Preacher have goofy sayings. “You just went from preachin’ to meddlin’”

Well, guess what? This sermon’s about to be all meddlin’!

This message is a good example of why I believe expository, verse by verse preaching is good for the pastor and for the people.

I might want to preach on this topic, but be hesitant because I don’t want to rock the boat too much. But God doesn’t mind rocking our boats if it gets us closer to who He wants us to be.

We’re going to talk about government and our interaction with it today.

I don’t know that there’s a topic more fraught w/ danger right now. For a whole host of reasons, our society is more polarized than ever before.

So God’s word has given me a rope—praying that I swing on it rather than hang myself! The only way to do that is to stay grounded in the text—what does God’s word say? So let’s open it together, 1 Peter, chapter 2.

Recap

Have to start with the understanding of who we are in Christ. That’s what Peter started with. Since verse 9…

We are the distinct people of God,
here to declare the praises of God.

If you imagine Peter’s arguments as a building, that’s the foundation. And what a solid foundation it is — we are the people of God!

So, building on that firm foundation, let’s frame up another wall of the Christian life today.

Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves. Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

1 Peter 2:13–17

This is the word of the Lord, whether we like it or not!

God and Government

I don’t think we’ve been discipled well in this area, so we need to make sure we have a biblical framework for how to think about government.

Three things, I’ll put them up at the bottom of the screen…

1. Government exists with God’s authority.

This may be a painful reality depending on how you feel about government!

Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.

Romans 13:1–2

Paul saying basically the same thing as Peter, but fleshing it out a little differently. He’s saying that these authorities are instituted by God.

That runs counter-cultural to our anti-authority world, doesn’t it? And it cuts both ways, you’ve always got people on both extremes of the right and left who just hate the idea that anyone has the right to tell them what to do…

2. Government serves God’s purposes.

It’s there for a very specific reason, look a few verses down…

Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong… And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks.

Romans 13:3–6

It just went from preaching to meddlin’, didn’t it? Told you! But part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ means that we give him permission to meddle in our life, right?

Governmental authorities are “God’s servant, for our good!” Doesn’t seem like it sometimes, but it’s true. It’s better to have flawed government than no government at all.

Probably a lot of “Yeah, but what abouts…” popping into your head right now. Understandably so. We’ll talk about that in a little bit, but for now just notice that Scripture doesn’t put any stipulations on this.

When people commit a sin against another person, God could strike people dead. And He will judge one day. But in the meantime, one of the primary means he uses to punish sin is by using his servant, the civil authorities. They doesn’t hold the sword for no reason.

So, government (1) exists with God’s authority, and (2) serves God’s purposes.

3. Government operates under God’s sovereignty.

This is a tough pill for our Western minds to swallow.

He changes the times and seasons;
he removes kings and establishes kings.

Daniel 2:21

This is so that the living will know that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms. He gives them to anyone he wants and sets the lowliest of people over them.

Daniel 4:17

Funny thing, I’ve never heard a politician quote that as their favorite verse!

How does that work with voting, with nation attacking nation, wars? Well, just like in all of Scripture, God uses people as the means to accomplish his purposes.

It wasn’t too long after this in the book of Daniel where God removes King Nebuchadnezzar and gives the kingdom to Belshazzar, and then to Darius.

People of God, this should give us hope. The God we serve has not lost control. And he’ll still have it on November 3. On January 20, 2021, no matter who is in the White House, Jesus will be on the throne.

So, a biblical view of government:

  1. It exists with God’s authority

  2. It serves God’s purposes.

  3. It operates under God’s sovereignty.

So now let’s get back to our text in 1 Peter.

The Freedom of Submission

Followers of Jesus are the people of God, distinct from the world, a holy nation all of our own. We have verses like this in Philippians 3:20:

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3:20

Then how are we, as citizens of the Kingdom of God, supposed to interact with the kingdoms of this world, wherever we may find ourselves?

Let’s start by looking at the first few words of verse 13 again.

Submit to every human authority because of the Lord

1 Peter 2:13

1. “Submit because of the Lord”

Parents, remember when your kids go through the why stage?

I love that the Bible—not always, but most of the time—gives us not only the command, but the why behind it. God’s not just out there making up arbitrary rules for no reason.

This is both what we’re supposed to do, submit, and why we’re to do it: because of the Lord!

The word for submit here in the Greek was usually military related, as in how you would submit yourself to superior officer.

What was the first thing we just said about government? It exists with God’s authority.

Your act of submission to those in authority is ultimately an act of submission to God’s authority.

There is only one way we can do this, one motivation that will last: “because of the Lord.”

We willingly submit ourselves, show honor, even when it’s not deserved, because we’re not doing it for their sake, we’re doing it for the Lord’s sake.

Now let’s look at verse 16 again for the second part of submission.

2. “Submit as free people”

If “submit because of the Lord” was the what and why, this is the what and the how.

We who are part of the Kingdom of God, are the only people who are truly free. Everyone else is still a slave to sin, but “whom the Son sets free is free indeed” (John 8:36).

So part of the glory of this heavenly citizenship is that we are free. But because we’ve also been given a new heart, new desires, new affections, we don’t use that freedom as a cover up for evil, but for good.

So as free people, we choose to submit to authority, as God’s slaves. That’s a strange juxtaposition, isn’t it? Free people and God’s slaves?

In one sense it’s slavery, because his authority over us is absolute; but in another sense is glorious freedom, because he changes our hearts so that we love doing what he gives us to do.

So the people of God submit, not out of force like the rest of the world, but out of the freedom we’ve been given, out of our own free will we submit to human authorities—in our case local government, courts, judges, our state reps, governer, Senators, Representatives, and President.

We can say, even to those we don’t like, “I’m free, but I choose to be submissive and honor you, not because of you, but because the God I serve is ultimately where you get any authority you have in the first place.

See, that attitude and approach allows us to participate in civic life, to fight for the rights of those who have no voice, to work for the good of all people, without losing our distinctiveness as the people of God.

The people of God are not just a nation, we’re a holy nation, and holiness means obedience, even when we don’t like it.

Real life application, in Illinois, USA, 2020

I said earlier, we live in a more divided time than ever before. The combination of 24-7 cable news and naturally ideologically-isolating social media, and our own sinful hearts has gotten us to this ugly, ugly place.

If you feel uncomfortable in this climate, as your pastor, let me just encourage you: your discomfort is a really good sign. Christians should not be comfortable listening to the sometimes downright evil hatred on both sides of the aisle.

Knowing I was going to preach this, I saw this post last week on Facebook from the And Campaign, that hit me right between the eyes.

On social media, there’s no greater joy than seeing our political opponents in a humiliating situation. What does that say about us? Can’t be healthy.

And Campaign

Wow. He ain’t lying!

Being the people of God, distinct from the world while engaged in it, in USA, in 2020, means we have to be very intentional to honor everyone.

A few very practical ways these verses should affect us…

1. We don’t call people derogatory names.

We have devolved into a culture of name-calling and insults that is about as far from the heart of these verses verses as possible.

Here’s the deal… I like puns, word play, and satire. This one hits home for me.

We’ve got two Presidential candidates calling the other “Sleepy Joe” and “President Tweety”. Now, I honestly think both of those are rather harmless and kind of funny.

But there are a lot of other names thrown around by other people that are a lot less funny, and a lot more hurtful. In fact, that’s the goal. They’re trying to dehumanize the opposition so that you won’t think of them as a human being, made in the image of God, but an idea that must be destroyed.

Talk radio is basically built on this. I know, because I listened to it for years. “Show honor to everyone” is not their writing mantra.

We teach our kids not to call people names… when we do it, we’re acting just as childish. It’s not fitting for a royal priesthood to resort to preschool tactics.

2. We don’t spread half-truths.

A half truth is a whole lie. If a person has a 5 minute, nuanced argument, and you share a 5 second clip out of context to try to score some points, that’s called bearing false witness, and it’s a sin. Full stop. You’re misrepresenting what that person said to make them look bad.

And yet it’s become acceptable, not just in our culture—we shouldn’t be shocked when people who are slaves to sin act in sinful ways—but it’s also accepted in our church culture. Not even accepted, but expected, and heaven help you if you call someone out on it.

This has got to stop. Christians are people who are about the truth. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)When we participate in such nonsense, we’re actively rebelling against the Word of God and defaming His name.

A person who saw the whole clip, knows you a Christian, and sees your post, will subconsciously or maybe consciously, go, “Huh. I guess everyone else is right—Christians really all about getting political power, no matter whether what they’re saying is the whole truth or not.”

The people of God have the truth on our side. We don’t need lies.

3. We go out of our way to preserve family unity.

Look at the difference between the two points in these rapid fire commands of verse 17: “Honor for everyone… but love for the family of God.”

We show honor to everyone because they’re made in the image of God, but we show a special kind of love to our brothers and sisters because they’re in the family of God.

There is to be a special difference in how we treat other believers.

What binds us together as believers is the Gospel, right? Then “what God has joined together, let no man separate.” The Kingdom of God is my number one allegiance, more than political ideology or party, more than even national identity, because kingdom is not of this world, it has no limits. It spans all time, all tribes, all nations, all politics.

So here’s what I think that means in our caustic culture right now: talk to people. Not on public Facebook posts, I’m talking in person. If they live far away, on the phone.

If you know they have a different opinion on some issue than you, talk to them, with your Bible’s open, because God’s opinion is infinitely more valuable than either one of yours.

And if you’re talking about an issue that the Bible doesn’t address,

  1. It is not worth dividing over. If the Heavenly Father didn’t deem it important enough to be included in his Word, then His children shouldn’t be divided over it.

  2. Keep a Bible open during your conversation. Maybe to this passage, for instance:

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:2–3

That’s what we need, now more than ever. Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Bear with one another. Make every effort to keep unity.

4. We understand that we’re outsiders.

If you follow these 5 verses, a lot of people will be unhappy with you. You won’t fit in. You know what you’ll feel like? A stranger and an exile.

I said two weeks ago that I believe part of the reason the Western church is in the state that it’s in is that we have lost our distinctiveness.

When it comes to this issue, our interaction with the government around us, especially this year, we have an opportunity to reclaim some of that other-worldliness we’ve lost…

That is when the world will notice that followers of Jesus are different. They’ll see that we are the distinct people of God, and be more likely to believe us when we declare the praises of God.

Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the king.