1 Pet 2:13–3:7 Submission out of reverence for Christ in Exile

 

Biblical teaching on submission is often abused, so we need to get it right. This passage calls us to submit to the government, in the workplace, and at home. Using these texts to abuse others in God’s name is a horrendous sin. One key for understanding biblical submission are the phrases in the passage, “for the Lord’s sake” (1 Pet 2:13), or while being “mindful of God” (1 Pet 2:18), or like Jesus, we submit by “entrusting ourselves to God” (1 Pet 2:23). The right foundation for submission is the belief that God has the absolute right to rule our lives. Abuse of the biblical teaching of submission happens when we quote verses out of context and confuse human authority with God’s authority. SIOS: In light of Christ’s submission for the forgiveness of our sins, we submit to the government, in the workplace, and at home. We will see that without submission, there is no gospel. We will look at submission to human institutions, in the workplace, and at home. We will condemn abuse and see that proper submission illustrates the gospel to our neighbors.

The gospel is our motivation for submission (1 Pet 2:19–25).

Submission is yielding to the judgment of a recognized authority. It is willingly giving up our right to insist on our own way. In the hymn “Blessed Assurance,” we sing, “Perfect submission, all is at rest.” Jesus’ death on the cross is a picture of perfect submission. Without submission, there is no gospel, no forgiveness of sins, no relationship with God, no hope of eternal life. Therefore, we must love submission! If Jesus did not submit, we would be in our sin. 1 Pet 2:19–25 describes Jesus’ submission in detail. In 1 Pet 2:20, “if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called.” The explanation comes in 1 Pet 2:21, “Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” Jesus offers the pattern. 1 Pet 2:22 reads that Jesus “committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” As a result, 1 Pet 2:24, Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the tree, …. By his wounds you have been healed.” And now, the implication for us is that “we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” This is the framework to view the Christian life. If we accept the forgiveness of sins, we must also embrace Christ’s lifestyle of submission. Years ago, I remember a friend telling me that sharing the gospel with people made him feel uncomfortable. My snarky response was, do you think Jesus was comfortable on the cross, paying for your sins? That was not my finest moment. But the truth is that when we start putting our comfort and our preferences first, Jesus completely disappears from our Christianity. Because Jesus’ suffering went all the way to his death, and he explicitly told us to follow him by picking up our cross, if we are not willing to follow Christ in death, we are not worthy of being his disciples. Showing up once a week to church is not Christian living. It does not help if we do not dedicate our whole life to serving God. We happen to live in a country with religious freedoms so the chances of dying for our faith are very low. But God does not value most our religious freedom. He values our desire to serve him no matter what freedoms the state gives us. As we look at the three applications of submission, remember Jesus is not asking for anything he did not himself already do.

The first application is, Submit to every human institution out of reverence for Christ (1 Pet 2:13–17).

This command has been severely abused. In 1933, protestant theologian Otto Dibelius used the Bible to urge Germans to support Hitler. Rom 13:1 reads “let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God.” The logic goes like this. God raised up Hitler, so Christians must support God’s choice. The passage adds qualifications. The first is “submit to every human institution for the Lord’s sake” (v.13). This means submitting to the government cannot lead to sin. In Acts 5:29, the same Peter said “We must obey God rather than men.” A second limit to submission is the role of government. God ordains governments v.14 “to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.” We are to submit to the government because it does God’s work. It must condemn what God condemns, and allow what God permits. John the Baptist condemned King Herod for marrying his brother’s wife. We must call out the government’s sins. A third qualification to submitting to the government is our ability to witness. Our priority is not primarily in our rights but our ability to witness. In 1 Pet 2:15, Peter writes that when we submit to the government it will “silence the ignorance of foolish people” who hate the Christians. Being good citizens, obeying the law is part of our witness to the unbelieving world. Many will think what we believe is crazy. But when they will see our way of life, they will have no reason to criticize us. A Christian friend told me recently that he would no longer wear covid masks in stores that require them. As I was thinking about our call to submit for our witness to the unbelieving world, I had to wonder, “How will God be glorified in this Christian defying the rules?” What effect will it have on all those working in the stores he enters when they have to enforce the stores policies? I do not see how seeking to defy this requirement flows from love for Christ, and desire to love our neighbor. Another point on submission to human institutions, is that this command is not God’s approval of any political party. We must beware for the sake of our Christian witness, of who we associate with politically. There is so much sin on both sides. Politicians are regularly accused of sexual misconduct, fraud, and abuse. Be passionate about righteousness but we should not align with worldly politicians especially if they are known for their sinful behavior, or we lose our credibility to share the gospel.

The second application is, Be subject to masters (1 Pet 2:18–25).

This command is more known for its abuses than its teaching. Many oppose the Bible claiming it is a wicked book that condones slavery, because of passages like this. It is a tragedy that people who called themselves Christians used the Bible to justify slavery. Slave owners have used passages like this or Eph 6:5–7 “servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.” A few years ago, I went to the Bible Museum in Washington, D.C. They had a copy of the “Slave Bible” on display. These Bibles were incomplete. They included all the parts of the Bible that encourage obedience, but they removed all the parts about freedom, like the delivery from slavery in Egypt. 1 Pet 2:18–25 does not teach “go get slaves and treat them harshly.” It tells Christians who are slaves to persevere the hardship they get from the hands of sinners so they can even rejoice because they are walking in Christ’s footsteps who suffered at the hands of the unrighteous. For how to be a good master, we need passages that address masters. The letter of Philemon is addressed to a slave owner. Paul calls him “a beloved fellow worker,” in Phim 1. In Phlm 16, Paul tells Philemon to treat his runaway slave, Onesimus as a beloved brother. It is hypocritical of violent and abusive masters to insist that the Bible teaches their servants would submit to them if they are not interested in hearing what the Bible teaches masters. Our passage commands slaves to submit to their masters. This teaching is radical since it even applies to unfair masters. These verses really ministered to me while I was doing an internship with a pretty unreasonable and angry supervisor. Whenever anyone of us endures hardship for doing the right thing, we understand a bit more the work of Christ. We do not just know intellectually that Christ suffered to deliver us the forgiveness of sins, we know by experience what it is like to suffer unjustly. Peter calls this a gracious thing!

The third application is for wives to submit to their husbands (1 Pet 3:1–7).

(I did not expect this for Mother’s Day either). Let me tell you a story, there was once a mother who went to church, and the sermon was on Eph 6:1–4. It teaches that children need to obey their parents, and then that Fathers (and mothers) should not provoke children to anger. When she went home, she told all her kids that the pastor said they all had to obey her. The children felt that the mother was only concerned in how they had to apply the sermon, not how the mother was to apply her part. We need to be careful to be most concerned with the part of the Bible that applies to us. Part of 1 Pet 3:1–7 applies to wives, and another part applies to husbands. If both parties apply their part, things go well. When couples are more interested in forcing the other to keep their end, things go badly. To wives, the pattern remains the same. The same way Christians are to submit to government, unfair masters, so Christian wives are to submit even to unbelieving spouses. This passage is not popular to the modern ear because it appears to create a hierarchy in a marriage, where the man is the head, and his wife is called to submit to him. If you have read this whole passage, I hope we see that the foundation for submission in the Christian life is Christ’s submission. As a result, Christians are a people who love submission, because submission brought the forgiveness of sins. Part of Christian living is submitting to others. We submit to the government, we submit to our bosses or masters, children to parents, wives to husbands. Heb 13:17 teaches us to submit to church leaders. In Presbyterian churches, pastors submit to the session, the session answers to the Presbytery, and so we all have roles to play and much submitting to do. 1 Pet 3:1–6 teaches that it is very precious in God’s sight when wives submit to their husbands and their adorning is not external with jewelry and fancy clothes, but a Godly and humble attitude. 1 Pet 3:6 ends this part of the teaching saying wives with this attitude will not fear anything that is frightening. Wives who submit to their husbands, even unbelieving spouses display much faith. This kind of faith in God dampens anxiety. Husbands get 1 Pet 3:7. It is not “force your wives to submit to you.” Husbands are threatened, “that your prayers may not be hindered.” Husbands take this seriously or God will not listen to our prayers. Live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life. The word “weak” in “weaker vessel” normally means physically weaker. It refers to the general trend that men can beat their wives in an arm-wrestling match. I do not think we need to be offended at that. Husbands are commanded to show honor to their wives because they are also heirs of the grace of life. In God’s eyes, men and women are equal. Jesus died for men and women, all colors, all body shapes. So, it is right that we treat every Christian brother and sister in Christ with dignity and respect and so how much more our wives!

Conclusion

The theme of the day was “submission.” Jesus’s submission provided our forgiveness of sins. We cannot get rid of submission without getting rid of the way to eternal life! We must love submission, it is part of the gospel. We need to be like Christ in finding ways to submit to one another! When we submit to a person who does not deserve it, this is truly precious in God’s sight! Now Christians, when you see that someone submits to you, the Christian thing to do is to use your God-given authority to benefit the person who submits. Husbands if your wife defers to you, make the decision that she would prefer. Christian business owners ought to make decisions that benefit their employees, church leaders ought to use the authority God gives them to benefit the church. In a way, in a perfectly Christian system, if those with all the authority always sought to bless those who submit, then those who submit would be the most blessed. With this mindset, let us go out in the world, looking for opportunities to submit, even when it hurts as Jesus did. Jesus had all authority and became a servant to all. When we are in positions of authority, let us insist on blessing others!