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. | 1 Peter 2.13-17
I preached on this text back in August, before we had a president-elect defined (the WHO has nothing to do with the rest of what I say here). I am going to return to a few things from that sermon as we lead up to the inauguration this Friday. The main point of what Peter is saying is that while we should do everything in our power to play a role in the political process (as we are able), our overarching attitude must always be one of HONOR (built out of our trust in God’s sovereign plan):
Government is not just set up to write laws and implement programs, the government sets up an understanding of value: some things are good/others are bad (laws). The existence of governing authorities is a reminder that morality exists. We need structure and justice because there really is bad in the world.
The problem is, no government actually defines this good/bad correctly. So how can we honor the emperor if he/she is corrupt? Peter makes one thing clear: their failures are not an excuse not to honor. Let’s put this into perspective. The people Peter is writing to here did not have the power to elect their leader. The governors and emperors Peter is telling them to honor were appointed. They were power hungry, abusive, and even declared themselves to be a god. There was no Christian candidate in ancient Rome…yet they are called to honor them by being subject to them. The one thing we can’t claim is that the lack of an honorable person let’s us off the hook.
So what does it mean to honor? Honor means to give something credit, to recognize its value…a true honoring of government authority is to recognize it matters! To treat all parties involved with the proper integrity and scrutiny that their position merits.
If we can’t get out of it, if we are required to honor, there has to be a reason. None of us are comfortable with things we don’t believe in simply because: God is in charge. The truth is, Peter’s call to honor here is the means by which we, as Christians, can impact a process that has become so partisan and contentious that it is ineffective. The power and peace of the gospel gives us the ability to display a hubris that is other than what is offered outside of Christ:
How much time do we make our leaders spend: worrying about how people are going to use a decision as ammo against them OR trying to clean up a PR mess on the other end? All of this is of NO advantage to us.
We can see what it has produced. It has produced a system where the only people who can navigate it are manipulative politicians and TV personalities. We, the whole country, churches in particular, did not honor our leaders, and it has gotten us dishonorable leaders. We have not created an environment for leaders to thrive and so true leaders no longer want these roles (and couldn’t get elected if they did). Let me be clear, I am not calling for Christians to blindly follow and support all of the decisions of the president. Peter is not calling the first century Christians to support the persecution of Nero. BUT there is a difference between honorable disagreement and unhelpful slander. Correction is needed, challenge is necessary, but it must be aimed to help create a better solution, not just to tear down the current one. Honor your leaders into becoming good leaders.
There will be a lot of responses on Friday. Some people will be celebrating; others will be protesting. Some will be mourning; others will be wondering what is next. As the church, we are not distinct from any of those emotions, but we have a place to take those emotions that both honors our leaders and makes an impact: PRAYER.
On Friday, from 10a-11a, at the same time that our new president is being sworn in, the church will be open for prayer. Please come to petition God in whatever emotions you are currently experiencing.