In 1 Peter 2:11-14 he charges us to abstain from fleshly lusts as we live as sojourners and pilgrims, as people who recognize that this world is not their home, and that they have a home and a citizenship in heaven. “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” The battle ground is clear – it is our fleshly passions so we must fight against the lusts of the flesh, and realize the battle continues as long as we live in this flesh. This kind of godly living makes our conduct honorable among those who don’t know God yet.
We can expect people will speak against us as evildoers, but they can still be brought to glorify God by seeing our godly conduct. “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.” Christians were falsely accused of great crimes in the early church. But over time, it was clear that Christians were not immoral people – and it was shown by their lives. Barclay wrote “The striking fact of history is that by their lives the Christians actually did defeat the slanders of the heathen.”
There is a day coming when all of us will stand before God. Peter refers to this ultimate meeting with God, either when they go to meet Him or when He comes to meet them. The idea is that the Gentiles might be persuaded to become Christians by seeing the lives of other Christians, and that they would glorify God when they meet Him instead of cowering before His holy judgment. Part of living a life that brings glory to God is how we act as citizens. As Christians we should be good citizens, submitting to government. This was very different from those zealous Jews in Peter’s day who recognized no king but God and paid taxes to no one except God.
“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.” Peter wrote this in the days of the Roman Empire, which was not a democracy and no special friend to Christians. Yet he still recognized the legitimate authority of the Roman government. Clarke wrote “God, as their supreme governor, shows them that it is his will that they should act uprightly and obediently at all times, and thus confound the ignorance of foolish men, who were ready enough to assert that their religion made them bad subjects.” It is a question of whether we agree with the government. It is a matter of submission to their authority.
“Portions of this blog post have been taken from the Enduring Word commentary, (c) 2023 The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – ewm@enduringword.com“
“Scripture (bold and italicized) has been taken from the English Standard Version, © ESV.org – www.esv.org”
Arlin Sorensen's Thoughts on Scripture 