How Christians Should Conduct Themselves As Citizens
(PART 1)
1Peter 2:11-17
Portions of this message were taken from the book, "Why Government Can't Save You" by John MacArthur
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Preached on a Sunday Service (Feb. 4, 2001)
by Bro. Jurem Ramos
at the Soli Deo Gloria Church, Juna Subd., Matina, Davao City
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This is an interesting passage because it puts together two things we want to emphasize in our series. One is to remind ourselves as believers in Christ, that we are primarily citizens of heaven, and secondarily, citizens of earth. V. 11-12 talks about our heavenly citizenship, and vv. 13-17 tells us how we are to relate to civil government.
The point of the whole section of exhortation is that we, as Christians, are to live in such a way that by our exemplary lives we stop the mouths of those who criticize our faith. We are to live a life that is above criticism, a life that is above reproach, a life that is above shame. How you live as a Christian is the greatest proof and defense for the transforming power of the gospel. It is the foundation of all of our witness. The powerful witness comes when a person gives someone the gospel that has already laid a foundation of having shown that person a transformed life.
Peter here then is saying that it's essential that we live our lives in such a way that our testimony becomes believable.
As we live our lives in the world there are two things we need to realize.
1. Number one, we must see ourselves as aliens in this society. (2:11,12)
2. Then in verse 13 to 17 he says even though you are aliens you are still citizens, even though you live in another dimension, you still are here in this world and you must conduct yourselves in a proper way as citizens.
So Peter sees the Christian as an alien and as a citizen. And each of those perspectives relates to how the watching world views him. As the world sees us they must see us as aliens and they must see us as citizens.
So it's very important that we discuss not only our status as aliens, which we have already discussed, but also as citizens. In the words of Christ, "We are in the world but not of the world". The two go together. We are aliens in the world, that is we live at a different level. We live a heavenly kind of life. We live the life of God. We live in a supernatural plain, you know that, we are unearthly, if you will. We are heavenly. We are to be disentangled with the world system. In fact, we are to set our affections on things above and not on things on the earth. We submit to a greater authority than any earthly authority in the sense that we move under the power of a living God as expressed in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the inherent danger in that is obvious. If we get too carried away with our alien identity, we can become utterly indifferent to the world in which we have to live and utterly disregard the authorities over us. And so our alienation from the system is balanced by the demand of proper citizenship.
And so Peter is quick to add immediately in verse 13, "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men"
The fact that you are citizens of heaven, that you live at a different level, that you live on a higher plain, that you answer to a higher authority does not mean that you can treat with indifference the institutions that are here on earth. We who feel we are above the system need to learn how to live within the system. So that leads Peter into the discussion of verses 13 to 17 and the matter how we are to conduct ourselves as citizens.
We have just witnessed Edsa People Power part 2, where large numbers of people, including church people, religious people and Christian ministers and congregations have joined. Some were not able to physically join only because they were hindered by distance. Some of us have said that if only they have been in Metro Manila, they would have joined. Some have done that in the name of God. They have done that in the name of Christianity. And so we need to look carefully at that particular issue and see precisely what the Word of God has to say.
Background
Now as we think about this, let us to look at the background of this epistle.
The people to whom Peter writes are being greatly criticized. It is hard enough knowing your life is an unearthly life and you live in the heavenlies answering to a higher authority than earthly ones-it is hard enough to be a good citizen. But that is compounded when the society in which you live is totally hostile to you, even militantly persecuting you which was the case of those to whom Peter wrote. In fact, it was a rather common thing to call them "evildoers", as they are so identified in verse 12, they are slandered as evildoers. That's a term of derision, addressed to Christians categorically. Instead of calling them Christians they called them evildoers.
During the first two centuries of the church life, it was common for believers to live in a very hostile society that was militantly anti-Christian.
1. First of all, there was a prevailing anti-semitism in the ancient world. They hated Jews. And Christians were viewed simply as a sect of the Jews. And so they became objects of a rather anti-semitic sort of hostility. (Read Ac 16:19-24)
2. They were also accused of insurrection. They were accused of rebelling against Rome and all human authority. The reason why the Romans got involved in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was he was brought to them as one who provided a tremendous threat against Rome, which, of course, was not true. (Jn 11:48)
3. The early church was also accused of atheism. It's hard to imagine that the church could be accused of atheism but it was true because anyone who refused to worship the many gods of the pagan nations, including Caesar in the Roman Empire was an atheist. So if you didn't worship Caesar, no matter who else you worshiped you were considered atheists.
4. The early church was also accused of cannibalism. They accused the Christians of killing and eating children at their feasts. They based it on the words of Jesus, "Except you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no part in Me." And the words of the Apostle Paul who again said that when you commune with the cup and the bread you are communing with the body and blood of Christ.
5. The early church was accused of immorality and even of incest. The Christians called the women "sisters," and the men of the church had very close relationship with these sisters, so the pagans in their ignorance put two and two together and came up with sex.
6. They accused the early church of destroying homes. They said that the sword that fell between man and wife when one came to follow Jesus Christ devastated the home. They accused them of fostering slave rebellion because when a slave came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, he had a new life, he had a new dignity in Christ. And they thought that hostile to keeping slaves in their place.
7. They accused them of hating men because they were opposed to the systems of the world. They accused them again of disloyalty to ruling powers and to Caesar because they would worship only Jesus Christ and would never bow to any other being.
The church in the early years was not only in the world but in the hostility of a very hateful world. And to Peter there was only one way to deny the charges. The only way to deny the charges was to live a godly life, to live a virtuous life which basically shut the mouths of the critics by taking away any legitimate accusation. They wanted to live a life that was so rich in spiritual quality that there was nothing that they could use to slander Christians.
The world today is still hostile towards Christianity. Men still hate God. They still reject Jesus Christ and the pure gospel. Maybe the form of it has changed a little bit. They may be a little bit more tolerant but deep within, they could not stand the message about Christ and his work. And the challenge to the Christian is still to be an alien and yet a citizen; to live a life that is above and out of the world, and yet live in the world. And that challenge is great. We are to live in such a way that in spite of all of the false accusations and all of the hatred and all of the hostility, we might still turn the hearts of people to Christ by the evident transformation of our lives.
So Peter here has a two-fold reason for this. He wants to silence the critics (2:15) and to bring them to faith in Christ (2:12).
Now let's focus on 1Pe 2:13.
1. The command
First take note of the command in verse 13. The command is: Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men.
Let's just take the first part, "submit yourselves," that's the command. A simple command: submit yourselves.
Now why does he have to say that?
As I said a while ago, because the natural thing when we think of ourselves as citizens of heaven and when we are attacked by irresponsible, ignorant, evil accusers, the natural tendency is to rise up in self-defense and maybe even to retaliate. Or maybe to think: I have no part in this world and this world has no part with me, I will just ignore with indifference all of its systems.
But God does not want such behavior from us. He doesn't want us to think that we can act in any way that we want because we're not answerable to human institutions. In fact, He wants us to demonstrate self-restraint, to demonstrate virtue, to demonstrate a concern about community, to seek peace in the community, to do all we can to prevent trouble, to live in such a way in peace and good will that we deprive our enemies of the grounds for all their false accusations. The Christian way to silence the critics is to obey all the laws and respect all the authorities.
The command, "submit yourselves," come from a Greek word that includes a component of voluntary submission. It can be translated "Put yourselves in an attitude of submission." (Note: This attitude is distinctively Christian because attitudes of submission and humility in ancient times were looked upon as those things which characterized cowards and weaklings. And no man of strength would ever think of submitting himself or being humble.
So God's people were to live in a humble, submissive way in the midst of a hostile, godless, Christless, sinful, wicked, accusing, slandering society. In fact, God's people had often been accused of insurrection, would continue to be accused of insurrection but were never called by God to engage in it, never.
OT Example
1) Pro 24:21 " Fear the LORD and the king, my son" That's interesting. "Fear the Lord and the king." And listen to this, "and do not join with the rebellious, 22 for those two will send sudden destruction upon them, and who knows what calamities they can bring?" Do not associate with those who are given to change, the rebels, the insurrectionists.
2) Jer 29, beginning in v. 4, "This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon" This is very interesting. This is a message to the Jews in Babylonian captivity. They were in a pagan land. They are under a pagan ruler Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who is a pagan to the core. The people who were taken into captivity were brainwashed by the Babylonian culture and the Babylonian system. But look at what God says in Jer 29.
Let's start reading from v.4 to 6-This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.
What does He say? Live your life. Get a house, live in it. Plant a garden, eat the fruit. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters, carry on with life.
Now remember, they are in a hostile, pagan society and yet God tells them in v.7, Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile...
And the next statement is also interesting. "Pray to the LORD for it..." It assumes that there are problems and the Lord says, "You pray for it."
Did you ever feel like an exile in Davao city or in the Philippines? Do the decisions that are made in this city by the authorities irritate you? You are in exile here. What should you do? Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." That's a very direct statement.
Let us continue reading Jer 29:8-14
Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the LORD. 10 This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. [b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."
This is a marvelous principle and a marvelous analogy. The principle is this: you're in a foreign land, do everything you can to seek the welfare of that land for your own benefit, realizing that God has a plan for you that is far beyond the land in which you presently live.
You are citizens of another place. And as long as you have to be here, live here, buy a house, or build a house, plant a garden, eat the fruit, marry your children off and do everything you can to seek for the welfare of your city and pray for the city. And know this, that God has a better place for you, a better place.
There have been many protests, many acts of civil disobedience, many violations of the law, many revolutions, many insurrections, and many subversive attempts to overthrow governments, in the name of Christianity. That's tragic. We are never commanded to do that. The command is simple, submit yourselves...submit yourselves.
NT Example
1) Turn to Rom 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
Do you see any exceptions there? You say, "Well that means except our government." No it doesn't. "Well that means except me." No it doesn't. "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." That is very straightforward.
Paul said the same thing that Peter did. "Yeah," you say, "but Paul didn't live in a world like ours." He didn't have a ruler like ours. They didn't have senators or governors or mayors like ours. Yes they did.
Herod the Great, during the birth of Christ. He was a non-Jew who was appointed king of Judea by the Roman senate. Like most rulers of the day, he was ruthless, murdering his wife, his three sons, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, uncle and many others-not to mention the babies in Bethlehem.
Felix--He and his brother Pallas were favorites of two emperors, Claudius and Nero (54-68). Tacitus said of him that "he revelled in cruelty and lust, and wielded the power of a king with the mind of a slave." His very title of "procurator" hints at his fiscal duties of procuring funds for Rome, which he seems to have accomplished with all sorts of tyranny. He began his career as procurator of Judea by seducing Drusilla, the sister of Agrippa II and wife of the king of Emesa and marrying her. Because she was Jewish he learned much of Jewish life and customs. Felix appears in the biblical account only in Acts 23:24-25:14. When Paul reasoned before him about "righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come" (24:25), he was terrified. He held Paul for about two years hoping for a bribe and even when he was to be replaced, he left Paul in prison because he wanted to grant a favor to the Jews.
Nero--He killed his mother, his chief advisers Seneca and Burrus, and many of the nobility to secure their fortunes. In A.D. 64 a large part of Rome was destroyed by fire. Whether or not Nero actually ordered the burning of the city is very controversial. A scapegoat was provided in the Christians. Even the Roman historian Tacitus reported the severity of the sufferings inflicted on them. Nero's private life was a scandal; he indulged himself in the most evil forms of pleasure. Conspiracies and plots dogged his latter years. Learning that the Senate had decreed his death, Nero's last cruel act was to put many of the Senate members to death. He finally died by committing suicide.
The command is very simple: "Submit yourselves." Christians lived under wretched kings, more wicked than ours and yet they were told to be subject to the authorities, to be subject to the powers that be because they were ordained by God. And Jesus Himself said in Matthew 22:21, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's."
2. The Motive
Now go back to the text of 1 Peter 2 and let us look at the second point. The first point is the command, the second point is the motive. "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake." Why are we to submit? For the Lord's sake or because of the Lord.
What do you mean by that?
a) First of all, to "submit yourselves for the Lord's sake" means to submit yourself because the Lord demands it.
So you are to submit to authorities in obedience to Him. It is to obey Him. Rom 13:1, "For there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted." When you submit to the authorities, you are doing it for the sake of the Lord who instituted the authority.
When the president of our country says do this... you do it. When the Senators say this should be done, Christians should obey. When the mayor of a city or the councilors approve a city ordinance, e.g to change the route of traffic we obey. When the police say get up and move over here... you get up and move over there because that's what the Bible tells you to do.
Why do you do it? Because of the Lord. Because the Lord has called us to obey the authorities because the authorities are ordained by God and it's a matter of obedience. It's simply that. We are obeying what God has said for us to do.
Objection
And somebody comes along and says, "But how could we have accomplished a good purpose, like changing a corrupt system if we do not rebel. How could we maintain peace and justice if we do not fight for it. As someone noted to me last week, all democracies have been based on a bloody revolution. The American Independence, the French revolution, the Philippine Independence. Tyranny was broken by greater force.
The answer is this: Do we Christians think that if we disobey authorities, which is disobedience to the word of God, we can accomplish something for the kingdom of God? That is our normal reaction, but that is not the way of God's kingdom.
Listen to Jeremiah 24:4-7
Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. 6 My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. 7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
Remember again, the Jews were under a wicked ruler and corrupt society. But God says, "As long as you are in the land of the Babylonians, as long as you're there don't you ever forget why you're there and don't you ever forget My hand is upon you and I will restore you to the place where I want you to be. I'm in charge of you".
You do not accomplish in society anything for God when you violate what God has designed for your conduct in society. That is to stoop to the wrong methodology. That is "the end justifies the means".
What we need to understand is that God controls and owns it all. And what we want to do is recognize that and recognize that He has ordained government to keep the peace in society and He has commanded us to submit to it. You do not accomplish the divine end by violating the divine law.
b. The second motive why we are to submit is not only to obey the Lord but to imitate the Lord.
1Pe 2:21 says that Christ left us an example. And then in verse 23 it shows us what that example was. "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."
Jesus when He was on earth was murdered by the coming together of two authorities...the Jewish authority and the Roman authority. He lived under their unjust and unrighteous rule for His life, yet He never attacked the government. He never attacked the rulers. He never attacked those in authority. He never led a protest. He never led civil disobedience. He never led a demonstration against Roman abuses. He never led a demonstration against the sins of Jewish leaders. He never led a demonstration against the sins of Gentile leaders. He never even protested when they violated every law of justice in His own trial. He spoke only of the Kingdom of God. He called sinners to repent, come to Him and enter His Kingdom. And He simply kept entrusting Himself to the God who judges righteously and He knew God would do right because God was sovereign and the whole world was in His control.
He spoke only of the Kingdom, as I said, and He called sinners into it. He never got Himself involved in any of the earthly activities. He was no threat to Rome's government, though they accused Him of it. And the false charge of that accusation became the reason by which He was executed.
So, when Peter says "submit yourselves because of the Lord," it is because we are to obey Him and because we are to imitate Him.
c. Third motive. We submit in order to glorify Him.
One commentator said, "God is honored when He is seen as the source of virtuous, gracious, peace making people. That honors Him. The people of God ought to consider resistance to the government under which they live as a very awful crime. Because it detracts from the glory of Christ. It shows Christians in anger, hostility, rebellion. That's not giving honor to God. To see us in peace, graciousness, and in kindness honors God. To see us in virtue, obedience, submissiveness, humility, that honors our Christ.
One day John MacArthur asked a Christian leader who suffered under a wicked government in their country, "What do the Russian Christians do to protest Russian government, doing things that they don't believe are right?" He says we have a basic unwritten law that everyone lives by in the church in Russia and that is, that if any Christian is ever arrested, he will be arrested for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing less. Not for protesting something else."
Another Objection
But you say, "What about when we feel that the government is wrong? What if it oversteps its bounds? And what if it commands us to do what God commands us not to do? Or what if it commands us not to do what God commands us to do?"
In that case we have a very clear word of Scripture the early church, Acts 4 and Acts 5, the authorities said, "Don't preach." And what was Peter's response? "You judge whether we ought to obey God or man."
That is what we call Civil Disobedience and the only time God allows this is when the government asks you to do the opposite of what God asks you to do, you have no choice but to violate the government. But then you should face whatever consequences your action will bring and you should comply with whatever they ask and bear your punishment.
If the government said you're not allowed to preach, preach anyway and suffer the consequences. If they come to arrest you, you shouldn't lie down in the street, you should go with them. You should accept whatever God brings about. Do you realize Paul never resisted arrest? Never. They put him in stocks, do you think they had to wrestle him in? Do you think they had to have three guys carry him and drag him because he was lying limp on the dirt? No, he went and he put his hands in the stocks and he sang and God shook the whole earth and they had a revival. People got saved and he walked out of the jail.
You see, the weapons of his warfare weren't carnal. He didn't need to lie in the dirt. He knew who he served and he knew how to deal with those issues in the power of God, not the manipulation of men.
Very important question
You say, "Well that's easy when they command you to do something the Bible commands you not to do, or vice versa, then you do what God says and you bear the consequence." That's right. "But what about when the government allows things that we think are wrong?"
The government may allow a lot of things we think are wrong and a lot of governments allow a lot more things than our government allows. You think the Roman government allowed some things the church thought was wrong? Yes, like a whole long list of things...like murder of children, abuse of women, slavery, etc. What does the church do? Do we protest? Do we demonstrate? Do we disobey the law?
Let me take you now to 2Co 10 and we're going to end this study here at this point and we'll continue the text next time.
2Co 10, is very, very important. 2Co 10:3-5 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
How do you do that, Paul? How do we change to government, how do we change the system if not by people power?
Look what he says here. Verse 4, "The weapons," that word in Greek means instruments of war. This is spiritual war, we are not wrestling with flesh and blood. We are fighting on a spiritual level. The instruments of war are not the weapons of the world. We can't use human means. We can't stoop to the level that the world uses.
But our weapons, he says in verse 4, have divine power. Yeah, you say, "but how effective are they?" Yes! They can demolish strongholds. What are the strongholds? The massive strongholds of sin, the massive strongholds of Satan, the massive strongholds of demons.
What does the word demolish mean? It means to tear down, pull down. The weapons of our warfare are strong enough to rip down the massive strongholds that have been built by sin.
Then he says, "we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God." What is "arguments"? Human reason. They can tear them down...
Have you watched some people on television and argue in favor of something you feel very strongly against? You listen to that and you say, "Oh, the blindness of these 11 senators, how are we going to combat this?"
How are we going to settle this? By using our divinely powerful spiritual weapons. It will tear down massive strongholds of sin. It will tear down human reason and speculation. Furthermore, it says it will tear down and destroy every lofty thing, every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God...the towers of men's thoughts, the towers of men's planning.
The picture here is an army moving against a city and tearing it down, just tearing the whole thing down. And the weapons are all spiritual. They're all powered by God.
And then he says, "and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." The picture being portrayed here in the original is very vivid. It shows a guy walking into the city with a soldier behind him with a spear up in his back, bringing in the captive. We approach the massive institutions of men, we approach their flawed and demonic reason, we approach their lofty pride which is exalted against the knowledge of God. We approach all the systems of men and we can tear them all down and we do it with weapons that are spiritual.
Notice, "every pretension... every thought" It's a comprehensive warfare and we can make them bow to Christ. We can take them captive to the obedience of Christ.
How do we do it? Do we do it by people's power? No, but by God's weapons that are powerful. What are the weapons of our warfare?
One is found in Eph 6:17, "Take... the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God."
That's what John Wesley used. I think we need to preach the Word of God with power and conviction. I believe that we ought to call to the sinner to repent. We need to be alert about using the Word of God, that's a spiritual weapon and that never returns void. Ephesians 6, what is our other spiritual weapon?
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2, we don't have a lot of weapons, but they are powerful. Number one is the Word, number two is in 1Ti 2:1 "First of all then I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all that are in authority in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." How are we going to do that? Prayer. Our weapons are the Word and prayer.
Illustration
The English Revival in the 18th century
England was in a similar situation as that of France. France had what is called a French revolution. It was a bloody revolution. They killed the authorities, both secular and religious to gain freedom. It devastated their country, but they gained their freedom. England was almost about to go through a similar experience, but they didn't. Why? Because God raised up two men, George Whitefield and John Wesley.
Did they go to the streets? Yes they did. Did they gather thousands of people? Yes they did. But was it a revolution? No! It was a revival. The thousands who were gathered fell on their knees and wept and asked for God's forgiveness. That turned the nations upside down.
When visitors came to where the revivals happened all over England, they saw the great transformation in the lives of the people. Places of sin were closed down and people used some of those places for prayer. People were seen in the streets praying and singing to the Lord. It was a taste of heaven on earth.
What was the secret of these people? The weapons of warfare that are mighty to pull down strongholds: the Word (gospel) and prayer.
Look at what is happening today. People prayed, yes, but their prayers consisted of removing the authorities. That would have been thought of as inciting rebellion, had the government sent people to spy in our prayer meetings. Can you imagine if thousands in anger prayed that way. Friends this world is not be a battleground but a mission field.
Today, Christians no longer pray much for "Revival" but "Removal!" We need to go back to our resources. The weapons we should use should be spiritual. Don't forget, we are citizens of heaven. We use the principles of God's kingdom. We follow the King of kings and Lord of lords. Our enemies are not flesh and blood. The weapons we use are not carnal, but spiritual. Let us use them.
