For the Lord’s sake, submit to all human authority—
whether the king as head of state, or the officials he has appointed.
For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong
and to honour those who do right.
It is God’s will that your honourable lives should silence
those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.
For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves,
so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.
Respect everyone, and love the family of believers.
Fear God, and respect the king.
1 Peter 2:13–17
Believers of all eras have squared off against those in authority who would demand disobedience to God. Moses’ parents resisted the order of the Egyptian pharaoh to kill their baby son, because “they were not afraid of the king’s edict” (Hebrews 11:23). Daniel and his friends resisted their government’s decrees that outlawed the worship of their Creator God (Daniel 3:6).
The apostle Paul stood firm in the face of those who could take his life for preaching Christ (Acts 25–26). As history unfolded, we saw the likes of Martin Luther, John Knox, Jon Hus, and many others who clung to the Word of God in spite of the threats of earthly authorities.
Please don’t misunderstand. Believers are to obey the government. Peter himself would later affirm this fact (1 Peter 2:13–17). Keep in mind, the government in Peter’s day was the brutal Caesar Nero! Christians are to be model citizens and to submit to the governing authorities . . . unless doing so requires disobedience to God. At that point, to quote Peter, “We must obey God rather than men”—and also be prepared to bear the consequences.
Rather than letting the apostles walk free with only a warning, as the religious leaders had done earlier, they now added injury to insult:
They flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. (Acts 5:40 NASB)
Don’t move too quickly over those initial words: they flogged them. The original term means that they were struck or beaten repeatedly. Try to picture that. Line up the apostles in your mind and imagine each one mercilessly beaten again and again. Let me ask you, have you ever been flogged? Probably not. Have you ever been struck even once because of your faith? Most in our Western world haven’t. Look at the apostles’ amazing reaction:
So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus as the Christ. (Acts 5:41–42 NASB)
Rejoicing . . . in beatings? No, rather, they rejoiced over the privilege of suffering shame for Jesus.
Taken from The Church Awakening by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2010 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Faith Words, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
