1 Peter 2 - Submission To Godly Authority
Tom Shrader examines 1 Peter 2:11-17, emphasizing that Christians are called to live as aliens and strangers in this world while submitting to governing authorities. He teaches that submission flows from our identity in Christ—we obey not to earn acceptance but because we are already accepted by God. Shrader addresses the challenge of submitting to imperfect leaders, explaining that government is God's delegated authority and our obedience may silence critics and draw others to faith.
“I behave this way not in order to be accepted by God but because I'm accepted by God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Peter
Recorded: 2012
Duration: 47 min
Themes: submission, authority, government, obedience, identity, citizenship, freedom, respect, struggling with authority, new citizen, government worker, political tension, workplace conflict, civic duty, military service, law enforcement
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:11-17, Galatians 5:16-25, 1 Peter 3:1, Matthew 5:16, Romans 13, 1 John 2:15, Genesis 23:4, Psalm 39:12
Theological Themes: biblical authority, christian citizenship, submission to authority, identity in christ, godly obedience, spiritual freedom, christian ethics, sanctification
Full Transcript
Well, open your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Peter, and we're going to be in chapter two. The primary text, if you don't have a Bible, raise your hand. Maybe you have a Bible at home, forgot it. Feel free to use this, and then leave it back somewhere where you can get it back and use it again. If you don't have a Bible, feel free to take that with you.
So 1 Peter, chapter two, and our primary text are verses 13 through 17. What I want to do in a minute is go back and spend a little time on verse 11 and 12, but let me read you the passage. What I want to do is read it to you from one of the translations from the New American Standard, and then I'm going to read it to you from one of the paraphrases, and let's just let this sink into us.
Here you go from the New American Standard: "Submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king."
Here's Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of those verses: "Make the master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level. They are God's emissaries for keeping order. It's God's will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you're a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity, love your spiritual family, revere God, respect the government."
The Foundation: Understanding Our Identity in Christ
Now we want to get in and spend some time and unpack that, but I want to go back and pick up where Tim left off and remind you again of verses 11 and 12. This is hopefully going to be a very big point and one that either is an aha moment and maybe for the first time you go, "Wow, I didn't make that connection," or at least a great reminder where you go, "Okay, I get it."
I want to read to you from three of the commentators as they look at verses 11 and 12. Peter begins, one writes, the exhortation of his letters by addressing his readers as "dear friends." That term might have been reinforced after the debate the other night, but so "dear friends." Before He begins now, He calls us friends. Before He begins His difficult instruction about how we're to live in relationship to unbelievers within the society, though they may be estranged from their neighbors because of their faith in Christ, He reminds them that they have His apostolic affection.
The verb "exhort" introduces Peter's central concern and marks these verses as a transition to the body of the letter in which Peter exhorts Christians to live in a right relationship with their society. So there's this exhortation that's coming, the author says, a bit of a pivot point in here, and Peter's going to give us this exhortation, and it's how we're to live in this culture.
Here's another author: "Here, Peter begins what is structurally the second half of the letter, whereas the first part is primarily theological in focus with occasional application to life. This part is generally practical with emphasis on shorter theological statements. Whereas the first half contains general exhortations in holiness and in love and in trusting God, this half is very specific instruction showing how believers are to practice holiness and trust in God in actual life situations."
Though it's an oversimplification, it may be said that chapter two, verse 11, through chapter five, verse 11, which is going to take you all the way to essentially the end of the book, gives us specific application to the general teaching of chapter one, verse one, to chapter two, verse 10.
The Surprising Application of Our Status
Peter moves, this author writes, to a surprising and urgent application of the teaching He's just given. He has been emphasizing the status that Christians have as the people of God chosen by Him and drawn into privileged fellowship. They are a priestly nation, the recipients of God's grace and favor.
Why should Peter remind them of the status? And that's where I want to get at. Why is He doing this? Why did He go back? Last time that I taught from this text was in chapter one, verse 13, that began with the "therefore." "Therefore, prepare your minds for action." It made that point there I want to make again today.
Why does He remind us of that? He would prepare them in this process for their service. Just because they're God's royal people, they can be servants. Their example is Jesus.
The Life-Changing Point: Behavior Flows from Identity
So here was the point. I don't think it was all new to me, but for whatever reason, when I was teaching last time, this became this massive singular point of the day. I always assumed then it is for you. But I got one email, Aaron Klusman sent me an email, where He basically came back and regurgitated all that I said and then went on to say how big this was. So it's either I didn't make the point well or you already knew it. I'm plenty comfortable if you already know it. But this is gigantic.
All of the imperatives that Peter's giving us here flow from the fact that we're already in right relationship with Christ. Here's the point: Because I'm chosen by God and because I'm adopted as His kid and because I'm in union with Him, because I'm a Christian, the phrase that Paul uses, one of His favorite phrases, because I'm "in Christ," now I can live this way.
I behave this way not in order to be accepted by God but because I'm accepted by God. God doesn't call me because I'm qualified, just the opposite. I'm qualified because God's called me. God doesn't come along and say to every person, "Start doing this stuff." He doesn't in essence say, "Clean
He comes along in an act of His will, causes us to be born again, brings us into right relationship with God and now He says because all of these things are true, now live like it. So it's the pattern that we've seen in the past when we've looked at some of Paul's writings where he may take, like in the book of Ephesians, three chapters of what we would call intense doctrine with maybe a little bit of application and then get to chapter four and there's that pivot, the therefore and he says therefore now, because all of that is true, now we can talk about life. Now we can talk about how you should live. Now we can talk about your relationships with your kids and your relationship with each other and your relationship at work. Now we can talk about how the spirit should begin to work in your life.
That is a gigantic point and if I miss that, all I'm going to do is just fall into a bunch of religion. If I just bring this and start to read it and go do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this and I know that's how a lot of people think and I know it because they will tell me. Now they won't say it that way. They'll say listen, I'm here and I'm trying to clean up my act. I'm trying to get my act together. Thinking about coming to church, thinking about coming to that priority living study, thinking about doing this but first I want to get my act together.
God never says get your act together and then come to me. He says come to me. That's the only way your act is ever going to be together because you can't put it together yourself. You're a Humpty Dumpty. You've fallen. You can't put yourself back together again but that's what God's in the job of doing. That is a massive principle and truth. That all of these imperatives flow from that therefore.
The World Is Not Your Home
So that's what He's saying back in chapter two, verses 11 and 12. Let me read it again from the paraphrase. "Friends, this world isn't your home." He's just grinding this point home. "So don't make yourself cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudice. Then there'll be one over to God's side and be there to join in the celebration when He arrives."
So look at the terminology. Beloved, so He's reminding them they're in this relationship. They're united in Christ. He speaks to them as those who know and love Christ. I urge you as, and he picks imagery from Genesis 23:4 and Psalm 39:12. Imagery of aliens and strangers. He said, this is who you are. An alien is one who lives in a place that's not his true home. He said, this isn't home for you.
Now, for these people, remember chapter one, verse one? They are residing aliens scattered throughout all of these regions, scattered out of suffering and persecution. So this is great comfort to them. He's saying to those of them who are wandering around, they may have nothing. They've been uprooted. They may have little or nothing of the earthly treasure. He said, don't worry about this. This isn't home. This isn't your final destination.
A Different Challenge for Us
For most of us here, it's probably a little bit different. Now, things may have changed in the last three or four years but three or four years ago, if I was teaching this, I would have said, you know, part of our problem is it's pretty good and comfortable here. Things are going well. Deals are closing. The economy's good. Housing prices are increasing. I want to take a little time off. I take a little time off. I want to travel, travel.
So for us, here's what He's saying is, listen, to those that rather you don't have much, He said, good news for you. This isn't the final destination. For those of us who are clinging on it and going, I don't really know if heaven's going to be a lot better than this. There are moments where you go, this is heaven. He says, no, that's not the case at all. You're never going to be happy permanently here because you weren't designed to be happy here. You get glimpses, moments of happiness but that's only to cultivate your thirst for heaven.
Reorienting Our Self-Understanding
So He comes right to them and He said, listen, I understand your situation. Do you? This is temporary, alien, stranger. The term, He's recalibrating. One of the authors says He's reorienting their self-understanding with respect to the society in which they live. Never think that you're going to be loved, accepted, that the world's just going to go, oh, you love Jesus? That's great. We've been waiting all our life for you.
The night before Jesus was crucified, He got the guys together and He said, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own but because you're not of the world and I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you. Remember the word I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. They persecuted me, they'll persecute you. If they kept my word, they would keep yours also.
Paul in his writing, Jesus in His teaching, Peter here is reminding us what experientially we know, not a little bit different here maybe, but throughout the world we understand it. They tell us, I don't know who understands or knows or figures this out, but they tell us that there are approximately 10 times more Christians martyred at this point right now in history than at the time that Peter's writing here in that first century. That's going on all over the world and that there's persecution here and He's saying, listen, you're going to live in this world and because you're not of the world, you're counterculture to the world, there are going to be those times when you're going to have those people around you who are scoffers. Those people who are, we might say in a nice way, putting you down. They're leveling charges against you.
So He said, that's the situation. I want you to get the situation. Here come those specific
Living as God's Beloved in a Hostile World
And they're going to go from here to the end of the book. And because you're my beloved, because we are fellow brothers and sisters and coworkers with Christ, because we are aliens and strangers, this is what I want you to do. Verse 11, abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against you.
Abstain, to stay away from, to avoid. It's in a tense that has the sense of an ongoing do not indulge. This is an ongoing process. It's not just for today, it's for while you're here. I want you to abstain from fleshly lusts.
Well, what are those? And immediately our mind goes into sexual desire. It may be that, but it's that, but certainly much more.
Understanding Fleshly Lusts and the Spirit's War
Galatians chapter five, page 633 in the Bible that we gave you. This is Paul writing, and he's writing about walking in the spirit. And he's talking about the pitting of the spirit against the flesh. He says in Galatians 5:16, the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. There's that waging of wars.
Verse 18, if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law, Christ fulfilled that law. Now here are the deeds of the flesh. So Peter says it this way, abstain from fleshly lusts. What are those fleshly desires? Here they are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Things like these that I forewarned you about.
But here's what should be present. Here's the counterbalance to that. Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
The War Against Worldly Values
Peter's saying, listen, in this world, as aliens and strangers, there is this war that's going on. The war between the world and the value of the world. The war that Satan and his demons and the flesh are waging against you, even as followers of Christ. And he said, I want you to abstain from this.
Don't love the world, is the way that John writes it in 1 John 2:15. Don't love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, it's from the world.
And here's the same idea. The world is passing away. There's a temporariness there. And He said, here's this paradox. Everything around me looks to be very much alive, and it looks to be very real. So much so that in our minds, at this point of physical death, we get a sense that we're moving from the land of the living to the land of the dying. And He said, nothing could be further from the truth. You're in the land where everything is dying, and you will go to the land where everything lives forever.
Excellent Behavior Among Unbelievers
Now, while you're here, verse 12, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, among the unbelievers. Keep that behavior, your translations will say conduct. It's our day-to-day pattern of life. It's the way we live, the way you conduct yourself. Keep your behavior excellent among the unbelievers.
Why? So that in the things in which they slander you. Now, that's the implication, that here comes the slandering, the lying, verbal, it may be physical. In those things in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in that day of visitation.
Here's what He's saying. The way you live makes a difference. Because you're a follower of Christ, I ought to see a difference in you. I should be able to look at you, follow you around, and see the way you conduct your family, your work, everything.
Being Light in Darkness
So Jesus said it in Matthew 5:16, and we go back to this over and over again, let your light shine in such a way that people see your good works. Here's my privilege, to make the invisible God visible. They look at you, here's what He's saying. They look at you, and in the midst of the most horrific, difficult circumstances of life, in this case, in the midst of their slandering and persecuting you, there's something in you. The way you respond, the way you suffer, the way you live is so compelling that it may, not a guarantee. He's not saying this will work for sure.
We see the same idea if you turn a page to 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 1. He's talking about suffering and hardship. He says, in the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands, that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won. He's saying there's something about it that as the world looks at you and the people around you look at you, there's something distinctive and different about you, especially in how you handle difficult circumstances, so much so that they may, may not, and no time frames given here. It doesn't say it's going to happen next week or right away.
The Long View of Godly Living
That's what you get all of a sudden. All of a sudden you get a couple that comes in, and let's put the blame on the guy here, and the guy's at fault, and now He said, what do I need to do? And then all of a sudden it's, what do I need to do and what else? How long do I need to do it? Is this a week deal, a three week deal? No. It's about getting, whoever it is, getting in the right position that God would have us in for the rest of our lives. Husbands to husbands, husbands love wives.
So that maybe on that day, some will be converted, verse 12, and they will glorify God. They'll worship Him. They'll see Him for who He really is, as Lord, Master, Savior, Redeemer. And their one, at least part of what God uses to convert them, is the way you respond.
You Are the Only Bible Some Will See
So my friend Larry Wright used to say it this way, you may be the only Bible that some people ever see. The same way of saying it, people are looking. You get that, right? So the minute you say to somebody, hey, you want to join me, you want to go to Redemption Church on Sunday? They go, I don't believe so.
Or you say, "I don't know what you're doing for lunch today, but you want to go to this priority living thing, this Bible study?" The minute you say that, they are justifiably now, and appropriately, they're looking at you and they're judging your life. They're throwing you under the microscope. Whereas you give yourself the benefit of the doubt, they aren't going to.
What God's saying in His word is, as they look at you in these most difficult circumstances, you're talking about submitting to government, which to me is just this most difficult thing. He said, as they watch that, and they see you, especially in the government situation that they have, it's a government that's persecuting them, taxing them, beating them up. And you respond in this submissive, obedient way. Somebody watching says, "They're nuts," or "They got something I don't have." The intent is to have them say, "They got something I don't have. And I want that, and what is it?" That's what Peter introduces.
Submit to Every Human Institution
Let's get to the primary text for this morning, verse 13. "Submit to yourself, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether to a king as one in authority, or to governors who were set out by the king." And here's why that government exists: "for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who were good."
The word "submit" is a military term. It means to arrange in the formation under the commander, to line up under. I'm going to be autobiographical here, because I've got, in my mind, a lot of time invested in this word submit. And it produces a gut response. It's interesting, it's less of a gut response for me now, which my assumption is, that's based on some level of maturity that God's doing in my life.
Romans 13 and the Foundation of Authority
But I can tell you, God saved me. Larry was teaching the book of Romans. We got to Romans 13. Romans 13 is kind of the classic passage on government, where Paul writes, "Every person is to be in subjection to his governing authorities." Here's why: "For there's no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God."
So he's saying, here's the deal. Government is a delegated authority of God. When I'm disobedient to government, I'm disobedient to God. God has at least four institutions that touch most of our lives, if not all of them: government, the church, family, and work.
So He has a structure within the church. Elders, those within the body, in the family, husband, wife, kids. It's not very complicated, what He says. Kids obey your parents. Husbands love your wives. Wives submit to your husband. So if I'm not loving my wife, my problem here is not just that I'm sinning against her, I'm sinning against God. If I'm not submitting to my husband, I'm not submitting to God. These are the delegated authorities that He's put in place, and here's the authority structure in there.
Our Natural Resistance to Authority
Now here's what I'm saying about the word. I've learned so much over this word, because the minute I hear the word, I want to go, "What are the exceptions?" So the very first time that I taught wives to submit to your husband, we're driving home, and I said, "What did you think of that?" And Susan said, "Well, I don't know." And I said, "Well, I thought it went okay, but half of the people there didn't seem to receive the word very well." And she said, "Really?" And I said, "That's right." And she said, "Well, that might be." And I said, "Why do you think that is?" And she said, "Well, maybe it was the way you taught it." And I said, "I doubt that." In retrospect, it probably was.
I don't want anybody to tell me what to do. That's the bottom line. So if I'm sitting with a group of women, wives submit to your husbands, what does that mean? What about the exception? What if he... you never met him. You know, if you knew him, oh, the guy you freely chose, that one? Yes, that guy. Well, if you knew him, well, I had the same flinch the very first time.
Submission Without Conditions
I just submit to the government, and I'm going up and I'm going, "Well, what if they? What if they don't do what they're supposed to do? What's a government here that I can't appreciate the way they spend my tax dollar? What if there's waste?" Well, He says, pay your tax. Are there some exceptions? Sure. They're rare. That's why they're called exceptions. In essence, unless the government asks you to sin or commands you to sin or forbids you to do something God commands, then other than that, I submit to them.
Why? He said, because that government is established by Me. And you know what? That's their problem, and I'll deal with their sin. You submit to them. That's your role. That's right, for me, again, maybe you all are way beyond that, but for me, the first time I heard that, I had a real visceral response to that.
The Challenge of Submission in Difficult Circumstances
So if we put it in this situation, here's what He's saying. All the kings, all the governors, the ones that are hauling you off, the ones that are beating you, the ones that are abusing you in all sorts of ways. That government, you submit to them. In our context, the president, the Congress, the state, the local representatives.
Now the government's job, and he talks about it, government's job is to execute justice, to preserve peace and order so there's not chaos in the land, to praise those who do well, conduct themselves well. For us, there should be a constant prayer request that's going up to God, in essence, thanking Him for government and praying that they would indeed fulfill the desires that He has for them and role for them as we submit to them.
But it's not "I submit if." Our relationship with the government is the same as that husband and wife. We don't say to her, "You submit if he does all these things well." The challenge is not if he's in his role, the biggest challenge is when he isn't. If he's this smart debonair everything. We're going to talk about this on November 4th, so that is either going to increase or decrease church attendance that day.
Submit is what he says. Submit why? That's the same idea, verse 12, "for such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men." It's the same concept that you saw up in verse 12—that as people look at you, slander you, gossip against you, lie about you, maybe physically persecute you, that it's God's will that that hostility would be stopped against you. And here's how: by you doing right and then God intervening, that you submit to authority.
Personal Resistance to Submission
I come at it again, and when God saved me, as I said, I heard this early on. I responded against it. I thought, and I told Vince last week, and this just shows probably a lack of faith on my part, but I said, man, you're launching this thing and all these new people are coming in, week one, you're talking about submission to government. But it's maybe just a great opportunity to proclaim that gospel and to show that truth, show that difference. Especially as you see hostility more and more toward the fundamental, the evangelical Christian church, it's to say, we're the best citizens. We're talking submission all over the place, and doing it.
I started going to Larry's Bible study and continued going, and after a period of years, God grew me, began to redeem me and use me in a variety of ways. One of those was just to persistently talk to people about Christ, and you do that in a bunch of different ways, as God opened doors. One of the tools I used was Larry's Bible study, so I had two guys in my office that I called, or physically eye to eye, every week to go to Larry's Bible study, for maybe a year, year and a half.
Larry, at that point, was back in the book of Romans, and we're coming to Romans 13, and I thought, you know what, I'm not going to call him this week. Both of those guys called me and said, you've called for a year, year and a half, two years, every week, you didn't call this week. I'd like to come this week. This is my week to come.
Larry started with, "submit yourself to government, everyone," and about five minutes into it, one of them got up and left and the other one was a little more polite. He stayed through it, but said, this is the biggest stuff he's ever seen, and he said, I'd never be involved in this again.
The Natural Rebellion Against Submission
It's kind of what you would expect from somebody who doesn't know Christ, because the minute you hear submit, you're going to say, nobody's going to tell me what to do, right? Wet paint, really? Yep, it is. I mean, it's just that, over and over and over again, and that doesn't go away.
That was back in the garden, wasn't it? The serpent comes along and says, really, can you trust God? Really, can you trust Him? Because He really said that. He's just messing with you. Look at this fruit. Doesn't it look good? Don't you think it tastes good? It would make you like Him. Right? And so now, even for those of us who know Christ, that's that struggle.
He's saying, listen, you've got to understand, you're in a war here. It's not a war of flesh and blood, it's a spiritual battle. He didn't leave you alone—He left you with the Spirit and the word and prayer. You're in the midst of this. If I rebel against the government, in this case, I'm rebelling against God. He said, I've placed these guys here.
Political Polarization and God's Authority
Just look at how polarizing it is. I'll just give you the three names: Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama. Just the last three have literally—we've seen the country essentially split right down the middle. If you're on the other side of wherever they are, it's not just that they're an opponent, you hate them. You can't stand them.
I talk to people all the time on both sides of these. George Bush was a great example. Those guys would say, you know, he's not maybe the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he's the guy, and he's there. People would say, he can't even—and then they just launch. Certainly this president is as polarizing as any they've been.
And He's saying, listen, here's our role. My sense would be that it would be a chunk of you who, casting a ballot, might cast a ballot, and maybe you voted for guys that aren't in office right now. And your position is, I didn't pick this guy. Okay, you didn't, God did. God placed these guys in this position. And my role is to submit to them.
It's not to say, well, I'm going to hold back until we get the guy that I want, and then I'll submit to that. See what we're saying? That's always our role in submission: I'll submit when everything's the way I want. Well, that's not really the biggest test of submission. It's like loving: I'll love her when she—I'll love her if. He said, no, this is the call. I want you to submit to them.
Why God Commands Submission
Why? Well, because they're established by Me. One. Two, I've told you to. Three, on a practical basis, this might be the way that I silence them, that I bring people, that your life becomes so compelling that you become just as light that they can't resist it. They can't stay away from it. Maybe they start as intrigued by you. They think you're almost odd. And they get to know you. No, it's not odd, and it's not just you. It's supernatural. That's what He's saying.
True Freedom in Bondage
Verse 16: "I want you to act as free men, but do not use your freedom for covering for evil, but use it as a bond slave of God." He said, I want you to understand that you're free, but you don't have the freedom to do wrong. You're a bond slave. The irony of that language: you're free and yet a slave.
Because you are in Christ, you are free from your sin. You are free from the consequence of your sin and free to do the will of God. Don't abuse it. It's not a license. I take my freedom and I put myself in bondage.
to God. I was in slave and bondage to the world system and to sin, but not anymore. And he says, my role now is like that of Christ. Have the mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus who came not to be served, but to serve. My life is transformed.
We've kept this in front of you. When Paul starts writing about humility, there's not even a Greek or Latin word that's translated or means humility. This is so foreign to who we are as humans. I want you to be like Him. Who? Like Christ, the suffering servant. We see over and over again. As they beat Him, as they crucified Him, He submitted. At any point, He could have stopped that, but He submitted to them.
And He says, I have this plan for all of your life and all of these systems, and it includes submitting to Christ, becoming a bond servant of Christ, and in that, I now become His hands and feet wherever He places me. It now begins to affect everything I do.
Submission Affects Every Aspect of Life
It affects how I park. When I go to the grocery store, I can't take a cart, take your stuff, put it in your car, and leave that cart in the middle of the parking lot. I don't understand it. I don't know how selfish you can possibly be. Now, I'm a lazy dog, so what do I do? I park next to the place where they push the thing. I just do it. There are two of them over at the Fry's at McQueen and Warner. There are one or two places I park all the time, and it's right to where the cart goes. Why? Because I don't want to go across the whole parking lot with this cart, but there's something fundamentally wrong.
That's what He's saying. I know that sounds silly, but it affects everything. That's there for a reason. You aren't the exception. People are watching. Those things matter.
That's why He says, here's the summary. That's why He says in verse 17, honor all people. Be courteous to all people. Be kind to all people. If it says don't walk there, don't walk there. You may have 1,000 reasons why you should walk there. It's common courtesy.
Common Courtesy as Christian Witness
Sandy and I were out, it was her birthday, and we were out for dinner the other night. Six times I said to the server, thank you, and six times he said to me, no problem. No problem is not the answer to thank you. The answer is what? Why can't we do this? That can't be that hard. It's common courtesy. It's holding the door.
Honor all men. Be kind to all men. Be courteous and respectful to all people at all times and all places. Love the brotherhood. It's an obligation. Fellow Christians, it's a strong, deep love for them. We care about people in general, but we care specifically about one another, those who say they're Christians.
Then He says, fear God. I honor Him, I love Him, but there's a reverence toward Him. I don't fear or revere all men or brothers, but I fear God. It's a respect for God. And then He says, honor kings. It's like He goes, fear God and honor the king. To a king reading this, it might be too subtle for us, but I think the king would get it. He put the king on the same plane with all people—honor him.
Faith and Political Engagement
So here I am, I fear God, I understand who He is, and now it affects all my life. So now I can love—may not always like, but I can love my brothers and sisters. And I will honor all of the people in my life.
As we're talking about the role of government, let me just address a couple of things. With an election coming, it's too late to register to vote, but I'm getting a lot of questions just about voting and how would Jesus vote? I don't really, well I do think I know on some things, but maybe not everything, but we should, as we vote, be concerned about what God says and God's values as we look at the ballot or as we look at candidates.
My friend, Jamie Rasmussen, who is the senior pastor at Scottsdale Bible Church, is doing a whole message today on voting. He was a bit apprehensive about the pushback he'd get. I said, "Jamie, I just don't see how you can get much pushback on this because all you're saying is"—these are my words, not his—"I won't tell you who to vote for, but I don't mind telling you how to vote."
Faith Must Affect Everything
There was a moment in the debate the other night when the moderator was trying to make it a faith issue, and I'm all right with that. She was saying, "Both of you are Catholics, how does your Catholic faith affect your relationship or your position on abortion?" And Congressman Ryan finally said what to me makes all the sense in the world, which was his introductory statement: "My faith has to affect everything that I do."
And we've said that. If it should affect the kind of parent you are, the kind of neighbor you are, whether you're pushing the grocery cart away, it ought to affect how you govern. And he talked about abortion. He talked about a stand that life begins at conception and how he carried that through.
The vice president made what is to me the most paradoxical statement of all. He said, "I'm personally opposed to abortion, but I never would want to legislate toward it." And to me, the question I always want to ask at that point is why are you opposed to it? And it's always in this context of wanting to defend the weakest in our society. There's nobody weaker, no one who has less voice than the unborn. I think God's really clear on abortion.
Biblical Values in Voting
So there are two or three issues that I think you can speak to. I think abortion. I think in terms of marriage, God has a real clear view on that. I think the Bible is concerned about freedom and responsibility, and so those are important issues for us to look at.
Here's the thing—we had a wonderful moment at the Arcadia campus on Wednesday night. Tyler's teaching a four-week class on, and I can't remember for the life of me the title of it. Something about politics—it's either our faith in politics or something in politics. And I was up there as part
Engagement in the System
I see two poles emerging in our culture regarding politics. On one side, you have people saying, "If we can just elect the right guy, everything's gonna be perfect." Well, that isn't gonna happen. On the other side, and alarmingly getting bigger, are those who say politics is dirty and nasty, and they don't want to be involved in it. At the very least, I should vote.
This is important to understand: if you get involved in issues, you're almost always gonna get pulled into politics. So if your kid's coming home with stuff from school and you say, "I don't like this," well, you're gonna get pulled right into dealing with the principal, superintendent, and school board. If you've got a strip club going up down the street and you don't want it there, you're gonna go right to the city council, right to zoning. Politics is not something dirty and filthy in itself—there are sinful people in it, yes. But God has blessed us not to be in Nero's Rome, but to be in this country with an amazing system of civility.
What Makes America Great
What makes America great—and this is why I'm probably never gonna get elected to anything—what makes America great are not the American people. You do not have a gene that's better than every other people in the world. What makes America great is the system we're in. That's the challenge now: to preserve that system of freedom—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Not guaranteeing everybody happiness, but a pursuit of it, a shot at it.
So you need to be engaged. This ballot they keep sending me—they must be spending a billion dollars sending me stuff on what these propositions are all about—but you need to be informed and wise. I think it's fair to say you should consider whether there are biblical principles at play in these individual candidates' lives and in the propositions that are in front of you.
The Response to Election Results
But let's say you vote for everything here, and everything there wins instead. Your response is to submit. Why? Because when I submit to the government, I'm submitting as to the Lord. That's the result of a transformed heart. That transformation was taking place and took place because of what happened on Calvary.
That's where we stop every week. I'll remind you what Christ did on the cross. Father, thank You that You changed our hearts. While there are amazing things that await us in heaven, You've left us here. Our heart is still in a struggle, in war against the flesh—spirit and flesh. Father, we pray for the country, the candidates, the president, the Congress, state legislators and legislation. Father, thank You for the town. Make us the best citizens in this country. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.