Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20110703.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Peter: Effective Christian Living In A Spiritually Hostile World
Part VIII: Living In Godly Submission To The Secular Government, 1 Peter 2:11-17
B. Living As Model Citizens Before The Secular Government
(1 Peter 2:13-17)
  1. Introduction
    1. We Christians believe a good Christian testimony before the unsaved world would include obeying the laws of the land. However, man's laws at times conflict with Biblical righteousness as in the State of Connecticut where the Biblical sin of adultery that used to be a violation of state law has now been repealed, and homosexual couples can now marry to form legally recognized human marriages!
    2. Accordingly, we need insight into living not only righteously, but also effectively before the world's often notoriously ungodly secular government, and 1 Peter 2:13-17 gives us such guidance (as follows):
  2. Living As Model Citizens Before The Secular Government, 1 Peter 2:13-17.
    1. Peter's readers faced malicious slander from the pagan world that saw the Christian's testimony of uprightness as a critique of its sins, leading the world to hate believers, 1 Peter 2:12; John 15:18-22.
    2. Thus, Peter called Christians to live wisely before the lost for the testimony of Christ in functioning as model citizens before the pagan world and its ungodly government officials, 1 Peter 2:13-17:
      1. Peter directed believers in Christ to submit themselves to every authority of the secular government for the sake of their testimony for Christ, 1 Peter 2:13a. The "authority" (NIV) is the kitties, literally "creation" which here is "institution" or "law" (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 847), so the believer is to heed every institution of the government, and the laws created by those institutions.
      2. That meant Peter's readers should submit to the Roman emperor, the king, as to the supreme ruler of the land, 1 Peter 2:13b. This is a dramatic statement in this context: the Roman emperor when Peter wrote this epistle in A. D. 64 was Nero, and he had either just begun or was about to begin his infamous terrible persecution of Christians, Ibid., B. K. C., N. T., p. 838; Z. P. E. B., vol. Four, p. 411.
      3. Besides submitting to Emperor Nero, Peter's readers were to submit themselves unto Roman governors sent by the emperor to rule in local realms, 1 Peter 2:14a. The word for "governor" is from hagemone that is used of Pontius Pilate in Matthew 27:2 (Moulton & Geden, Conc. to the Greek Testament, 1974, p. 425) who yielded to political pressure from the Jews to sanction the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (John 19:12-16), so Peter's Christian readers were to submit even to very ungodly regional rulers like Pilate!
      4. This submission was meant to align with God's general purpose in government to use rulers in general to punish evildoers and reward the good to keep order in human society, 1 Peter 2:14b.
      5. However, the tension of these commands with the fact that the emperor, his governors or some of the government laws were evil, Peter's readers had to know how to submit to such entities! The answer is given in the principle of 1 Peter 2:15: to silence the unjust slander of their foes, Peter's readers had to act as model citizens whose testimonies were above reproach even in the eyes of the lost world. This meant that though the believer would not align with government laws that to heed would cause him to sin, the believer would yet act in a way that showed he was a model citizen so he would still provide a quality testimony. [To illustrate, though we do not practice adultery and homosexual marriage that are sanctioned by our state, we yet do not attack those people who do such evils, but respect them as people, showing the world even in its spiritually dulled way of thought that we are still model citizens!]
      6. The believer must submit this way to government authority not out of fear of the government itself, for he is spiritually free in Christ from bondage to human rulers; however, he should willingly submit as a servant of God like Christ did with the aim of living a good testimony for the Lord before the lost world and its government officials, 1 Peter 2:16; Ibid., Bible Knowledge Commentary, N. T., p. 847.
      7. Thus, Peter summarized that the believer should show proper respect to all of the parties involved, be it to love the brotherhood of believers, to revere God or to honor the king and his officials, 1 Peter 2:17.
Lesson: Though believers cannot sanction all the evil that thrives in governments and in their officials, they must live as model citizens while living uprightly to produce a quality testimony for Jesus Christ!

Application: May we live wisely as model citizens before the lost world's governments and officials!