Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00008B
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00:01 And welcome back to "Books Of The Book".
00:02 We are talking about submission 00:04 to greater powers or authorities. 00:06 And, Dr. Shepherd, how is a Christians 00:08 supposed to relate to the government authorities? 00:11 Now, this is a good question because we all are in countries 00:14 where we have relationships to government authorities 00:17 and how should we relate to them. 00:20 Peter talks about been submissive. 00:23 But, we notice something that he says here and he-- 00:26 shall I say modifies or helps us to understand 00:32 what exactly that submission involves. 00:34 Because he says in verse 14, 00:36 "The governors who are sent by him to punish those 00:38 who do evil and to praise those who do good." 00:42 The government officials are the guardians of good in society 00:50 and the punishers of bad in society. 00:53 That is their role, their God given role. 00:58 So, some one might say, 01:00 "Well, how should I relate to them 01:02 if they don't do that?" 01:04 Or if there is corruption even in authority? 01:07 In the corruption. Yeah. 01:08 Now, we're gonna come to in a little bit down. 01:10 He is gonna talk about some corruption things 01:12 a little bit later here. But... 01:17 Peter always links these ideas of power 01:22 with the ideas of ethics of justice of right and wrong. 01:27 Okay? And so, 01:30 you submit to them as far as they go 01:33 in their God given authority. 01:36 When they step out of their God given authority 01:39 you have a superior relationship to God that overtakes 01:45 that inferior relationship to the governing authority. 01:50 So, if you think of it, God is at the top, 01:52 governing authoritys, and you here. 01:55 If the governing authority doesn't do what God says 01:57 they stepped out of the way. 01:58 Now it's direct to God. 02:00 Whatever God says that's what you do 02:01 and you may have to disobey them. 02:03 This is what your apostle said to the religious leaders. 02:05 "We must obey God rather than men." 02:07 When men step out of the line 02:09 of which God has ordained for them to do 02:11 we don't obey them any more. Okay? 02:13 And in some locations we have this thing 02:17 we call civil disobedience. 02:19 Now, that should never be violent. 02:21 The Christian's not call to violence. 02:22 The Christians call to peace. 02:24 But there may be times when we have to say 02:26 "No, this is an unjust law" and we have to stand up to it 02:29 and say that it's wrong. 02:31 Not in violent way but in a non-violent way, 02:34 where we may have to protest, we may have to--you know, 02:38 there might be any variety of things that might be done 02:40 that simply state to the governing authorities, 02:43 "No, you have gone beyond your rightful role." 02:46 And that's proper for Christians to do 02:48 in whatever society that they are in. 02:50 Now, there is a price to pay for that, frankly. 02:53 And that price can be very harsh. 02:56 But it's still being faithful to Christ to stand 02:59 for what is true and not to give in to the evil. 03:02 Too many times we don't want to make waves. 03:08 And also we should make waves unnecessarily. 03:10 But, when some thing is wrong we should say it's wrong. 03:14 And so there are certain limits to this submission, you see? 03:19 So, he talks about honoring everyone, 03:22 loving the brotherhood, fearing God, 03:24 and even honoring the emperor. 03:26 Not dishonoring him. 03:28 But remember, God is above the emperor. 03:31 You fear God, you honor the emperor. 03:33 And if the emperor is something that's shameful 03:36 you don't honor that. All right? 03:39 So, it's a pretty clear picture about the Christians role 03:43 with in the powers structures in which they find themselves. 03:46 Okay? 03:50 This brings us then to verse 18. 03:53 "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, 03:58 not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh"? 04:05 19? Yeah, okay. 04:06 Read verse 19 and 20. 04:09 "For this is commendable, if because of conscience 04:12 toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. 04:16 For what credit is it if, when you are beaten 04:19 for your faults, you take it patiently? 04:22 But when you do good and suffer, 04:24 if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God." 04:30 All right, now, the people that he's talking to here 04:33 are household servants or slaves. 04:35 And it's a scandal to many people 04:42 that the New Testament does not outright do away with slavery. 04:47 You know, it didn't just say 04:51 "That's wrong. Don't do it. 04:53 Stop. Allow the slaves to go free". 04:55 You know, it doesn't say that. 04:57 Now, we have to place that in within context. 05:01 Slavery in the ancient world 05:05 was different than slavery in this country 05:10 in the United States 150, 200 years ago. 05:17 Slavery is, we can say, an evil in our world 05:21 that has existed in the world. 05:22 Now unfortunately it still continues 05:24 to exist in some places today. 05:25 Slavery is wrong. Slavery is an evil. 05:29 Bible religion worked to limit the evil 05:34 and to change and abolish it over time. 05:38 If you read the New Testament carefully 05:39 you will see that it undermines the concepts of slavery. Okay? 05:46 Now in the Greco-Roman world, as I said, slavery was different 05:51 than slavery was here in the United States. 05:53 How was it fdifferent? 05:55 Slaves could own property in that ancient world. 05:59 Slaves could own other slaves. 06:01 Some times slaves have very important positions as leaders, 06:06 even ambassadors, and education of slaves were encouraged. 06:11 People sold themselves or their children 06:14 sometimes into slavery. 06:17 Slaves had a place, they had a room, 06:20 they had board, they had a family 06:21 that they belong to and they were part of. 06:24 Most urban slaves in the ancient world were free 06:27 by the age of thirty. Okay? 06:30 But also of course there were abuses of slavery, 06:33 sexual use and sexual abuse of slaves, 06:36 mistreatment, and you know, these were all very wrong. 06:41 The use of ethical language in describing the masters 06:45 and their actions is interesting here. 06:48 I was confronted on this issue 06:51 as I was teaching this one time in class. 06:56 A student who was from another country 07:01 described the experience in his country 07:04 where there were marauding band of young men 07:07 who were intimidating people. 07:08 He was a student at that time. 07:11 A group of this marauding young man with weapons 07:15 came up to him and his friends and started to intimidate them 07:19 and they bravely withstood them. 07:21 And the students said to me, 07:23 "You can't just submit to these people. 07:25 You have to resist them." 07:28 And here I was in the class room. 07:30 You know, I wasn't going to say 07:31 "You are wrong," not obviously like that. 07:34 And I appreciate what he said because it forced me to go back 07:38 and look more closely at the language of 1 Peter. 07:42 And here is what I saw. 07:44 Peter never separates the language of submission 07:48 from the language of justice. 07:52 Peter never separates the language of submission 07:54 from the language of justice. 07:56 That is, there is a right and wrong. 07:59 A standard of right and wrong. 08:02 And you submit, but only to a point. 08:05 And you notice that when he describes 08:07 the masters what he says. 08:08 "Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, 08:11 not only to the good," now there's a moral word. 08:14 "And gentle but also to the unjust." 08:17 The crooked ones. He says what? 08:20 Keep reading, "For this is a--" 08:22 Well, my version says "a gracious thing." 08:26 What does yours say? Commendable. 08:28 Yeah, commendable is actually a better translation. 08:30 The term is the word "grace" Charis. 08:34 But, here the term grace 08:37 is being used in its secular sense, 08:39 which meant the idea of credit. Okay? 08:42 So, it's commendable, it is credit when you are doing 08:49 what is right and being unjustly treated. 08:56 Notice he says "You are suffering unjustly." 09:00 It's wrong what they are doing. 09:02 Now, there is another word here that's very fascinating. 09:06 It's the word "conscience". 09:09 Does yours have the word conscience? 09:10 It says conscience towards God. 09:12 Conscience towards God. 09:14 Tell me what is the conscience? 09:17 Well, the conscience is-- allows me to--I would say, 09:22 distinguish or discern between right and wrong. 09:25 Yeah. Okay, it's like an internal moral compass. Right? 09:29 If you can say that, yeah. 09:31 Yeah, like an internal moral compass 09:32 that points you in the right way. 09:34 In the ancient world they didn't think of it that way. 09:37 All right? The moral compass wasn't inside. 09:42 The moral compass was outside. 09:45 The moral compass was the values of your 09:50 primary group around you. All right? 09:54 So, he says here that your conscience-- 09:59 we would probably use the word conscious. 10:02 But conscious of the values, okay? 10:06 Your primary group has shifted. 10:11 Your primary group used to be the pagan culture around you. 10:15 And now it has shifted. 10:17 Now your primary group is not this group around you. 10:20 Your primary group is God. 10:23 And you're conscious of His value system. 10:27 That's what happened when you became a Christian. 10:29 When you became part of that community 10:30 and all that covenant ideas and built on them 10:32 and all those metaphors that we looked at, 10:34 all these beautiful metaphors, 10:35 you got a new consciousness of who God is, 10:39 and what His value system is. 10:42 And notice-- so, with that in mind 10:43 read this verse again you see. 10:45 He says, for this is commendable thing when mindful of God, 10:51 conscious of God one endures sorrows 10:54 while suffering unjustly. 10:57 They are trying to press you in to their mold. 11:02 But you are un-swayed because you are conscious of God 11:09 and of His value system. You see? 11:12 And so they don't affect you 11:13 because you see something better. 11:16 The marvelous light is shining into your heart 11:19 and it's keeping you from all those things 11:21 that are trying to get you to go the wrong way. 11:24 When they push and pull 11:26 and try to force you to go different ways. 11:29 And what about verse 20? 11:31 It talks a little of sinful behaviors. 11:33 Should we read that verse? Yes. 11:36 "For what credit is it if when you are beaten 11:39 by you faults you take it patiently. 11:41 But when you do good and suffer if you patiently 11:45 this is commendable before God." 11:48 Yes, you see now he contrasts bad behavior and good behavior. 11:52 Just like he's been doing already. 11:54 Good and bad. Good and bad. 11:56 All the time, you know? 11:57 And what's the Christians suppose to do, 11:59 embrace the good and eschew the bad. 12:02 Stay away from that which is bad, you see? 12:04 And hang on and link up to that which is good. 12:10 Why does suffering unjustly bring approval from God? 12:13 Well, this is a rather deep question. 12:16 And we're gonna unpack it more in the second half of this study 12:18 'cause we're gonna read the rest 12:20 of the passage in our next time around. 12:23 But we can return at this point to the language of justice. 12:27 When you do something righteous 12:30 and someone persecutes you for it that is wrong. 12:35 When you do what's right and they persecute you 12:36 for it that is wrong. 12:39 The world is expressing its values 12:42 and trying to force its perspective on you. 12:45 But God comes to the aid of His people 12:49 and affirms them with His values. 12:51 I am reminded of Daniel Chapter 7. 12:55 The four beasts are all chasing after the people of God. 13:00 And then the scene changes and it's the judgment scene, 13:04 the great judgment scene which we tend to be afraid of. 13:07 But in this judgment scene it says, 13:09 judgment was given in favor of the saints. 13:13 God comes to the aid of His people. 13:16 He comes to their rescue. 13:18 And so it is here the arbiter of the world, 13:21 the arbiter of all which is right 13:23 will come to the aid of His people. 13:25 He is standing by you when you are suffering, 13:28 when you are doing what's right 13:29 and somebody tries to force you to do what's wrong. 13:33 It's an amazing picture. 13:34 We're not done with this picture 13:36 because soon in our next program 13:39 we're gonna turn and see somebody 13:43 who led the way into the right path. 13:47 Dr. Shepherd, I want to thank you for joining us 13:49 and I also look forward to that next program. 13:51 And I'd like to take this moment to invite 13:53 our viewers to join us in this next program. 13:57 We are studying 1 Peter 13:59 and we're digging more into the word of God. 14:02 God bless you till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17