God And Government - Part 1
1 Peter 2:13-14 · Andrew Molloy · Apr 26, 2020
1 & 2 Peter (2020-21), No. 14
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261918345462

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, first Peter, chapter two, 13 through 17. I'm doing a two-part series. I'm going to do part one of two today, breaking up the verses in 13 and 14 today. And then next week, provided we're all still here, or maybe we'll be at church next week. What do you think? I don't know. I don't think so. I'll do 15 through 17 next week. So I want to go over the outline here. I'm going to do it in four parts.

First, we're going to look at four foundational principles regarding God and government. Four foundational principles. Then number two, we're going to look at that submit command in verse 13. and things related to the submit command, submit to governments. Then we'll look at the first of two principles. I found two principles in these verses. There's two of them and we're going to look at the first of the two. And then lastly we'll conclude and we'll all discuss how government is doing with what God gives it in 1 Peter chapter 2, 13 and 14. and we can complain.

Okay, the first principles, I'll read this verse 13. Submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or a governor as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. So the first of four principles I've come up with is principle number one, God has authority and power over all the earth. Everyone agree there? Is that controversial? Probably not. Of course not.

So I have some verses, Matthew 28, 18. Jesus speaking, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. So I have two other verses. Jesus speaking in John 19, 11. And before Pontius Pilate, Pontius Pilate says, hey, do you know I have the authority to put you to death or release you? And Jesus said, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. And so that says that he has all the power and authority over even Pontius Pilate.

The third verse, then comes the end in 1 Corinthians 15, 24, when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. And that just says that he's going to abolish all of it someday, so that means he has it right now. That is how I take that to mean. More verses on this subject. Matthew 6, 13, for thine is the power, the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. God's kingdom and his glory and his power forever.

For since the creation of the world, Romans 1.20, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. So first principle number one. Here's the second principle. we're going to discuss. God has shared a fraction of that power and authority that he has over all the earth and of course the universe.

He has shared it. But all of it will come back to him at his millennial kingdom. Everyone agree with that? Yes? Okay. What we see in Romans, you know, talks about how You know, men on earth, their authority comes from God, not from themselves. Right. So I have it, John 1911, again, 1911, where Jesus is before Pontius Pilate. And he says, unless it had, unless the power and authority had been given to you, Pontius Pilate, from above. So that means that he shared it with Pontius Pilate.

Someday, this is Isaiah 9.6, the government and all power and authority is going to come back to him.

And we see that the government shall be upon his shoulder in the millennial kingdom, Isaiah 9.6. So he's going to have it all back. First Corinthians 15, 28, when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.

So, Andrew, you know, we've got to realize we live in an earthly kingdom though, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. The ways of the world are not his ways, although he shared he's ultimately, you know, providing the authority, but it's not heeded by most governments. So you're going to go on from there. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And he has he has a heavenly kingdom and an earthly kingdom. There's an angelic power, right? All sorts of power and authorities that he has. Principle number three. God has established government on earth to accomplish his will. And when he established government is right after the flood. Genesis 9, 5 and 6.

And surely your blood of your lives I will require at the hand of every beast I will require it and at the hand of man at the hand of every man's brother Will I require the life of a man? Whosoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man." And this is when, you know, several commentators say that he instituted an earthly government right after the flood. What followed this covenant that If someone basically murders someone, that man should take the life of that man who murdered that person.

Up there in the verse. Well, what followed it was Genesis chapter 10, where families and nations formed under Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah. So they went on and kind of spread out over the land and formed families and nations. And then in Genesis chapter 11 was the Tower of Babel, right? So they all congregated and God had to disperse them. But that was the creation of nation states when they all dispersed again and spoke different languages. in Genesis chapter 11. So we have Genesis 9, 10, and 11 here following this verse where God established government on earth. And then Genesis chapter 12, of course, is when God established the nation of Israel under Abraham and the Abrahamic covenant.

Principle number four, God commands us to submit to governments. And that's an obvious one from verse 13 above. Submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as one in authority or to governors sent by him. So we are commanded to submit to these governments. And I have a couple of verses here to help support that. Matthew 22, 21. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

I exhort you, therefore, in 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 2, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, And for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet life and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men, Paul tells Titus in Titus 3, 1 through 2. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God. The powers that are ordained of God.

And there we see that, there we see again in Romans 13, 1 that these powers are ordained of God. but we're to submit to these powers. Let's look at the commandment then, moving on, in verse 13, to submit yourself to every institution. So we're going to look at that word.

It's hupotasso, submit, both here in verse 13 in Peter chapter 2 and in Romans 13 1, and that is when Romans 13.1 is Paul saying, be in subjection to, and 1 Peter 2.13 says, submit yourself, but it's the same Greek word, hupotasso, meaning line yourself up under, arrange yourself under, like a colonel lines up under a lieutenant general, and a lieutenant general lines herself, and I said herself, I'm being proper here. uh under a four-star general um so that is a military term right um this is interesting the lord jesus christ himself as a teenager mind you um he went to he went into the temple and started teaching at 12 years old or talking to all the the um people in the temple and then forgot to go home with Joseph and Mary and they had to come back and get him.

So he went back with them to Nazareth. But it says that he went down with them to Nazareth and he continued in subjection to them. And his mother treasured all these things in her heart and Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. That's from Luke chapter 2 verse 51 and 52.

So that's the same word of Jesus submitting himself, lining up under the authority of Joseph and Mary. It's interesting that it says that that word is hupotasso instead of hupakuo, right? Usually children are commanded to obey their parents, to listen under, but Jesus here is subjecting himself to the authority of Joseph and Mary. And I think it's because here they are raising the creator of the universe, the God of the universe. He's here on earth, he's 12 years old and he has all the power like he was telling Pontius Pilate, but yet he he's submitting himself to his parents for just a time. Note that Jesus increased in favor with his parents. That's the very thing that Peter says is man's response to our good behavior and when we properly submit to government, that we get favor from government and we get favor from men.

I have 1 Peter 2.19 here to support that. That's addressed to slaves, but it's the same concept.

And then Romans 13.3, for rulers are not a cause for a fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same. So we are to submit ourselves to every governing institution.

I have a question. Yes. Yeah, I was reading in here of this past week on this and it's a little confusing. Maybe you guys can help. This is an heiress passive imperative, which means actually I'm not making myself submissive. I am I am imperatively doing this, yes, but I am being put in submission. And I don't know how to say that other than maybe to be subjected to rather than subjected. I saw that that was an aorist instead of a passive, right, Roy? Well, it's passive. Aorist, passive, imperative.

So it has the idea of a fact. But it has also the idea that I'm not doing this, I am being done to here, but I'm commanded to be done to. You know what I mean? Yeah, right. And I saw that Ariston there and that kind of boggled my mind, so I kind of skipped it. Thank you. I don't know, is there any other comments then? I think that's helpful, Roy. I do.

I think the Lord puts us in a position that we're to be accepting. I mean, that's not something we can do very well on our own. How about this? How about to submit ourselves, but not be, yeah, not be a pushover about it, not be passive about it, but just do it as a matter of fact with all of our kind of humanity and faculties in place. I don't know. Well, I think the Lord is implying his will on our will. That's the new nature, isn't it? To trust these things. I mean, yeah. So that I think that was helpful, I think. Right. Oh, and maybe this slide will help us in that.

Our motivation is it says right there in the verse for the Lord's sake. on his account and because of him, in deference to him, as he himself did. And we see Philippians 2, 5 through 8 here, have this attitude, in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. So that verse, Christ himself is choosing to submit to authorities and things here. Could I share another verse right along with that maybe? Yeah, yeah. When I was searching this, I found also in chapter 3, down at verse 22, if you want to look at it, now he has gone into heaven He is at God's right hand with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

Same word, same form. Okay. Well, you know, another thing this, these verses do is that you're referring to Andrew, this is great, but it reminds us of our citizenship, doesn't it? Oh yeah. Right. I mean, where's our home? It's not here. So even our, because we are in Christ and he did all this, um, Especially in the bottom verse there, Isaiah 53 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted. He did not open his mouth. He was a lamb as led to slaughter. I mean, boy, that's... But we're in him.

So I think we have, he provides us with this, the same sort of power and motivation that he himself had to do these things, to submit to governments. 1 Peter 2, 21 through 23, we'll see in, I don't know, a couple of weeks, I guess. And it says right there that, for you have been called for this purpose since Christ has also suffered for you, leaving you as an example. leaving you as an example for you to follow in his footsteps. So that's what I have for the motivation of why we are to submit to governments for Christ's sake. To whom do we owe this submission to? And it's to every human institution.

And the verse says, institutions, a king, a king's designee, a governor, as it says in verse 14 up there. And then other verses, Romans, Titus, and yeah, Titus, there's two other governmental authorities that we are to owe submission to and that higher powers in Romans 13, rulers in Titus and authorities in Titus. It's regardless of whether they're good or bad, really regardless of type, whether we have a nice democracy or there's a monarchy or parliamentary system. authoritarian, totalitarian. I think the Roman government was maybe authoritarian or totalitarian, yet Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, Paul suffered under Nero, and most likely Peter too. Peter was arrested under King Herod Agrippa, So they all suffered much worse governments than what we have.

Oh, here's the first purpose in verse 14. And I think you see it. It's pretty obvious. Submit yourself to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. So the purpose is punishment of evildoers. Governors are sent by the king for the punishment of evildoers. It's the parallel verse to this verse 14 is Romans 13, and this is from the King James, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Will you then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and you will receive praise from the same. And I use the King James version there because it uses the word terror. For rulers are not a terror to good works.

So what does Paul say in Romans 13 is the purpose of government. And I have, hey, it's to be a terror to evil workers. You might state that the first part of that verse, it's stated in the negative, but if you state it in the positive, it says, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. You can say, for rulers are a terror to evil, right? So that's the purpose number one that I have of why the authority that God gives governments. Well, God didn't know about the coronavirus, right?

Right. Yeah, we'll have a complaint section later here. The last slide. So there's our purpose number one. And I stated, you know, I'm using the word terrorize, but hey, it's in the King James. That's what it says. And it's a little harsh, but I think that's That's sort of the force of it. Purpose number two is if you do good, you will receive praise and commendation from government. Right there in verse 14. But we aren't looking, we're sort of dealing with the bad news today, not the good news. Next week we can do the good news.

So my question is besides government commending those who do right, The second purpose is the first purpose for governments to punish evil, to strike fear in the hearts of evildoers. Is there any other authority? Is that their only authority? And I say, yes, it's limited, but that's how I think they're limited by God. He's sharing that authority with them. to punish evildoers. That's their main purpose.

Andrew, maybe we start a complaint early here, but we see governments want to expand their power much beyond that, to actually control aspects of their citizens' lives down to Russia. I mean, it's just so, it's amazing how they, you know, since they probably didn't read scripture to start with, they don't realize their power is limited. Right. Welcome to the world system that's in nature, right? Exactly.

And I was interested in taking on these two verses 13 and 14 because years and years ago, about maybe 15, 20, maybe 25 years ago, it was either Ken Marr or Vern Peterman doing a Sunday, not Sunday school, but maybe church session on God and government. And there, either one of them, I don't remember who it was, Ken or Vern said, they have this, their job is to be a terror to evil.

And I just remember, and that's stuck in my brain for all these years. And I said, well, is that the only, because, you know, you read the constitution and things like that. So I was interested to kind of check these things out. Like Roy said about the Bereans, you know, check it out. So in doing this study, I checked it out and it's true.

So there's mission creep and it's either Vern or Ken. They said anything where they expand. from that and get into your lives, they're stepping over their boundaries, is what they said. So Romans 13, one through four, we're still on purpose one here, that governments are sent, given authority by God to bring fear upon, to terrorize evildoers.

I have a question. Yeah. If they are overstepping their bounds How does that affect us as far as our submission? Well, that's a that's a good question. That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? Yeah, you know before this I would say that You know we should I'm sort of a I complain about government a lot, but now I'm saying, well, even if they overstep it, we're still commanded to submit. I mean, look how bad it was under Paul and Peter, right? Yeah. So I'm a little more dovish after this, after this studying these verses.

One of the things I think that we need to remember is our Lord himself. said to Pilate, you would have no authority over me at all if it hadn't been given to you from above. And I think God is behind all of human authority. And Jesus recognized that and said it to Peter or to Pilate, the ruler that was, you know, being used. by the Jews to crucify him. I mean, it was a combination. I'm not putting the blame on the Jews. Don't get me wrong.

Well, but I think another important point is Peter talks a lot about the trials and tribulations were to face as believers, right? Right. And part of that could be just an outshoot of the governments we, you know, exist under. So, you know, that again, Peter's take on on trials and tribulations.

So, yeah. Are we to not go to war if they want me to go to war in an unjust cause? I mean, that's sort of the bottom line here. Do we obey the government and enlist as a national part, you know? I think Andrew needs to answer that. Well, I think the only time where we can disobey the government is Acts, what is it? 429, where the authorities were commanding Peter to stop preaching the gospel.

And did not our Savior submit to it because it was part of God's plan? Yeah. So he was not submitting to an unjust thing because it was unjust, but he was submitting to it because God had ordained it. Yes. And that's our confidence. Yeah. And that's where I'm getting to today. Hopefully I'm making that exact point.

Look at verse three here, for rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. And the Greek for fear is phobos. So it can mean two things, reverential respect, or the second meaning, dread, right? Or that's which strikes terror. So which one are we dealing with up in Romans 13, verse three there? I don't think it's reverential respect, but governments are there to strike fear under those people who are subject to it.

Do you see how in verse four? And I'm reading along with you here that it kind of comes back to Genesis 9, 6, doesn't it? Whosoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed for man is created in the image of God. And you see, do you see that for the government does not, and this is verse four, for it does not bear the sword for nothing for it is a minister of God. an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

So I think Romans 13, 1 through 4, especially 3 and 4, it's talking about capital punishment. Otherwise, you know, the thwart is in there, right? Yeah, Andrew, here's another one where the government's lost its way. They've kind of given up on capital punishment. and decided that's too severe. That's kind of a sad thing. There are two things about that.

The first is that God in Genesis indicated that if you take someone's life, your life should also be taken because he or she is made by God. That's number one. The second issue about capital punishment is it does create an ambience of fear. Absolutely, amen. If I'm going to murder somebody and my life is going to be taken, that might make me pause just a few minutes anyway. Yeah, but we've totally lost that. We've lost that fear when they take away capital punishment. Right, right. And I did a little research. I think there's 28 states out of the 50 that have a law for capital punishment. 22 do not, you know, have a band in it.

The Greek word for punishment here in 2.14 is dikysis, and I have the root there, xdko. And Vincent says that that word should be stronger. It should have the tone of vengeance, meaning vengeance. or revenge or avenge is the idea. So instead of, you know, Peter uses the word punishment, but Paul uses this, Paul kind of more, Paul's writing is more of a line of revenge, revenge or avenge. You can see he uses that word. Government is a minister of God, an avenger of those who bring wrath. who brings wrath on the ones who practice evil. So those are strong words, revenge, avenge. What do we do with vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.

I will repay. You know, I have the Romans 12, 9 verse there. Is the Bible saying two different things? Do we take vengeance or do we not take vengeance? That is the question. And I'll answer that, my own kind of question there. I think that the first in Romans 12, 9 there is directed to us individually as believers or as a church. So we're not to take revenge or vengeance upon anyone. That's reserved for the Lord. But what we're dealing with here in Romans 13, 1-4 and 1 Peter 2, 13 and 14 is this limited, this carve out of God's power and authority that he gave to governments.

He allows them to take some revenge and to avenge wrongdoings that evildoers do, right? So it's one is addressed to us, and the other is addressed to, has governments in mind. So, and to wrap it up, let's apply the Bob principle. And the Bob principle is, how are we doing with this, right? How is the United States doing with First Peter 2, 13 and 14. How are they doing with their authority? Oh, just two things to think about.

Richeson says that, and this kind of gets back to the comment made earlier, you know, were the colonies justified in casting off the authority of King George during the American Revolution period? Or should they have bared under that King George's authority. They revolted, didn't they? And who knows, maybe the Lord, if there wasn't a revolution, maybe in five or ten years' time, King George would have said, hey, I'm sick of spending all this money to have my navy over there and to have a standing army over there.

Let's come to an agreement. Do you want independence? We can work that out. Who knows? What about this event in history, the Boston Tea Party? So what he's saying is, were these things a wise thing to do? Given these this passage and given the Romans 13 passage, just interesting.

I asked, where is a national uniform death penalty law in the United States? We don't have that. Only 28 states have it and three of those states have a moratorium on the death penalty. And these are just for people who commit murder, you know, capital murder. And they would be kind of correct in doing the death penalty, given what God gives them the authority to do here. No, that's my tail. And look at this. Here instead of, here's where we're at today.

Everyone from killers to drug traffickers, gang members to mobsters, fraudsters, and accused rapists are making a bid to get out of jail, right? This Brennan Center for Justice has submitted a letter to all the governments of the 50 states, urging them to use executive action to release as many people as possible from incarceration. due to coronavirus fears, provided they do not pose serious public safety threats. So no, no, killers or drug traffickers or gang members and mobsters would never pose any threat to the public, would they? No. Definitely not. Yeah. The answer, the The comment brought up earlier, yeah, that's how we're doing today. We're releasing, we have jailbreak today. And then I thought about this.

Here's an interesting contrast. We have abortion that is legal in all 50 states and we intend to keep it that way, says the ACLU. So here we're getting rid of the death penalty, but yet we have We have this abortion now. So it just makes you scratch your head, doesn't it? I guess this is the most obvious example of the moral tone of the world in which we live. Abortion. It's absolutely incredible.

And those two things are getting, abortion seems to The laws for that seem to be getting stronger and stronger, but the jailbreak seems to be, they seem to be letting up on the criminals. You know, it's interesting. So my conclusion is that the basic thing is government is given one thing to do, one thing only, the authority, and that is to punish the evildoers. And I asked, how are they doing with that? And I don't think very good. So who knows what God will do with this country in the tribulation? Will he punish this nation for that? Probably. I think the standard is clear.

I think if you ran for Congress on a platform of, Hey, I'm going to bring back the death penalty, that would be terribly unpopular, but it would actually be kind of morally, you'd have moral backing from the Bible, you know? It may be a dual platform, you know, eliminate abortion and bring back the death penalty. You wouldn't make the news, probably. No, well, it wouldn't make the news, but it would be ridiculed and it would just be, how dare you? Oh, how dare you? And there'd be all this. You'd really get plastered by the media. Yeah. So, yeah, anytime.

I think it's Newell. He says that, you know, the government, in Romans 13, it says that they don't carry the sword in vain. So meaning that, like Prince, who's Prince Harry's brother? So if you see Prince William at an event and he's carrying a sword and a sheath and he's dressed in that princely military uniform thing, that's kind of in vain because he's a monarch and he isn't really going to use that sword for anything. So it's for show. It's for a ceremonial, is what Newell says.

But when you see like a A military person or a police officer, a cop with a sidearm or someone in authority with a semi-automatic weapon, that's not carried in vain. That's there to do a job and that's to execute. It's basically there to execute an instantaneous death penalty, isn't it, in the case of an evildoer. Well, aren't they both, though, symbols of authority?

Yeah, right. But the one, the one is sort of ceremonial. You know, Prince William isn't going to cut down anyone who, you know, but the Secret Service will. So it's just that, you know, Paul is saying, OK, it's not those swords aren't carried in vain.

And so when you see a police officer or anybody with a weapon, you can think, oh, that person has authority from God to carry that weapon and you best behave, I guess. So that wraps us up here. So I'll close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for, again, for the study and we thank you for your authority and that you're in control of our government. And even when it steps, oversteps its authority and does things that we don't agree with, we know that you're in ultimate control and we rely on you for patience and the strength to carry through, especially in these trying times. We are now, Father. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.