1 Peter 2:13-17
13 For the Lord's sake accept the
authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, 14 or
of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those
who do right. 15 For it is God's will that by doing right you should silence
the ignorance of the foolish. 16 As servants of God, live as free people, yet
do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. 17 Honor everyone. Love the
family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Once upon a time, if you needed to
find the answer to a question or find a source of information, you would find
your way to the local library, shuffle through the card catalog, select a book
from the shelf, turn to the table of contents or index, then scan the selected
pages hoping to find the information you needed. Sometimes you’d find what you
were looking for, and other times you’d have to start all over. There was a
great deal of work involved, and often to no avail. But thanks be to God that
you and I live in the age of the internet and that wonderful tool called
Google. Now, if you’re not familiar with Google, it’s what we call a search
engine for the World Wide Web. It actually works pretty easy.
Let’s say, for instance, you wanted
to look up how to tie a bow tie. All you’d have to do is go to Google.com and
in the search bar type in the phrase “how to tie a bow tie.” You’ll receive
well over 38 million responses, including step-by-step videos to show you
exactly how to tie a bow tie. No need for the card catalog or the Dewey decimal
system. No need to find someone out in the world who knows what you need to
know. All it takes is an internet connection, a computer, and a few mouse
clicks.
Google is far and away the most
widely used search engine. It’s used so much in fact, that the word “Google” is
also commonly used as a verb: “Just
Google it.” One of the unique features of the Google search engine is that it
can often guess what you are searching for before you can complete typing in
your question. It can do this because it uses an algorithm that takes all of
the searches put into the site and can list the most common search inquiries
based on character and word order. In other words, Google can guess what you’re
looking for based on how many times the same words and phrases have been typed
in the site.
On Google’s sister site YouTube.com
(a site where you can watch countless user videos of everything from cats
playing keyboards to how to change the spark plugs on an old MG), a person
known by the username “mustardseed” uploaded a video showing how Google’s
auto-complete feature works when one types in the phrase, “Why are Christians
so…” The results weren’t pretty; Google often completed the sentence by saying
things like “Why are Christians so arrogant…crazy…defensive…hateful…ignorant…unlike Christ.” It was that last one
that titled the video, and it was that auto-complete that got me.[1] At
first, I thought maybe the creator of the video was just sharing a select
number of the searches in order to prove a point…that was, until I tried it
myself. I typed in the phrase “Why are Christians so…” into Google on my laptop
and then hit each letter on the keyboard to see how Google and the rest of the
world completed that sentence. Well, we believers are in luck! When I typed in
the letter “k” the only response was “Why are Christians so kind?” Every other
letter, however, yielded negative words…really negative words. This is
troubling, because it means that the rest of the world is asking why we
Christians are so hateful, ignorant, angry, pro-war, homophobic, and unlike Christ. The rest of the world
sees our behavior, hears our words, and asks “Why are Christians so unlike
Christ?”
Have we used the freedom we have in Jesus
to ruin our witness to a lost and hope-hungry world? Are those of us who strive
to follow Jesus in word and deed simply overshadowed by those who claim the
label Christian and hog the headlines and cramp the evening news all in the
guise of religious freedom? Is this how it’s supposed to be? Can we really be
comfortable with the well-worn excuses that the world doesn’t understand us, or
that we are somehow being persecuted by our neighbors because they just don’t
get our beliefs? Should we simply shrug our shoulders at such a problem and say
there’s nothing we can do…or should we take up the words of Scripture we have
read here today that call us to do the will of God so “that by doing right [we] should
silence
the ignorance of the foolish?”
These words we have read here today
come from a letter written “To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (1:1).” In other words, this
epistle (presumably written by the Apostle Peter) is addressed to Christians
who are surrounded by unbelievers, spread throughout the Roman Empire of the
late first century. Now, things weren’t exactly easy for those believers, but
they weren’t quite as bad as they became under emperors like Nero in later
years. These believers were living among a people who had little more than
assumptions and hearsay about who exactly these people called Christians were.
The words of this epistle are written with the intent of lifting up the
believers scattered among these Roman cities; they are words of encouragement
and words of direction, and the words we have heard here today are words that
serve to remind us that, like them, we live a world that is always watching us,
always aware of the claims we make about Christ, always waiting to see if we
will come through with the grace we proclaim or if we will shrink back into
judgmental selfishness.
Now, at first reading, one may be
tempted to think that the apostle is claiming that accommodation and
assimilation are the proper ways to conduct oneself as a follower of Christ in
society. The words in verses 13-14, and
17 may lead us to conclude that we should simply recognize those who are
put in charge of government and obediently follow their every command. While
this is true to some extent, it isn’t the reason these words were included
here. You see, this section follows an admonition to live as servants of God,
and it precedes a list of what we call “household codes” that instruct
believers on how to conduct themselves in the commonly accepted social
structures of the time. With that in mind, these words we’ve read in verses 13-17 encourage us to live as
exemplary servants of God within the social structures in which we find
ourselves. In other words, as we live in this world—in our own context—we as
Christians ought to be the exemplary citizens. Those of us who follow Christ
ought to be the ones that others point to as the societal example.
See, in verse 14, when the apostle speaks of “governors…sent…to praise those
who do right,” he has in mind the ceremonies that often took place
where local governors would praise those upstanding citizens who proved
valuable and important to the community. It would be like someone being awarded
a key to the city by the mayor for service to the city. The apostle is
suggesting that Christians shouldn’t be quiet and reserved citizens, but be
actively involved in society while living out the gospel as servants of God.
Furthermore, by doing such things they would be doing the will of God, for verses 15 and 16 say, “it
is God's will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the
foolish. As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom
as a pretext for evil.” The apostle admonishes believers to use the
freedom afforded us by Christ (and in our case, this country) to do good, to
live exemplary lives in our society, and by doing so we silence those who view
us nothing more than hateful, judgmental and cruel citizens who seek to protect
our own rights and rob others of theirs.
You and I are afforded a great
luxury as citizens of this country. This week we celebrate our independence,
our freedom. Part of that freedom means we have the liberty to gather in places
like this to worship the God in whom we believe. Part of that freedom means you
and I can practice our faith outside of these walls, that we can carry our
convictions and beliefs into our places of work and into the public square.
Part of the freedom we have in this country centers on the idea that we are
free to be publicly professing and publicly practicing followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So why do we allow the minority of those who share our faith to
determine how the world understands us? Why do we allow those who call
themselves Christians and publicly make fools of themselves to make fools of
us? Why do we sit back while the world asks “Why are Christians so unlike
Christ?” You and I are given the freedom to practice the faith we claim in
Christ. You and I are given the freedom from the bondage of sin. You and I are
free in the hope of Christ’s resurrection to live out the will of God and “silence
the ignorance of the foolish.”
Let us begin this day to live out
such freedom. Let us begin today to do good in the name of Christ and reclaim
the gospel as Good News for a world filled with bad news. Let us take hold of
our freedom in Christ and begin this day to reshape the world’s opinion of our
Savior as we seek to do the will of God and bring his kingdom to this earth.
May we come to understand that we are indeed free as followers of Jesus to do
good and silence the foolish: both the foolish who refuse to accept the gospel
and the foolish who disprove the gospel with their lives, despite the claims of
their lips. Let us use our freedom to do the will of God each day.
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