If anyone illustrates the sentiment often felt toward government, it’s Ron Swanson, a character from the political satire Parks and Rec. In one episode, he’s about to slaughter a pig for a city barbecue. Thing is, he’s in a public park. The park ranger asks, “Hey Ron, you’re not going to slaughter that pig here, are ya?” “Not to worry,” says Ron, “I have a permit.” Park ranger unfolds the “permit.” It reads, “I can do what I want. Ron.”

Such words capture what we often feel: submission to authority isn’t our favorite. Especially in the West, “nobody can tell me what to do” is the spirit. One arena where we often witness such a spirit is politics. Given our current presidential race, I imagine there’s great reticence to submit to either candidate. But that’s exactly what God calls us to do in our passage today. As Christians, we are called to submit to the authorities God places in our lives. Look at it with me in verse 13:

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. 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.

Before we start, recall our identity in verse 9: “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.” Most of us are citizens of a nation called the USA. Borders determine our country’s jurisdiction. We have a shared heritage, laws, customs. But the USA isn’t what the Bible calls “a holy nation.”

In the Old Testament, God related to all nations in a common way—restraining evil, preserving good, giving rains and food in their seasons.[i] But there was one nation God treated in a special way, Israel. They were God’s holy people (set apart) bound by a particular covenant in a particular place for a limited time. But that holy nation didn’t live up to their end of the covenant; they lost the blessings of their covenant.

At the same time, that holy nation anticipated a greater one, where God’s covenant blessings would find their fulfillment—like a seed that grows into a great tree. That future holy nation would gather under a new and greater King, who ruled with peace and perfect justice. That future nation would be shaped by a new and better covenant—a covenant that washed away sins and gave people new hearts willing to live beneath God’s law. That same holy nation would extend well beyond the borders of Israel to encompass all tribes, peoples, languages. This holy nation would also last forever, having (as Peter put it in 1:4) an imperishable inheritance.

Church, you are God’s holy nation. Christians might have many different legal and social identities, but the one that governs them all is our theological identity. No matter where Christians live—or under what government they find themselves—you are God’s holy nation. We have one supreme authority, Jesus Christ; his covenant explains the privileges and the responsibilities of our citizenship.

Question is, what happens when that holy nation (the church) is scattered within the common nations of our day? What happens when that holy nation is scattered within a communist country, or within an absolute monarchy, or within a constitutional republic like the USA. If our citizenship is in heaven, what does that mean for our citizenship on earth? If Jesus is our true Commander in Chief, can we just ignore the lesser authorities ruling our country, state, or city?  

You can imagine Peter’s audience asking these sorts of questions, especially when Nero was emperor of Rome. Verse 15 suggests they’re already being slandered by people in power. Not too many years later, Nero would be throwing Christians to beasts. Wouldn’t you be asking questions? Perhaps you’d even be tempted to retaliate?

Which brings up something else to recall. In 2:11, Peter urged us to “abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.” It’s no accident that one of the first areas Peter applies these words is to politics. Even in our day, just peruse social media or local news outlets. Visit a town hall meeting. Politics is where the passions of the flesh reveal themselves glaringly, like the ones we read about in 2:1: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander.

Just consider the way Peter himself once responded when the authorities arrested Jesus and he cut off a man’s ear before Jesus tells him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who live by the sword will perish by the sword.” When it comes to those in power, we need instruction on how our King wants his citizens to respond—not by following the passions of our flesh but by following in Jesus’ footsteps. What does that look like? What word describes a Christ-like response to governing authorities?

Submit to Every Human Institution

Submit. The main command in verse 13 is “submit.” The ESV has, “be subject…to every human institution.” The rulers of Peter’s day were pagans. Also, this same word appears in verse 18 with slaves submitting to non-Christian masters and in 3:1 with wives submitting to non-Christian husbands. He’s saying that you must willingly place yourself beneath their authority, even if they’re not Christians.

The examples here are “the emperor as supreme” or, verse 14, “governors as sent by the [emperor].” These illustrate how our submission applies to various levels of authority. In Peter’s day, the person highly placed was the emperor. In our American context, it’s the president. Below that are the courts and governors and mayors and law enforcement. At every level, our attitude should be a willingness to submit.

Now, Peter also reminds us of their creatureliness. The Greek word behind “institution” in the ESV is most often translated elsewhere in our Bibles as “creature.” Peter has in mind systems of established authority. At the same time, he’s saying “Don’t forget; those in power are but creatures.” In his day, it was common for emperors to claim some level of deity. Peter is careful. We submit to governing authorities, but not like we submit to God. He alone is Creator; these authorities are mere creatures.

Submit for the Lord’s Sake

We’ll return to that in a moment as it informs the limits of our submission. But for now, notice that our submission is “for the Lord’s sake.” Perhaps Peter is making a similar point that Paul does in Romans 13, that government is ordained by God—not simply in the sense of God’s general sovereignty over any mere occurrence. Nor does that mean every government exists by God’s special revelation. But when humans organize a society beneath ruling authorities, they are operating in a manner that God supports. Romans 13:1-2, “be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”

Government is not intrinsically evil; government is made necessary by the reality of evil. It’s a legitimate provision from God, rooted in God’s covenant with Noah and all generations thereafter. Its primary purpose is to preserve humanity, to preserve the social order. Verse 14 mentions how governors are sent “to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good.” Before God, governing authorities are obligated to protect their citizens from harm and uphold just punishment when someone chooses to harm.

It’s good for the social life of a community when governments punish murderers or imprison child molesters. It’s good when governments protect innocent life and do justice for the vulnerable. It’s good when governments defend their citizens from unjust attack. By submitting to authorities for the Lord’s sake, we display that such structures were God’s idea first; these leaders are accountable to him.

God also uses government to pave a way for gospel opportunity. In 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Paul urges that we pray “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it’s pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Christianity can certainly advance under oppressive governments. But when government functions rightly, it will protect a peaceful environment for the gospel to spread. How did Paul say it before King Agrippa? “I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am [i.e., a Christian]—except for these chains” (Acts 26:29).

But we should also submit for the Lord’s sake, because that’s what he himself embodied. In the person of Jesus, we find submission to the governing authorities. He was the ultimate Judge of all. As Son of God, he was most free to tell rulers to shove off. Yet for our sake he humbled himself; he submitted himself to the authority of wicked rulers. The people expected a Messiah to come and overthrow Rome with great might. But Jesus said, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Matt 22:21). He said, “if my kingdom was of this world, my servants would’ve been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

Jesus submitted by allowing the soldiers to arrest him in Gethsemane. He stood before the Sanhedrin and submitted to their trials. They took him to Herod; and though they accused him falsely, he did not say a word. When he stood before Pilate, he spoke the truth; he made the good confession. Pilate even observed his innocence. Yet Jesus submitted to a creature who failed to exercise his authority rightly.

Why? To do his Father’s will. To die on the cross for our sins. Our Lord embodied submission to governing authorities, even when that meant he suffered. Verse 20 will say that “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” He’s the centerpiece of all these commands to submit.

Therefore, for his sake, we follow in his steps. We submit. Our holy nation (the church) doesn’t conquer by revolution and violence. Our holy nation doesn’t conquer by upheaval or even voting (though that’s important). Our holy nation conquers by following in the footsteps of Jesus’ submission—submission first to our Father’s will…but even when that means he calls us to submit to authorities we may not agree with or like and who might even kill us.

Someone might object: “Submit to them? That’s craziness! How else are we going to make any progress? How else will we change the culture? Submission is just weakness.” But be careful what you call weakness. The weakness of God is stronger than man. Haven’t we learned that from the cross already? And even here we learn it again…

Notice the purpose of our submission in verse 15: “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” You might call submission “weakness.” But here it’s an instrument in God’s mighty hand to silence our enemies. The picture is that of a muzzle. God uses your good deeds while submitting to authorities to wrap a leather strap around the mouths of fools.

“By doing good,” he says. Don’t reduce that to good deeds you do in private. These are good deeds that are observable by non-Christian rulers in verse 15, by non-Christian masters in verse 20, and by non-Christian husbands in 3:6. They are outward in nature, public, seeable. Also, when it appears in the verse 14, it’s in the context of governors punishing those who do evil and praising those who do good. These are goods that God makes discernable even by non-Christians.

At a minimum, these are goods that make for a just social order. In 2:12, he called it “honorable conduct.” In 3:11, it includes pursuing peace, practicing justice, finding ways to bless your enemies. In 3:15, it includes engaging your opponents with gentleness and respect. On the flipside, 4:15 has this: “let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler/troublemaker.”

Christians ought to be model citizens, in other words. You and I are to seek the good of others; and by doing this for the Lord’s sake, God will use your good deeds to silence fools. When they slander us in public—when rulers charge us as being troublemakers—their words will fall flat.

Much like when Paul delivered a slave girl from an unclean spirit. In Acts 16, people were making money off this girl’s ability to do fortune-telling. Paul sets her free from Satan’s power. No longer can her owners make money off her. So, they drag Paul into the marketplace and start an uproar: “These men are disturbing our city!” But when you see the bigger picture, you realize, “Wait a minute? Paul did her good, and these guys are mad that they can’t profit off her slavery any longer? Paul isn’t the troublemaker here. They are! Paul, tell me more of this good news.”

God silences the talk of fools when people see our good deeds. Paul didn’t revolt. He never gathered troops to overthrow the wicked emperor. He subjected himself to the authorities while doing good. He was even strategic in his submission. Sometimes it was appropriate to flee their persecution. At other times, he stayed in prison to prove his innocence and expose the authorities. As a Roman citizen he had rights to a fair trial, but he didn’t always insist on these rights. He chose to use them strategically to gain a public hearing for the gospel; and when he stood before the council and then Felix and then Agrippa, he spoke with respect and honored their office.

Of course, he was doing nothing more than following in the footsteps of Jesus. Much like when Jesus was on trial before Pilate. The Jews accuse him of all sorts of crimes, even that of opposing Rome. But Pilate sees what’s going on: “Why? What evil has he done?” You say, “Well that didn’t seem to silence the fools then. They went ahead and crucified Jesus.” Yes, but anybody who reads the Gospels now can’t help but admit that Jesus is good, that he didn’t deserve the cross, that he was no insurrectionist. No, he was innocent but went through the cross willingly for the sake of others.

Likewise, while submitting to authorities, God uses our good deeds to silence fools. For the Lord’s sake, our general attitude should be one of submission. Consider again how instructive this is for sojourners who are suffering under ungodly rulers. These Christians lived in a culture that declared “Caesar is Lord.” By contrast, Christians confessed “Jesus is Lord.” Many would therefore accuse them of rebellion and insurrection. But by submitting to the authorities, by being model citizens, peaceful, doing good for their society, God would silence such slanderers.

This isn’t the first time God’s people lived in exile under oppressive rulers. God had a similar message for his people in Jeremiah 29. Many in Israel suffered under Babylon. Babylon was a proud and brutal nation. How were God’s people to live? Not just sitting around doing nothing. Nor were they to fight and turn Babylon into a new Jerusalem. Nor were they to bow to Babylon’s idols.

No, God instructs them like this: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

In other words, do good in your time of exile. Babylon wasn’t their ultimate home. Still, they were to seek the welfare of the city—even beneath wicked rulers. Peter is telling these Christians to do the same in their exile. Likewise, we should remain submissive to authorities and seek the good of others in our exile.

Consider how instructive this is for us in our own political context. Some are tempted to throw up their hands and do nothing; or withdraw and stick our heads in the sand. But that’s not a Christian response. According to Peter, our doing public good is an important piece of our witness. Our good citizenship is what God will use to silence fools and build on-ramps for gospel opportunities. If we were to pack up shop and move away, would our neighbors say, “Man, I miss those people. They did so much good for us.”

Other Christians are tempted to revive Constantine and overthrow the rebel powers; seek political takeover here and now. But don’t forget how God entrusted the sword to the state, not to the church.[ii] Don’t forget that he didn’t make you a holy nation by the end of a gun; he made you a holy nation by the grace of the gospel. And in that gospel, our Lord Jesus embodied submission while doing good.

Submit as Servants of God

It was also through that submission that God worked to bring us true freedom. In verse 16, Peter reminds us that we submit as free people. Unlike the world, we are free from the passions of our flesh. Through the blood of Christ, Peter said earlier that we were ransomed from the “futile ways of our forefathers.” He has freed us from setting our hopes on the temporal things of this world—as if this country and its heritage is all we have to live for. God has freed us from the world’s system of evil that vies for self-glory here and now. But that freedom isn’t so that we live like we want. It’s not so that we exercise every right possible. It’s not so we say, “I can do what I want.”

No, we were freed to belong to another and do what he says. We are servants of God now. You’re either a slave to sin or a slave to God. Through the gospel, we have become slaves of God. The whole of our life belongs to him. Instead of doing evil, we are now freed to serve our Creator as we were meant to serve him. In every area of our lives, we now get to image for others what the rule of God looks like daily.

That’s why Peter includes these four brief commands in verse 17: “Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.” Our identity as God’s servants touches every sphere of life. It touches how we relate to society, the church, God, and politics. It touches how we relate to society. He says, “Honor everyone.”

Treat people as fellow image-bearers. Even non-Christians bear the image of God. Speak to them respectfully. Paul says something similar in Titus 3:1-5, “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” Why? What drives us to treat people this way?

Well, Paul explains, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us…” Brothers and sisters, we honor everyone because God has been so merciful and kind to us. Luke 6:35 says that God is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. As servants of God, we ought to reflect the same. There is a way to hate what is evil and honor your neighbor at the same time.

Our identity as God’s servants also touches the church: “Love the brotherhood,” he says. He said this already in 1:22, “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” Why repeat that same command here? Perhaps we need the reminder now that politics enters the picture. Politics presents many challenges that can lead to division inside the church, especially when Christians from various backgrounds get scattered to different countries because of persecution or economic tragedy.

We have differing cultural histories, national identity issues, assumptions built into Western civilization, legal precedents that we’re used to, various levels of political feasibility for the policies we favor most. Add to that our limited knowledge, our own biases, and our individual consciences that aren’t always calibrated to Scripture. When it comes to politics, we must make concerted efforts to go on loving one another.

This is part of our witness to the world. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Society lacks this love. The world’s political communities are rife with hatred, lies, division, one-upmanship. But the church is a counter-cultural political community. The church is set apart from how the rest of the world acts. We are a holy nation ruled by God’s love in Christ. We declare God’s love in the gospel; but we must also display God’s love to each other.

As God’s servants, we also fear God. Notice the contrast: honor everyone, honor the emperor, but fear God. Peter mentioned this before. 1:17, “Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.” We behold God with reverential awe. It’s the same “fear of the Lord” that Proverbs calls “the beginning of wisdom.” It’s the same fear that Jesus alludes to in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Here we find another qualification to our submission. The first was imbedded in verse 13—God alone is Creator; governing authorities are but creatures. Another was how verse 13 set our submission within the context of “for the Lord’s sake.” Now Peter gets explicit about a government’s limitations. While our general attitude is one of submission, our ultimate fear belongs to God. God alone possesses ultimate authority. All others have a derived and limited authority. So, wherever their authority contradicts the word of God, we must fear God and not the creature. No matter what the creature might threaten, our total submission belongs to our new Master, God alone.

Without question, governments can and often do sin. Scripture is replete with examples. We see governments becoming idolatrous centers of ever-increasing power—Ezekiel 28. In Daniel 3, you get an account of King Nebuchadnezzar enforcing state-sanctioned idolatry. Governments can also subvert justice by favoring the powerful over the weak. In Joel 3, Tyre and Sidon are guilty of trading a boy for a prostitute and selling girls for wine. Governments also spread deceit to promote their agenda. Think of the Beast in Revelation 13. Again and again, we see that governments can abuse power and forfeit their responsibility under God to pursue a just social order.

So, a command like this becomes very important. Consider, for example, the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1. Pharaoh commanded them to kill any male child born to a Hebrew woman. But it says, “the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them.” We could think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3. These were men who served in government. Nebuchadnezzar had given them authority over the affairs of Babylon. But when he set up a golden image of himself and demanded their worship under threat of fire, they refused.

Even Peter exemplified this same fear of God in Acts 5:29. The authorities warned them not to teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter says, “We must obey God rather than men.” When governing authorities require us to do what God forbids, or forbid us to do what God requires, we must disobey their authority.

At times, such disobedience will also require us to speak out publicly against their evils. Consider John the Baptist calling out Herod for his unlawful marriage. Consider Paul teaching Felix about justice, self-control, and coming judgment. Daniel is another example when he tells Nebuchadnezzar, “Break off your sins by practicing righteousness.” Or when the Confessing Church wrote the Barman Declaration of 1934, denouncing any alliances between Christians and pro-Nazi Germany.

Submission to authority doesn’t mean we can’t expose evil. Only that when we do it, it’s done with honor. “Honor the emperor,” he says. We ought to show proper respect to the office, even despite the person occupying it. We can be so easily led to dishonor authorities when we disagree with their political stance. We’re not content to explain how a leader’s policies are unwise or unjust; we’d rather come up with zingers to insult or demean them. Sure, you have the freedom to type what you want online. But that freedom shouldn’t become a cover for evil. God says to honor them…

Now, this whole subject touches on a series of other questions that have challenged Christians over the centuries—a main one being whether it’s ever right for Christians to participate in overthrowing an unjust government? That is, what if a government becomes so corrupt, and every lawful means of seeking to correct its injustices have failed—is there ever a point when a Christian’s civil duty would also mean participating in some kind of government overthrow?

That’s a complex and hard question, and one that not everybody has the luxury of asking. But in his book Politics after Christendom, David VanDrunen’s words seem measured:

Those who find themselves tragically approaching this point should be alert to strong countervailing considerations that may counsel toleration of even very wicked regimes. Revolutions often bring no improvement. Overthrowing Batista may give you Castro. Overthrowing Shah may give you Khomeini. A revolution itself can produce massive suffering that outweighs the injustice it was meant to remedy.[iii]

In any case, these aren’t decisions we should make on our own. We need the counsel of fellow Christians who are together willing to submit to the governing authorities for the Lord’s sake. We need the counsel of other Christians who prioritize the gospel and whose first desire is to embody our Lord’s goodness by doing good to others.

We need the counsel of those willing to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who, as verse 22 says, “Committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 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. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

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[i] E.g., Gen 8:22; 9:11-12, 17; Acts 14:17; 17:25-27.

[ii] To quote from our own Statement of Faith, “The church should not resort to the coercive powers of the state to carry on its work or advance its mission since the gospel of Jesus Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends.”

[iii] David VanDrunen, Politics after Christendom (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020), 356.