Servants of God

DEVOTION 1 PETER SERVANTS OF GOD 1 Peter 2:16-17 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. NIV It would seem the Jews who were opposed by the Romans though because they serve a higher power rebellion against Rome was an acceptable action to participate in. But how do we relate to this admonishment from God today? It is true that if Jesus has set us free we are free indeed, but that is from the power of evil, and not from the law of the land. Open rebellion against the Government is simply not acceptable. But again in this United States believers are not being opposed by government, at least not yet, and so once again I wonder how I apply this truth to life today. I could think that as we believers have been set free from sin, we should not use that freedom to act in any manner we think is right, but to continue to always be in the service of God. Could we believers be guilty of not showing proper respect for other people? Could this especially be true of those who reject the Gospel message? Is having any form of superiority toward the unbeliever evil? The place where the rubber truly meets the road is in loving the whole brotherhood of believers. I think sometimes there is more tension then love between those of different denominations of believers. It might be easy, or maybe not so easy to love everyone in the same church, but how do we love someone who disagrees over certain doctrinal issues? Yet are we not supposed to respect and love them too. Do we not all fear or reverence God? Sometimes I wonder if we believers forget to fear God and do things to please our own being, even if it is not pleasing to him. I think no matter the doctrinal differences all believers might have we should still respect each other and love each other. Unity in our faith in God is essential. I think that is living as free men and servants of God.