Living as part of God’s kingdom community should lead to a life that represents Jesus well by respecting government authority...

At the church where I serve, we are in the midst of a sermon series entitled “Living as part of God’s kingdom community”. During this series, we are addressing the reality that as followers of Jesus, the hope we have in Jesus should lead to us embracing our identity as part of God's kingdom community. However, to truly embrace our identity as part of God’s kingdom community requires that we live out our identity as part of God’s kingdom community.

But how do we do that? In other words, what does embracing our identity as part of God’s kingdom community look like? How should followers of Jesus live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are part of God’s kingdom community in the midst of a rapidly changing culture? How should followers of Jesus live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are part of God’s kingdom community when our faith is minimized and marginalized? How should followers of Jesus live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are part of God’s kingdom community when our faith is ridiculed, criticized, and slandered?

This week, I would like for us to spend our time together picking up where we left off last week by jumping into the next section of a letter that the Apostle Peter wrote to early followers of Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 Peter, where we will discover a timeless truth about how we are to live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are part of God’s kingdom community in the midst of a rapidly changing culture. So let’s discover that timeless truth together, beginning in 1 Peter 2:13-14:

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.

Peter begins this section of his letter by commanding the readers of this letter, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to submit yourselves to every human institution. Now to fully understand what Peter is communicating with this command, we first need to understand a few things. The first thing that we need to understand is what Peter means when he uses the word submit. The word submit here, in the language that this letter was originally written in, means to place oneself in a submissive role in a relationship where appropriate respect is shown to someone based on the role that they have within an ordered structure.

In other words, we are to willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first based on one’s role in the relationship. Now that leads us to the second thing that we need to understand, which is what Peter means when he uses the phrase, every human institution. When Peter refers to every human institution, he is referring to a system of established authority that is the result of human action.

Peter then reveals several examples of systems of established authority that are the result of human action. The first example is that of a king. For the readers of this letter, Peter was referring specifically to the Roman Emperor Nero, who ruled over the Roman Empire during the writing of this letter. And as the Roman Emperor who ruled over the readers of this letter, Emperor Nero was the one in authority. In other words, Emperor Nero was in the controlling position of the established authority of the Roman Empire who ruled over the readers of this letter. In our culture today, the person who holds this controlling position of human authority that is the result of human action is the President of the United States.

The second example that Peter provides is that of governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For the readers of this letter, Peter was referring specifically to the head imperial provincial administrator, who was appointed and dispatched by the Emperor to represent the Emperor in terms of exercising and maintaining Roman rule and authority over a specific region of the world that was a part of the Roman Empire.

The Imperial Provincial Administrator represented the Roman Empire and acted on their behalf to maintain authority and enforce Roman law. That is what Peter is referring to when he uses the phrase for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. As a representative of the Roman Empire, the Imperial Provincial Administrator was responsible to make sure that criminality and wrongdoing was punished with a penalty that was designed to serve as a deterrent to such behavior.

And the Imperial Provincial Administrator, as a representative of the Roman Empire, was to express admiration and approval by giving formal recognition to those under Roman rule who did what was good and right. Now this little phrase who do right does not simply refer to obeying civil and criminal law in the Roman Empire. This phrase also referred to doing something as a citizen of the Empire that advanced the common good of the Empire.

So the governor was to represent the Roman Empire in a way the repressed the evil of people and reinforced the good of people that strengthened the Empire in a way that promoted good citizens and punished evil citizens. In our culture today, those who hold such positions of human authority that is the result of human action would be those in state and local government, along with law enforcement and public safety.

Now a natural question that could arise at this point is “why should I submit to every human institution? Why should I willingly place myself under the authority of any government by placing government authority first in my life?

I mean, didn’t you just say a few weeks ago that the hope we have in Jesus should lead to us embracing our identity as part of God’s Kingdom community. Didn’t Peter say that we are strangers and aliens here as Christians? So, if my true identity is as a citizen of God’s kingdom community, then why do I have to submit to authority that is not a part of that kingdom?”

If those questions or objections are running through your mind, I just want to let you know that those are great questions to be asking. And we begin to answer that question by understanding the third thing that we need to understand, which is what Peter means when he uses the phrase for the Lord’s sake. Now the phrase, for the Lord’s sake, conveys the sense of representing Jesus well in regards to a relationship with someone.

You see, Peter recognized that the followers of Jesus who were reading this letter were under the authority of those who did not believe in Jesus. Peter recognized that the followers of Jesus who were reading this letter were under the authority of those who were becoming more hostile toward Jesus and toward those who claimed to be followers of Jesus. Yet, in spite of that reality, Peter commanded followers of Jesus throughout history to submit to the systems of established authority that are the result of human action that had been established around them so that, by doing so, they would represent Jesus well in their relationship with authority in a culture that did not believe in Jesus.

And it is here, in this timeless command by Peter to followers of Jesus throughout history, that we discover a timeless truth about how we are to live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are a part of God's kingdom community in a rapidly changing culture in that living as part of God’s kingdom community should lead to a life that represents Jesus well by respecting government authority. And in 1 Peter 2:13-17, we see Peter reveal for us four reasons why living as part of God’s kingdom community should lead to a life that represents Jesus well by respecting government authority.

First, in verses 13-14, we see that we are to represent Jesus well by respecting government authority regardless of the level of government. As followers of Jesus, we are to respect those in authority as part of the federal government. As followers of Jesus, we are to respect those in authority as part of the state and local government.

We are to do so because those in government authority have been given the responsibility to punish wrongdoing. And we are to do so because those in government authority have been given the responsibility to recognize those who do right.  Peter then reveals for us a second reason why living as part of God’s kingdom community should lead to a life that represents Jesus well by respecting government authority in verse 15.

Tomorrow we will discover that reason together…