Presented to the Swift Current Corps, 27 February 2011
(Variation presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 12 October 2022)
By Captain Michael Ramsay
To view a 2022 version of this sermon, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2022/10/romans-131-7-daniel-3-6-and-1-peter-213.html
Our Scripture today, 1 Peter 1:13 says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority…” Now, like the Harders did just the other week, a couple of summers ago, Susan the kids and I went to Disney World in Florida and down there we saw a Star Wars exhibit. Rebecca really loves Star Wars. You know Star Wars, right? In the original the good guys (Luke and Princess Leah) wear white, the bad guy (Darth Vader) wears black and Darth Vader, by using the force, can move things and even choke people without even touching them. I have a clip about Star Wars. It’s actually a TV commercial, I don’t know if everyone has seen it before but here it is…
Parental authority figures really come through in that clip: it is good to defer to authority and our scripture today, 1 Peter 2:13 says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority…” and myself, for the record, I am usually very good at that these days. I remember when Susan, the girls and I went down to Florida. Has anyone besides the Harders traveled down to the USA in the last decade or so since 9/11 and all the American-led wars 9/11 inspired? Their aero ports can be more than a little intimidating. Especially in the south, they have warning messages coming frequently over their loudspeakers letting you know that any perceived threat to their national security will not be tolerated; combine this with the images that we have all seen of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and other US run prisons and combine this with the fact that the USA has more of its own people behind bars than any other country in the whole world and combine this with the fact that people can wind up in one of their prisons for a long time for things that we would just consider a ticket-able offense up here and it can be quite intimidating.
While we were down there we got quite a few souvenirs from Disney World –of course- and the girls each picked out a particularly special gift: one that meant a lot to them. Rebecca picked out one of these plastic imitation light sabers from Star Wars and it meant the world to her. Now I am in full uniform as we are flying home. This is actually Salvation Army policy for when we are traveling that we should be sure that we are in uniform so I am. We are navigating the US aero port to board the plane to come home and there is someone operating the conveyor belt at aero port security that we all have to pass through. He stops us. He pulls out Rebecca’s plastic sword of light toy -of all things- and tells us that we can’t board the plane with it so he is confiscating it. Well, at this point like any submissive foreigner being intimidated and instructed what to do by the Empire of our day, and especially while wearing my full uniform representing The Salvation Army, and knowing full well the benefits of submitting to authority, and like our scripture today says about submitting to authority; when he confiscates Rebecca’s light saber and says she can’t take it on the plane, I reach over the conveyor belt and take it back. He reaches for it again. I pull it away from him. He says, “You can’t take weapons on the plane.”
I say, as respectfully as possible, “You do realize this isn’t a weapon, don’t you?
He says, “you can’t even have something on the plane that looks like a real weapon.”
I say, as deferentially as possible, “You do realize that Stars Wars is imaginary don’t you? And that there is no such thing as a real light saber?”
Our verse today says to submit to authorities. So here I am in full Salvation Army uniform with my wife and kids in tow, in front of a whole line of people, having a stand off with US aero port security and holding a plastic toy when he calls for back up. His boss comes. I explain that the security officer, won’t let us on the plane with this toy that means the world to my daughter and I explain to him that this isn’t a replica of a real weapon – light sabers are not real. Well, the security officer’s boss goes to speak to his boss, and to make a long story very much shorter, here is the light saber.
So, everyone, the moral of this story: Be like the aero port security guy and do what you boss tells you and, oh yes… and don’t be scared of plastic imaginary toys - they won’t hurt you. Or as our text today says…
1 Peter 2:13-14: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” Peter, in 1 Peter here, then goes on to talk about how we are to submit to the government, our employers and our spouses. I was originally going to speak about all three of these categories of authority mentioned here but there just isn’t enough time so I will just speak about the general authorities and maybe briefly touch upon the others.
About submitting to the government, the author of this letter, 1 Peter, refers specifically to the political authorities of his day - the King or the Emperor depending on your translation. The rough equivalent in our world today would be the Prime Minister, Premier, your MLA, or MP. It could even be the equivalent of the President of USA. The Emperor was the supreme authority in their world. After mentioning the Emperor or King, Peter goes on to mention those who interpret and enforce the laws for him: the governors who are sent to commend those who need commendation and to punish those who need punishing.[2] You remember Pontius Pilate from the Easter story; he was a governor (cf. Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 3:1; Luke 13:1; Luke 23; John 18-19). He was a politician and a judge who had authority over the Roman soldiers. His role in our society is represented by a few organizations. This position of governor would roughly translate to the chief of the police and the police officers who bring people before the judges, the judges who decide who will be exonerated and who will be punished and his responsibilities would even cover those of the prison authorities and parole officers and others who enforce what the judges decide. The Emperor and Governors would be the primary human political authorities in Peter’s day and in 1 Peter 2:13 it says that we are to submit ourselves to every human authority.
That was in the Bible times and in ancient Rome. Now, the world is 2000 years removed from ancient Rome though; so the question inevitably arises: does this apply to us today? What do we do when the authorities today more and more in this country seem to be opposed to God? We have another federal cabinet minister in the news these days. This one for altering an official document so as to avoid giving a Christian organization grant money (that CIDA had decided) they deserve and our Prime Minister, instead of asking for her resignation, is standing behind her in her admitted fraud for the purpose of denying support to a Christian organization.[3] Our successive minority governments in recent years in this country have passed legislation that can see the Bible labeled as hate literature.[4] The Supreme Court, our provincial MLA and Premier of the Province this past month have decided that proponents of the secular religion can force other faiths to do their bidding relating to the marriage commissioner ruling.[5] This is horrible and some of the people in positions of authority who are making these decisions against the church are churchgoers themselves! This is what our local MP, David Anderson, rightly says about the recent governmental attack on Christians and attempt to privatize religion; he says:
“No Person who has an active faith perspective keeps that as ‘private’ and separate from all other areas of their life. The idea is laughable – to live with one set of beliefs and to act in a way contrary to them has a name in our society – hypocrite. Had this perspective been in place in the past centuries the slave trade would still exist, child labour would be common, women would still be second class citizens and there would be no public school system
The court’s attempt to privatize all religious/faith perspectives must be opposed…”[6]
But, 1 Peter 2:13: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority.” Does this still apply in our evil world of today? What are we to do when the authorities seem opposed to God? We’ve spoken before about the persecution municipal governments in Ontario and school boards in BC are visiting upon Christians.[7] How do we submit to the authorities when they are explicitly or implicitly supporting the privatization of faith perspectives and the secular religion’s attack on Christ? Are we to do that? Does this apply in that case? Are we to still submit to the authorities? I think we are but there is more to it. [8]
Remember that when and where Peter wrote this letter the Christians were being actively persecuted not only by religious authorities and other Jewish sects but they were also beginning to be persecuted by Rome –the superpower- itself.[9] Emperor Claudius had actually banished the Christians from the city of Rome in 49 CE a few years before this letter was written.[10] And Peter’s and Judea’s Emperor at this time is Roman, the Governor is Roman, the soldiers are Roman and Romans (for the most part) are not Christians. Christians are beginning to be persecuted by the authorities, the occupying forces, the Superpower of their day. Those in authority over the recipients of this letter are not Christians; some of those in authority are attacking the church the same way many of our elected officials in this country seem to be attacking the church. Nero was probably Emperor when this letter was written and tradition has it that Peter was executed under Nero’s authority,[11] so why does Peter say 1 Peter 2:13: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority”?
Verses 15 of 1 Peter 2 records some of an answer, “For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.” So we do submit ourselves to the authorities over us remembering still at the same time like Peter, who is probably in a Roman jail as he writes this letter, that people respect those who actually stand up for what they say they believe in – otherwise we are just hypocrites. We cannot be ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1:16,17). We need to stand up for what we actually believe but we need to make sure we do so in such as way that, as the scriptures say, we will silence our detractors instead of giving into our impulses to antagonize them and bring down their understandable retaliation on ourselves and on Christ. I have an example of this – needlessly making things worse – that we are to avoid. A friend of mine, Frank, likes to tell amusing anecdotes that end with, “…and that’s how the fight started.” Someone does something like we are talking about here … ‘and that’s how the fight started’. This is one story he told the other week. There was this fellow in a car and he rear-ends this other car. The guy in the other car gets out and he is livid; he comes storming to the fellow’s car – oh yah, the guy who gets out of the car is a midget. The midget gets to the fellow’s window, he’s livid, and he says, “I’m not happy”
“Which one are you then?” says the fellow, “Grumpy?”...And that’s how the fight started.
The fellow’s response didn’t help things. We’re not supposed to push people’s buttons. We’re not supposed to antagonize those in authority over us especially. We always need to stand up for God but when doing so, it is very important that we respect the authorities. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did, as relayed to us in the sermon Sarah-Grace shared on youth Sunday: remember when they stood up to the authorities (Daniel 3),[12] they never insulted the king. They were very respectful even though they were slated for state execution (Daniel 3:9, 28-30). As a result of the grace of God and through their deference to authority, the King ultimately declared, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego [will suffer the consequences] …for no other god can save in this way” (Daniel 3:28-29). They, Verse 17, submitted to God and they -and in all likelihood, the King as well - were saved (cf. Daniel 4, 5:21). We know too that Peter himself accepts his martyr’s crown from the Roman authorities about whom he is writing specifically in this letter; he is respectful to the authorities as it written here but he is killed for disobeying their laws by being a Christian nonetheless. God then uses Peter’s deference and obedience to authority in his boldness for the Gospel and eventually the whole Roman becomes Christian. We should never shy away from standing up for our faith but it is important that we are to do this effectively by deferring to authority (cf. Matthew 10:16); we aren’t supposed to be slaves to our own pride or petty feelings, verses 16 and 21 (1 Pet. 2:18; 3:1, 5, 22; cf. Exodus 1:17; Daniel 3:13–18; 6:10–24; Acts 4:18–20; 5:27–29; Hebrews 11:23). Remember too, the Apostle Paul, who writes much the same things about respecting authorities in his letter to the Romans and elsewhere[13] (Romans 13:1-7; cf. Colossians 3:18-4:1; Ephesians 5:21-6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:28; cf. also Luke 2:51; 10:17; James 4:7; Titus 2:9, 3:1-2); he also receives his martyr’s crown via a state execution and he also refuses to disrespect the authorities God placed over him (cf. Acts 23:1-5). And do you remember the story of Daniel in the Lion’s den (Daniel 6:21-28)? A new law is passed saying that if you pray to YHWH or anyone other than the king, you will be killed. Daniel always used to pray publicly in his open window. The law is passed and Daniel still continues to pray in front of the open window and when he is dragged in front of the King, he is still respectful of the King (Daniel 6:21). The King’s heart goes out to Daniel even as he goes in and out of the lion’s den and at the end of the day, the King is overjoyed at Daniel’s survival and issues a decree that in every part of his kingdom people must fear and reverence YHWH, the God of Daniel (Daniel 6:23, 26-27). 1 Peter 2:17, we are to “show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honour the emperor.” Verse 15, “For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.” And that is exactly what God did (Daniel 6:24). Jude relays the apocryphal story to us as well of how the angel Michael in confronting Satan did not even get dragged into exchanging insults but rather left his rebuke to the Lord (Jude 1:9). Peter then moves on to speaking about how these same basic principles should affect every aspect of our lives even our work relationships and marital relationships.
Last time I spoke here, we will remember that Peter told us to be holy as God is holy[14]: "In his death and resurrection, Jesus' holiness or sanctification became the measure and standard of all holiness, whether of places, times, things, or persons”[15] (cf. John 10:36; 17:17-19; I Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; 12:14-24; 13:12-14). This week in this same letter Peter, 1 Peter 2:13, tells us that a big part of this holiness is to submit ourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority – be it the politician, the policeman, the judge, our employer, or our spouse and as we humble ourselves in this way for the kingdom of God, Christ will inevitably be exalted. And as we humble himself for him, he will indeed lift us up and who knows, as we politely and deferentially have respect for our government officials, our bosses, our husbands and wives; while at the same time, not shirking our responsibility to share the gospel with them. Maybe some of them like presumably Shadrach’s Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar; Daniel’s Persian king Darius; The Roman Emperor Constantine and others; maybe -in our boldness for Christ- as we submit to the authorities; maybe our bosses, our spouses, our political leaders and other authorities; maybe those in our lives who haven’t already made a commitment; maybe they will all accept Christ and, if they do, what a day of rejoicing that will be.
Let us pray.
[2] Cf. Edwin A. Blum, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Peter/Exposition of 1 Peter/III. Christians Submission and Gods Honor (2:11-3:12)/B. The Duty of Christian Submission (2:13-3:7)/1. The submission to civil authority (2:13-17), Book Version: 4.0.2
[3] Laura Payton, 'MPs target Harper over Oda controversy'
(CBC News Posted: Feb 20, 2011 12:56 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 20, 2011 12:56 AM ET) Available on-line: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/02/20/pol-oda-feb18.html Cf. Lorna Dueck, 'The Bev Oda affair: Misreading the Christian Voter' CBC News (Posted: Feb 21, 2011 2:28 PM ET Last Updated: Feb 21, 2011 3:23 PM ET) Available on-line: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/02/21/f-vp-dueck.html
[4] Cf. Catholic World News Brief, “CANADIAN COURT AGREES THAT BIBLE IS HATE LITERATURE,” EWTN: Global Catholic News Network, (February 11, 2003), available on-line at www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=33759
[5] In Canada to this point in our history we have managed to avoid the sin of the separation of church and state. In the Quebec Act of 1774, in anticipation of the horrors of the American Revolution, instead of subjecting the population to a separation of Church and State, we actually granted religious freedom to Canadians. Up until now we were not bound by the secular idea of separating church from the functions of state in this country but things are changing.
[6] David Anderson, ‘MP David Anderson Opposes Saskatchewan Government’s decision to accept court’s marriage commissioner ruling’ (January 18, 2011), available on-line: http://www.davidanderson.ca/
[7] Cf. Sheep Speak Commentary: Christian Persecution (Part 1), Jan 26, 2007.
[8]Cf. Wayne A. Grudem, 1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 17), S. 125
[9] But cf. Edwin A. Blum, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Peter/Exposition of 1 Peter/III. Christians Submission and Gods Honor (2:11-3:12)/B. The Duty of Christian Submission (2:13-3:7)/1. The submission to civil authority (2:13-17), Book Version: 4.0.2
[10] Cf. N.T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” Pauline Theology, Volume III, ed. David M. Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995): 38-39.
[11] Simon J. Kistemaker, Commentary the First Epistle of Peter (NTC: Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 99.
[12] Sarah-Grace Ramsay, 'Daniel 3: ‘Keep on Loving’ like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo', presented to Swift Current Corps on 30 January 2011, available on-line: http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html#8941916756465676379
[13] Cf. Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1995), 48
[14] Captain Michael Ramsay, 1 Peter 1:16 (Leviticus 19:2): God says, “…be holy because I am holy”, presented to the Swift Current Corps 13 February 2011, available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/02/1-peter-116-lev-192-god-says-be-holy.html
[15] Paul Minear, Interpretation Vol. 37 Issue no. 1, Jan 1983, p. 22.
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