“Be subject for the Lord’s sake”
Happy New Year!
We start this new year by picking up where we left off in 1 Peter chapter 2:13- wherever the Lord leads us today!
When you look at the subhead title of the beginning of this verse it is, ‘Submission to Authority,’ so with that here we go…
“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 punish those who do evil and 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 freedom as a cover-up for evil but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. love brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” -1 Peter 3:13-17
Let’s start with what does ‘be subject’ mean.
Be subject: under the authority of, control of;
Be subject: likely or prone to be affected by, typically an unwelcome or unpleasant one;
Be subject: owing obedience, brought under,
Be subject: bring under one’s control or jurisdiction, typically by using force
So with these definitions in mind, what is the Lord asking of us. He is asking us to be obedient to those he puts in charge. Now does that mean bow to their feet and worship them, like King Nebuchadnezzar asked of the people, bow or die. And as we read, they did not bow, they obeyed and honored God throughout their time serving the King but they didn’t obey the king to the point of disobeying God. (Daniel 3)
Do you allow human institution to fully control you to the point where the voice of God has dimmed and out of fear you just listen so there will be no affect to your comfort life? But let’s be honest for a few seconds, is there real comfort when we are walking in disobedience to God? Never. Because apart from Him there is no peace, no comfort of knowing that we are being carried and given His strength and grace to endure. Just because you have some of the comforts of this world you have said no to your eternal comfort.
Matthew 5:14-16 says this, “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
“Be subject for the Lord’s sake…”
He has put us here on earth for a purpose and that is to give Him glory, to make him the most famous of all, to exalt Him above everyone and everything, why? because there is no one like Him, and there is no one coming that’s better. He is the beginning and the end. So for the Lord’s sake we give ourselves to Him, we get out of the way, we die to ourselves, and say yes to Christ living in us and using us for the building up of his people, and for the expanding of His kingdom. Building up and expanding cannot happen in our own flesh, but by denying it and letting the Spirit have full control. Light shines in the darkness. there is no light apart from Christ only in Him will we shine because when the Spirit is leading, he leads us to speak and do things that people apart from him think are foolish and even think they are mean but what we know to be true is that the truth is what sets us free, the truth is what speaks louder than lies.
When you are in a dark room, the thing you desire most is to see and hear the light. Why would we want anything other than light?
He is not hiding so we don’t find him. His light is all around us, through his creation, the people he has created, the food we eat, the structures all around us. there is nothing but light but we choose to remain in the dark at times because of the unknown. We think this earth is all there is. We stay in the dark because we think it is safer. We are not called to live in the safety of what the world teaches us, we are called to live in the safe arms of God. Where he leads we will go why? Because he is with us. What he tells us to say, we will say, no matter what worldly consequences we get because we know that our reward is with Christ for eternity, and the desire for people to see Christ in us by denying the world and being obedient to Christ.
How we doing? Are we still reading or are we done?
“…or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.”
— my small. little note here is, what position God has given some people here on earth to act as a commander, a judge, someone who tells the law to people and can convict or reward for disobedience and obedience. If God ever gives you and I a position as high as that how will we use it? Will we honor God no matter what someone higher than us tries to sway us to do for their sakes, or will we fear and do the opposite of good, to remain in the position, to remain ‘upheld’ by people. At the end of the day we will all stand in from of God and give an account of all we did here on earth, with the things he gave us to steward.
Our desire as His people should always be to act in such a way where God’s name will not be tainted, because it is at the end of the day that it will be you and God talking and He is the one who decides where our eternity will be FOR ETERNITY.
Going back to 1 Peter 2:12, “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.”
When you are in your home and out your home how are you behaving? How are you carrying out the word of God? Can those who look on at your life see a difference between you and them?
When we walk in the way of the Gospel, knowing what God has done is continuing to do for us, our ultimate goal is to raise our voices and actions louder that those who look on can taste and see the goodness of God and desire it for themselves, and create a ripple of God’s love where they go.
What is the will of God in this passage?
“that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”
ignorance: lack of knowledge or information. (inexperience)
They say ignorance is bliss— meaning that if you don’t know something, you don’t need to worry about it. but the funny thing is people still act ignorant thinking they know but they don’t know and then they turn you into the bad person because they don’t want to come, sit and learn so that they can then grow. Can’t grow if you don’t sit and listen, and then put what you learn into action.
So, when we are pinned as the and guy for not being ignorant, and for walking in such a way that seems foolish in their eyes, how do we act, how do we respond. We respond by loving them, by praying for them, by showing them the opposite of what they show us and choosing to not get upset as they are because we know what the Lord has told us and we know how he has taught us to act in such a way where people may know Him. We aren’t to just give them their way because they are pinning us, we are to honor them but also walk in the truth.
Don’t bow down to others unrealistic and unspoken expectations, don’t let the way of the world in people to affect what you know has affected you because of the love of God for you. But may they see His love in and through you as the days go on, that they may be compelled to repent and turn to Him.
Let’s finish up with these last two verses.
“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.”
One of my favorite passage is Romans 6 — The New Life in Christ —
Are we living the NEW life or the old life?
Are we allowing the Great and Beautiful work of the Cross take over every part of our life and not just some of it, because if just some then why proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ? Paul writes, “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him in baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self, was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since every person who died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.”
THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO SAY BUT THANK YOU GOD FOR THE GIFT THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN US TO BE FREE. WE NO LONGER HAVE TO LIVE IN FEAR OF WHAT IS TO COME WHEN OUR LIFE HERE ON EARTH IS OVER. BECAUSE WHAT WE ARE GOING TO IS ETERNAL FREEDOM FROM SIN, ETERNAL FREEDOM FROM PAIN, ETERNAL FREEDOM FROM THE ENEMY’S DESIRE TO SEPARATE US FROM GOD. BUT AS WE KNOW THE ENEMY CAN’T SEPARATE US FROM HIM, HE CAN ONLY MAKE US BELIEVE THAT WE ARE SEPARATED FROM GOD WHEN HARD THINGS ARE TAKING PLACE, OR TRANSITIONS ARE HAPPENING. OUR LIVES WITH CHRIST AND THOSE WE SEE AROUND US PURSUING GOD WILL BE WITH GOD FOR ETERNITY. SO OUR NUMBER ONE AIM SHOULD ALWAYS BE TO PURSUE CHRIST AND STRIVE TO REMAIN IN HIM THAT IT MAY BE SAID OF US, “SHE/HE TRUST GOD IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE AND DID NOT DETER FROM HIS GOODNESS AND FAITHFULNESS.”
May the world see Him in our lives, may they see Him through how you love them, may they see Him through how you respect and share the truth!
