Saturday, January 26, 2013

"Submission, Suffering, and the Government"

Our pastor gave this sermon on Sunday that I found very pertinent to the current situation with our government. It was very hard to hear but you can't change the scripture. I want to write my notes out so that you can all read them.

(1 Peter 2:13-17) 13 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution,[a] whether it be to the emperor[b] as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants[c] of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

God tells us to obey human authority because He rules over us all.

Submission in scripture has many forms: Citizen to Government, Employee to Employer, Children to Parents,  Wife to Husband and Slave to Master.

How are we as Christians to respond to a godless government? Scriptures over arching theme is submission.

Submission (N): willing, joyful, obedience to the will of another, even if the will of another runs counter to our own will.

Theology of citizenship: How to live in the kingdom of God while also living in this world.

Nature of Submission

1. Motive: Be submissive because the authority of God, regardless of how we view the authority over us. Jesus was submissive, even to the point of death. Our lives are not our own, we do not direct our steps (Romans 13:1-2) 13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.- Pretty straightforward.

2. Focus: Every human institution. All human authority is created by the ultimate authority. There is a God given purpose in government to discipline the bad and reward the good. However we, as Christians, feel we are exempt because government is run by sinful humans but this is not true, we are still held to submission.

3. Effect/Impact: Silence the foolish or slander of Christians  Often Christians are seen as subversive to government so we need to change the image.

4. Freedom and Slavery: Don't use our freedom as an excuse to be disobedient, be servant to our authority. We don't need to find our hope in this world because we have Christ (Galatians 5:13) 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Through love serve one another. The government will let us down but that has no bearing on submission to them.

5. Attitude: Have honor and respect toward our authority (1 Peter 2:13). Should be more focused on having the right attitude more than the right argument, even to unjust government.

6. Exception: If the government does something or tells us to do something against God's law we graciously disobey. Shadrach, Mechach and Abednego in Daniel only disobeyed when it went against God.

Application: submit for the Lords sake, repent of our disobedience, pray for authorities. Obey all laws, speak truth of God in a godly way. Not appropriate to bash the authority over us. Shine the glory of God. Suffer according to the will of God. By obeying the will of authorities we may suffer. We will not like everything they want us to do but we are still called to obey.