I Peter 2:11-17
A Pilgrim’s Progress
Now turn with me if you would to I Peter chapter 2 and we pick up the reading at verse 11:
So far may God bless to us the reading of His holy and inerrant word. Let’s pray together.
Our Father in heaven, we ask again this evening as we are met in Your presence that You would come by Your Spirit, open up the Scriptures to us, feed us we pray. Give us hearts that long for You, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
What practical difference does it really make in your life that you are a Christian? That’s the issue that Peter is dealing with here in I Peter 2. What does it really mean for you to be a Christian? What difference does it make? How is your life any different because you profess the name of Jesus Christ than if you didn’t? It’s in answer to this question that Peter turns as he continues now to deliver this epistle to us. He’s already, as we’ve seen in chapter 1, given to us a list of some of the enormous privileges of being a Christian. He’s told us about the calling that we have as Christians in this world. He’s told us especially about the new identity which is ours in Jesus Christ.
And now as he turns in this second chapter at verse 11 there seems to be a turning point in Peter’s thoughts. It’s actually a turning point that will occupy him almost to the end of the epistle until chapter 5 verse 11. There’s a rather lengthy section which begins here in chapter 2 verse 11 and continues into chapter 3 verse 12, in which he explains how it is that we are to live as the people of God. And in doing so he tells us that in at least four different areas, in the section that we are going to look at this evening from verse 11-17, he speaks about our obligations and duties as citizens in a secular society. In verse 18-25, at the end of chapter 2, he speaks of slaves under the rule of a master. In the first seven verses of chapter 3 he wants to say something to wives and husbands in marriages which are less than ideal. And then in chapter 3:8-12 he speaks to the issue of churches that are less than perfect. He wants to say, and you see the connecting thread, he wants to say something about Christians living in a society that is less than ideal, to slaves who are living in circumstances which are less than ideal, to husbands and wives in marriages which are less than ideal, and to those non-perfect churches – I don’t know what we’re going to do with that sermon – those churches which are less than ideal. In all of these four different areas Peter wants to address the issue “What difference does it make that you profess to be a Christian?”
I. The obligations and duties of
the Christian in secular society.
Let’s look at this first section then together. He says three
things in this section beginning in verse 11 down through verse 17. He wants us
in the first place to remember who we are. He wants us in the second place to
be good citizens and he wants us in the third place to live as free men and
women. He wants us in the first place to remember who we are; to remember our
identity as Christians. Look at how he begins in verse 11. In the New American
Standard it says, “Beloved,” or perhaps more endearing would be the translation,
“Dear Friends.” He is speaking now to his brothers and sisters whom he regards
as his “friends” in the kingdom of God and he wants to say something of enormous
importance to them. He says, “I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain
from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” Now why does he say that?
Because Peter has grasped the basic principle: it is how you think about
yourself that generally determines the way you live your life. How you think
about yourself generally determines how you live your life. It wasn’t the pop
psychologists who came up with that. That’s there in Peter. What you think
about yourself, who you think yourself to be, is very, very important, Peter
says, because the way you live your lives will be determined by it.
And you notice what Peter is saying here: it’s the way you think about yourself that matters, not the way you feel about yourselves. You may feel in a mess but that’s not the important thing here; it’s what you really are, it’s what you think about yourself that’s important. Your feelings may ebb and flow but it’s what you think of yourself as someone in union and communion with Jesus Christ that is of determining importance.
Notice how often Peter addresses this issue because he opens the very epistle in chapter 1:1 he writes, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens” scattered throughout what we would now call modern Turkey. In verse 17 of chapter 1 he says something similar: he says, “and if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each man’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay” or perhaps better, “your sojourning” here upon earth. He says in chapter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.” It’s important how you think about yourself, Peter is saying, because you will never make any headway in making a Christian impact upon the world until you begin to think in this way. I don’t belong here; I’m just a sojourner here; I’m just a temporary resident here.
This world is not my own
I’m just a-passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
(How many of you know this?)
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
Have you sung this? This is a gospel, sentimental ditty written by Rufus Baxter from Lebanon, Alabama. It was published in 1948. I only know the opening line; I don’t even know how it goes; I don’t even know the tune of it. But “the world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through” and Peter is saying it’s important for us to have that perspective about living in this life. Seeing that this world is not our home, seeing that we are just passing through this world, because that’s going to determine the way that you live your life. And it will determine it in two ways: inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly, Peter says, “You will abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.”
Now do you see what Peter is saying? Peter is saying that the ultimate issue, the ultimate concern that you and I must have as we live in this world is our souls. That’s the ultimate concern, the most important issue that you and I have to face in living our lives in this world, is my soul and my soul’s relationship with Jesus Christ. “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” Do you see how up-to-date Peter’s epistle is? To those of us who live our lives in a routine of gaining things for this world, in spending all of our energies in the attainment of the things of this world and Peter says, “Now if you live your lives with the perspective that ‘this world is not my home I’m just a-passing through’ there will be a consequence.” And that consequence will be: you will be much more concerned about your soul than you will be concerned about the things of this world. It is the soul, Peter says, that is the most important thing. If the soul is lost, the whole person is lost.
Now the world will not set an agenda for you to keep your souls, you understand that. The world will set an agenda for all kinds of things. It will tell you how to fight AIDS; it will tell you how to fight cockroaches; it will tell you how to fight cholesterol; it will tell you how to fight mosquitoes; it will tell you how to fight all kinds of things, but it won’t tell you how to wage war in order to save your soul. And Peter is saying, “If you’re going to make progress, if you’re going to make a difference in this world, you’ve got to live like an alien.” You’ve got to live like an alien; you’ve got to live like a stranger to this world; you’ve got to sit loose to the things of this world.
I can’t think of anything more relevant. That’s a hard word for some of us tonight. That’s where the Bible comes and it hurts; that’s where the Bible comes and it meddles because it’s black and white, isn’t it? That the perspective that ought to be the focus of our gaze this evening is, “Where is my soul’s standing in relationship to God. Am I feeding my soul? Am I engaging in activities that grow my soul’s relationship with Jesus Christ?”
That’s the inward thing but there’s an outward facet to it too. “We live such godly lives,” Peter says in verse 12, “We live such godly lives among the Gentiles” or among the pagans, “that though they accuse you of wrongdoing they see your good works and they glorify God when He visits you.” Now do you see what Peter is saying? What is the second most important thing? If the first most important thing is our soul, what is the second most important thing that ought to govern our perspective? It is the glory of God. And Peter is saying, “Live your lives with this principle in mind that I will do everything in order to bring glory to God.” That’s my consuming passion: I want God to be glorified. No matter where I am, no matter what condition I am; no matter what time of day it is; no matter where I am, no matter what I’m doing, I am concerned about the glory of God.
What is the glory of God? What do we mean when we talk about the glory of God? For Peter, when Peter read the version of the Bible that he had in his day, the Old Testament Scriptures, the word glory had a very particular meaning. It meant something that was heavy; it meant something that was weighty; it meant something that was significant. And what Peter is saying, “You and I, we are to be concerned about the sincerity and the significance and the weightiness of God.”
Isn’t that what David Wells has commented upon as a social comment upon the society in which we live? At the end of the 20th, beginning of the 21st century, I think he says it in God in the Wasteland, that that is the chief characteristic of the age in which we live: God has no weight: the weightlessness of God. In our modern society God doesn’t have to go on a diet because you can barely see Him. He is so insignificant in the modern society in which we live that you can barely see Him. He’s inconsequential to our modern society and Peter is saying as Christians that we are to have the exact opposite perspective. We are to be concerned about bringing the weightiness and the significance of God into every circumstance that we find ourselves in: that’s the way to live your lives.
I can’t help think that in our modern society God is far less significant than Oprah Winfrey; He’s far less significant than the World Series (and I do want to know who wins the World Series). He’s far less significant as to whether Coke tastes different from Pepsi. And I wonder in our lives, I wonder if in the heads and hearts and souls and spirits that are here this evening, if you could take as a quantity and measure the weight that is given to the centrality of God in our lives. If there is some meter by which that could be measured I wonder how significant a thing it would be. And Peter seems to be saying, doesn’t he, that it wouldn’t be significant enough. And the way to live our lives in this world is not to be governed by the fashions. Do you know how much we are governed by fashion? I went into the closet recently and found this tie. It was about five inches wide with flowers. It was from the seventies. You know I couldn’t wear it; you’d never live it down. It spoke of those twenty-somethings. We are such slaves to fashion and Peter is saying, “Live as aliens and live as strangers in this world in which we find ourselves.”
And then he goes on to make a second point in verses 13-15: be good citizens. He says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.” “But wait a minute,” you say, “That can’t possibly be right; surely there are circumstances in which we’ve got to obey God.” Well remember who is writing this: it’s Peter who’s writing this who said in the Bible that there are circumstances in which we must first of all obey God and not men. When society asks you and forces you to do something which is contrary to the will of God, you’ve got no choice. You’ve go to obey God and not men. And Peter had been in those circumstances, but Peter also realizes that those circumstances are relatively rare. Those circumstances are relatively infrequent, so when he comes to write this general letter to his brothers and sisters he’s saying the exact opposite. More often than not our duty is to be submissive to the powers that be.
And he goes to what is more central an issue. You note the first word, the great word to which the spirit of the late 20th century has become almost universally afraid; he says, “Submit to the governing authorities.”
And you might say, “Well, it was alright for Peter to say that, I mean he was a fisherman. What does submitting to authorities mean for a poor fisherman up in Galilee? It didn’t mean a whole lot; didn’t change his life.” Well remember the period in which he is writing. This is the early 60’s; remember who is in charge; remember who is the emperor of the Roman Empire as he writes: it is the infamous Nero, the most monstrous ruler the world has ever known, perhaps responsible for more murders than any other man in history, of Hitler and Borgias together. He was a cruel, vicious, amoral tyrant that came to the throne when his mother Agrippina manipulated to get him there, pushing Claudius, the legal heir out of the way. How was she repaid for her efforts? Nero banished and then murdered her. The only good thing about Nero’s reign was perhaps the elderly statesman Seneca that he employed as an advisor – how did he reward this good man? By murdering him. He put the government in the hands of political hacks. This is the man that is in charge, this is the man who, within a few years of writing these very lines, will bring such a torrent of persecution down upon the people of God, playing in a concert the historians tell us as Rome burned, having, we think, started the fires himself and blaming it upon the Christians and bringing such a wave of persecution that only perhaps the early nineties of the first century were to eclipse. And Peter knows what he is saying when he says, “Submit yourselves, for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.”
Ah, but some of you will say, “But they were such a passive lot in the first century.” Well, were they really? You remember that one of the disciples was Simon the Zealot. There were insurrectionists abroad more than, I think, than history has thought during that first century when Peter writes these very words. Of course, it’s easy for me tonight, I’m glad I’m saying this when we have a President who is a Republican and one who makes a profession of faith rather than one who doesn’t know what the word “is” means. But you know the same injunction would be true in that period, too. Peter doesn’t say, you see, “Submit to the authorities when you like them;” “Submit to the authorities when you agree with them;” “Submit to the authorities when they are professing Christians.” There was no such thing as professing Christians in authority in Peter’s day.
But let’s get down to brass tacks. What does this mean? Well, I think it means this, and this is going to hurt. It means that if you are going to do 70 miles an hour up I-55 in the city of Jackson, please take off those stickers that say First Pres on the back of your car, or those stickers that say “I have a wonderful relationship with Jesus,” or those stickers that say, “Jesus is my pilot.” Because when we do that, we are disobeying the very injunction that Peter is giving here. We are to be in subjection to the ruling authorities. Now I know that hurts; it hurts for some of you. And that, Peter says, is what it means to be a Christian. Staggering isn’t it, that it comes down to something as simple as that. What difference does it make? What difference does it make that you profess to be a Christian? And Peter says that the difference that it makes is that the world sees you obeying the powers that be and reverencing the powers that be. As much as many of us disliked the former President I think many of us too were guilty of breaking this very commandment of the apostle Peter just at this very point.
But there’s a third thing that Peter alludes to here: not only remember who you are, not only be a good citizen, but live as free men and women. He says in verses 16 and 17, “Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil but use it as bondslaves for God.” Now Peter seems to be saying something here that is almost inherently paradoxical. The reason we are a paradox to the non-Christian and the reason why non-Christians are drawn to ask, “What makes that person tick?” and “Why can’t I work out what really drives that person?” is that on the one hand we are pilgrims and strangers and we submit our lives to the authorities, and on the other hand we are never slaves to those authorities. We live as servants, but we live as free men. Here’s the key that Peter says, “We live as free men and free women but as free men we submit to the governing authorities; we pay our taxes, we obey the law, but we are not above it because in Jesus Christ we have become the servants of God.
There’s a wonderful treatment of this in the sixteenth century written by Martin Luther in a book that I think changed the 16th century, The Freedom of the Christian. It’s not, perhaps, as well known as it ought to be. It’s one of those great, transforming treatises that marks a point of division in European history when Martin Luther writes The Freedom of the Christian.” A Christian,” he says, “is perfectly free, lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly, dutiful servant of all and subject to all.” There’s the paradox. Now how do you bring that paradox together? Because, as Peter says again and again in this epistle, when we submit to the authorities we are submitting to those authorities as the servants of God. The governing principle of our lives is not the authorities; the governing principle of our lives is that we are serving the Lord – that’s the difference. We are not putting ourselves in bondage to those authorities but rather we are saying we are in love with God and it’s out of our love for God that we do these things.
How does that show itself? Look at verse 17; the New American says, “Honor all men” and then there’s a semicolon and I think I prefer the translation, the grammatical translation that has “Respect all men” and then a colon so that what follows: “Love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king” is an explication of our respect for all men. Now if you didn’t follow any of that grammar let me just put it in a different way. What is the key for Peter? What is the key way that this will show itself? What is the way that our freedom will manifest itself? How will our obedience to God manifest itself? And Peter says, “By respect, our respect of our fellow men.” What is it that’s lost in the world today? Some of you notice it. What is it that is lost in society as the gospel loses its grip? It’s respect. What is it that characterizes so many schools in the relationship between teachers and students? It’s the loss of respect. What is it that characterizes the liberal campuses, college campuses where God has been demoted and ditched? It’s the lack of respect. Now you Southerners must feel this all the more, I think, because it’s inbred into the way you live your lives and raise your children and expect society to behave. But one of the marks that we are moving away from these gospel priorities is the loss of respect. When you go to a store, when you go to the mall and you’re treated with disrespect, and you’re the one who’s paying the money, you feel affronted, and rightly so. When someone behind the counter treats you rudely, you’re just shocked. You stand back and you say, “Well, it never used to be like this.” And you suddenly realize it’s an indication that the gospel is beginning to lose it’s grip because Peter says that one of the things that distinguishes the people of God as opposed to the people of the world is that in every circumstance they show respect and they show kindness and they show proper submission where that is due. So in Christian homes you see children respecting their elders; in Christian gospel churches you’ll see the members respecting the deacons and their elders. Well Peter has a whole lot more to say about what difference does it make, what difference does it make that you profess to be a Christian. May God make us teachable. Let’s pray together.
Our Father in heaven we thank you from the depths of our hearts for your word. It is always relevant. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes we are offended by it. And we pray this evening, help us that in our profession there might be a difference. We want First Pres to be different; we want it to be like a city that is set upon a hill. We want folk to drive by on State street and see this church and say, and be forced to say, “There is something different about these people: it is their love for God and their respect and love for one another.” Lord grant it we pray for Jesus’ sake, Amen.