Well, what difference does it make in practice being a Christian? For the past few weeks, we've been talking about how being a Christian is like being a foreigner. We are away from home — our true home is with the Lord Jesus — but here we live in a world where His rule is not recognised. So we're like foreigners in a foreign country. We won't fit in, and that means we need to live distinctively.
But that's all kind of very high-level, general stuff: live distinctively. How does it earth in practice? What does it mean when the rubber hits the road? As Christians, we want to know the nitty-gritty, day-to-day stuff.
We want to know, when I go to work at 8:45 tomorrow morning, what difference is it going to make that I'm a Christian in the way that I do my job? When I go on shift at the hospital at seven o'clock tonight, what difference is it going to make that I'm a Christian as I do my job?
And if you're here as someone who's still investigating the claims of Jesus — you're not yet personally ready to follow Him — then I guess you're going to want to know as well, aren't you? If I'm going to do this, if I'm going to feel like a foreigner, if I'm going to feel like I don't quite fit, what is it actually going to involve in practice, day to day?
Well, Peter is going to tell us in that reading. He gives us the general principles in verses 11 and 12, and then puts a lot of flesh on the bones in the rest of the passage.
Verse 11 just says, don't just do what you feel like. Verse 12 says, instead, live good lives — be good.
That's not just bland. It means: be good — be the kind of people whose good deeds, whose acts of kindness, the sort of thing that gets reported onto social media — kind of, you know, have you heard this amazing thing that someone did? Isn't it a wonderful story? Share this, it's heartwarming — be that kind of good, kind person.
Good not just by God's standards, but good by the world's standards — that even people with no interest in God would look at your life and go, there's a good person. Be good.
And then he says, just maybe — maybe — when Jesus comes back, or as he puts it, on the day God visits us, just maybe some of your non-Christian friends will actually have been won over by the good things that you've done. And then, on that day when Jesus comes back, they too will be Christians, stood with us, praising the Lord Jesus and glad to see Him. They will glorify God on the day He visits us.
Now, just while we're here — just as a little aside, really — I think there's a massive encouragement in verse 12 for us. I take it most of us find evangelism — sharing our faith with other people — hard.
Okay, a few nods, just a bit of recognition. Right, it's hard. I won't get you to put your hand up if you find it easy, but if you do, please share that with me over a cup of coffee afterwards, because I'd love to know what your secret is for it not being hard.
It is hard, and some of us are more natural at sharing our faith than others. Some of us feel, perhaps, that we're really not very good at it.
Well, okay — the bad news, if that's you, is: there is no way around it. If other people are going to become Christians and discover how great the Lord Jesus is, somebody has to tell them the gospel. You can't get around that — you do have to tell them.
But what this verse says is that the ordinary good lives of people like you and me could be the thing that makes the difference — so that when someone hears the gospel, they respond positively to it, rather than dismissing it.
Which means there's a lot more ordinary, everyday stuff that you and I can do that could actually be making a huge impact on the spread of the good news of Jesus around the world. They do need to hear — but actually, just the ordinary, kind, good, everyday things we do do make a difference, and do contribute to the work of the Great Commission and telling all the nations about the Lord Jesus.
That, I think, is a hugely encouraging and liberating thing for us to discover. There are more ways to take part in the evangelistic enterprise than just the very necessary bit of telling people the good news.
Well, having outlined those general principles in 11 and 12, he turns to the specifics. He'll tell us first how we are to relate to the civil authorities, and then, if you've got one, to your slave master.
Or, if you prefer alliterative headings that begin with the letter W, he'll tell you how to relate to the world at large, and how to relate to your work. And in each case, the answer actually is the same: two things you have to do — submit and do good.
And then he will tell you some stuff about what do you do if it all goes a bit wrong — and the idea that, if you do good, the world is then working the right way — when that doesn't happen, and you do the right stuff, but life gets difficult because other people overstep their bounds. And he's going to tell you, in each case, what to do if that happens.
And then, by the way, it carries on — so we've got the world at large, we've got work, and then next week's passage — come back next week — he's going to talk about family life, and how this stuff works itself out in family life as well.
Civil Authorities – Work
So, two things. Number one, then: what does it look like in practice in our relationship with the civil authorities — with the world at large? This is what's being covered in verses 13 to 17.
See, the question here is: what does it mean to be a good citizen? We've been thinking in 1 Peter how we Christians are basically citizens of heaven, but we're also citizens of earthly nations as well.
And what does it mean to be a good citizen of Great Britain, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, India, the Philippines — wherever you're from, whatever passport you carry — what does it mean to be a good citizen of that country?
Some of you may be even going through the process of applying for right to remain permanently, indefinitely, in this country, and maybe you're exploring citizenship and how you could become a British citizen. If you want to do that, you have to take a citizenship test.
Now I tell you, these are scary things, because these are things that, even if you were a born Brit, if you lived here all your life, you would struggle with some of the questions. Thankfully, the pass mark is not a hundred percent, and there's a lot of help and support for people doing it. But you need to know the answer to questions like: is the BBC controlled by the government? How many members are there of the Northern Ireland Assembly? And who was in charge of the British fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar?
Well, had to look up all of those, so I'll tell you — the answer is: no, 90, and Nelson.
But British values as well — this is the other thing. So in schools, where children are being taught British values, no one can ever define what this is. It means things like democracy and not dropping litter, but I don't quite know what's involved. But again, it's a big thing in schools these days: let's teach kids British values.
Now, how do you respond to that? Well, some Christians rebel against it. They don't really want all this citizenship stuff, and so they then develop a reputation for being a bit awkward, bit of an odd bod.
Other Christians withdraw. They want as little to do with society as possible, and it would not dream for them to serve on the PTA at the school that their kids go to — let alone standing for an election as a town councillor. You just wouldn't do it.
Peter takes a different line, and he says there are two things we need to do. Number one: we submit. So notice that's the first word in verse 13. It's how the paragraph starts:
"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..."
That is an extraordinary thing to say, because this was probably written at the time when the emperor in Rome was Emperor Nero, and Peter was writing from Rome. Now, your ancient Roman history may be a little rusty, okay? If you're putting a pantomime on, you put Nero in a black costume. He was the baddie. He's the one who apparently set fire to his own city just so that he could blame the Christians for it happening. He treated Christians really badly, and writing from Rome, Peter says:
"Submit yourselves to the emperor."
Extraordinary.
It means we do what we're told. You keep to the speed limit. You pay your taxes. And if you're told not to, you don't glue yourself to the M25.
Submit.
Number two: do good.
Do good for two reasons. Number one: the job of the civil authorities, in verse 14, is to punish those who do wrong and commend those who do good. So if you do good, you'll have an easy life in society and get on well — you won't get in trouble.
But also, there's another reason why we should do good. People love to moan about Christians.
So I heard this last week of somebody who used to be a GP who lost his licence to practise as a GP. He had to be taken to court by the General Medical Council to have his licence reviewed and taken away. And one of the tabloid newspapers had somebody just monitoring the court and thought, “Are there any interesting stories? You can get a photo of someone and we can write it up.” So they found this guy and they put it out there that he'd had his licence to practise as a doctor revoked.
Now here's the thing — there were two charges against him, and none of them were actually desperately serious. But they were just not the way the GMC likes things done, and so the complaints against him were upheld. They had nothing to do with the fact this doctor was a Christian — nothing at all. He wasn't accused of anything to do with his Christian faith.
But how did the tabloid write it up?
"Christian doctor loses right to practise."
See? They just had to throw that in, because people love to have a pop at Christians.
How do you deal with that?
Well, the best way to shut them up, says Peter, is just to be known to be a good citizen. Verse 15:
"It is God's will that by doing good, you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people."
That means our job is not done when we've paid our taxes and kept the law. We should do the stuff that makes for a healthy society. So if Scarborough Town Council decides to order a volunteer litter-pick on North Bay, it would be lovely if most of the church turned up — because we just love to be good, going above and beyond just the things that we have to do.
Submit. Do good.
What do you do when it all goes wrong? What do you do when you're doing all the right stuff, but you're getting in trouble? You're getting punished? What do you do when the civil authorities do not do what verse 14 says — instead of punishing wrong and commending right, it feels that they punish people who do right and commend those who do wrong?
In some countries of the world, this is a big thing. As long as the governing authorities appear to be siding with the people causing all the trouble — what do you do when that's the thing that happens?
And the answer is verse 17:
"Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honour the emperor."
Show proper respect to everyone. Treat people rightly. But that means different things for different people.
The emperor, the king, the civil authorities — they get honour.
But God gets feared. You see that? You don't fear the emperor. In fact, elsewhere in 1 Peter 4, he will specifically tell us not to fear human authorities, even when they're being tyrants. You don't fear the authorities. Fear — that's due to God alone.
And love the family of believers. The Christian church family is to have our affection. God gets ultimate respect. The church family gets our affection. But the civil authorities — they get honour. But there's a ranking to it.
They're not the ultimate authority. Not the ones we should ultimately want to love.
Or, as he says in verse 13, we submit ourselves for the Lord's sake — because we're honouring Jesus by submitting to the civil authorities. And therefore, if they're asking us to do things that would not honour the Lord Jesus, that's when we honour him by not obeying them — but graciously accepting the punishment.
So I said earlier, don't glue yourself to the M25. It's a bit more complicated than that, isn't it?
We need wisdom to find the lines. The line between: when are they asking for my ultimate loyalty — that is not theirs to demand? And when are they simply asking me to obey the law? When are they asking me to do something that God does not want me to do? And when is it just something that I don't want to do?
And finding those lines is hard. And I would just say: know your own heart's capacity to deceive you. You will find ways to rationalise things that you don't want to do and make it sound like God requires it. So know your own heart. Seek advice from fellow Christians. And pray.
But the principle is clear: submit and do good.
That's the civil authorities — that's the world at large.
Slave Masters – Work
Let's think about slave masters — or work. This is verses 18 to 25.
Slavery is a tricky topic. It's a bit of a hot issue today. We are rightly ashamed of Britain’s role in the past in the slave trade, and we're embarrassed as Brits that our nation was involved in all of that in days gone by. And some people are wary: why is the Bible not more critical of slavery than it is?
Well, just three things to say on that before we get into these verses. The first is: the Bible is more subversive than you realise. In 1 Timothy, slave trading is specifically called out as a sin. And here, Peter addresses slaves. Now, in the first-century culture, normally he would only address the masters of slaves, and you wouldn't address slaves directly — but he does. He treats them as fellow human beings.
Second thing to say is that the gospel transforms slavery. So whether you're a slave or a free person becomes less important. The most important thing is that you are a Christian, and that elevates you to privilege that is far greater than the difference between slavery and freedom.
And the third thing to say is that first-century slavery that the Bible writers are dealing with was very different from Victorian slavery, of the kind abolished by William Wilberforce and his friends. Yes, slaves were still the property of their owners, but mostly they were very well treated. They were rewarded for their work. It was the way employment was done in some professions. If you wanted to be a teacher, slavery was the most usual route into that profession — which means these words do apply to our world of work today. It means that first-century slaves are more like our modern employees than perhaps we realised, and perhaps our modern employment is more like first-century slavery than we realised.
Some of you may feel trapped in your jobs. Your job is not ideal, but you have no alternative, and actually you have little more freedom than a slave would have done in the first century. Well, the same two things Peter says:
Number one: submit. Again, it's how the paragraph starts in verse 18: Slaves, submit yourselves. Do what you're told. Be a model employee. Work hard. Do a good job. That's easy to do if you've got a good boss, but Peter says do it even if your boss is harsh. Verse 18. The word there for harsh — that's the word from which we get the modern word scoliosis. And I only mention that because those of you who work in medicine know what we're talking about. This is where the spine develops in a curved way, left to right, and it requires invasive braces and all kinds of things to straighten someone's spine. He's saying: if your boss is twisted and harsh and warped, still do what they tell you. Still aim to please. Submit. Do good.
There it is in verse 20: If you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is commendable before God. Don't just be a jobsworth who obeys orders and clocks off at 30 seconds past the time you finish your shift. Go above and beyond. Be the dream employee as far as you can.
Now, I have to say, looking back at my time in secular work before I entered full-time Christian ministry, these are challenging words. I'm not sure these words did always describe my attitude to work and to the people I worked for.
When Things Go Wrong
But what do you do when it goes wrong? What do you do when, in spite of being the model employee, you get passed by for a promotion, or you get mistreated, or you get bullied, you get accused of things you didn't do?
What do you do? Well, Peter says Jesus is your example at that time. Four things here about the Lord Jesus.
Number one: he did nothing wrong. Verse 22 says, He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. Jesus was good, and only good — like we should be. Nothing wrong.
Second: he was beaten for it. Verse 21: To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example. Interestingly, Peter does not stress Jesus' death. Other New Testament writers, alluding to the same bit of the Old Testament here, would say Christ died for you. Peter says Christ suffered for you. He is the ultimate example of unjust suffering. He did good, but he suffered for it. Now, you can find all kinds of other examples in history and around the world of people who have suffered for doing good things — and that's why Peter hasn't finished yet.
Number three, you see, is that Jesus did not retaliate. Verse 23: When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threat. This is Peter, who watched Jesus die, who sat and observed the trials from the courtyard outside the high priest's house and watched this firsthand. There was no retaliation from the Lord Jesus.
Now, how easy it is — if we are mistreated at work, if we are spoken against, if we're treated badly — to feel the need to speak up, to defend ourselves, to fight our corner, to get the last word, to make sure that other people know that we are not taking this lying down, we did not do the thing that we are accused of. Well, that is not what the Lord Jesus did — and it's not what he calls us to do.
Well, Peter still hasn't finished. He did good. He suffered. He did not retaliate. Lots of people absorb suffering meekly — I could find you lots of examples in history.
Here's number four, though — and this makes Jesus unique: he did it for you. Verse 21: To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you. On your behalf. He carried your sin. He made it his very own.
Verse 24: He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. His wounds, his bruises, his stripes were the source of your healing.
Just imagine a first-century slave hearing these words. This is what Jesus' bruises did for you. Having heard those words, the slave looks down at the bruises on their body from yesterday's beating, and their eyes would fill with tears as they see the connection between the one who was bruised — but to bring them eternal life.
Jesus is not just the innocent sufferer. He is your Saviour — which means Jesus is the example when it all goes wrong. But he is not a discouraging example. You see, if he hadn't suffered for you, all Peter would be saying is: there's somebody over there who is impossibly good — just be like that. You go, I can't. I can't do that. I'm not like that.
But that's not what he's saying. He's your Saviour. He suffered and died for you. Peter's not saying, Be like him. He's impossibly good. He's saying: Live in the same way that he did at the exact point when he rescued you from your sin for all eternity. Be like him as he did that for you.
Conclusion
So, we're on our way home. We don't belong in this world, but we're travelling through. And we live in the world as we travel. But that doesn't mean we withdraw, we live in a ghetto, we hide from life. It means, no, being a model citizen and being a model employee. But we don't do it because we're giving our ultimate allegiance to the state, or because we're giving our ultimate allegiance to our boss at work. We do it because ultimate allegiance to the Lord Jesus, and ultimate love and devotion to our church family, requires that we give the appropriate honour to the civil authorities and to those we work with.
Now, doing this may well take us down the same path of suffering that the Lord Jesus travelled. But, wonderfully, it is precisely this kind of living that makes the gospel attractive to other people — so that others will then join us on our journey home.