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First Peter, part 9

1 Peter 2:13-15 says,

¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution [πάσῃ ἀνθρωπίνῃ κτίσει, “every human creation”], whether to a king as the one in authority, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. ¹⁵ For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence [φιμόω, phimoō, “muzzle”] the ignorance of foolish men.

These verses begin a section (from 2:13 to 3:7) where Peter applies the principle of Christian conduct among unbelievers. The believers he addressed were living as aliens dispersed within the Roman world, and their behavior toward civil authorities would either commend or discredit the gospel.

Peter does not command submission because the rulers are righteous but “for the Lord’s sake.” In other words, the believer’s motivation is loyalty to God, not merely civic duty. Verse 12 mentions that Christians were already being slandered, though he does not say specifically who was doing the slandering. The book of Acts tells us that it was primarily Jewish slander and that the Romans protected the Christians as best they could. Peter, therefore, urges Christians to live so uprightly that such accusations become impossible to sustain.

This echoes Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 22:21,

²¹ … Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.

Submission to civil authority is therefore a testimony of obedience to God, provided that such submission does not require disobedience to Him (Acts 5:29). Paul explains the same principle in Romans 13:1, 2,

¹ Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except [lit., “if not”] from God, and those which exist are established by God. ² Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

Thus Peter and Paul teach a consistent doctrine: civil authority exists under God’s sovereignty. Just because we live under the authority of an oppressive beast empire does not mean we are to foment a revolution or resist its authority. Recall that this was the same advice that the prophet Jeremiah gave to the people of Judah when they faced a Babylonian invasion. God had pronounced judgment upon the nation, and the prophet told them that to resist Babylon was to resist God’s decree of judgment. Jeremiah 25:11 says,

¹¹ This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Jeremiah 27:8 continues,

⁸ “It will be that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by his hand.”

Peter’s audience were not among the captives to Babylon itself, for those were Jews from the southern kingdom of Judah. Peter’s audience were Israelites from the northern kingdom of Israel. Nonetheless, over the centuries these had spread west into what is now northern and central Turkey and were thus subject to Roman authority. Rome was the fourth beast kingdom listed in Daniel 7. Hence, God verdict in Jeremiah 27 also applied to them. They were to recognize that God’s judgments were righteous, and they were to serve the rulers of the kingdom that God had empowered to rule the people.

Both Peter and Paul were well aware of the conflicting views among the Jews in Judea, who chafed at Roman rule. Their constant resistance brought a steady increase in oppression, which in turn only increased Jewish dissatisfaction and resentment against the Romans. This finally began to erupt into armed conflict at the feast of Passover in 66 A.D., resulting finally in the destruction of Jerusalem four years later.

So when God said “I will punish that nation… until I have destroyed it by his hand,” this actually occurred not only in the days of Jeremiah but also in 66-73 A.D. Jesus, too, prophesied this in his parable in Matthew 22:1-7, which concludes,

⁷ but the king [God] was enraged, and he sent his [Roman] armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city [Jerusalem] on fire.

Jesus taught His disciples to submit to the Romans in accordance with His Father’s will. Hence, they avoided the heavy hand of divine judgment when Jerusalem was destroyed.

Peter is not advocating absolute obedience to government, since he himself had earlier declared in Acts 5:29 – “We must obey God rather than men.” The principle is: Submit to authority whenever possible, and disobey only when obedience would violate God’s law. The believer’s attitude should never be rebellious or lawless, but faithful to God first.

The only way to really follow this command is to know the word of God and especially His law.

Acting as Free Men

1 Peter 2:16, 17 says,

¹⁶ Act as free men [hōs eleutheroi, “as free people”] and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. ¹⁷ Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

Even slaves had freedom in Christ, because their faith in Him meant that their sin-debt had been paid. They enjoy true freedom in the heart, which is the foundation of outer freedom in time to come. Christian liberty removes the bondage of sin, not the obligation to live righteously. Service to God produces true freedom.

Though the long captivity to beast empires was still at its height in the first century, there was a level of freedom—peace with God—that believers could enjoy. Paul expounded upon that principle in Galatians 4:22-31. He showed how we might become children of the free woman (“Sarah”) instead of children of the bondwoman (“Hagar”). He concludes in Galatians 5:1,

¹ It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

He makes it clear that to put one’s hope and trust in the earthly Jerusalem (“Hagar”) was to be enslaved as a child of the flesh. But to put one’s hope and trust in the heavenly Jerusalem (“Sarah”) was to be an heir of the promise as a free person. To be truly free is to be a bondslave of God, Peter says, and Paul adds, “do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

The apostles, then, equate slavery with the belief that the earthly Jerusalem is the “mother of the church,” for this would make the church the children of the flesh through Hagar and the Old Covenant. Just as Paul and Peter faced this problem among the first-century believers, so also do we face the same problem in the church today.

The children of the bondwoman, who honor their “mother” by disagreeing with the Impartial God of the Bible, fail to “honor all people,” but claim that the children of the flesh are “chosen.” They do not truly believe what Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28, 29, “There is neither Jew nor Greek… and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” Heirs are chosen according to their faith, not their genealogy. True children of Abraham are those who do the works of Abraham, not those who claim biological descent from him (John 8:40-42).

Submissive Servants

1 Peter 2:18 says,

¹⁸ Servants [oiketai, “household servants; domestic slaves”], be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable [skoliois].

This verse begins a new section (2:18–25) where Peter addresses the conduct of household servants, using their situation to illustrate the broader Christian principle of serving ungodly governments in a Christ-like manner. Peter’s concern is the believer’s conduct, not the moral legitimacy of the institution itself. The servant’s behavior reflects his relationship with God.

Some masters were kind and fair, making submission much easier. But others were skoliois, “unreasonable.” It literally means “crooked, twisted, or perverse.” We see that meaning again in Acts 2:40, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” Yet Peter instructs believers to maintain a godly spirit even under unjust authority.

Peter’s instruction should not be misunderstood as approval of cruel treatment. Elsewhere Scripture places moral limits on masters. Colossians 4:1—“Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness.” Again, we read in Ephesians 6:9 that masters are accountable to God. Further, the New Testament consistently undermines slavery’s moral foundation by emphasizing the equal standing of all believers in Christ (Galatians 3:28).

The whole section (2:11 to 3:12) teaches believers how to live as “aliens and strangers” in the world. Peter applies this principle to several relationships: (1) government (2:13–17), (2) servants and masters (2:18–25), and wives and husbands (3:1–7). In each case the emphasis is the same: godly conduct within imperfect social structures.