Honour and Obey
May 18th 2009,
By Mark Hanson.
For Reading and Meditation: 1 Peter 2:13-17
Important Verses:
Verse 13: “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.”
Verse 16: “As free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.”
Verse 17: “Honour all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”
A dear brother of mine, as we were speaking, remarked on an interesting seeming contradiction in Christians being involved in civil liberties campaigning, in that we, as Christians, are in a dictatorship. Plato once remarked that the most preferable and effective form of governance was a benign dictatorship. And as dearly beloved children of God, we voluntarily put ourselves under His supreme authority, to be His bondservants. Slaves, if you will.
And further to that is the exhortation in the Scripture passage before us. We must submit ourselves to every ordinance of man, and not only that, but honour the king (or Prime Minister) and indeed all men.
This is a challenge, and a serious one. Many, in promoting civil rights, insist on insult and outcry, and to my shame I am not immune to such temptations. Yet the Christian message is one of supreme love, not of conflict and sectarianism.
In a civil democracy, we do have opportunity to speak and disagree with the authorities. That is in-built in our constitution. It is not a right, to be demanded, but a gift to be treasured, for it is a gift from God.
So in our lives, whether in political circles or in our more mundane (but no less important) daily interactions, we would do well to remember the words: “Honour all people.”
“Bless your enemies. Bless and do not curse.”
And in the rare instances where a command from men must be refused because it is opposed to God, we can take comfort that Peter, who wrote the letter from which our reading was taken, also refused to obey the chief priests when commanded not to speak in the Name of Jesus (Acts 4:1-31).
There is further exhortation in our passage: whilst many would say that liberty equals licentiousness, the Bible is clear that the real freedom is not to be a cover for vice, but for freedom under the Authority of God.
