OK here we are. This is first and second Peter, the class for
second Peter: A message for today's church from Peter the Apostle.
This is Lesson number three in that series.
The meaning of grace: Submission. And if you're following along in your
own Bibles please open them first Peter chapter 2.
So we're going to talk about submission today. Submission is not
a socially or culturally popular idea in the time that we live in.
For example, the United States was established through revolution.
And we pride ourselves
on the idea that we have the freedom to say or to do anything that we want to,
any time, anywhere, pretty much. A lot of our
entertainment for example, especially comedy, is based on the ridicule of our
leaders. It's a form of rebellion. Whether you like them or not,
you flip through all the comedy shows and the main subject, the main topic
of comedy our leaders, our president, whoever that president it is, not just Mr.
Obama but any other president. There's always a lot of
ridicule heaped on that person. And if you look at the movies so on and so
forth, most of our heroes are men and women who defy authority and get
away with it. So it's difficult in this
culture in this atmosphere to cultivate a true Christian
culture of submission in this type of environment.
So in his epistle Peter the Apostle says that the experience
of God's grace will eventually create a new
person in us. A person who feels secure in their
salvation. A person who has changes in their
lifestyle, and changes that include Holy habits of
living, a greater respect for God, a new way of
loving, a different self image. No longer a sinner,
a worldly person, a rebel; but now a royal
priest, a chosen person belonging to a Holy Nation. And I'm
mentioning this very quickly, this is just review right.
We've already talked about this in the first couple of lessons, I'm just kind of packaging it
together to give you an idea of where Peter is going.
Someone who becomes a Christian becomes a new person and they feel different and they
act differently. And so far he's kind of listed some of the ways that
this new life affects someone and the point we're making is the thing that affects
us that brings us into this new life is that we've been exposed to the grace
of God, and God's grace has power.
It has power to change us in various ways. So in addition to the things that
I've just mentioned Peter shows that God's grace enables a
person to understand and accept that an important part of Christian
character is the ability to submit.
That's the point that he makes and it's the point that we're going to develop here
in the passage that we're looking at. So Peter will show that grace in one's
life means that this person is able to submit to all the
forms of authority that God has established, so that we can maintain
order in the world and in the family and in the kingdom of God.
There is no order without submission. If everybody's a
rebel there's chaos.
So let's talk about rebellion versus submission, just as a topic, before we
head into the into the scripture itself.
The root of a lot of problems is rebellion.
Before Adam sinned, before Adam there was
rebellion in the heavens. The Bible doesn't give a lot of details, but
Jude in his epistle tells us in verse 6 that the angels rebelled
in refusing to keep the positions that God assigned to them and they were cast down
by God. God assigned Angels a certain position, they
refused to remain in that position, some of them did. That was the rebellion.
And he cast them down. It was one of these rebellious angels,
Lucifer, who in the guise of a serpent tempted Eve, who caused
the fall of mankind. He was a rebel and he tempted man to become a
rebel as well. To rebel against the authority of God.
So the dictionary defines rebellion as the refusal to accept
authority. In common words: nobody is going to tell me
what to do. When you hear those words come out of somebody's mouth, you're
hearing the words of a rebel. Or to defy control by
another, or to oppose authority or government or
law. Now aside from the commands in the Bible that we obey
God's laws, we're also bound to obey the law and the
government of the land and that gets to be a little tricky.
Peter the Apostle refers to the spirit of rebellion that exists in
sinful people who resist every kind of authority and
secretly desire to do only what they want to do.
A lot of the pursuit of wealth,
anywhere, is usually fueled by the desire. They say, "I just I just
want to be independently wealthy."
That's code for, "I want to be rich enough so nobody can tell me what to do.
Because I got enough money. I don't have to depend on the government, a company..."
And so Peter explains that God's grace
acting in people's lives changes their basic aversion to any
kind of authority into one of submission to all forms of
legitimate authority. That's the point he's going to make.
All right so let's talk about submission. The term in the
Bible, anyways that they, in the Greek for submission or submit is
actually a military term which means to place one's self under.
It's a willing, a willingness to place one's self under. And it
was a military term. A military person sees a group of other military
people in varying rank and places himself or herself
under the ones that outrank them. There's no debate about this.
A private meets a captain, the private isn't,
"You salut." "No you Salut." "No You salute." That's settled in the
military. You salute who out ranks you. You don't even question it.
Now submission includes two actions.
What is submission, how does it feel?
What do I do? Number one: recognition. The recognition of one's
position whether it's an assigned position or a position based on
age or skill or whatever. It's the recognition of that position. You
know what position you have. And secondly,
and we're talking about biblical submission here: Willingness.
So submission includes recognition and willingness. Submission is
not defeat. It's an act of the will and accepting a role
or position or a task. Submission is not slavery.
Why? Because slaves don't have a choice.
So a slave is in submission to the master, but not by
choice.
That's why it's called slavery.
So submission is not slavery because slaves have no choice. Submission is a positive
response to accept our rightful place
whether that place is first or last.
John the Baptist, what did he say about Jesus? He understood, he said he must
increase and I must decrease. He understood his position.
So we live in an ordered universe, an order created by
God in order to provide for the greatest human fulfillment and joy.
Things are the way they are because God wants us to have a joyful life.
The problems began when the Angels refused to keep their
positions in this order. We can only speculate here, but they
either wanted to be on God's throne, or they refused to serve
mankind.
And when they were cast down, instead of serving man, because the Bible says that
angels are ministers to men, the rebellious angels instead of serving men
when they were cast down tried to destroy man.
That's what happened.
Humans on the other hand, they wanted to leave their positions. In other words, Adam and
Eve, Eve, the temptation. They wanted to be in God's position, to
know good and evil. And the result of course was spiritual rebellion,
and human sin, and the following destruction. So
after this initial rebellion by man
God established a temporary, here's the important word, a temporary order that
had three layers: government, society, family.
And he did this to guarantee some form of harmony in this sinful
world until Jesus returns, when this temporary order will be
abolished and a new order will be established never to be challenged
again. Remember we live in a fallen world. God has set certain
things in order to help us survive
in this fallen world. So people continue to rebel against this
temporary order in many ways and cause all kinds of
problems. So Peter says that when a person experiences God's
grace, that grace neutralizes that rebellious
spirit and that person is able to do several things. First, that
person is able to recognize the big picture and see his or her place in God's
plan.
Grace opens your eyes to
God's order.
We don't see that as sinners. And secondly
grace, according to Peter, enables a person to willingly
take their place whatever that is in order to serve and glorify God.
Before we're saved, we want to be God. We want to be in
charge of us, as much as we can. We want to be God. When
we're saved, when we receive God's forgiveness and his grace our eyes open up and
recognize, wait a minute, He's God. I'm the created thing.
I'm going to take my place under God where God wants me to be.
So rebellion does not glorify God. But accepting one's
place willingly and profitably,
this glorifies God and contributes to peace on earth and the growth of the
kingdom.
How far do you think this church would go if our seven elders were constantly at war
with one another. I mean I've been to those places, I've
been in those churches. I mean, you don't have to have seven or
15 elders. I've been in places where there were only three elders and one elder was at
war with the other two. Nothing happened in that church, nothing.
So rebellion, especially in the kingdom, is very debilitating. OK. So
that's the kind of setup here OK.
So in First Peter, that's at chapters 2 and 3, Peter
reviews how grace means submission in
these areas. So let's go to chapter two and begin reading from verse
11. The first thing he says is that Grace
enables submission to government. Verse
11 and 12: He says, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to
abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent
among the Gentile, so that is the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they
may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify
God in the days of visitation." So as Christians he said
they live in the same environment as the pagans do and therefore they are subject to the
same temptations and the same pressures as the pagans. And
Peter tells them that as Christians they are to act in a manner befitting their calling,
and in so doing, win the respect of the non-Christians. Don't feel
bad if you don't win over to the faith all the people, all the
nonbelievers around you.
I know Christians that take personal responsibility for that and they're feeling so bad, "Well I didn't
convert this person. I didn't get my boss and somebody at work talked me about Jesus and I didn't
manage to get him in the water." They feel bad about that. And Peter's not saying
"Try to convert everybody." That's not what he is saying. He is saying win their
respect. If they can respect you, if they can say for
example, "I don't believe what you believe.
But I believe that you really do believe what you believe.
And you walk the walk and you talk the talk.
I don't believe it. It's not for me but I can see that you sincerely are a religious
person." I mean that doesn't save their soul. But you have succeeded
in at least making a witness and that's what Peter's saying here.
These Christians the ones he's talking to in the letter. These Christians had left
paganism and they were being criticized by their pagan friends and relatives
for leaving the old religion. And Peter says that their good
conduct may work in such a way as to win these people over to the very religion
they criticize and end up glorifying God themselves.
That'd the great.
So it was especially important to have good conduct because in those days the
criticism was also coming from the government.
Christianity began to be outlawed. Do you
see what he's getting to here? Haven't you ever seen that on TV? Those
seriously ignorant people who
from one of the small churches, you know, they have maybe attendance of
25 people and they're all from the same family and they go around
picketing and carrying signs at the funerals of soldiers, of
military people, because the military has a policy about
homosexuals and they think, " We're making a real witness for God
by criticizing and by shaming and by
doing these things to men and women in the military who died for their country." They think
they get a lot of publicity. But when I see that on TV I
smacked my head. I said these guys making us all look dumb
because people out there are thinking yeah that's what Christianity is: mean, spirited
foolish, ignorant. So this is what Peter is
saying to that same problem 2000 years ago. He says, "Hey, act in a respectful
way. So you don't have the pagans criticizing you."
So God, he says, authorizes the idea of human government but
he doesn't specify or bless any particular form of government.
If your form of government is a king or governor or chiefs or presidents.
One form of government is not more especially blessed than another. Don't get me
wrong, one form of government may be more productive for citizens than
another. But as Christians we ought to be able to live under any
form of government and still practice our faith. So Peter shows them
that part of this acceptable behavior includes respect and obedience for
the, quote, form of government that existed at that time. And what form of government
existed at that time? Well a totalitarian regime called the Roman Empire.
You might not like the political party that's in power or the other political party trying to
get into power, but trust is nothing like the political power that existed 2000
years ago.
So in verse 13 to 17 he continues. He says, "Submit yourselves for the
Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,
or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of those
who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the
ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering
for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.
Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
So how and why are Christians to submit to civil authority?
Well first of all, they submit to civil authority
because it has been established by God in order to preserve order in society.
And this is regardless of the form or the style that that government takes.
Peter says to do so will remove any chance for nonbelievers to level
criticism at Christians. My job is not
to have a picket and march in front of the White House because I
don't like a particular policy of the government in power. I'm not saying we're not allowed
to do that, but I don't see that as my job.
My job is to proclaim the gospel. That's my job, and to make a good
witness of that.
Peter also says that the secret of living under any kind of human authority whether it's
a Democratic one, like here in the United States, or a despotic one like in
Iran. The way to live under any kind of
government is to realize three things: One we're free from
God's condemnation and the curse of the True Law. Therefore we are truly free.
The worst thing the government can do to me is put me in jail or kill me.
But my soul, my eternal life is safe with God at all times.
Secondly, if we realize that our purpose is to establish the kingdom of heaven on
earth, not any human kingdom on earth, let the pagans worry
about that.
Let the nonbelievers thirst and hunger for power in the temporal world, that's
not us. We're here saying you know the house is on fire. We're
saying come on get out of the house. Get out of the burning house, save yourselves.
While the rest of the world is trying to buy new furniture and move into various rooms in the house
that's burning down.
And thirdly he says, if we realize that we're slaves of God, and so no one can really
enslave us. We're already in submission to God.
So grace, he says, means that we submit to our human rulers
because in doing so we can carry out our true purpose in life.
And that is to serve our heavenly ruler. And so
grace enables us, steers, directs us towards submission
to government.
Secondly, grace enables submission to our
masters. In that day slavery was the
common social connection between employer and employee.
Today in most of the world, there are still places where there is
slavery, but in most of the world slavery does not exist
anymore. But Peter's teaching here applies to every relationship where one is in
charge and one must report.
OK.
I'm looking around and if you're not your own boss, you know, if you're working out at Tinker you can be a
G-29 or whatever it is, but there's always a G-31 somewhere, there's always
somebody on top of you right?
Even the president in the system that we have,
he has to report eventually to the people, doesn't he? The people will elect or re-elect him.
And in many instances cannot do certain things because the Congress has that power and so on and so
forth. Checks and Balances. So there's
always, you always have a boss somewhere.
So let's read the way Peter says in verse 2:18, he says, "Servants, be submissive to your masters
with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are
unreasonable." So Peter says that what counts as a Christian is your
attitude, not the attitude of your boss.
To be obedient or compliant to our bosses, managers, so on and so forth, that's our
choice and it's made easier or harder by them.
But it always remains our choice. Thankfully in this country if you have a boss that's just insufferable.
You can go get another job. That's why we're not slaves. We can, even though we may have a
great job and make money and so forth, if our boss is just unbearable
we can say, "You know what, here's my notice.
I'm going to do something else."
Verse 19 and 20 he says, "For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience
toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.
For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you
endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you
patiently endure it, this finds favor with God." So the purpose of our
attitude is our faith and our desire to please God. If we
endure injustice patiently, this pleases God. Not the fact that we're
suffering. He doesn't take enjoyment in our suffering. He's looking at
attitude. And if we suffer because of our own rebellion, well,
Peter says, well you're just getting what you deserve. No profit there. So
the objective an employee/employer relationship is not to win points, or rights, or
concessions, but to please God and win over our bosses respect and
ultimately his soul. Remember, we have tunnel vision as
Christians. We see other people potentially as
individuals who are in the kingdom. What can I do to affect this
person in such a way that they will you know be sympathetic towards hearing the
Gospel and obeying the gospel. He goes on, verse 21, and says, "For
you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you
to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any
deceit found in his mouth; And while being reviled, He did not revile in
return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept trusting Himself to Him
who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross,
so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd
and Guardian of your souls." So Peter says that the purpose we have been called,
and that's to become disciples of Christ, is to continue portraying
his example of pure living, of patience and suffering,
of soul winning.
Jesus had no sin. Well, we can't do that part but we can
strive for that. Jesus was patient in suffering. He did not revile
his attackers. Jesus was a soul winner by his
example we were saved. Is someone else being saved because of our example? That's the
point. Christ could have beaten the Jews and the Romans with His army of
angels but instead through His patience and submission to the Father He
won some of their souls.
He won over one of the thieves crucified. He won
over one of the soldiers who observed how he
died. He won over people.
So a great example for the day to day grind
of dealing with our superiors in school or work: that the the objective is not
winning over them but in winning them over.
And the first step towards this is submission,
submission.
And then he goes on to say that grace also means
submission in the family. So you know we saw government, society, master/
slave, employer/employee. Now the third layer which is family.
The most intimate relationship is the family and Peter shows how the spirit of
submission works in order to create stability in this
area as well. So now we're in chapter 3 verse 1. He says, "In the
same way, you wives be submissive to your own husband so that even if any
one of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the
behavior of their wives." So Peter speaks to those who are married to
nonbelievers because it seems that there may have been a question as to the
Christian woman's role in such a situation. She may have said, "Well I know the truth. I'm a saved
person.
I'm not in submission to this guy. C'mon, this guy he's not a believer."
And what does Peter say? No, this is not the way to, remember I said the tunnel vision, it's not the
way to win him over.
The submission of a wife to her husband was a clearly established idea in
Jewish culture. But Paul and now Peter confirmed that this is
God's plan for all married relationships in order to maintain order
and peace in the family. So the extra
dimension here is that this type of behavior is the only way that a Christian woman will
achieve her ultimate goal. That tunnel vision, the salvation of
her mate. So listen how he kind of goes through
it. He says, "As they [they meaning the unbelieving
spouse] as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not
be merely external- braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but
let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which is precious in the sight of God." One more.
"For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hope in God, used to adorn
themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him
Lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by
any fear." So here Peter details the character of that submissive
wife. Very interesting. First he says she is not spiritually
bossy. She is not spiritually bossy.
"Without a word" here doesn't mean
without, like the silent treatment. I've seen
women, their unbelieving husbands, Peter says without a word and they interpret
that as meaning I'm going to give my husband the silent treatment until he converts. Well
that's, if you do that long enough he won't convert.
He'll divorce you. That's all that will do.
"Without a word" means without showing off her spiritual
knowledge or pointing out her husband's spiritual failures. That's what it means.
You don't have to talk spiritual things. You don't have to point out their
spiritual deficiencies, without a word in that area.
So the question comes back, "Well if I don't go
around teaching him all the time, what do I do? How do I win him over?"
So then he explains, he says, "Well first by your pure and respectful
behavior." And when he says pure he means sexually pure
as a good witness and respectful in the sense that the
submissive, that the submission rather, is sincere and
not merely lip service.
And then he says confidence. Isn't that strange?
He he mixes the idea of winning over with a good example
respect, so on and so forth, and confidence. That he would mention confidence.
Submission doesn't mean slavery. A Christian woman has character and
strength and peace which are her inner beauty. These are
the things she concentrates on rather than the outward beauty.
Now I've seen people take this passage and extrapolate here that women,
Christian women are not allowed to wear jewelry, they can't wear nice clothes, they can't have their
hair done, they must never cut their hair. No jewelry, no makeup.
Again just bad.
That's just bad Bible interpretation, bad exegesis.
That's not what he's saying. He's saying, "Do not let these type of things
be the only things you're working on." The exterior
stuff. He doesn't say don't do that. He's saying don't let this be the
focus. The focus rather that will draw
her husband in to loving her to
being drawn by her spirituality are the qualities
that she works on on the inside: her sexual purity, her respect,
her courage. She's not afraid because there are plenty of things that
happen in life that can make a woman afraid. And
this woman, this Christian woman here, she is not afraid. She has
confidence in the future, confidence in her self, confidence in her
faith. These are the things that her husband will notice
and that he will continue to cherish long after the outward beauty will fade.
Let's face it, right?
We were all skinny and good looking at one time in our life. Well, maybe
not Bud,
but you know...
Right.
So he uses Sarah as an example. Sarah, he says, she
was a woman like this. And it was her strength and peace
that enabled her to submit to Abraham not her fear. A woman has to be
confident to be able to submit herself to her husband for the sake of her faith.
That requires strength to do that not weakness. So in 3:7
he says, "You husbands" and now he talks to the husbands, "You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an
understanding way as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her
honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered." Notice
many many verses complex nuanced verses for the women. Just
one verse for the guys, let's keep it simple for the guys, right?
He speaks to Christian husbands on the flip side of the issue. Pagan husbands will act
as they will with only the Christian attitude of their wives to save them.
But Christian husbands however,
have the responsibility to know, know meaning to understand
their wives and the special needs that they have because they are women and
mothers, and asked by God to submit to their husbands. A
husband, a Christian husband needs to understand that his wife is in submission to
him by choice. She has taken this great responsibility and placed
it into his hands.
And he needs to make an effort at understanding what that feels like.
What the value of that gift and the responsibility that he
has.
Weaker? Of course weaker, not mentally weaker, weaker like he's
190, six foot two, or you know whatever, and she is five foot two,
I'd never say a woman's weight, but anyway it's a lot less than him. Weaker
in that way. That's all he's saying. You need to remember your wife is a weaker person
than you.
So not to carefully provide that understanding in that care he says
is to hinder their own spiritual lives.
You know what the best compliment a wife can give to her husband the very
best? It's not, "Oh honey
you're so strong, you're so, you know, big strong guy. I just love
the way you drive your truck." That's not the best compliment a woman can
give a man, her husband.
The best compliment a woman can give, a wife can give her husband is this,
"Honey you know me so well."
When your wife says to you, "Sweetie you just know me so
well."
You're in the zone buddy. You're in the zone. She's
giving you the highest of compliments. It means you're paying
attention. You're knowing what she's thinking and what she is needing from
you. So
submission doesn't mean slavery and Peter reminds men of the equal
value and rewards that God sees women as having. And in the
context of grace, the subject matter we're talking about, grace enables a
woman to willfully accept a role that she would normally
reject or overthrow with her intelligence and guile.
No woman says, "You know what I think I want to grow up in order to be in submission to a
man." Who thinks like that? It's a
willful thing. It's a gift given. Why? Because
God has asked. And the same
grace enables a man to keep in check
his natural tendency to dominate by force one who is weaker.
When a woman understands that her husband will never ever under any
circumstances use his superior physical strength to
get his way.
When she knows that 100 percent true
then the husband has neutralized that thing about
himself in order to give his wife confidence.
He'll use his strength to protect her.
He'll use his strength to build their home. He'll use his
strength even give his life, to cover her. But
he will never use it to harm her.
That's the submission that men give to their wives. They lay
aside the one tool, the one thing they have,
were they could win every time, and they lay it down.
Never to pick it up and use it against their wives.
So submission is God's way of guaranteeing balance and
peace in the family until Jesus returns.
And then there will only be one family and no need for this. So let
me just kind of summarize here very quickly before we finish.
Peter tracks the various effects on one's life, as God's
grace leads the believer to experience a new
spirit of submission. So this
change will include a willingness to accept and
submit to authority when it has been established by God whether it's in
society or in our careers
or in our homes in our marriages. This new attitude
makes for a good witness for Christ wherever we are. And it guarantees
peace and harmony which are pleasing to God. We want peace and harmony
in our nation. We want peace and harmony in our careers. We want peace and harmony in
our families. Why? Because we've got this tunnel thing here. We've got a job
to do and the job we have to do is to win others for Christ. The job we
have to do as a group is to spread the Gospel and to nurture those in the faith and to
keep them faithful until the Lord returns. That's the thing that we've got to do. And
when there's chaos and rebellion and war and all those things whether it be in the government
or in our homes we can't do that job.
We're just too busy staying alive physically.
So Peter says if we don't know how to submit, Christians, well you know,
there's no hope for the world to even learn how to do. All right. So that's
this part of First Peter, our third lesson. We're going to continue next
time. I encourage you to read ahead. It makes a whole
lot more sense if you've read a couple of passages, a couple of chapters ahead. And we come
back and we drill deeper down into the meaning of it. That's it. Thank you.