Civil Authority

Those who call themselves Christians sometimes harm the testimony of true Christianity by the way they behave toward civil authorities. Although believers are to set their affections on heaven, they are also to be godly citizens in society. That's why the apostle Peter said, "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution" (1 Peter 2:13). He was commanding believers to respect civil authority.

Peter wrote to believers living under a pagan, hostile, and anti-Semitic Roman government. Many assumed that Christianity was nothing more than a sect of Judaism. Believers became the objects of slander closely associated with malicious rumors that had already been circulating about the Jewish people. Apion, for example, made this false accusation: "In the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Jews every year fattened a Greek, and having solemnly offered him up as a sacrifice on a fixed day in a certain forest, ate his entrails and swore eternal hostility to the Greeks".

Believers were also accused of insurrection against Rome and all human authority. The Jewish religious leaders used that charge against Christ. Believers were also accused of being atheists because they refused to worship pagan gods, including Caesar. They were accused of cannibalism because their enemies distorted the teaching of Christ and Paul regarding Communion.

Believers were also accused of immorality. Long before Freud spoke of the Oedipus complex, pagans accused Christians of having incestuous relationships with one another simply because the believers referred to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. The Scriptural injunction to "greet one another with a holy kiss" was likewise maligned.

In addition, believers were accused of damaging trade in the idol-making business (Acts 19:21-41). They were accused of destroying family life since homes were often divided when some family members became Christians, but others did not. They were accused of fostering slave rebellion since a believing slave received new life and dignity in Christ. They were accused of hating people because they wouldn't adopt the world's ways.

Believers are to respond to such slander and hostility with godly living (1 Peter 2:12). That silences the critics, leaves no justification for false charges, and attracts unbelievers to Christ. Today society continues to be hostile against biblical Christianity. Although it is intolerant of truth and righteousness, we are to live as godly citizens and obey our civil authorities because that's what 1 Peter 2:13 teaches us to do. - John MacArthur