1 Peter 2:13–17 (ESV) — 13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human
institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to
praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you
should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for
evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone.
Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
NOTE: This verse
addresses some of the practical implications of how we are to live as witnesses
before the Gentiles (unbelievers) mentioned in the previous verse 12. We are to
be good citizens, which means obeying the authorities and the laws. An exception
can be made to an immoral law, but that is seldom an issue in western society.
In the unbelieving world, tax cheating can be a common practice, but should not
be so for a believer. We are to pay all our taxes, fulfilling the requirements
of the temporal law to the fullest. This is part of our witness. We need to be good citizens. We
need to obey parking signs and speed limits (I struggle here some) and other
restrictions. We do not get to pick and choose the laws that we will obey.
Peter makes it very clear in this passage. And one of Peter's key reasons is
"by doing good, (we) silence the ignorance of foolish people." There
is a lot of ignorance presented by our media concerning Christians that has colored
a true understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Our only chance to win
back the war, is to live in such a way as to silence the stupidity of at least
the people who see us and might be repeating the ignorant memes that society
and culture are creating concerning Christians.
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