Why Should We Obey God’s Commands?
Have you ever wondered why we should obey God’s commands?
“Well that’s a silly question, Matt! God is God, therefore we should obey Him!” Yes, yes, of course. But really though, have you wondered why?
Christians believe that we are not saved by what we do. Rather we are saved by faith in the free grace of God, through the work of His son Jesus, alone. We do not add to this by anything we do. So why should we obey Him?
Perhaps because it will make our life go better. Be more pleasant.
In fact the scriptures teach that faithfulness, godliness, and a righteous life often lead us to suffer. The scriptures teach that we should not be surprised by “these fiery trials of various kinda”, but rather rejoice that we have been counted worthy to suffer with Christ.
The Bible teaches, as we will see today, that God’s commands exist, and we should live by them, in order to Glorify God. This is the very reason we exist, to Glorify God.
Here’s what I mean.
1 Peter 2:9-10
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
v.11-12
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 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.
The Glory of God
The Glory of God, most simply explained is this: the display of the amazingness of who God is, and what He is like. So, to glorify God means to accurately show who God is and what He is like.
We are exhorted in 1 Peter 2:12 to keep our conduct among the Gentiles (in this context, Gentiles are unbelievers, those who are not part of the nation of God’s chosen people), to keep our conduct honorable and to abstain from the passions of the flesh which it says “wage war against your soul.”
Feel the gravity of that for a second. The temptation you feel to sin is your flesh waging war against your soul. It is no small thing. Sinful passions are waging war against your soul, and giving in to them means a defeat in the battle. Those sinful temptations are no mere annoyance, they are trying to kill you.
We are to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against our soul and to keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that they might see our good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
That is, that they see your good deeds, and so see something about God and who He is and maybe not immediately, but definitely on Judgement day, acknowledge God for who He is and what He is like, and acknowledge their guilt before God, as we all will, they to their destruction, and we who belong to Christ to salvation that only comes as a free gift of God’s mercy through His son. Every knee will bow.
Our part in this: abstain from the passions of the flesh, and keeping our conduct among the gentiles honorable.
Our conduct also has an evangelistic effect. In a few weeks we will study 1 Peter 3:15 where we are told that the onlooking Gentiles might asks us about our good conduct (namely our lack of fear, and our hope, and our continued faith in God and faithfulness to His commands) in the face of persecution or ridicule. They will see this and ask what we have going for us that we remain this way. We are to have an answer prepared for that time: The Gospel about Jesus.
The Reason for Obeying God’s Commands
God’s commands are not arbitrary or unnecessary, nor are they keys to a “successful” and comfortable life. Rather they are the way of life The Creator has prescribed for His creatures is so that all the world might see and know the He is God and is worthy of worship.
This is our purpose on this Earth. It is the reason we have been transferred out of the domain of darkness into his marvelous light. We exist for God, that we might Glorify Him. Every other pursuit, every desire, every ambition, every goal in our life is to be brought into subjection to this
Good Conduct Among The Gentiles
My message today goes through verse 25, which focuses on two human relationships that, when engaged according to God’s design, will cause the Gentiles to see God clearly for who He is and what He is like:
Our relationship to governmental institutions, and our relationships to our employers (a slave’s relationship to their master). So, in a sense this is “part 1” of a three part message, with part 2 next week focusing on the relationship of wives to their husbands and husbands to their wives, and wrapping up with Part 3 the following week focusing on our relationship with the watching world.
Lets get started.
Subjection to human institutions
v.13-15
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.
I wonder if in our current political climate, we may be a little blind to Peter’s teaching here with regard to our attitude toward the role of government and governors.
It is significant that this letter was written to Christians under the rule of the Roman Empire during the time of Nero. For those familiar with history, you will recognize that name as an insane despot who fiddled while Rome burnt to the ground and whose violent persecution of Christians made him the figure probably referred to in the book of Revelation as The Beast.
Christians are to be good citizens, compliant with and grateful for the rule of law. This is important: our parameters for what it means to be subject to governmental authority includes the following:
- The command that we are to follow the law of the land regardless of our opinion on the matter, except as we noted, where it commands something God forbids, or forbids something God commands.
- Peter was rebuked by Jesus for attempting an armed rebellion to resist the authorities that were seeking to kill Jesus.
- Peter’s refusal to comply with the command of the religious/political rulers to cease preaching the Gospel.
- Peter himself was crucified along with many other Christians, under Nero and did not stage a rebellion or resistance.
- There are commands to governments about wielding the sword to punish wrongdoing. I am not a pacifist. Christians may, as an authorized agent of the state, bear arms in order to uphold justice. (Police, soldiers, authorized security guards, etc).
- Because the law of the land allows for it, I may defend my family and life with deadly force if necessary, from criminals who would try and take it.
The prevailing implications here are that Christians are to be respectful and honorable citizens who stand for righteousness peacefully in the face of unrighteousness, and must obey God rather than men when there is a conflict.
However, and this part is hard, Christians must also be willing to suffer the consequences of that refusal to comply. And as we do so, we may suffer loss, harm, imprisonment, abuse, or death, all of which will result in joy for us as we share in Christ’s suffering, and Glory for God as the watching world gets to see who He is and what He is like.
This is a hard teaching, which is why Peter gives us the encouragement that we are doing this for the Lord’s sake, and who could be more worthy of our obedience?
He also reinforces that this is God’s will for us, and that our doing so will muzzle (is the word here) the ignorant arguments and slander of foolish, Godless people.
Note: it is not your superior argumentation or superior use of political clout, or physical force that will silence the ignorance of the fools, your glad submission and suffering.
The ISIS terrorist outlaws all learned something last week while murdering 21 Egyptian Christians. God willing, what they learned could bring about repentance and revival among them! Oh Lord, perhaps there was a Saul of Tarsus among them! And either way, the will answer to God one day.
Freemen live as slaves to the Lord
The passage goes on in verse 16.
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.
Peter addresses people who are free here. I have wondered if perhaps here he is challenging those who own slaves, do not use your status as a cloak for evil. How would a Christian slave owner respond to that? I have a hard time imagining anything less than granting the slave freedom and respect and a means of making a living.
Subjection to masters (employers)
It is worth pausing and reflecting on the immense relevance of this whole passage today to our lives here in the 21st century. Which is easier to do if we understand that in this next section, the servant-to-master relationship coordinates very directly to the employee-to-employer relationship.
v.18-21
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
When we act righteously in our employment it is possible that this will bring hardship to you. Perhaps a very real form of persecution when refusing to comply with a boss’s command to sin (perhaps to lie, cheat, steal, cut corners, act unjustly, do low quality work), or when they forbid you to keep God’s commands (preach the Gospel to a coworker, etc.)
In either these scenarios, we have many examples in the Old Testament narratives of faithful men like Joseph, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were diligent, honest, faithful, highly skilled, and hard working, yet were faced with situations where they had to stand against their king and employer (sometimes one in the same person!) for righteousness. Joseph was thrown into jail, Daniel into the lion’s den, and Rach/Shach/Benny into a furnace. God rescued all of them. Peter was thrown into prison and rescued. There are also stories (see Hebrews 11) of many many saints before us who were not rescued in this life. They all stood for righteousness and all received The Reward: a crown of Glory in Heaven.
Importantly, Peter also notes that it is possible to suffer for our own wrongdoing. I have experienced this personally, and have talked to some of you who have suffered at work because of your foolishness and sin. Laziness, slackness, disrespect, missing work days, bad attitudes. It is important to recognize and be humble about which is which. Are you being treated poorly because you are a poor employee? Or because you are a faithful, hardworking, skillful, outspoken Christian?
The important piece here is faithfulness, respect for your employer, doing your best work, honesty, righteousness, even for bad employers. Yes change jobs if you are able, but it is better to be employed by an unjust employer and endure the hardship faithfully rather than be unemployed.
It is important to note that slavery is not condoned here, or anywhere in the scriptures. Quite the contrary. A Christian slave owner, reading this, would seek to free the slave an to employ them in an economically fair way, treating them as a fellow creation in the image of God.
In all of this, both our subjection the to government and to our employers, we are called to follow Jesus!
What sort of image comes to your mind when you think about following Jesus?
What does the scripture say we are to do here?
The subjection of Jesus
v.22-25
22 He 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. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
How did Jesus respond to reviling (abuse)? He did not return it.
How did Jesus respond to unjust suffering? He did not threaten.
“Peter, put away your sword.”
Rather, Jesus’ response was to “continue to entrust himself to God who judges justly.” This is why Peter begins in chapter 1, verse 13 “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be revealed at the coming of Jesus Christ, who will right all wrongs, and wipe away every tear, fulfill every righteous desire, and reward those who have earnestly followed in His footsteps.
Jesus bore all of our sin for us. He removed the guilt of sin, and He shows us the path of righteousness and shepherds us in it. I wonder if Peter had Psalm 23 in mind as he wrote this.
Let this be our prayer as we face a world where we will encounter suffering for righteousness:
Psalm 23:1–6 (ESV)
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Amen.