Discipleship and Our Relationship with Authority

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Here's the key idea that I want you to grab hold of today. This is what we're going to unpack this morning as we look at these set of verses closely. Here's the key idea and it's this: that our stance toward the governing authorities is determined by our allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, right? [00:34:38]

Simply put, it's our discipleship, not political partisanship that should guide our attitudes and our actions toward those in government. Now, it's always a good idea to look at the context of a particular passage of Scripture and to ask this question. [00:35:28]

Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits us. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles. So when they say all kinds of awful things about you that aren't true, they will then be able to observe what you actually do, the way you live. [00:36:36]

What it means is that as disciples of Jesus, we voluntarily bring ourselves under the authority of those who exercise governmental office. So notice that it's a voluntary submission. Now, the government does have the big stick, right? It can force us to do certain things. But what the apostle was telling the believers here is, don't wait till you're forced. [00:41:12]

Notice at verse 16, we're instructed to submit as free people, as free people. What does it mean that we are free people? It means that we're not to obey the government because we're just afraid of the government's big stick. We're to submit because Christ has freed us up to do so. He's freed us from sin and from death. [00:41:57]

The second principle then will give us the reason for the first. It helps answer the why question. Why should we cooperate with the governing authorities? What's the reason for doing so? The reason is this. Principle number two is cooperating with the governing authorities honors the Lord. It honors the Lord, all right? It pleases Him by doing what He wants us to do as His disciples. [00:45:59]

So we cooperate with the secular authorities simply because God has instituted them and it honors him when we do so. We want to honor him. And at the same time, we should have a healthy fear about what happens when our lives don't honor him. So that's the second principle, the why question. [00:49:50]

Simply put, cooperating with the governing authorities encompasses all levels and branches of government. Now back to our passage in 1 Peter. It says, submit to every human authority. We talked about that. Because of the Lord. That's why we do it. But then notice what follows. It says, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. [00:49:57]

So at the end of the day, though we may not like what some legislature or official or court has decided, we are to bring ourselves into submission to that authority because of the Lord, because it honors Him. And as long as they're not requiring where the Lord prohibits or prohibiting where the Lord requires, we are to act cooperatively. [00:52:56]

Principle number four is this, cooperating with the governing authorities refutes falsehoods. It refutes false ideas and accusations that people might have about followers of Jesus. Cooperating with the governing authorities refutes falsehoods and it points unbelievers to the Lord. It's part of God's mission of drawing the loss to Himself, the way we conduct ourselves in public life. [00:53:37]

Prove these accusations false by the way you conduct yourselves in public life, in your time, in your culture, by the way you relate to the governing authorities. Prove these accusations false. Now look back at verse 12, which we saw earlier, sets the context for our passage about the governing authorities. In verse 12, he says, conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, in other words, when they accuse you of treason when it's not true, when they say false things about you and accuse you of fomenting insurrection, destabilizing society, leading people astray, all of these things, when they slander you as evildoers, then they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits us. [00:56:04]

Show them who you really are. Show them what Jesus is all about by the way you live as disciple citizens. And then at verse 17, the apostle kind of brings it to a summary here. He gives a summary of how the disciples are to conduct themselves in four short instructions. He summarizes everything he's saying here. He says, first, honor everyone. Honor everyone. [00:58:04]

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