Transcript & Slides: Living Under the System

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Living Under the System
By David Feddes

Peter begins his first letter by saying, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). He goes on and tells us who we are: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God. He called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Peter says these wonderful things about who Jesus is and what God has done, and he says great things about who God has made believers to be. Then he moves on to something we might find less uplifting—living under the system.

There is a system. It’s out there. There’s a political system still in the world. There is the system of work, and in that time, slavery. There is the family system, and the family system is not always sweetness, light, and joy. So there are different systems and structures and setups, and within the system there are people you have to deal with. People, whether in government, at work, or in family, may have a position of bossing you around or at least having more clout than you do. What do you do with that?

The temptation might be to say, “I am born again into a living hope! I’m raised from the dead! I’m the holy priesthood! I’m royalty! Away with the system!” Peter has a different take on that than we might expect from those glorious things said about believers. Believers still live within that system, and we need to know God’s guidance on how to go about doing that.

Peter says, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:11-12). He launches a new and fairly lengthy section of his letter by telling us again—for about the third time—that we’re strangers in the world and need to know how to live among the pagans. The word “pagans” literally means “the nations,” but here it refers to unbelieving nations. You’re still living among them, and he says that they’re going to accuse you, but you need to let your good deeds move them to glorify God.

Here Peter, as he so often does, is echoing our Lord Jesus Christ: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl; instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the room. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). The light of the world means that when Christ’s light is shining from you, people see you and must glorify God. Even if they don’t like what they see initially, they will glorify God on the day he visits. If he visits in mercy on them, they will glorify God on the day they are saved. If they don’t come to faith in Christ, they will still have to give honor to God and say, “Those people who were living that way were right after all,” on that day of final judgment when God visits and Jesus returns.

When we think about this passage, we need to realize that Christians have several things going on. We are beloved. The phrase “dear friends” means “beloved.” The Greek word agapetoi simply means “loved.” You are loved by God above all, and you are loved by fellow believers, by Peter, the author of the letter. You’re beloved. You’re loved by God and fellow believers. But news flash—you’re not loved by everybody. You’re not appreciated, at least not your faith, by worldlings. You’re aliens. You’re strangers to them.

Peter has just said that Jesus himself was rejected by the builders, and to those who don’t believe, he’s a stone of stumbling. So it’s no surprise that people who follow Jesus are also going to be offensive to those who don’t believe in Christ. You’re aliens. You’re strangers to them. And when you’re beloved aliens, you live differently than the people who are completely at home within worldly structures.

When you’re different, that leads to a couple of things. It leads to witness—you’re letting your light shine. And it leads to warfare. When you stick out, when you’re an oddball, people’s xenophobia kicks in. Xenophobia is a big word that comes from two Greek words meaning “stranger hatred.” We hate strangers. Xenophobia is a big category. Racism comes under that. People of a different race—you don’t like them because they look different. People from a different background—you don’t like them because they have a different background. Christians are hated by xenophobes who don’t like people different from them.

If Christians are different, you’re going to run into warfare in the process of your witness. As you think about that, you need to realize what your main enemy is. Your main enemy is not those people out there. That’s the temptation when you think about the system or about people who aren’t friendly with the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: there is somebody who has been a bigger pain in the neck to me than anybody else. He’s caused me more trouble than anybody else I know. He’s me. Peter says you think you’ve got enemies, and as we think about the system, you might think, “Oh, the trouble is those people who are against me out there.” No. He says you’ve got these sinful desires that war against your soul, and you need to understand that they’re not the real you anymore. If you’ve been born again in Christ, the real and most important you is the new person in Christ. But there are these sinful desires that are still warring against your soul, and they ruin your witness to others when those desires are acted upon.

So you need to fight. You need to repel those enemies within. Famous people are maybe most notable for that. We know the stories. A pastor of the most influential megachurch, probably in the world, from the Chicago area—late in his ministry, stuff comes out about him, and it’s not good. It undermines a lot of what he did. One of the most famous and influential apologists in the world, with many books read by people and many podcasts and appearances on campuses—after his death, things come out that are very ugly.

It’s not the power of your mighty intellect and the cogency of your arguments that win the world over. You may be smarter than the worldlings. You may have better arguments. But when they find out things about your life that are totally inconsistent with your profession, that weakens your witness. The head of the National Association of Evangelicals a number of years ago had a major scandal. The head of a megachurch, the head of a major Christian university in recent years—just this year—and all the mess that goes with that. Their witness was damaged.

I could go too long down the list, but as I said, I can just check out the mirror if I want to look for where a lot of the worst enemies are. We all have those enemies within. Peter says you’ve got to fight them. You’ve got to fight those enemies that war against your soul, because the people out there can’t destroy your soul. They can’t wreck who you are. Only you can do that if you follow those sinful desires that are at war against who you are.

Soul can refer to your eternal destiny. Perhaps it can also just refer to the real you. There’s the real you—the you that lasts—and there’s something that’s always out to undermine who you’re meant to be, and it’s those enemies. Even Satan himself, the only thing he has to work with really are the sinful desires that are within you. If he didn’t have those to work with, he wouldn’t be able to lead you into sin the way he does. So keep in mind, the sinful desires are your main enemy, and unsaved people are not your main enemy. Don’t join them in sinning, but don’t attack them and go around feeling pity parties all day because those big bad people out there are so anti-Christian.

Well, welcome to reality. It’s been that way for 2,000 years. You’re not going to get universal applause when you live like a Christian and think and talk like a Christian in a world like the one you’re living in. So get used to it and stop feeling sorry for yourself and stop whining. Maybe that would be a little advice for us Americans—quit whining about all those mean, bad, anti-Christian people out there in the system. What do you expect from the system?

Don’t join them, of course, in doing evil, but don’t attack them as though they’re the enemy. You witness, and you seek to win them. That’s your goal when you’re functioning within the system—to say there are a lot of people who are enmeshed in that system, and they need saving too. God wants them to be witnessed to as well. And either way, whether they’re saved or aren’t, they’re still going to have to glorify God on the day he visits us, because God will say, “I put people in your life, and you could see the reality of Christ shining from them. What did you do with it?”

So who’s your main enemy? D. L. Moody said, “I know no man who’s given me as much trouble as D. L. Moody.” Those words are true of all of us. In those statements Peter’s making, he’s just taking for granted that you’re strangers. And if you’re a stranger, you’re going to run into that xenophobia—that stranger hatred—and it’s going to attract attention because anything different gets attention, and anybody really different will get some attacks. So you endure the accusations, you endure the insults, and you take them as part of the course when you follow Jesus. You let your holy love do the talking instead of being the loudest person on social media saying how bad all those anti-Christian people are.

Unsaved people are going to accuse you, but some are going to be won over by your goodness, and they’re going to glorify God in the end. That’s your aim in the system. God didn’t say, “Okay, Christ has been raised from the dead, you’re a royal priesthood, I’m plucking you right out of there. Welcome to heaven.” He says, “Welcome to eternal life here on earth,” but you still have a life to live here on earth because God has purposes for you to be his light and his witness in the world.

So again, this tremendous freedom that’s been purchased by Christ might have tempted some Christians to say, “Well, Christ is King, Christ is Lord and Master, Christ is the Husband of the Bride. I have no other king, no other master, no other bride.” When you have Christ as King, Master, and Husband, then should subjects still obey rulers if Christ is the ruler? Should slaves disrespect masters because now Christ is the Lord and Master? Do Christ’s beloved disregard their spouses because now they have a higher Beloved in this new era of salvation? Should Christians trash the old system?

It’s not an illogical question, because Christ is King and Master and Husband, and the systems of rule and of employment and of family are all very flawed. The systems are flawed, and the people in them are flawed. So it would be tempting to say, “Away with it all! The system stinks.” That’s been the response even today of some non-Christian people. They’ll say, “Oh, the political system is so bad—into the trash with it! The economic and work system is so terrible—we need a total revolution and demolition of it! And the family—the nuclear family—what a hotbed of ruin and misery that is! If only we could get rid of the nuclear family, all would be paradise.” That’s how revolutionaries have talked for the last few hundred years.

So we need to realize that it could be a temptation for Christians also to say, “Away with the system.” You have three major components of the system that Peter is going to deal with in his letter: the political system, the work system, and the family system. So let’s get a sampling of what he has to say.

¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. ¹⁶ Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

¹⁸ Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. ¹⁹ For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.²⁰ But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. ²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

^3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, ² when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. ⁴ Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

So you have these three systems—the political, the work system, and the family system. In each of those cases, Peter says live under it. Put yourself under it. Submit or subject yourself to that system and the people who have a position of greater clout over you within that system. I’m going to look at these in more detail in later messages—the political system, the work system, the family system. We’ll think about what it means to be Christian citizens, Christian workers, and Christian spouses, and look at that in more detail. But now I just want to get a sense of the overview of what it means to live under the system.

When we look at that, maybe you could summarize it as strategic submission. It’s not just submission because I’m inferior, I’m nobody, and that person above me is so much more valuable, wise, and important. It’s a strategic submission.

First of all, you realize that you’re free. Peter says, “Live as free people. Live as free people. Don’t use that freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God” (1 Peter 2:16). But you are free in relation to everybody else. You live in freedom, not because they have the right to absolutely control you, manipulate you, and run your life.

Another thing you do in your freedom is that you honor God’s image in other people, and you honor his rule through the human creatures who govern. You might say that’s a weird way to put it—“human creatures”—but that’s actually the more accurate translation. When it says in the NIV translation, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men,” that’s a major case of over-translation. It literally says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human creature.”

Then it goes on immediately to talk about kings and governors and so on, but literally it just says “submit to human creatures.” Now this helps us in a couple of ways to think of people in authority positions as human creatures. Human-created things means, first of all, they ain’t God. When Caesar’s strutting around saying, “The divine Caesar,” and the senate is saying you should offer incense to the divine Caesar and to the glorious divine government, then to hear “keep yourself under those human creatures”—that’s what they are—they’re human creatures, not gods. They’re certainly not God, the Creator of heaven and earth. They’re only human creatures.

At the same time, they are human creatures, which means they were made by God in his image and have been put in certain positions to fulfill God’s purposes. So people in positions of governance, or in the workplace, or in the family—they’re humans, and you recognize and respect God’s image in them, even if they don’t always live up to God’s image. You deal with them in that light. You don’t worship them, but you don’t treat them as trash or regard them as utter filth.

Sometimes rulers look down on people, but let’s be honest—we sometimes, especially in America, look down on rulers. And sometimes they have debates that give us reason to! Rulers behaving badly are not always inviting tons of respect. Bosses who are morons, or at least act like morons, don’t always cultivate wondrous attitudes in the people who work for them. Husbands who are jerks don’t always merit, it would seem, the respect that’s called for.

We have to realize that sometimes you respect the office, not the latest behavior of the person. You respect the position and God’s image in them and God’s appointment that they would rule. We’ll say more about that in later messages.

A major purpose of this strategic submission is to disprove ignorant accusations that Christians are ruinous rebels. One of the things that’s part of xenophobia—stranger hatred—is that you get blamed for a lot of stuff. “Immigrants are the ones who are wrecking the economy.” “Christians are the reason the gods are mad at Rome.” “They’re the ones who set the fire that destroyed Rome.”

That happened a couple of years after this, when Rome burned—probably set on fire by Nero’s minions—but then Nero blamed the Christians and started burning them and killing them. There were all kinds of accusations that Christians wanted to overthrow the government, that they were revolutionaries. There were accusations because every time they got together, they “ate body and blood”—a bunch of cannibals! “And those suckers, they murder little children because we good pagans leave the little ones out to be exposed to the elements and die of the weather or be eaten by the animals. But those Christians pick them up—and they actually eat them!”

Christians were picking up exposed children and adopting them and raising them as their own. But when Christians picked up little babies, pagans claimed it was for their feasts. So there was talk of cannibalism and baby killing and revolution.

Atheism was another charge against Christians because they rejected the traditional set of gods and goddesses. “What a bunch of atheists!” So you had all these accusations floating around.

Part of your task as a Christian is to live like somebody that makes it impossible to believe: “Yeah, that’s a cannibal,” or “Yeah, that’s a totally immoral atheist.” Instead, you live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they’ll see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1 Peter 2:12).

You do this, Peter says, “to silence the ignorant talk of foolish men” (1 Peter 2:15). There’s going to be a lot of ignorant stuff said about you—don’t live down to it. Live by a higher standard.

Another purpose of this strategic submission is to please God. You imitate Jesus when you endure undeserved suffering. There was a famous book called In His Steps by Charles Sheldon, written about a hundred years or so ago, and the great question of that book is “What would Jesus do?” Of course, that became popular with “WWJD” a number of years ago—asking that question, “What would Jesus do?”

In Peter, the question is “What would Jesus do?” Jesus would suffer unjustly. That’s the short answer to “WWJD.” There are a lot of other details you can give as you ask that question in various settings, but in this setting he says to slaves: it’s commendable if you bear unjust suffering because you are conscious of God.

Because to this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21). That’s where Charles Sheldon got the title of his book In His Steps. Christ suffered for you that you should follow in his steps. You bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you’re conscious of God. That’s part of strategic submission. When you’re following God and you’re living in a system, there is bound to be some sort of price to pay.

Some cultures have paid a much higher price than we have, but if you’re really living for the Lord, it’s going to pinch. There are going to be times where it’s very awkward, where you’re insulted, where maybe you’re fired, where some things happen that aren’t pleasant. Living within the system means suffering what comes your way when you live for God within it.

And a big, big point of it all is that you win others to Christ with the holy beauty of your lives. If you’re a husband and you read 1 Peter 3, you might say, “Nah, nah, it says wives submit to your husbands,” but the next phrase is, “so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives when they see the purity and reverence of your lives” (1 Peter 3:1-2).

So if you’re a husband going around chest-thumping, keep in mind that Peter’s writing, “Now, if you have one of those dumb, blind, unbelieving husbands, here’s how you try to win him over.” So if you say, “Honey, you’ve got to submit to me,” she might say, “Well, I guess okay, if you’re going to act like an unbeliever, then I’ll go along with you and try to win you over by the purity of my life—because you’re not following Jesus.” If that’s how you want to be, well, I’m not going to get too deep into that passage right now. I’m just saying that this is the context.

This is all part of the same message that Peter is giving about living under the system. You’re living under a political system, you’re living under a work system, and you’re living within a family system. In all of those situations, you’re trying to win other people over to Christ with holy beauty. Peter says, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment… instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” (1 Peter 3:3-4). That’s how you win people over—not just your husband, but also in the workplace and in political settings.

If there’s a holy beauty shining from you, it may get you further than launching a revolution or trying to berate those who you think are wrong. Now, when we think about the system, we need a little bit of systemic realism.

The first thing is something I’ve already emphasized: the system is human, not divine. This in itself was one of the major political statements in world history. You’re not rebelling against the politicians; you’re just saying, “Whatever else you dudes want to say, you ain’t God.”

Nebuchadnezzar tried to say that people had to worship the image he set up, and the men who worked for him—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—said, “We’ll be good servants to the king, but we’re sorry, we’re not going to worship your image” (Daniel 3). Alexander the Great declared himself divine. The Roman emperors did too. In our so-called atheist societies, they don’t believe in any god, but they just have pictures as high as a building of “the dear leader.” The dear leader is the supreme authority.

Always and ever, the Christians say: the system and every grand poobah in it is human. Whatever we’ll do in submission to them, we will not worship them.

The system is needed and helpful. That must be acknowledged. Whatever system there is, it’s almost always better than no system, and most of the time, it’s better than the candidate to replace the system. I’m not talking about individual candidates in an election; I’m talking about the complete demolition of a system and saying we’re going to start from scratch.

The French Revolution tried that. They got rid of dating by the coming of Jesus Christ and started their own system. They were going to have Thermidor and the year zero, starting with 1789, the date of the French Revolution. It was going to be liberty, fraternity, equality—yeah, equality under the guillotine! Everybody’s heads got lopped off. What wondrous equality. Revolutionaries ever since the French Revolution have done similar things—promising paradise and giving the blade.

When you say, “We’ve got to just trash the system and something new will bring paradise,” you’ve got to remember that most of the time, the system is needed and helpful. It helps to restrain the power of evil and of chaos. It makes a context where a lot of good things can happen, most of the time.

And remember that Peter is saying what he’s saying in this letter around A.D. 62, with a person named Nero as emperor of the empire, preceded by people such as Tiberius and Caligula. I won’t go into them, but these are horrible men in many ways. And yet he’s saying that even a system run by those bozos is still better than chaos. So you work with it.

Having said that, it’s needed and helpful, but you don’t just burn it all down and expect something good to rise from the ashes in the next ten minutes. The system is worldly and wicked. You may say, “Those are two totally contradictory statements.” You’d better learn to live with that contradiction, because every system you live in is needed and helpful, and every system you live in is worldly and wicked.

That’s why it’s often fruitless to get into a fight over which of those statements is true. Is the United States the greatest, most wondrous, fabulous society ever, that no one ought ever to criticize and all should bow before old glory? Or is it a no-good, rotten hellhole that suppresses and persecutes and does all sorts of horrible things?

Well, there’s much good that has come out of this system. And it is a system that, in its constitutional foundations, said that Black people don’t count—well, they count for three-fifths of a person if you’re trying to get votes for white southerners, but otherwise they don’t count. That’s how it was. That was in the foundations of the system. Some of those things were corrected over time. Other injustices remain.

And those who want to praise old glory today—who is the leading exporter of pornography in the world if not us? Who’s the leading exporter of arms if not us? Who’s killed sixty million babies if not us? So when old glory waves, you shouldn’t just say the system is needed and helpful; you should also say the system is worldly and wicked. Both things are true at the same time, and they’ll remain true until Christ comes again. There will be no system that is perfect, and every society will need an imperfect system to keep it from getting a lot worse.

The system is fragile and fleeting. Governments come and go. Systems rise and fall. The American system, if Christ tarries, will fall. It happens to all systems. So this system is not the kingdom of God come to earth just yet. When Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), or when Peter said, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9), he was not speaking to Americans as Americans and citizens of the United States. He was speaking to citizens of heaven. He was speaking to the worldwide communion of believers. They are the holy nation.

Every other nation—God has purposes for that nation, and he has purposes for the systems of that nation—but never equate your own nation with the kingdom of God, and never equate any politician within that nation as a messianic figure. We see it in our own campaigns. If you go back further in history, you’ll see people saying that America is the light on a hill. Sorry, but that was what Jesus said to his followers, not what he said to any political entity or nation.

When we were listening to political speeches during the conventions, one candidate said, “We must fix our eyes on old glory—and, by the way, on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” You’ve got to be a little careful with that—with old glory and Jesus in the same breath. The other candidate said, “We are the light, they are the darkness, and we will heal the soul of the nation.” He said, “Restore the soul of the nation.” “He restoreth my soul”—where does that come from? It comes from the Shepherd Psalm, Psalm 23, and it was not said of a political candidate that “he restoreth my soul.”

So that’s the kind of rhetoric you get in a nation like ours that blends Christianity—with many Christians and halfway Christians and Christian influence—so you get a real mix of political and spiritual language. But don’t be fooled by it. You’re living in a system that is needed and helpful, that is worldly and wicked, and that is fragile and fleeting—a system that cannot save souls, cannot purify people and transform their lives, and cannot produce paradise.

The sooner you get used to that, the better, because otherwise you’re going to fall for everybody who comes down the pike saying, “If only we did this, this, and this, and elected me, paradise would ensue.” It doesn’t work that way.

Now, having said all that, and talking a little bit in big terms about submitting to the system, we also need to realize that it’s not just a matter of submitting. It also means that we have a somewhat different positioning in our systems than was the case when Peter was writing his letter.

For instance, we should repent of our role in the system’s evils and use our influence to improve the system. In some ways, they had almost zero influence in terms of changing government and structures. They were a very tiny minority. Christians today have much greater numbers and much greater historical influence in our society. So we have to look at how we might have contributed to current evils, as well as how we might improve things.

We’re in a little different situation, but getting back to the beginning of that list—if you want to live within the system, you don’t just say, “Well, now we submit because we were told to submit.” You also ask, “Who’s harmed within this system?”

At the time Peter was writing, little children who were abandoned were harmed—and so Christians would take in and adopt the little ones who were thrown out to die. There were poor people who were neglected, and the Christians helped them. There were sick people whom everybody said, “We’re going to social distance, all right! We’re not going to touch those sick people with a ten-foot pole!”

During some of the great plagues, the pagans were abandoned by their own loved ones, and the Christians came and helped them and ministered to them—and sometimes died of their diseases, but also helped many of them to heal and won them over to Christ. You can read the histories if you want; I’m giving a quick summary. But Christian behavior during the plagues was one of the keys to church growth in the early centuries. Christian attitudes toward little babies and adopting them was another key to the church’s growth.

Christian valuing of life and keeping all their own babies, having sizable families, meant that over the years they grew as a proportion of the population. They were willing to help the little ones, to help the helpless, to help the sick—and it resulted in the growth of the church and the honoring of Christian witness.

Julian the Apostate was a Roman emperor who tried to turn back the clock after Christianity had gained enormous influence, and he was so frustrated because he said, “The Christians are treating the pagans better than the pagans are treating the pagans! How am I supposed to get us to be pagans again?” He was furious that his pagans were letting the Christians treat pagans better than the pagans treated each other. He failed. He ended up dying in battle, and his last words were reputed to be, “Thou hast conquered, Galilean.”

We’ve lived in a system that’s had its Christian influences, but the failure of Christians to exercise their influences wisely means we need to evaluate seriously. What have I contributed, if anything, to the evils of the system—whether it’s racism, failure to value life, or not welcoming people who come from different backgrounds than mine? What opportunities do I have to make it better?

We get to vote. We get to use our voices. We don’t get our heads chopped off every time we speak out. That doesn’t mean we need to be yammering all day about politics, but it does mean that there may be occasions where we can speak, especially if we have skill in those areas. There are people who are called into political callings. Whatever way God gives you an opportunity, you can make the system better as God gives you opportunity.

Even if you don’t make the whole system better, let’s say you lived back then—if you were actually in a position of power, you could make the situation better. Obadiah worked under the administration of Ahab and Jezebel, and the orders were, “Wipe out the prophets.” So Obadiah’s response to that edict was to hide prophets in caves and bring them food. He didn’t follow orders all the time. He did what was right, but he used his position of influence to make that system better. Daniel and others did the same thing.

If people are Christians in positions of influence, they can do that. Even if you’re not in a position of influence, just being a Christian in your situation makes a difference in the whole setting. You never know how many lives you’re going to touch by being a better spouse, by being a better worker, by being a better citizen, and how many ungodly mouths you shut up when you behave that way.

And in all of this, remember that reforming the system is a priority, but it is not the top priority. It’s a terrible danger again and again in the life of the church that instead of having a gospel with social implications, you shift into a social gospel—where the thing you care most about is how they’re going to vote or what cause they’re going to support. It’s changed over the years.

Some Christians have said, “We’ve got to prohibit alcohol. It does so much damage. If only we could pass an amendment prohibiting alcohol in the United States, think of how everything would flourish.” There have been Christians who thought the main thing was the abolition of slavery—it was very important, but to make it a higher priority than the eternal was a mistake. Nowadays we have other causes, but to put any cause or any government’s actions above the eternal—you’re going to fall short.

I’ll give just a little sample. Our government—we take it for granted that it’s legal to worship other gods, to blaspheme the name of God without penalty, to take his name in vain. It’s uncontroversial that pornography ought freely to be distributed and watched wherever anybody wants, except maybe for child pornography. There are things we take for granted that ought not to be allowed.

Do you want Christianity to be the forced religion of the United States? Do you think people should be executed if they don’t put their faith in Jesus Christ? Do you think all those rotten parents who aren’t bringing their children up to know Jesus—and instead are leading them on the road to eternal hell—should be forced by government to give their children a proper upbringing?

These are grievous sins that are committed by parents when they don’t, or when they blaspheme, or when they look at pornography. My point here is simply that you cannot legislate a perfect system. The things that governments do are going to involve legislating only what has fairly widespread agreement in society, and they’re not going to get much beyond that. That’s another reason why you’ve always got to keep your eye on what God calls for and live that way, and not go by the prevailing morality that’s tolerated by government—because government tolerates a whole lot of bad.

You need to prize the eternal above the system, not become just—well, let’s face it, some denominations are just the lobbying wing of a political party. They’re not leading anybody to Christ anymore. So prize the eternal above the system. Pursue holiness. Make some disciples. By the way, if you want to change a system over time, get a whole bunch of real disciples of Jesus Christ and something might change. Get a whole bunch of fake-a-loo Christians who maybe show up on Christmas and Easter—they’re never going to change anything. You’ve got to get more Christians, and you’ve got to get more genuine Christians, and then you’ll see some things happen in the system as well.

So again: freely honor God’s image and rule in human creatures who hold power. You do this partly to disprove accusations that Christians are societal wreckers. Praise God. Imitate Jesus by enduring undeserved suffering—that’s the main theme that runs all through Peter. If you’re going to live for God, you’ve got to suffer like Jesus did and follow in his steps. And then win others to Christ with that holy beauty—the way the women of God are to win their husbands over with holy beauty, the way God’s holy priesthood is to win others over.

And as you do that—as you submit to the system, as you work and live under the system—never forget: you’re not part of the system, and your position is not where the system views you. The system may view you as a peon or a nobody or a bother or a troublemaker, but you are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Who are you? That’s who you are. Remember who you are.

Who is Christ? That’s how Peter opened the letter—who is God, who are you. Never forget that as you go through this, thinking about how to live in various situations. Always remember: I am chosen royalty. I am a beautiful stranger—and strangely beautiful too.

“Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:11-12).

So as you live under the system, be a beautiful stranger.

Prayer

Dear Father, we do pray for your wisdom. We pray for an overall perspective to see how we, as your called and chosen people, can live for you in the society in which you’ve placed us. We thank you, Lord, for those in our society who are in positions of authority. We pray your wisdom and blessing for them in the weighty responsibilities they bear, and we pray that you will bless them.

We pray that we, in the opportunities that we have, may live for you, shine for you—that the beauty of the Lord may rest upon us, that that beauty may shine forth from us and be attractive to others. Forgive us, Lord, when we get grumpy, when we get resentful, when we act as though we’re entitled to a lot better treatment. Instead, Lord, help us to follow in the steps of Jesus, knowing that as we live for you, we’ll also suffer with you.

Give us the courage to do that. Give us the holiness to do that. Give us also, Lord, the strength to fight the evil desires that are ever attacking our own souls, and instead be guided by the power of your Holy Spirit within us. Through Jesus our Lord we pray. Amen.

¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹² Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Beloved strangers

• “Dear friends” = “beloved” You are loved by God and fellow believers.

• You are NOT loved by worldlings. You are aliens and strangers to them.

• Beloved strangers live differently. This leads to witness and warfare.
 

Your worst enemy

• Sinful desires are your worst enemy.

• Unsaved people are NOT your enemy.

Glorious goodness

• Strangers attract attention & attacks.

• Unsaved people will accuse you, but some will be won over by your goodness and glorify God in the end.

Living under the system

• Political system

• Work system

• Family system

Freedom in Christ

Christ is king, master, and husband.

• Do his subjects disobey rulers?

• Do his slaves disrespect masters?

• Do his beloved disregard spouses?

• In the new era of salvation, should Christians trash the old system?

¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. ¹⁶ Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.¹⁸ Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. ¹⁹ For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.²⁰ But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. ²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

^3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, ² when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. ⁴ Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Living under the system

• Political system

• Work system

• Family system

Strategic submission

• Freely honor God’s image and rule in human creatures who govern.

• Disprove ignorant accusations that Christians are ruinous rebels.

• Please God and imitate Jesus by enduring undeserved suffering.

• Win others to Christ with holy beauty.

Systemic realism

• The system is human, not divine.

• The system is needed and helpful.

• The system is worldly and wicked.

• The system is fragile and fleeting.

• The system can’t save souls, purify people, or produce paradise.

Systemic reform

• Help those harmed by the system.

• Pray for those running the system.

• Disobey if the system requires sin.

• Repent of role in the system’s evils.

• Use influence to improve the system.

• Prioritize eternal above the system.

• Pursue holiness; make disciples.

Strategic submission

• Freely honor God’s image and rule in human creatures who hold power.

• Disprove ignorant accusations that Christians are ruinous rebels.

• Please God and imitate Jesus by enduring undeserved suffering.

• Win others to Christ with holy beauty.

Radiant royalty

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (2:9)

Strangely beautiful

Beloved, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (2:11-12)