1 Peter 2 (Part 3): Committed to Humility

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.”

Humility

If you are anything like me, you admire people who are humble, disciplined, honorable, respectable, organized, and genuine. I have met many people who have these characteristics and there is something about them that is admirable and causes us to want to imitate. Unfortunately, there isn’t many people with these attributes. What makes humility, meekness and genuineness so admirable? They sound pretty boring don’t they? Ironic, because when we meet people that are humble, genuine, and down to earth people who love Jesus and are disciplined in the mission of God, we want to be just like them. These people influence us.

Submission to Authority

1 Peter 2:13-17 is our command as believers to submit to literally everyone. To make peace with everyone. To love everyone. To do good to everyone and every institution. Some would quickly say “we aren’t supposed to submit to everyone and everything because somewhere along the lines they will command us to sin and that isn’t biblical to submit during this time” The answer to that is: Yes. Yes, indeed. However, when we resort to that mentality immediately after we are told to submit to authority, it is showing that we are very quickly trying to find ways not to submit to authority. Of course, if any institution calls us to go against the word of God, we are to submit to the Word of God in disobedience to the institution. Many times in our day to day lives as an American, that is not the case.

Work

One of the scariest things I hear and fear in my own life is discontentment with my job. Discontent can do a devastating and damaging work in the heart and workplace. When you are discontent with your job, you tend to complain about your job, when you complain about your job, you tend to gossip with others, when you complain and gossip, it can lead to a temptation to not submit to those of higher positions. 1 Peter calls us to honor everyone, this includes our managers and bosses. Philippians 2:4 tell us to “do all things without grumbling or questioning”. Invest more time in prayer to God for contentment and in finding ways to enjoy your job. Submit to God by being satisfied with where he has placed you in this season of life.

Pride

Many of the issues we have pertaining to leadership can be boiled down to pride in our own lives. We need to understand we can’t change and modify everything to fit our needs and wants. When it comes to government and those in leadership, we should be praying more instead of finding way not to submit. You may not agree with every policy and law, but talking about it all the time like this world is your home isn’t going to do much. Be humble, be prayerful, be respectable, and be quiet.

The Irony of Doing Good

In these verses Peter says something very simple to understand, hard to apply, and confusing to many. Many people do not understand how doing good puts the flame out of evil. It is one of the mysteries of the world you could say. If I continue to let God reign and keep doing good to those around me, even if it is hard to do so, people will be affected by it. This does not happen all the time, but it is a biblical principle to follow. Fighting fire with fire is waste of time. Have we ever seen someone come to Christ or change their ways because we started fighting back with them? Because we decided to have an angry debate with them? Because we started doing evil because they were doing evil? The answer is obviously no. However, we have seen men and women come to Christ and change their ways when in the midst of their harm to us, we told them we would graciously pray for them. That we would be there right by their side in times of need. When we opened our home for them. This could go as far as not responding to someone who has evil intentions to stir things up. When we have done the very thing they did not expect us to do, things change. To do good, to love, to show honor, to live at peace with all men, and to Fear God.

Conclusion: Live as People Who Are Free

Peter concludes these verses by saying “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.” At the end of the day, isn’t this what we want as believers? We want to live as people who are free, because well…we are free. By his wounds we are healed and we are free. We want to be satisfied with our job, with our family, and with everything we have. We want to have joy daily. We want our relationship with God to flourish. We want to be at peace with all men. We want to live honorable lives. We want to fear God with our lives. Guess what? We can. Take the route of humility and submission. You won’t regret it.