1 Peter 2:13-17 - Christians & Civil Authority

Marc Minter

FBC Diana

1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted 9 days ago • Presented 10 days ago

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Main idea: Christians are to live according to God-ordered fear, love, and honor, submitting to civil authority as good servants of God.

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Something has happened over the last several years that has changed the hot debates among American Evangelicals. Not long ago, Evangelicals in America debated Calvinism, church growth strategies, whether we would sing traditional hymns or contemporary praise choruses during church on Sundays. Some of you older Christians (say 40+) may even remember that churches fought and divided over stuff like this.

But in 2020, the American government, some state officials, and many local magistrates “jumped the shark” (you might say). They began telling churches when and where and how they could gather. They enforced self-contradictory and irrational policies that affected every part of American life. And they seemed to declare an all-out assault on long-held Christian values and practices – especially regarding children, marriage, and sex.

Of course, America’s civil, academic, and cultural leaders did not begin the culture war in 2020. Aaron Renn authored a ground-breaking article back in 2022, where he argued for three categories – “positive,” “neutral,” and “negative world” – and he dates the turn toward a negative view of Christianity in America back to 2014. Wherever you put the start-date, I think honest observers must admit that we have been in a different world for a while now (one that is largely hostile toward traditional Christian beliefs and ethics).

Because of this new political and cultural environment, American Evangelicals are far more excited about different arguments than they were 10 years ago. Today, you are more likely to stumble into a debate between Christians over politics (and not as likely to hear them debating the doctrine of salvation). Evangelicals these days seem to care less about how to define “Christian” than they do about how “Christians” (whoever they are) ought to relate to government.

We don’t get to choose the times in which we live, but we must always go back to the Bible to find answers to the pressing questions of our time.

Because this is our cultural and political moment, several passages in the Bible have become almost explosive. Two in particular (Romans 13 and the one we’re going to consider today) are a sort of battleground for various views of what we call “Political Theology.” This is the study and doctrine of politics or civics or government.

Many American Evangelicals (especially those in their 20s, 30s, and 40s) are coming to grips with the fact that Christians in America have largely assumed their political theology for a long time now. They are also coming to realize that the Bible and Church history have quite a lot to say about political theology – the relationship of church and state, the role of government, and Christian participation in civil institutions and efforts.

My aim today is to faithfully exposit the text before us, to make what I believe are relevant applications, and to provide something of a basic framework for further discussion and consideration on this topic. As with any sermon, I will leave a lot of application untouched. Some of us are likely to have hanging questions still unanswered when I conclude today. But let’s talk about this stuff with one another between Sundays, and let’s keep on learning more about biblical principles and their application to our specific questions and circumstances.

Keep in mind that this passage is only a part of a longer letter, wherein the Apostle Peter was encouraging and instructing first-century Christians to live faithfully in the world as “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11; cf. 1 Peter 1:1). Christians are the “chosen” people of God (1 Pet. 2:9-10), but they exist in a world that is often at odds with what they believe and how they live (1 Pet. 2:7-8).

All of this is by God’s design, and He’s has given us much good instruction about how to live in light of the salvation He’s provided for repenting believers.

For the next few Sundays, we’ll be looking at God’s instructions for a Christian order in various relationships – civil, economic (or work), and family.

May God help us to grow in our understanding and to learn to apply what we know, so that we might be faithful witnesses for Christ in the world… until He comes.

Let’s stand together as I read our main passage for today – 1 Peter 2:13-17.

Scripture Reading

1 Peter 2:13-17

13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Main Idea:

Christians are to live according to God-ordered fear, love, and honor, submitting to civil authority as good servants of God.

Sermon

1. Delegated Authority (v13a)

Christ is King, and all legitimate human authority is delegated by Him.

Our passage is the beginning of a longer section of this letter, in which Peter unpacks his command in ch. 2, v12. Peter said there, “keep your conduct among the Gentiles [i.e., “unbelievers” or “non-Christians”] honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers [i.e., when non-Christians slander you for not living as they do], they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Pet. 2:12). God wants Christians to live honorably, so that they will give witness to God’s goodness and glory amid a wicked and inglorious world.

As I mentioned in my introduction, Peter is going to explain what this looks like in various relationships (starting here, with our passage, and going all the way down to ch. 3, v.7). Peter is teaching his reader that “honorable” living and “good deeds” are actually very practical in the everyday lives of Christians. Faithful Christian living affects how we interact with our civil structures, how we employ ourselves with good work or labor, and how we order our marriages and families.

In fact, it seems to me that our first verse here is something of a summary command that echos throughout all that Peter says for the next thirty-one verses. Our civil, vocational, and family relationships are all to be ordered by a particular understanding of authority, which I think is the key emphasis on v13.

Let’s first note that v13 is a somewhat difficult to translate verbatim. Various English translations have all rendered the verse a little differently.

ESV – “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.”

NASB95 – “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.”

NIV84 – “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men.”

KJV – “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.”

NLT – “For the Lord’s sake, submit to all human authority.”

I think a literal translation might be, “Submit to every human creation/creature because of the Lord.”

The main point I want to make here is that Peter is clearly placing the authority of “the Lord” Jesus Christ above that of “every human institution” or “every human authority.” Jesus is the King! All authority in heaven and on earth is His (Matt. 28:18). And all authority that is exercised in this world is either rightly delegated (under Christ as head) or an attempted subversion of Christ’s authority.

There is a distinction here between creaturely authority and divine authority (i.e., Christ’s authority). Peter’s command is to “be subject” or to “submit” to creaturely authority (namely the person or institution wielding it) “for the Lord’s sake” or in ultimate subjection or submission to Christ.

Friends, this has huge implications for every relationship we have. We must resist our seemingly natural inclination to think and act as though everyone bears the same level of authority and responsibility. As much as our culture has tried to convince us that we are a truly egalitarian society, where everyone is perfectly equal in their authority, this is simply not true. In fact, the more we move away from hierarchy, the more vulnerable we become to barbarism and tyranny.

Just think of a classroom where the students feel that they have equal authority with the teacher and the administrators. What sort of environment does this become? Does every student flourish under their new-found freedom? Do students learn all the better because they have been empowered to take charge of themselves? No! The classroom devolves into a state of chaos and anarchy. Bullies rule, weaker children suffer, and no one learns much of anything.

Instead of egalitarianism, or equality, or pure democracy, the Scriptures teach us (and so does nature or creation) that relationships require hierarchy. A hierarchy is an ordering of a group or society according to each person’s relative status or authority – it’s order by a structured allocation of authority.

In human relationships, someone is always going to exercise authority. It is inevitable. What we have to decide is whether the ordered authority is going to be established by delegation (or authorization) from Christ or if it will be seized by sheer force, by some kind of coercion, or by deceptive manipulation.

Friends, Christ is King, and He delegates authority according to God’s hierarchical design for human relationships and for human flourishing. But Christ does not do this by writing names or institutions or offices in the sky. No, God has told us in His word where and how and by whom authority is to be exercised – in civil society, on the job, and in the home.

Today, we are focusing on civil society because that’s what our text is about.

2. Submission to Civil Authority (v13b-15)

Christians are to submit to legitimate civil authority as a testimony of Christian virtue; and civil rulers are to carry out their duty before God.

Peter explains what sort of creaturely authority he’s talking about in our passage in v13-14. He says, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor [or “king”] as supreme, or to governors [or “rulers” or “leaders”] as sent by him [i.e., sent by the king] to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Pet. 2:13-14).

We can learn at least two things here: (1) the duty and purpose of civil authority, and (2) the duty of Christians in relationship to legitimate civil authority.

First, the duty and purpose of civil authority. God has instituted the power of the “sword” in civil government (Gen. 9:5-6), and God has authorized this lethal power to be used by government “to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Pet. 2:14).

Both in creation and in the Scriptures, God has defined what is “good” and what is “evil.” These are not malleable, based on circumstance; and they are not subject to our feelings or our life-experience. No matter what we feel, and no matter what we may think, God’s moral law stands over all people and all creation.

Lying, stealing, adultery, murder, and rebellion against God-ordained authority are evil. God has revealed His own character (which is the epitome of good) in His moral law (which appears in the 10 Commandments of Exodus 20, and most of these are clearly repeated in the NT). And all people everywhere have an innate sense of God’s moral law in their own conscience (Rom. 2:6-16).

We are all ultimately accountable to God for all those times that we have rebelled against His standard of morality, and this is why we all need a Savior! We have sinned (repeatedly and grievously) against God and against others, but God has demonstrated His love for sinners by sending His own Son (Jesus Christ) to live and to die under the penalty we deserve.

Friend, if you are willing to acknowledge your sin for what it is, and if you will confess it to God and turn away from it, you can trust in Christ and know that you are forgiven. And if you want to talk more about what this means or how you can be forgiven today, then let’s get together after the service.

But whatever our relationship to God (whether we are under His condemnation or under His grace and favor), the civil government is responsible to carry out worldly justice by punishing evildoers and by praising those who do good. Legislators, judges, and law enforcement officers ought to punish liars, thieves, adulterers, and murderers. This is what we ought to expect and demand from our civil leaders, it’s what we ought to vote for as citizens, and it’s what some of us ought to work toward as we pursue positions of civil authority ourselves.

The duty and purpose of civil authority (as Christ’s delegated officers) is “to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Pet. 2:14). The tyrannical magistrate who commands evil is exercising illegitimate authority. The negligent governor who punishes good is exercising illegitimate authority. But the king, governor, president, or mayor who (generally) punishes evildoers and praises righteousness (as God has defined such things) is exercising legitimate authority – he is fulfilling his God-given duty to exercise the power of the sword for its intended purpose.

Friends, is this how you think about political engagement? Is this what you expect and demand from those who make laws and policies for our communities, our state, and our nation? Christians should not only participate in our governing structures and systems, but Christians should do so with an unapologetically biblical ethic in mind. We don’t merely want pragmatic laws and lawmakers; we want virtuous ones. And the place we learn how to define virtue is Scripture.

So, one thing we can learn from v13-15 is the duty of civil authority, but a second is the duty of Christians in relationship to that authority. We can read here that God commands Christians to “be subject” or “submit” to legitimate civil authority (v13).

This is not a command to submit to anything and everything that a government might command or prohibit. As I’ve said, God has defined the purpose and duty of civil government, and Christians are not obligated to submit to an illegitimate use of this authority.

Peter makes it clear at the end of our passage today that Christians are to “honor the emperor,” but we are to “fear God” (1 Pet. 2:17). There is a rightful “honor” due to those who sit in the seat of civil power. We must “honor” the office, even if the person filling it is not the paragon of moral virtue we’d like, because imperfect civil order is better than anarchy.

But we are not to “fear” or revere our civil authority in the same way or on the same level as we posture ourselves toward God, toward Christ, or toward God’s word. When a civil ruler commands what God forbids or forbids what God commands, then it is God we must obey and not the illegitimate laws of God-denying civil rulers.

Of course, Christians of every generation and every society will have to count the cost. Obeying God and disobeying civil rulers may (and often does) require great sacrifice, and Christians are not promised that they will escape the consequences of their allegiance to a higher king. But the principle is true – the command to submit to creaturely authority has its limitations.

And yet, we must hear and feel the weight of the command today. Christians ought to be the best citizens of the state by having a readiness and a willingness to submit to civil authority in all things that do not directly conflict with Christ’s commands in our lives.

Just because we don’t agree with a law, or just because we don’t like the way a policy affects us, Christians are not to adopt a general posture of rebellion against a legitimate government. The authority of a father in the home is not exactly the same as a that of the civil magistrate, but I tell my sons all the time that submission is not obeying commands that are agreeable to you. That’s agreement, not submission! Submission is practiced or exercised precisely when you do not agree with a command, but you obey it anyway.

Our civil rulers are responsible to write and enforce laws that restrain and punish evil (i.e., that which is unethical or immoral). They are responsible to make policies that encourage and praise what is good (i.e., that which is virtuous or righteous). You and I may not agree with every law or policy, but we ought to be ready and willing to obey it, unless it directly conflicts with God’s law.

In our local, state, and national governments, we have all sorts of methods by which we may try to change what laws or policies we think are not prudent. We are perfectly justified in our efforts to influence our society for the better in whatever ways we can. But as I said before, we ought to obey the civil law, until or unless it directly conflicts with God’s law.

We are told in our passage that it is the “will of God” that Christians “be subject” or “submit” to civil authority (1 Pet. 2:13-15), and that “by doing” this good thing Christians will “put to silence the ignorance of foolish people” (v15).

Justin Martyr was a Christian who lived in the Roman empire during the early part of the second century, a time when Christians often faced incredible hostility from their civil rulers and others in society. He made a public argument for the goodness and value of Christianity, and part of his claim was that Christians are the best citizens. Christians pay their taxes, they give their wealth away to serve others, they deal honestly in business, they live humbly alongside those who believe differently, and they pray for the health of the emperor.

Brothers and sisters, this sort of practical witness will speak volumes in our present culture. So many Americans seem bent on serving only themselves, and our culture is increasingly realizing the emptiness and futility of atomized living. When Christians display lives of stability, of humility, of honesty, and of a general interest in the good of others around them, non-Christians will have to admit that this is far better than the self-indulgent and vacuous lives they are living – even if they never say it out loud. Our virtuous lives will be our witness.

Christians are to submit to legitimate civil authority as a testimony of Christian virtue, and when we do, we will put to silence those foolish people who falsely accuse us of bigotry and racism and various phobias. Fools may still throw out the insults, but they will ring hollow. And our virtuous living will strengthen the social fabric, even if others try to destroy it.

3. Free Servants of God (v16)

Christians can submit to legitimate civil authority with joy and contentment because they do so voluntarily.

Verse 16 includes three motivations for Christians to obey God’s command to “be subject” or “submit” to civil authority – (1) they are free, (2) they love what is good, and (3) they are servants of God. Let’s consider these one at a time.

First, Christians are “free.” Now, what exactly does Peter mean here that Christians are free? He is not saying that they are free to do whatever they might want – Christians are not free to sin or to rebel against legitimate civil authority. Peter seems to be saying that Christians are free in the same way the rest of the NT speaks of Christian freedom.

For example, the Apostle Paul said (in Galatians 5), “For freedom Christ has set us free… [from] a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). And Paul goes on to say that this freedom is a liberation from slavish obedience to the legal demands of God’s law. His reasoning goes something like this: “Christ has earned our righteousness before God, so we do not have to obey God’s law out of a legalistic attempt to earn God’s approval. Rather, we get to obey God’s law now out of love and gratitude, recognizing that God’s commands are good for us.”

It seems to me that Peter is saying much the same thing here. Matthew Henry was a Welsh non-conformist pastor of a Presbyterian church in 17th-century England, and he said it like this, “All the servants of Christ are free men (Jn. 8:36); they are free from Satans’ dominion, [free from] the law’s condemnation, [free from] the wrath of God, [free from] the uneasiness of duty, and [free from] the terrors of death.”

Christians, then, are free to love God and to love others without fear of judgment (i.e., ultimate or divine judgment). We are free to obey God’s commands (including submission to civil authority), not out of fear, but out of our love for God and our desire to be conformed to His wisdom. This is Christian freedom, brothers and sisters – freedom to obey from a heart of love and gratitude.

A second motivation for Christian submission to civil authority is that Christians love what is good. Christians are not to use their freedom “as a cover-up for evil,” but to demonstrate or show their love for what is good.

We know what is good by hearing what God says about goodness and by observing God’s own goodness (in the Bible and in our lives). And we cherish the good – we love those things that are intrinsically good (i.e. good in themselves), and we love to see good in our own lives and in the lives of others.

We know that despising God’s law is bad; we know it’s bad for those who do it and bad for everyone else around them. We know that assaults on person or property are bad. We know that incivility and anarchy is bad. We know that words and actions that subvert ordered society are bad. Therefore, we avoid such things, we oppose them, and we work to see them diminished (as far as we are able).

Christians do not use their freedom as an opportunity to sin; Christians use their freedom to pursue what is good – personally, in their families, in their churches, and in their communities. We do this because we love what is good.

A third motivation for submitting to civil authority is that Christians are “servants of God” (v16). Christians believe that civil government is an institution ordained by God, and as such is to be honored and obeyed. We submit to legitimate rulers because God is our ultimate sovereign, and He has commanded us to do it. Indeed, we know that our submission to civil authority is one way we demonstrate our ultimate submission to God Himself.

Friends, I wonder how much these motivations affect us today. Do we know that we are free from sin and judgment? Does this freedom inspire us toward increasing love for what is good? And do we consider ourselves servants of God out in the world?

If we are looking around and wondering where all the virtue has gone in our society, is it possible that we might reclaim some appreciation for and practice of virtue by displaying it ourselves, by teaching it to others, and by demanding it in our own spheres of influence? All of this will require us to think less like individualized Americans (seeking our own American dream, our own luxury, and our own pleasure), and we must think more like society-builders (seeking good for ourselves and others).

Some years back, I was sitting at the stoplight in front of the high school here in Diana. There was a young man in a vehicle in front of me, and he was blaring his music with the windows down. An older man pulled up beside him and yelled at him to turn it down. And, to my surprise, the young man did what he was told!

A blaring radio is a pretty small thing in light of all the wickedness on display around us today. And I’m not saying that it isn’t fun sometimes to open the windows and to make a little noise. But this episode demonstrates just how effective it can be for someone to expect a certain level of consideration in society. Those who do bad ought to be ashamed of it – those who speak and act wickedly ought to feel a sense of condemnation from the rest of us around them. And those who do good ought to be praised for it – we ought to praise genuinely good words and deeds wherever we can find them.

How might you foster (in your own home and family) a love for what is good? How might you invest in your friends and co-workers in an effort to encourage an appreciation for virtue? How might you inspire and work toward a society that praises those who do good?

Especially for those of us who are older, what kind of society will we hand down to our kids and grandkids? May God help us to do our part to make it better… as free people who are servants of God.

4. Ordered Fear, Love, and Honor (v17)

God commands us to direct our fear, our love, and our honor according to His hierarchical arrangement.

I said (back in point one) that God has designed all of our human relationships to work within the structure of an ordered hierarchy. The bulk of our passage today has focused on a particular hierarchy of authority – civil rulers are due a greater honor and wield a greater authority than those under their rule. This honor and authority are not without their limits, but they are real commands and authorizations God has built into the way He has created things.

This last verse of our passage this morning offers four more commands which also display a hierarchy, and these commands provide us a kind of framework for various ways that we are to relate to others within boundaries.

Peter gives these rapid-fire commands as a summary about how Christians are to “do good” as “servants of God” in the context of ordered relationships. He says, “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17).

I see these as two sets of paired commands that display a sort of grid (or concentric circles) for our reverence, our affection, and our respect or honor. The first two go together, and so do the second two.

The first set of commands are to “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood,” and the second set are to “Fear God. Honor the emperor.” Let’s finish our time by considering these together.

When we are thinking about “doing good” in the world, we want to feel a sense of responsibility to “do good” to “everyone.” Here we are told to “honor everyone,” and so we must. Every person is due our honor and respect. Everyone we know, everyone we meet, and everyone with whom we interact is deserving of our honor in the sense that every human is an image-bearer of God.

We must respect other peoples’ persons, their property, and their dignity as people. We can do this in countless ways, but the Golden Rule seems to summarize it well. Many of you will remember that Jesus said, “whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12). Or, as I memorized it as a kid – “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (NIV84).

You don’t want others to steal your stuff? Then don’t do it to them. You want others to be honest with you? Then be honest with them. You don’t want others to inflict harm upon you? Then don’t do it to them. Such a general rule should guide our treatment of all other people in our lives.

But there is a different level of care and concern Christians are to have for one another (greater than what they have for everyone in the world). See it there in v17. Peter says, “Love the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17). More than mere “honor” or “respect,” Christians are to “love” one another.

This is the most frequently repeated command for Christians in the Bible. Many times, in the NT, Christians are told to “love one another,” and in some of those passages Christian love is described very practically. Christians must love one another, not “in word” only, but in “deed” or action (1 Jn. 3:18). Christians must love one another with patience and kindness, with humility and deference, and with grace and endurance (1 Cor. 13:4-7). Christians are bound together, forgiving and encouraging one another, by sincere and active love (Eph. 4:2).

Brothers and sisters, we cannot love everyone in the whole world with the same level of attention and care. We have limited time and resources, and we only have so much emotional and intellectual bandwidth. We were never meant to concern ourselves with doing good to every person across the whole planet; but we are commanded to show honor to everyone nearby and to give a special kind of love and attention to those Christians with whom we are traveling the pilgrim path.

Some of us may need to be set free from the crushing weight of a sort of global love for all people everywhere. If you feel guilty for not selling everything you have in order to meet the needs of impoverished people in some far-flung part of the world, then let me free you this morning from that guilt. We may be guilty of greed or pride, but it is not necessarily sinful for you to have more than someone else – it may be, but inequality alone does not indicate sin or malice.

And some of us may need to feel more weight from the command we see here to give honor and love to those people we know. If you are unconcerned with the plight of people you know, and if you think little or none at all about the needs and circumstances of your fellow church members, then I hope to add a little guilt to your conscience this morning. I’m not saying that you should sell all you have to meet the needs of others, but we should not close our eyes to the needs of those around us.

God commands us here to “love” our fellow Christians and to “honor” those people nearby. May God help us to do good in the world as His witnesses and His servants.

The second set of commands Peter gives us here are similar to the first – similar in the sense that they provide concentric circles for our relationships. This time though, the two objects of our attention are “God” and “the emperor” or “God” and “the king” or “God” and “the civil ruler.” Peter says, “Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

This set of commands gives us a kind of summary statement for most of all that we’ve been talking about this morning. As I’ve explained earlier, we are to “honor” those in civil authority – obeying their laws and policies in so far as we are able to do it. But if and when those laws and policies conflict with God’s commands, then we must remember that our highest duty, our greatest obligation, or chief submission is to God, not to men – even if they be the most powerful men on earth. It is God we fear; it is God we most revere; it is God we most aim to please and obey… come what may.

Conclusion

Friends, no Christian in human history has had an easy time living with the tension we’ve been considering this morning. From the very first Christians, right up to today, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ have had to live within the context of ordered relationships. And they have had to learn how to fear God even as they honor the civil authorities who wield power over them. They have had to learn how to honor everyone and give special attention and love to fellow believers.

I pray that God will help us think more biblically about such things, and I pray that He will help us live courageously as good men and women who bear witness to a higher allegiance and a greater King.

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