authority

Our new identity... 1)The new temple in which God dwells 2)Ordained as his priests 3)Set apart as a chosen people and a holy nation.

God has established human authority

Submission is applicable to imperfect people—like you and me.... It addresses people who are not married to the ideal spouse, who are not members of ideal churches and who do not have ideal jobs, colleagues and bosses. Subjection takes the world as it is, not as we want or expect it to be. It requires us to surrender ourselves to God, discerning how we can do his will in circumstances that are less than ideal. Gerald Sittser

Why submit to authority? 1)For the Lord’s sake.

Why submit to authority? 1)For the Lord’s sake. 2)So we don’t give the world opportunity to slander.

Why submit to authority? 1)For the Lord’s sake. 2)So we don’t give the world opportunity to slander. 3)Because we are God’s slaves(!)

HONOUR ALL PEOPLE (important) LOVE THE FAMILY OF GOD (more important) FEAR GOD (most important) HONOUR THE KING (important)

How’s submission going for you?

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.

1 st Century Slavery 1)They really are slaves.

1 st Century Slavery 1)They really are slaves. 2)Slavery in Rome in the 1 st century is not slavery in America in the 18 th century.

1 st Century Slavery 1)They really are slaves. 2)Slavery in Rome in the 1 st century is not slavery in America in the 18 th century. 3)It’s unusual for a writer to address slaves as people.

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus…. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26-28

1 st Century Slavery 1)They really are slaves. 2)Slavery in Rome in the 1 st century is not slavery in America in the 18 th century. 3)It’s unusual for a writer to address slaves as people. 4)Peter did not address the institution of slavery

submit because you are “conscious” of God

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53

[Peter] isn’t simply recommending that people remain passive while suffering violence. He is urging them to realize that somehow, strangely, the sufferings of the messiah are not only the means by which we ourselves are rescued from our own sin. They are the means, when extended through the life of his own people, by which the world itself may be brought to a new place.

…we must see all the unjust suffering of God’s people as caught up within the suffering of his son. N.T. Wright