Day 137 - 1 Peter 4
Day 136 - Devotional
Living Under Authority
R.C. Sproul
“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 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. 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 a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”
As I read the Scriptures, particularly the New Testament, there is a theme that recurs again and again regarding the Christian’s willingness to be in submission to various types of authority. Given the rebellious spirit of our age, that frightens me. It’s all too easy for us to get caught up in an attitude that will bring us into open defiance of the authority of God.
In 1 Peter 2:11-16, Peter is speaking to people who were subjected to brutal, fierce, and violent persecution—the kind of activity that can incite within us the worst possible responses, including anger, resentment, and hatred. But Peter pleads with those people who were the victims of the hatred of their culture to behave in an honorable manner before the watching world. Paul gives a similar plea time and time again that we’re to try to live at peace with all men as much as possible.
The “therefore” of verse 13 introduces a key manifestation of living honorably before the watching world. We’re to submit ourselves to the ordinances of man. Why? I find the answer startling and fascinating. The Apostle’s admonition is that we’re to submit for the Lord’s sake. But how is obedience to human ordinances done for the Lord’s sake? How does my obedience to my professors, my boss, or the government in any way benefit Christ?
To understand this, we have to understand the deeper problem that all of Scripture is dealing with—the problem of sin. At the most fundamental level, sin is an act of rebellion and disobedience to a higher law and Lawgiver. The biggest problem with the world is lawlessness. The reason people are violated, killed, and maimed in battle, the reason there are murders, robberies, and so forth is that we’re lawless. We disobey, first of all, the law of God. The root problem in all of creation is disobedience to law, defiance of authority. And the ultimate authority of the universe is God Himself.
But God delegates authority as He reigns and rules over His creation. God raises up human governments. It is God who instituted government in the first place (Rom. 13). That’s why Christians are called to honor and pray for the king, pay their taxes, and submit as much as possible to the authorities in all things—because the authorities are instituted by God. Moreover, He shares supreme authority with Christ, who said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given [by the Father] to me” (Matt. 28:18). So, no ruler in this world has any authority except that which has been delegated to him by God and by His Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Thus, disobedience to the lawful commands of earthly authorities is ultimately disobedience to God and to Christ because they ordained the governing authorities.
The root problem in all of creation is disobedience to law, defiance of authority. And the ultimate authority of the universe is God Himself.
The world has gone crazy in lawlessness, but we’re to be different. Wherever we find ourselves under authority—and we all find ourselves submitting to various authorities—we’re to submit to that authority. Nobody in this world is autonomous. Every one of us has not just one boss, but several bosses. Everyone I know, including me, is accountable not to just one person but to all kinds of authority structures. Throw a brick through a store window, and you’ll find out quickly that you’re accountable, that you’re under authority, that there are laws to be obeyed and law enforcement officers to make sure the laws are obeyed.
Christians are free in Christ, but we aren’t to use our liberty as a license for sin, because even though on the one hand we’re free, on the other hand we remain indentured servants.
We’re bondservants to God. We’re slaves of Jesus Christ. So, even if the rest of the world is running on the track of anti-authority and anti-submissiveness, we aren’t allowed to join in. We’re called to be scrupulous to maintain order. There is such a thing as law and order that God Himself has ordained in the universe. And we’re called to bear witness to that, even by suffering through uncomfortable, inconvenient, and sometimes painful submission to the lawful rules of even those authorities who do not recognize God, for even the godless authorities have been established by God.
I think we all have experiences where we bristle and chafe under authority and under mandates with which we vehemently disagree. Let me just suggest as a matter of practical consideration that if we look to these human institutions or these human persons who are tyrannical, unfair, unjust, and all that, and we seek to submit to them individually or even institutionally, considered in and of themselves, we will find it extremely difficult to submit with any kind of good attitude. But if somehow we can look through them, look past them, look over them, and see the One whom the Father has invested with ultimate cosmic authority, namely, Christ Himself, we’ll have an easier time submitting. We’ll find help with our struggle to submit when we recognize we’re submitting ultimately to Christ, because we know He’ll never tyrannize or abuse us.
Day 135 - 1 Peter 3
Day 134 - 1 Peter 2
Day 133 - 1 Peter 1
Day 132 - Devotional
Day 131 - James 5
Day 130 - James 4
Day 129 - James 3
Day 128 - James 2
Day 127 - Devotional
Count it All Joy
Scott Devor, Ligonier Ministries
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Just a few days after the death of his wife, Idelette, John Calvin wrote these words expressing the depths of his suffering: “The death of my wife has been exceedingly painful to me . . . . I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life.”
I have suffered much less than others, but even to the degree to which I have experienced suffering, I still find these words of James some of the most arresting in scripture: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).
When trials arise, my first reaction is rarely one of joy but is typically one of “Oh Lord, why me?” or some other expression of frustration or despair. But James calls us to joy. Why?
What many Christians have come to understand is that God, because of His great love for us, disciplines us and allows us to go through difficult times for our ultimate good. James points out the same truth in verses 3 and 4:
“For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:3-4)
We are called to “count it all joy,” not because of the pain we experience but because of the ultimate end: “That you may be complete, lacking in nothing.”
There is an often told story of a soon-to-be butterfly that is struggling to get out of its cocoon. As the story goes, someone witnessing this struggle wants to help and gently peels open the cocoon only to end up removing the hardship necessary for the insect to become a mature and complete butterfly.
So it is with us: we so often want to view our hardships as nothing but an obstacle toward growth and maturation. However, the trials we experience are from the hand of God and are working to produce steadfastness leading to maturity (vv. 3–4).
The way the Lord works in us through trials is mysterious at times, but let us take comfort in knowing that it is the Lord who is working and because of this, we can “count it all joy.”
Day 126 - James 1
Day 125 - Hebrews 13
Day 124 - Hebrews 12
Day 123 - Hebrews 11
Day 122 - Hebrews 10
Day 121 - Devotional
The Supremacy of Christ
Ligonier Devotional
“By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.”
The author of Hebrews does not dwell on the furniture and structure of the tabernacle and the places where the various priests ministered simply to give us some information about the old covenant religious system (Heb. 9:1–7). Instead, he mentions these things in order to give us a lesson about the inferiority of the old covenant in relation to what is available now under Christ and the new covenant. That becomes clear in today’s passage as he specifically unfolds what the structure and service of the old covenant tabernacle and temple tell us.
Hebrews 9:8 explains that the presence of the tabernacle/temple with its various sections separated by curtains and with access limited to the tribe of Levi is a picture from the Holy Spirit that the way into holy places—into God’s presence—remains closed off to God’s people as long as that structure and its associated religious system endure. In fact, the tabernacle symbolizes “the present age” (v. 9). This could mean “the age then present,” referring specifically to the period before Christ came, or something more like “the present crisis.” If the former, the author is stressing how access to God’s presence was closed off before the Son inaugurated the new covenant. If the latter, the author emphasizes the foolishness of his audience’s present desire for the old covenant system in light of what Jesus has brought. Either way, the point is that the old covenant system never gave the people access to God. This is different, however, from saying that the saints who lived under the old covenant period had no access to the Lord. They clearly did (Ps. 51:11), yet as we have noted, that access was not actually through the old covenant system but through their being partakers of the blessings of Christ’s work before Jesus accomplished His ministry in time. John Owen comments, “The apostle does not exclude [the old covenant saints] all from the grace and favor of God, but only shows their disadvantage in comparison of believers under the gospel, in that this way was not manifested unto them.”
The old covenant system could not give the saints access to the Lord’s blessed presence, Hebrews 9:9–10 explains, because its sacrifices could not purify the conscience but dealt only with external matters of food, drink, and washings. Only those with clean hearts can enter the presence of God (Ps. 24:4), and the old covenant sacrifices could not actually purify the consciences of sinners.
Today’s passage is one of many texts that reveal that the old covenant system was never meant as an end in itself. The law and its ceremonies were given to point us finally to Christ, who accomplishes what those things could not. As we study the law of God, we should be considering how it points us to Christ so that we can better understand His person and work.