Transcript

ANNOUNCER: How are we to interact with government and in our work relations? By the way, should we ever disobey the government? Hello, friend. Glad you’ve joined us again for Grace in Focus. This is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society located in North Texas. Our web location is faithalone.org. Find our short YouTube videos at YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society. And on our website, you can get details about our upcoming national annual conference, May 18th through the 21st. We’d love to have you with us. It’s a great time of fellowship and learning and recreation. It’s about three and a half days of refreshment at Camp Copass in Denton, Texas. Get all the details you need at faithalone.org/events. 

And now with today’s discussion from 1 Peter, here are Bob Wilkin and David Renfro. 

BOB: All right, David. We’ve come to the end of chapter 2, verses 13 through 25 in 1 Peter. And we’ve been talking about the fact that we are to save our souls, our psuche, which refers to what, ruling with Christ, being glorified with Christ. It’s more than being born again. It’s having fullness of life. 

DAVID: It’s fullness of life here and in heaven, I think. 

BOB: Okay, here and in the life to come. And we just talked about that we’re saving our souls in relation to the brethren, right? And now in 13 through 25 and actually going into chapter 3, it’s dealing with a people outside of the church. 

DAVID: Right. He’s finished talking about our responsibilities to our fellow believers. Now he’s talking about, what should we do? In other words, we need to have respect for others. 

BOB: Okay, and in 13 through 17, that respect for others would include our government.

DAVID: It emphasizes government. 

BOB: And in 18 through 25, which is where we’ll finish this show in those two sections with government, this section basically deals with masters and servants, which we would apply today with probably employer/employee. And so we’re to be faithful Christians in our response to government and faithful Christians in response to our workload. 

DAVID: And how does that work itself out in like the government? Look at what it says in verse 13, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man.” You know, you hear this every now and then, well, that’s the government wants me to do this. And I don’t want, as a Christian, I don’t want to. Therefore, I’m going to disobey. 

BOB: Have you ever met believers that say, you know, the US Constitution has no provision for an income tax. So I won’t pay income tax. And I’ve met people like that. There is nothing in the Constitution about income taxes, but that doesn’t matter because if the government says you’re going to pay income taxes, then we’re going to pay income taxes, because we’re going to obey the government authority. Now, there is an exception, right? If the government requires us to do something contrary to God’s moral commandments, then we would disobey. But aside from that, we’re not free to disobey.

DAVID: Right. And I think that’s really what Peter is talking about is you obey the government, and what they say up to the line where if they say, I want you to violate God’s moral law, then, well, I’m not going to do that. And I will suffer the consequences.

BOB: Right. And so we’re to be people who are obedient to the government. What is this section where he talks about honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king? This is kind of a series of short commands ending with honoring the king, which, of course, in their day, they would have a Caesar or a king that was the head of the Roman Empire. We, in Great Britain, where we have a king, we’re in the United States where we have a president, but the same applies. 

DAVID: Right. It’s interesting that he uses the word honor. It doesn’t mean we admire the king or we imitate the king. We honor his authority, not his person. 

BOB: Even if they’re unworthy as the Caesar’s were unworthy. We honor them. 

DAVID: Yes. And Hodges actually says this, and I think this is a very good statement. The Christian is never called to be a social revolutionary. In other words, let’s revolt against the government authority to set up what we want. 

BOB: When I was at Dallas Seminary, we were taught, if you’re a pastor, you don’t preach politics. You don’t tell people who to vote for. You don’t get involved in all that, because you give up that right once you step into the pulpit. And I think that’s right. That we shouldn’t be saying, look, I stand for this party or that party, vote for so-and-so, don’t vote for so-and-so. Our position is believers can be in any of, what do we have five parties, if you get in all the green party. 

DAVID: I miss the bull moose party of Teddy Roosevelt. I’m kidding. 

BOB: You and I are a little bit young for the bull moose party. 

DAVID: Oh, that’s true. 

BOB: But we are to be people who are honoring our government. I speak at a church once a quarter, Berean Memorial Church, and Leon Adkins will always pray at each service, “Lord, we pray for our president, we pray for the Congress, we pray for our governor, we pray for the mayor,” and I think that’s a beautiful thing because it’s consistent with what we’re told here. Or in 1 Timothy 2, Paul tells the same thing, to pray for the king to pray for those in authority. 

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BOB: We should be people who are holy people in our relation to government. 

DAVID: Exactly. And I think it’s extremely emphasized in verse 15. Notice Peter says, this is the will of God. You know, you don’t have to pray about this. You know what the Lord wants. Doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Sometimes we have to obey the government and it hurts, but it’s the will of God. And you obey the will of God by obeying the government. 

BOB: It especially hurts when we have to pay taxes. 

DAVID: But I love how he ends this, verse 17, honor all people, all people, love the brotherhood, that’s agape. And then fear God, honor the king and the honor, like I say, is just honor the authority. You don’t have to honor the person, but honor their authority.

BOB: Yeah, absolutely. And then in verses 18 through 25, we’re dealing with primarily the servant-master relationship. He says, “Servants be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.” In other words, they had masters that were often harsh. By the way, slavery in the Roman Empire was huge. 

DAVID: It was an institution in the Roman Empire. 

BOB: Well, they say as many as half the people in the church of Rome were slaves. Yeah. And it says, “For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you were beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?” That’s a good point. “But if when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.” 

DAVID: And that word “commendable” is this word that normally is translated “grace,” charis.

BOB: In other words, it’s bringing on God’s favor. His grace, his favor. “For to this you were called because Christ also suffered.” This is this theme we see a lot in 1 Peter. Suffering. Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps. And by the way, the “example view” of the atonement is heresy. We don’t look to what Jesus didn’t say. Well, if we lay down in our lives, then we’re going to get into the kingdom. We’re going to be on the new earth. No, none of that. He’s an example of us for sanctification. We’re to follow His example. 

And then it says, “who committed no sin nor was deceit found in His mouth, who when He was reviled did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to Him who judges righteously,” that is to the Father, “who Himself,” referring to Jesus, “bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” And by the way, the cross is called a tree because this ties in with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We fell as a result of a tree and we’re redeemed as a result of a tree. 

It says that “having died to sins, we might live to righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.” 

DAVID: That’s Isaiah 53:5.

BOB: And that’s not talking about physical healing. In fact, he goes on to say, “for you were like sheep going astray, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your soul.” So this healing it’s talking about here is sanctification. It’s that we are to live righteously as a result of His atoning work. 

DAVID: Right. I have a note here on verse 24, Christ is our example of innocent suffering. I think Peter brought this out as a lesson to us that we should follow Christ’s lead. If we suffer, we suffer innocently. We should not suffer like he said earlier because we did something wrong. We need to, if we suffer, we suffer because we are following the Lord. We are faithful. 

BOB: That’s highly rewardable. 

DAVID: Absolutely. And the reason that’s true is because we are actually following Christ’s example. He was innocent. He didn’t deserve to die. 

BOB: And he suffered. 

DAVID: And he was tortured before he was killed. And that might happen to some believers in the war that’s happening right now to some believers in the world. But if they suffer in obedience, they will receive glory. 

BOB: That’s highly commendable. 

DAVID: Oh goodness gracious, yes. 

BOB: And so notice he ends this section by talking, we have returned to the shepherd. Well, Jesus has to do himself as a good shepherd in John 10. And of course, He illustrated himself as a shepherd in Luke 15, where He talked about the one sheep that strayed and He went out and got him and brought him back. Right. Also, He’s the overseer. This is the Greek word episkopos. It’s one of the word used for an elder, overseer, or a bishop, an overseer of your souls. So Jesus, and we’re going to get to chapter five, Jesus is the ultimate overseer, but there are elders in local churches that he’s writing to and he’s going to talk to them in 5:1-4. But that’s the one we’ve come to. He’s our shepherd. He’s our overseer. He’s the one that’s leading us. 

DAVID: And He’s our example. 

BOB: Well, thank you, David. And thank you. I hope you’re enjoying our walk through first Peter. This is a powerful book. 

DAVID: Extremely profound.

BOB: Yeah, and wouldn’t this be good for people to use in their home Bible studies or their Sunday school classes or pastors to preach in their services? It’s a great book. Well, thanks so much. And let’s all keep grace in focus. 

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Now friend, we are delighted that you’ve joined us all this week. And now we’re wishing you a very pleasant weekend, a little Sabbath rest, some fellowship with God’s people at a Bible-believing Bible-teaching church. Come back and join us again on Monday. Until then, let’s keep grace in focus.