And welcome back to
"Books Of The Book".
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We are talking about submission
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to greater
powers or authorities.
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And, Dr. Shepherd,
how is a Christians
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supposed to relate to
the government authorities?
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Now, this is a good question
because we all are in countries
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where we have relationships
to government authorities
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and how should
we relate to them.
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Peter talks
about been submissive.
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But, we notice something
that he says here and he--
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shall I say modifies
or helps us to understand
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what exactly that
submission involves.
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Because he says in verse 14,
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"The governors who are
sent by him to punish those
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who do evil and to
praise those who do good."
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The government officials are
the guardians of good in society
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and the punishers
of bad in society.
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That is their role,
their God given role.
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So, some one might say,
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"Well, how
should I relate to them
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if they don't do that?"
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Or if there is
corruption even in authority?
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In the corruption. Yeah.
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Now, we're gonna come
to in a little bit down.
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He is gonna talk
about some corruption things
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a little bit later here. But...
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Peter always links
these ideas of power
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with the ideas of ethics
of justice of right and wrong.
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Okay? And so,
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you submit to
them as far as they go
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in their God given authority.
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When they step out of
their God given authority
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you have a superior relationship
to God that overtakes
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that inferior relationship
to the governing authority.
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So, if you think of
it, God is at the top,
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governing
authoritys, and you here.
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If the governing authority
doesn't do what God says
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they stepped out of the way.
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Now it's direct to God.
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Whatever God says
that's what you do
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and you may
have to disobey them.
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This is what your apostle
said to the religious leaders.
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"We must obey
God rather than men."
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When men step out of the line
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of which God has
ordained for them to do
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we don't obey
them any more. Okay?
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And in some
locations we have this thing
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we call civil disobedience.
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Now, that should
never be violent.
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The Christian's
not call to violence.
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The Christians call to peace.
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But there may be
times when we have to say
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"No, this is an unjust law"
and we have to stand up to it
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and say that it's wrong.
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Not in violent way
but in a non-violent way,
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where we may have to protest,
we may have to--you know,
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there might be any variety
of things that might be done
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that simply state to
the governing authorities,
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"No, you have gone
beyond your rightful role."
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And that's proper
for Christians to do
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in whatever
society that they are in.
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Now, there is a price
to pay for that, frankly.
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And that price
can be very harsh.
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But it's still being
faithful to Christ to stand
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for what is true and
not to give in to the evil.
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Too many times we
don't want to make waves.
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And also we should
make waves unnecessarily.
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But, when some thing is
wrong we should say it's wrong.
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And so there are certain limits
to this submission, you see?
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So, he talks
about honoring everyone,
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loving the
brotherhood, fearing God,
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and even honoring the emperor.
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Not dishonoring him.
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But remember, God
is above the emperor.
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You fear God, you
honor the emperor.
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And if the emperor is
something that's shameful
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you don't honor that. All right?
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So, it's a pretty clear picture
about the Christians role
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with in the powers structures
in which they find themselves.
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Okay?
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This brings us then to verse 18.
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"Servants, be submissive
to your masters with all fear,
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not only to the good and
gentle, but also to the harsh"?
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19? Yeah, okay.
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Read verse 19 and 20.
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"For this is commendable,
if because of conscience
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toward God one endures
grief, suffering wrongfully.
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For what credit is it
if, when you are beaten
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for your faults,
you take it patiently?
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But when you do good and suffer,
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if you take it patiently,
this is commendable before God."
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All right, now, the
people that he's talking to here
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are household
servants or slaves.
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And it's a
scandal to many people
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that the New Testament does not
outright do away with slavery.
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You know, it didn't just say
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"That's wrong. Don't do it.
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Stop. Allow the
slaves to go free".
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You know, it doesn't say that.
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Now, we have to place
that in within context.
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Slavery in the ancient world
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was different than
slavery in this country
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in the United
States 150, 200 years ago.
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Slavery is, we can
say, an evil in our world
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that has existed in the world.
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Now unfortunately
it still continues
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to exist in some places today.
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Slavery is wrong.
Slavery is an evil.
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Bible religion
worked to limit the evil
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and to change and
abolish it over time.
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If you read the
New Testament carefully
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you will see that it undermines
the concepts of slavery. Okay?
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Now in the Greco-Roman world,
as I said, slavery was different
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than slavery was
here in the United States.
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How was it fdifferent?
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Slaves could own
property in that ancient world.
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Slaves could own other slaves.
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Some times slaves have very
important positions as leaders,
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even ambassadors, and education
of slaves were encouraged.
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People sold
themselves or their children
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sometimes into slavery.
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Slaves had a
place, they had a room,
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they had board,
they had a family
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that they belong to
and they were part of.
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Most urban slaves in
the ancient world were free
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by the age of thirty. Okay?
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But also of course
there were abuses of slavery,
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sexual use and
sexual abuse of slaves,
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mistreatment, and you
know, these were all very wrong.
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The use of ethical language
in describing the masters
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and their actions
is interesting here.
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I was confronted on this issue
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as I was teaching
this one time in class.
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A student who was
from another country
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described the
experience in his country
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where there were
marauding band of young men
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who were intimidating people.
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He was a student at that time.
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A group of this
marauding young man with weapons
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came up to him and his friends
and started to intimidate them
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and they bravely withstood them.
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And the students said to me,
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"You can't just
submit to these people.
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You have to resist them."
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And here I was
in the class room.
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You know, I wasn't going to say
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"You are wrong,"
not obviously like that.
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And I appreciate what he said
because it forced me to go back
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and look more closely
at the language of 1 Peter.
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And here is what I saw.
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Peter never separates
the language of submission
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from the language of justice.
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Peter never separates
the language of submission
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from the language of justice.
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That is, there is
a right and wrong.
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A standard of right and wrong.
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And you submit,
but only to a point.
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And you notice
that when he describes
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the masters what he says.
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"Servants, be subject to
your masters with all respect,
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not only to the good,"
now there's a moral word.
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"And gentle but
also to the unjust."
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The crooked ones. He says what?
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Keep reading, "For this is a--"
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Well, my version
says "a gracious thing."
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What does yours
say? Commendable.
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Yeah, commendable is
actually a better translation.
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The term is the
word "grace" Charis.
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But, here the term grace
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is being used in
its secular sense,
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which meant the
idea of credit. Okay?
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So, it's commendable, it
is credit when you are doing
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what is right and
being unjustly treated.
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Notice he says "You
are suffering unjustly."
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It's wrong what they are doing.
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Now, there is another word
here that's very fascinating.
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It's the word "conscience".
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Does yours have
the word conscience?
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It says conscience towards God.
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Conscience towards God.
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Tell me what is the conscience?
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Well, the conscience is--
allows me to--I would say,
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distinguish or discern
between right and wrong.
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Yeah. Okay, it's like an
internal moral compass. Right?
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If you can say that, yeah.
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Yeah, like an
internal moral compass
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that points you
in the right way.
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In the ancient world they
didn't think of it that way.
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All right? The moral
compass wasn't inside.
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The moral compass was outside.
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The moral compass
was the values of your
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primary group
around you. All right?
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So, he says here
that your conscience--
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we would probably
use the word conscious.
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But conscious of
the values, okay?
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Your primary group has shifted.
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Your primary group used to
be the pagan culture around you.
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And now it has shifted.
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Now your primary group is
not this group around you.
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Your primary group is God.
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And you're
conscious of His value system.
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That's what happened
when you became a Christian.
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When you became
part of that community
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and all that covenant
ideas and built on them
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and all those
metaphors that we looked at,
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all these beautiful metaphors,
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you got a new
consciousness of who God is,
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and what His value system is.
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And notice-- so,
with that in mind
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read this verse again you see.
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He says, for this is commendable
thing when mindful of God,
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conscious of God
one endures sorrows
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while suffering unjustly.
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They are trying to
press you in to their mold.
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But you are un-swayed
because you are conscious of God
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and of His
value system. You see?
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And so they don't affect you
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because you see
something better.
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The marvelous light is
shining into your heart
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and it's keeping you
from all those things
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that are trying to get
you to go the wrong way.
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When they push and pull
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and try to force you
to go different ways.
00:11:26.18\00:11:29.13
And what about verse 20?
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It talks a little
of sinful behaviors.
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Should we read that verse? Yes.
00:11:33.78\00:11:36.34
"For what credit is
it if when you are beaten
00:11:36.37\00:11:39.28
by you faults you
take it patiently.
00:11:39.31\00:11:41.74
But when you do good
and suffer if you patiently
00:11:41.77\00:11:45.24
this is commendable before God."
00:11:45.27\00:11:48.02
Yes, you see now he contrasts
bad behavior and good behavior.
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Just like he's
been doing already.
00:11:52.69\00:11:54.27
Good and bad. Good and bad.
00:11:54.30\00:11:56.00
All the time, you know?
00:11:56.03\00:11:57.40
And what's the
Christians suppose to do,
00:11:57.43\00:11:59.21
embrace the good
and eschew the bad.
00:11:59.24\00:12:02.24
Stay away from that
which is bad, you see?
00:12:02.27\00:12:04.59
And hang on and link
up to that which is good.
00:12:04.62\00:12:10.02
Why does suffering unjustly
bring approval from God?
00:12:10.05\00:12:13.47
Well, this is a
rather deep question.
00:12:13.50\00:12:16.04
And we're gonna unpack it more
in the second half of this study
00:12:16.07\00:12:18.86
'cause we're gonna read the rest
00:12:18.89\00:12:20.26
of the passage in
our next time around.
00:12:20.29\00:12:23.50
But we can return at this point
to the language of justice.
00:12:23.53\00:12:27.51
When you do something righteous
00:12:27.54\00:12:30.27
and someone persecutes
you for it that is wrong.
00:12:30.30\00:12:35.24
When you do what's
right and they persecute you
00:12:35.27\00:12:36.72
for it that is wrong.
00:12:36.75\00:12:39.27
The world is
expressing its values
00:12:39.30\00:12:42.13
and trying to force
its perspective on you.
00:12:42.16\00:12:45.96
But God comes to
the aid of His people
00:12:45.99\00:12:49.19
and affirms
them with His values.
00:12:49.22\00:12:51.65
I am reminded of
Daniel Chapter 7.
00:12:51.68\00:12:55.43
The four beasts are all
chasing after the people of God.
00:12:55.46\00:13:00.28
And then the scene changes
and it's the judgment scene,
00:13:00.31\00:13:04.34
the great judgment scene
which we tend to be afraid of.
00:13:04.37\00:13:07.09
But in this
judgment scene it says,
00:13:07.12\00:13:09.94
judgment was given
in favor of the saints.
00:13:09.97\00:13:13.96
God comes to the
aid of His people.
00:13:13.99\00:13:16.02
He comes to their rescue.
00:13:16.05\00:13:17.99
And so it is here
the arbiter of the world,
00:13:18.02\00:13:21.47
the arbiter of
all which is right
00:13:21.50\00:13:23.26
will come to the
aid of His people.
00:13:23.29\00:13:25.30
He is standing by you
when you are suffering,
00:13:25.33\00:13:28.23
when you are doing what's right
00:13:28.26\00:13:29.66
and somebody tries to
force you to do what's wrong.
00:13:29.69\00:13:33.43
It's an amazing picture.
00:13:33.46\00:13:34.83
We're not done with this picture
00:13:34.86\00:13:36.23
because soon in our next program
00:13:36.26\00:13:39.43
we're gonna
turn and see somebody
00:13:39.46\00:13:43.15
who led the way
into the right path.
00:13:43.18\00:13:47.43
Dr. Shepherd, I want to
thank you for joining us
00:13:47.46\00:13:49.56
and I also look
forward to that next program.
00:13:49.59\00:13:51.89
And I'd like to take
this moment to invite
00:13:51.92\00:13:53.93
our viewers to join
us in this next program.
00:13:53.96\00:13:57.42
We are studying 1 Peter
00:13:57.45\00:13:59.32
and we're digging
more into the word of God.
00:13:59.35\00:14:02.42
God bless you till next time.
00:14:02.45\00:14:04.01