default would be to submit, our default would be to continue to look forward eagerly to the glory that’s to be revealed. But in these years you’ve given us here on earth, maybe just again be wise in how we walk it, especially in this day and age, Father. And should the heat turn up on us as believers, may you give us the courage, the boldness, again, the wisdom to know how to respond. Thank you, Father, that you go before us in all these matters. And I pray you can just continue to knit our minds together to give us unity of the Spirit, and likewise with other churches in the community.

As I suspect the day is coming, when we’ll have to have lots of discussions about what next. Just thank you for all your good gifts now, and we just ask your blessings upon this week as we head out. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.