Civil Living

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF PETER

CIVIL LIVING

1 Peter 2:13-17

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 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 we cannot fully explore this portion of this letter without becoming political on some level. This is a directive, a command of God that we should respect those who are placed in authority to govern, including, which is very clear, the civil department of law enforcement, or the police. First, we should know that any of these people, from our President down to the newest and smallest police person can be both fairly good and entirely bad. That is not the point, but that as a believer we are admonished to give due respect to the law of our land, and to those who administer the law. It is our duty as believers, and thus it would seem totally out of character for any believer to slander or defame any authority over us. Again, without becoming judgmental, these current protests whether violent or not should not have a believer among them. However, having said that, our country, our religious freedom, is based on a protest, in fact, a revolution against an oppressive king. How do we deal with that? Many of those men who signed the declaration of Independent found themselves with troubled lives at the hand of war against the British. It was not a smooth transition from oppression to freedom. Were they Christians? If some were, had they disobeyed this portion of God’s word? History is never absolute as it comes from the hands of a human writer who may well be biased in some way. What we know is that today, we have the word of God, written by man, but inspired by God, and so we must, as believers give proper respect and obedience to the law of the land, and to submit to every authority instituted among men. When it comes down to the finest detail, we as believers should not be speeding or breaking the smallest fraction of the law. We are to live an absolute above-board life, doing all things properly according to the laws we live under and respecting those who render that law. By being the best at civil living, we should put our trust in God and our respect for everyone. Although we are free, we are also servants of God and should live as such, being obedient to his word. Do we fail at times? Sure, but our desire is not to fail but to live rightly as His people. When we use the word of God in such a way as to say that we should obey God over civil authority, could we be using our freedom as a cover-up for evil? Again, we should note that if the civil authority demands we disobey the law of God, such as in cases of morality, we must first obey God. Obeying God means to obey the civil authority instituted by men, which means it may not necessarily be instituted by God, although he is in control of all things. So let us live as God’s people. We reverence God, and we honor the President.