To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout the earth, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance. You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray. (8:30 PM EDT Wed., Oct. 24, 2001)

In verse 12, immediately preceding today's passage, God, who is our Creator and Redeemer, speaking through the apostle Peter, tells us this: "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." God wants our lives to be testimonies for those who are not believers, so that even though they want to accuse us, they will not be able to find any wrongdoing, but only good deeds and finally, themselves, believe and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus and be sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit of God.

Through Peter's letter, we have several examples of how we can live our lives to be testimonies for God, testimonies to his cleansing and sanctifying of our lives. Today's passage provides the first example, submitting ourselves, for the Lord's sake, to every authority instituted among men. The authorities that Peter is talking about here are the governing authorities -- the king, and all those to whom he has delegated his authority. Submitting to these authorities is a matter of faith -- of trusting God.

It's easy to think that those in authority in the government are just men, and that while we certainly must obey God who is all wise and almighty and perfect in every way, it would not be a good thing to obey sinful men. The NIV translation refers to "every authority instituted among men." The wording of the translation makes it sound like men didn't institute the authority themselves, but someone else. And, in fact, it is certainly true that God instituted all governments and authorities (see Romans 13:1).

But, where the NIV translators said "every authority instituted among men," the literal translation is "every human creation." The "human creations" (or institutions) are the various political offices. Men made them. They are only human institutions, or so it appears. Men establish governments -- frequently with very high-sounding ideals of justice, integrity and service. But, we know that in practice, those in authority are very much subject to favoritism, corruption and to their own desire to maintain themselves in power. Nevertheless, it is God who establishes the governing authorities. He establishes them to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

The government that was in force when Peter wrote his letter was the Roman government. It was supposedly established on the principles of justice. But it was the Roman government that put Jesus to death. Pilate, the Roman governor, knew that Jesus was innocent of anything deserving death, but in order to keep peace with the Jewish leaders, he ordered that Jesus be crucified. When Pilate was trying to question Jesus, he said, "Don't you realize that I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over me if it were not given to you from above." (John 19:10,11) The Roman government was also the government that presided over the persecution of many Christians.

Since the time of the Roman government, there have been many evil governments and there are many today that are extremely unjust and severely persecute Christians and others. Still, it is God who establishes the governing authorities. How should we relate to the governing authorities? Peter says, "Submit yourselves to the governing authorities." How do we do that? First by living as servants of God (v16b), then by showing proper respect for everyone: by loving the brotherhood of believers, fearing God and, finally, by honoring the king (v17).

Notice that, first of all we are told to live as servants of God. That means that in everything you do, you are serving God. When Peter, himself, was told by the governing authorities to no longer speak in the name of Jesus, he said that he had to obey God and not the governing authorities. (Acts 4:18,19) But we must also honor the king.

I heard a story on the radio a while ago (Actually, I've heard several similar stories). This particular story was an account of a man who was a Christian in a communist country and was being repeatedly harassed by the police. One police official would arrest him and interrogate harshly. (This also was a country where the police could have arbitrarily locked him up indefinitely and tortured him.) The man always reacted to his interrogator with humility and with a friendly attitude as though he really wanted to be friends with the interrogator. This police official, the interrogator, was continually astounded by the man's attitude. Eventually, he was won to Christ. Peter says, "Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil (v16)." I think that the evil is in the attitude of our hearts. It is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. It is also God's will that foolish and ignorant men may see our good deeds and glorify him on the day he visits us (v12).

Here's something else to think about. We don't have anything remotely close to the kind of persecution here that is present in some other places in the world, but let me ask this: Do you really treat government officials with respect? Do you ever treat them as though they owe you something? Do you demand service and become irritated when you don't get it? Would you treat an angel sent by God that way? These people are appointed by God to their respective offices as his servants. The authorities that exist have been established by God (Romans 13:1).

Now I want to quote some things that God told the prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 33, God said this to him: "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood." (Ezekiel 33:8) Also, "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live." (Ezekiel 33:8a)

Through the apostle Peter, God has told us that we can testify against evil by the way we live our lives, and in this particular case, by the way we relate to the governing authorities. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He told Ezekiel that he would hold him accountable for the blood of anyone whom he didn't warn. Do you want to be responsible, to be held accountable, for the death of anyone because of the way you relate to the governing authorities?

What all this is really all about is this: It is about trusting God. Foolish and ignorant men, pagans, nonbelievers, anyone that belongs to the world... They believe that they have to stick up for themselves and that it is necessary to resist anyone who tries to exercise any authority over them. We trust God. We believe that if God says that by submitting to the governing authorities we can silence the talk of ignorant and foolish men, God will certainly uphold his word. In fact, the very fact that we submit to the governing authorities will be a testimony to the fact that we trust God and that he is trustworthy and that his sanctifying power is at work in us. We will reveal the glory and power and the mercy of Jesus to those around us.

Pray that all of us may testify about Jesus Christ in the way we relate to the people in the government and to other people as well To him be the glory. Amen.

Come and let's pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Come and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.

Love in Christ,
Dean

PS: If you absolutely can't make it to the prayer meeting, send your prayer requests back to me by e-mail and we'll pray for them.