For the Lord's Sake | 1 Peter 2:11-17

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Grateful that Nicholas Pietrowski is with us again this week. You come around often enough, and we're going to quit, you know, introducing you to everyone because it's like, oh yeah, Nicholas is here. This is good, but I'm grateful for that and the teaching that we'll receive.

In preparation for that, let's read the scripture from which the sermon is coming. The text is from Peter, his first letter, and I invite you to stand with me for the reading of his word. You know, there are Bibles in the chairs in front if you need it, or open, whatever way you access scripture.

Here's the reading of God's word. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor as supreme or governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. This is the word of the Lord. Amen.

Good morning. It is a joy to be here, and yes, Ruth, you can say, Nicholas is back, that is great. It would be my joy to be known on such a first name basis with such good people.

Is your heart lifted up today in worship? Mine is. You know it is every Lord's day, but I don't know, particularly today, those songs were wonderful. Ruth, that prayer was beautiful.

I thought maybe you were looking over my shoulder all week in my study. Beautiful prayer from the text that we just read as well. I don't know, if you have friends who go to the second service, invite them to come to the first service just once or twice.

Let them know what beautiful songs they're missing out on. Who knows, maybe they'll like it, maybe they'll stick around. What do they have to lose? Try them.

That's what I recommend. All right, well, we're going to turn our attention now to this passage of scripture. 1 Peter chapter 2. If you have your Bibles still open, which I hope you do, I'll draw all my points directly from the text, and so you'll be helped if you have the word of God right there in front of you.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

You know, our world is full of mirrors. Everywhere, mirrors. In our homes, of course, we have mirrors probably in every single room.

When you go to the gym, there are mirrors everywhere. I don't know if you like having mirrors at the gym or not, but I've found that at the gym, they have mirrors that when you stand straight on, they make you look a little wider. The goal is to make you look a little stronger, but when you turn to the side, then you look a little, so it's, you know, it's misleading.

At the mall, they do the opposite. At the mall, in the stores, they have mirrors that make you look slimmer, so that when you put on their clothes and try them on in the dressing room, you look good and you want to buy their clothes. So mirrors can be misleading.

They can be misleading. And then there are all the metaphorical mirrors in our world. We behave and we say things, often looking for affirmation, looking for some kind of feedback from other people.

Think especially of the online apps that we have. It is called, after all, social media, right? We put images and sayings out there looking for some kind of response, some kind of reflection from the world, or we desire a good performance evaluation from our boss or to get into the starting lineup. Again, a reflection from your coach or searching for that compliment from your peers.

So the world is full of these opportunities to receive feedback and, of course, what we want is not constructive criticism. We want affirmation. But I think that is a particular ethos, as it were, of this current cultural moment.

It hasn't always been so. And as Christians, we should have a different posture towards the world, not trying to put ourselves out there and looking for an affirmation from our peers, from our coworkers, from our enemies that they would fear us and revere us. Rather, instead of a look at me, affirm me, praise me attitude, we should adopt as Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount.

This is what he said. He said, people do not light a lamp and put it under a basket, but they put it on a stand and it gives light in all the house. In the same way, let your light so shine before others.

So Jesus is saying, yes, show off in some ways. Shine. Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good deeds and, you know how it goes, give glory to your Father in heaven.

Not give glory to you, but give glory to God. Jesus is saying our lives are the mirror. We are the mirror, only not reflecting back to the world, what the world wants, what the world already is.

But if you take a mirror and you kick it back at 45 degrees, what do you see? What do you see? You see up. Your life should be a mirror that is kicked back at 45 degrees. So when people look at you and they say, look at that guy, look at that good deed.

Look at that. Look at those ethics. Look at that language.

Look at that behavior. Look at how that person loves their enemies. Look at how that person tells the truth.

Look at how that person is not selfish, but generous. Then they will say, why are you like that? And that's the opportunity to say, because God is like that. And I am a follower of his son, Jesus Christ.

So how? How can we be a people like that? Who live a life that is reflective, not of the society or our own glory, but the glory of God, in whose name we live and move and have our being. Well, Peter gives us two ways in this passage today. Two ways.

Glorifying God through personal righteousness and glorifying God through political righteousness. Yes, we will get political today. Glorifying God through personal righteousness and glorifying God through political righteousness.

We'll begin with this glorifying God through personal righteousness. That's in verses 11 and 12. Let me read them again for us briefly.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul, keeping your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak evil against you, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. So how can we have a personal righteousness in this age that glorifies God? Well, notice how Peter addresses us. He addresses us as sojourners and exiles.

Sojourners and exiles. Now that's clearly metaphorical. He doesn't imagine that we're all on a journey traveling to another country.

Rather, we live in our own country. In fact, this is what I spoke on a little bit the last time I was here. That even in your own land, even in your own home, you could be made to feel out of place as the culture around you changes and you stick to Christ.

So in Peter's day, he's commending them as sojourners and exiles because they would not participate in the socially assumed behavior. The socially or culturally assumed behavior. It was simply assumed that everybody went to the religious festivals in their city.

It was simply assumed, well, of course, everybody worships the emperor. And the Christians were saying, oh, you can't assume that about us. We cannot participate in what seems to be de facto civic behavior.

And so in verse 12, notice, therefore, they speak against you and call you an evildoer. Now, why would they be called evildoers for not participating in the religious festivals? Well, the way they view the world, if you don't participate in the religious festivals, the gods, the Roman gods, will either become distracted or annoyed or angry with us or something. And there might be a plague or a crop failure or a flood or an earthquake because the gods are no longer guarding our city.

So if that happens, it's the Christians' fault. You understand? It's the belief that to fit in, just fit in, you would participate in these things. What's the big hang up? So there's this social pressure and therefore social outcasting.

Nobody wants to be called an evildoer. Again, verse 12, they speak against you as evildoers. Nobody wants to be called as such.

So how are Christians, therefore, in such a setting to respond? Not with ridicule in return. No, you're the evildoer, right? But to have, look at verse 12. It says, keep your conduct honorable.

So there's the answer. When we are ridiculed, when we are socially outcast, when we are spoken evil against, our response is, we'll treat you honorably. You treat us dishonorably, we will treat you honorably.

Now, as Peter leads into this in verse 11, first he says, abstain from the passions of the flesh. Abstain from the passions of the flesh. That's what it's not to do.

Don't give in to the passions of the flesh. Here's what you should do. Treat everybody honorably.

Now, what are the passions of flesh? What does he mean by that? Well, I think typically when we hear the word flesh, we might think of our appetites. So this is lust. This is gluttony.

Maybe it's a a greediness for power or wealth or something like that. And in Galatians 5 lists a lot of the lusts of the flesh, right? But I don't think we have to actually go that far. If you jump back up to verse 1, Peter has already told them, put away all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

These are the kinds of behaviors Peter is worried about. And notice they are all social. They are all involved how you treat someone else with malice.

You deceive someone else. You are hypocritical when you say one thing to a person and then behave another. You envy others.

You slander others. Peter is concerned about the way Christians engage with each other, but now he's talking about how you treat unbelievers while they're calling you evildoers. Now, why would this, these sort of behaviors, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, be considered lusts or rather passions of the flesh? I think the answer is because it's very tempting to respond with anger with anger.

It's very tempting to return accusation for accusation, for evil speaking, for evil speaking. I've noticed this in myself that when I'm in a disagreement with somebody and the temperature goes up, my temperature goes up. And if I'm accused, I feel like I have to defend myself and maybe part of my defense is to accuse in return.

I'm allowing the tenor of the discussion and the debate and the argument. Now it's a fight to control me rather than say, you know what, even though you're coming at me pretty hot right now, I'm going to still be honorable to you. I'm still going to be honest towards you.

I'm still going to be respectable towards you. Keep your conduct, again, among the Gentiles. Obviously we should treat each other with love and compassion in the church, right? I hope that's obvious, but in the world with the Gentiles, that is to say the pagans, that is to say those who don't follow Christ, even while they're accusing you of evil, of which you are innocent, you respond by honoring them.

These are strong temptations. So strong to respond, fight for a fight, that Peter calls it again in verse 11, these passions wage war against your soul. Wage war against your soul.

That's pretty heavy language. That when envy, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, slander, so on and so forth, dishonorable behavior towards your neighbors takes over, your soul is under attack. This is how serious Peter says it is and I think it's also reflective of how difficult Peter thinks it is to hold back those temptations to fight, argue, defend, and even deceive and so forth, that it's like waging war against yourselves, against your souls.

So Peter prescribes a different path, honorable conduct. Honorable conduct. What does that look like? Well, it means at the very least, respect for everyone.

As Ruth prayed, treating everyone as though they are created in the image of God, because they are created in the image of God. For whatever evil they're throwing at you, for whatever assault, for whatever offense in any moment, they still bear the image of God. There's still something redeemable there.

There's still something beautiful there. And as both Jesus and Paul say, they are under the snare of the devil. We should pity those who do not follow the Lord and instead attack his people.

They are under the snare of Satan and they need to be liberated. And so compassion, patience, respect, listening carefully. I'll emphasize respect, honor, and patience.

I mean, notice how it concludes in verse 17. He simply says, honor everyone. Everyone? Some people are not honorable.

Honor them and your conduct will be honorable. Love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. We'll come back to that.

I have a friend, his name's Sam, and he does a lot of ministry with Muslims, particularly in public settings. So he organizes debates with them. He was in town a couple years ago and we had a debate, Sam was part of it, with a Muslim cleric.

And he's done a lot online. And he is a model of patience and kindness. In these debates, as you can probably imagine, they get very heated.

And there are some attacks against him and against Christianity that are misleading and false. Sam remains patient, he hears them, and he's intent of representing them correctly, even as they represent him falsely. And you know, he's gained a reputation, therefore, among Muslims that they are willing to debate him.

Because he respects them, because he honors their position and is willing to give it its fair day in court, as it were, rather than straw man, cutting corners, ad hominem attacks, and so on and so forth. He's very honorable in his conduct, that therefore, around the world, he does this all over the world, Muslims want to debate him. And so therefore, because of his honorable behavior towards them, even when, quite honestly, sometimes he's getting attacked, he has a larger audience.

In fact, if you want to know more about his ministry, I'm happy to talk to you afterwards and point you to his website. Because the ultimate motivation for all of this is not just to get along, though that's nice too, rather, it's in verse 12. Do you see it there? So, they will speak evil, and in return, see not, aha, see, I told you they would behave that way.

They see good deeds in return, they see honorable conduct in return, and they might be convicted, and therefore turn to Christ. Because when it says in verse 12, they, this is where grammar really helps, matters, I'm sure you'll appreciate that, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Who glorifies God on the day of visitation in verse 12? It's them.

It's the evil speakers. It's the Gentiles. It's the ones who were persecuting and attacking you just moments ago.

How does that work? Well, to glorify God on the day of visitation surely means the return of Christ. Jesus will return. He will revisit the earth, as it were.

And Peter is looking forward to that day throughout this book. He calls it by different terms. And so on that great day, when Jesus returns, how can unbelievers who persecuted Christians, in this case socially, glorify God? Well, it could be in their judgment, but more often than not, in the New Testament, it's believers who glorify God.

And they glorify God because of the mercy God has had on them as sinners. To put it another way, Peter is envisioning here that if our conduct is honorable, if we abstain from these passions of the flesh in our relationship with others, we will demonstrate the Christian gospel and people will come to believe the Christian gospel. So that when Jesus returns, there will be an even larger multiplication of the people he redeems, even those who persecuted his people in the first place.

They are the ones who glorify God on that day. And so when you're in a conflict with an unbeliever, for whatever reason it is, and they malign you, and they speak evil against you, to your face or behind your back, the goal is not to win the argument. The goal is not to defend yourself or your own reputation.

The goal is to win them to Christ. And you will have that opportunity if you're respectful, patient, willing to endure the abuse, honoring them in return, even if they do not honor you. So think for a moment.

Think for a moment. In your life, in your neighborhood, in your family, at work, engagements online, wherever you encounter unbelievers, and I hope you encounter a lot, how do they make you feel like a sojourner in exile? How do they make you feel like this is actually not your home? You think about that. How do they speak against you? In what ways do they call you an evildoer? Because you don't fit into their world system.

You understand? And when that happens, what is your instinct? Defend yourself, fight back. Peter says, resist those temptations of the flesh, and keep your conduct honorable. Peter says that creates an appeal that draws them to Christ.

Now, why would that be? Why would that appeal and draw people to Christ? Well, it exemplifies Christ himself. Next week, you'll hear a sermon on the following verses, but if we just glance down to verse 21, glance down to verse 21, Peter says, for to this you have been called. This is your calling.

This is what it means to follow Jesus. Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled, that is to say, spoken evil against, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. He suffered. He did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to God, who judges justly.

And so when we behave in such honorable conduct towards what we might call our enemies, then we demonstrate that we are entrusting ourselves to God, and we have no fear of other people's opinions of us, because God has already accepted us. He accepted us at the cross. When Jesus died, he died for our sins, because we were the enemies of God.

God demonstrates his own love towards us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, forgave us of our sins, reconciled us to the Father. And so when we live in an honorable, patient, loving, sincere way, even with those we don't get along well with, we demonstrate to them that we trust God, and you too are a sinner who can be reconciled to this same God. Christ entrusted himself to God.

Christ forgave his enemies. We can do the same, and that creates a picture like Jesus for the world to see. Or to put it another way, our lives become like a 45-degree mirror that kicks attention up to Jesus, up to God.

And so Peter tells us to glorify God through personal righteousness. Number two, we glorify God through political righteousness. When you know we're out of time.

No, okay, we have a little bit of time for this one, a little bit of time. Well, these verses are actually more basic than you may think. We live in a fraught political climate, so I'll go out on this limb.

But the instruction is actually very, very basic. Look at verse 13. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human— some translations say creation, some say institution.

It's clear that it means some kind of governmental system, because he goes on to say whether it be the emperor as supreme or the governors as sent by him to dot dot dot. So don't think of governors the way we have governors, but the emperor was supreme and ruled all, and then he would have emissaries, people who worked for him to make sure his rule and law is obeyed in various cities, and they were the governors. They were not elected.

They were appointed by the emperor. And Peter simply says, be subject to them, to these governmental structures. And why should we be subject to them? Well, he goes on in verse 14, because they are sent by him to— now, that him is interesting.

That could be the emperor, or that could be the Lord himself. But the Lord is ultimately supreme over the emperor. So I'm calling the emperor supreme, a little tongue-in-cheek here, because we know the Lord is actually supreme.

Anyway, these governors are sent by the Lord or by the emperor to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. Long story short, maintain law and order. For those who do wrong, there is some kind of punishment as a warning to others not to do such evil.

And for those who do good, they are commended. They are rewarded, again, as an example to others. And so the basic structure here is that someone is put in charge so that chaos does not ensue.

Now, we know that not all emperors, governors, presidents, chancellors, führers, whatever, don't always punish evil. Sometimes they are evil. Nor do they always praise good.

Sometimes they don't know what is good. But in general is the point here that such governmental strata keep chaos at bay. So Christians should always be on the side of, to put it in the language of Peter, punishing evil and rewarding good.

To put it another way, Christians should always be in favor of law and order. Not chaos. But did you notice that there's a very fine line here? It's a very fine line.

Because he begins, be subject for the Lord's sake. For the Lord's sake. And then he goes on and speaks in verse 16 of being a servant, therefore, of God.

And so the idea here is that there are emperors, there are governors, there are presidents, senators, and, you know, congressmen or whatever else is out there, whatever political system we're in, we are to be subject to the general law of the land for the preservation of law and order and to abate chaos for the Lord's sake. And that is to say there is a higher allegiance, even higher than the emperor. And there is a balance of our hearts going on that always weighs towards the Lord.

There might be a time to disobey or even or speak against emperors, governors, so on and so forth, when they clearly contradict the will of the Lord by mixing up good and evil. Does that make sense? That in all of this, the Lord and his definition of good and evil, check your 10 commandments here, will be the determining factor to how we respond to emperors and governors and so on and so forth. Again, I point you to verse 17, this nice clarifying summary verse.

Honor the emperor, but what? Fear God. Fear the Lord. Do not fear the emperor.

This again ties back into that social exclusion. Fearing the emperor, fearing the populace, fearing the people of your neighborhood, and then therefore you cave and go to the festival. You worship the emperor or you give in to the social exclusion.

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