IN verse 12 of this 2nd chapter of the first general letter written by the apostle Peter, Peter exhorts all believers to live good lives among the pagans in order that the believer's life may bring glory to God. This is an overall requirement of every Christian. Now in the rest of this letter Peter deals with different avenues and conditions of living in society to explain how this 'good life' is worked out to the glory of God.

The next thing that we need to understand, in these directions for living a good life, is that Peter is relating these instructions with regard to the way society was in his day. Society was made up of norms of behaviour which were acceptable and normal in the days of the apostles. Peter is showing how the Christian should live in such norms. Peter does not discuss the rights and wrongs of these accepted norms in life. He simply shows how Christians should behave with regard to them. One glaring example is the existence of slavery in this ancient society. Peter, also Paul, never discussed the rights and wrongs of such a socially accepted condition. Peter simply gives direction as to how a Christian lives to the glory of God in this cultural norm. This attitude does not preclude the recognising of unacceptable practice in society, or using right means for seeking correction if this becomes a possible way forward, but until this is possible Peter directs believers how live to God's glory while these practices exist.

The reason for these apostolic directions was because Christians and Christianity came under the scrutiny and opposition of pagan society, which then caused persecution, and so until God brought about reform, it was important that Christians lived in such a way that did not bring unnecessary criticism and opposition from the world.

So the first area of direction which Peter deals with is the Christian's reaction towards the authority present in the society of the day. He tells believers that they must submit to authority, and this submission must be unconditional. Peter also gives reasons why this submission was compulsory for every Christian. Only as behaving as good citizens do we bring glory to God and commend Christ. This apostolic direction is as wise and valid in our society today, just as it was in the society of Peter's time.

As we face this direction we need to take hold firmly the meaning of the first two words of this direction Peter is giving here. Peter's command is to submit ourselves to every authority instituted by men. This tells us we must not pick and choose what to submit to, or how much submission we are ready to give, but our submission must be complete. We need to take to heart the force of the word 'submit' which is that we have no right as believers to pick and choose what we must agree to obey, and there must not be any mental reservations, nor can we decide to give only lip service to authority and under this cover to feel it is good to withhold submission where we do not agree with the authority in any respect or find a loop hole where anti-submission can be executed. The positive side of this submission is that Christians must wholeheartedly give their whole in submission to the authority they are under, and do our very best to carry out fully what is required of us by the authority.

Then Peter tells us why as Christians we should give this wholehearted submission to earthly authority. He tells us we must do so 'for the Lord's sake'. This means that we submit because our beloved Lord Jesus Christ desires us to, and because we want to glorify his name by living in the way that promotes his glory, and pleases him. In other words we are obedient to Christ first and foremost, and because of this we seek to submit to earthly authority because this is his will.

The next thing that Peter's exhortation requires of us is that we are required to submit to all authority instituted by men. Peter then itemises what this means. He tells us that we must first submit to the king, and for us it means the supreme authority in the land, which for people in the United Kingdom must be submission to the authority of Parliament, the legislator in the Uk which makes the the laws under the authority of the monarch. For other countries the supreme authority will be different. For the time in which Peter lived it was the Roman emperor.

This submission demands that every authority set up in the realm under the supreme authority must also be submitted to down to the local authority raised up under the supreme authority. Speaking with regard to authority in his own day, Peter tells us this submission must to governors appointed in all the different areas of the land, and also those set up under the governor as well. For us in the United Kingdom this means we must be in submission to all the laws of the land, and to the police, etc. who are there to make sure the laws are not broken.

Peter goes on to explain why there is such required submission. The answer is expressed in verse 14 where we are told that governors, that is authority, act on behalf of the king, and with the authority of the king or the supreme authority, in order to punish those who do wrong and commend those who do right. In other words the authority is there in society to curb crime, and encourage law abiding in the community. We can also say that the authority is there to protect law abiding citizens from harm from those who break the law.

The fact is that without law and order, and the work of the authority, society would become hopelessly out of control, and this is because human nature is not good at heart, but bad at heart. Jesus pointed out in his teaching that it was from the heart, the inner being of human beings, that the problem is found, and he emphasised that it was out of the heart proceeded every evil that can be thought of, and so there is a need for law and order to curb this evil that springs up from within mankind.

If we are to enquire how this can be so the bible is clear that it stems from the fall into sin of Adam and Eve. God created human beings, represented by Adam and Eve perfectly good and without any sinful or harmful desires or propensities. This is expressed in the account of creation that God saw what he created, and that it was very good. When God created man as the crown of his creation, we are told he created him in his own image. In other words man was created, Adam as the representative man, was created with the good and holy character of God at the very centre of his being. Adam and Eve did not know what evil was. Their whole purpose in life was to live for God, and have fellowship with God, and they were created pure and without any thought of doing any thing against God and his holy will and purpose. They lived in an earthly paradise where there was nothing to diminish the perfect joy and happiness they had in fellowship with God. In this condition we read that God walked and communed with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.

God gave Adam and Eve everything they desired but left one prohibition in order to be a test of their love and obedience, which was that the fruit of one tree in the garden of Eden, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, should not be eaten, with the promise that if they disobeyed this one rule they would most surely die. Into this paradise Satan, the evil one, came in order to destroy this paradise. He came in the form of a serpent. He worked on Eve in the first place, and caused her to believe that God was withholding blessing and greater joy by denying the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve succumbed to the temptation. She ate the fruit and caused Adam to follow her example in eating also. In a word, Adam and Eve chose to believe and obey Satan rather than God, placed themselves and all their progeny, the human race, under the dominion and authority of Satan.

Without expounding the result of this disobedience more, and explaining the death that fell on all humanity as a result, it is sufficient to say that Adam and Eve lost fellowship with God; their pure inner being died, and death reigned over all humanity as a result. This is why mortality effects the whole humanity, and hell is humanities eternal destination unless there came a Saviour to rescue humanity, which God provided in Jesus Christ.

However the result was that the inner disposition of human beings as born into this world is corrupt, motivated by Satan, and the cause of all the misery, evil and corruption of which history is full. In the New Testament we are told that Satan is now the god of this world, and the whole of humanity suffers under his dominion. This is the cause of all that is evil in the world and destroys joy and happiness. The New Testament tells us that the thoughts of mankind are only evil continually. People will not accept this true fact about human beings. The only time humanity comes near acknowledging this fact is when people say that they are not perfect, but still believe they are good at heart.

It is from the apostle Paul that we have more light shed on this whole matter of the blessing of authority in society. We find this revelation and teaching in Romans 13 from verse 1. Paul tells us that the authorities that exist have been established by God, and so the authorities in society, from the king downwards, have been ordained by God, and so for Christians at least we are obligated to obey the authorities, for it is the will of God for society, and us who believe, because we have been delivered from Satan's dominion, and translated into the kingdom of Christ.

This action of God being ordained by God is an example of what is known through the teaching and revelation of God's holy word, as God's common grace. By this doctrinal expression we understand that it is an act of unmerited favour on the part of God to hold in check this sin and corruption in the human inner being, in order to prevent the world from becoming hell of earth. This sort of hell does break out from time to time, when sinful and corrupt leaders do terrible things, both cruel and evil, but in general this blessing of authorities in society curbs this evil propensity in human beings from overrunning society. What we need to understand is that this evil infection is suffered by all human beings, and even those who present themselves by their lives as good and charitable, are still infected and this shows in various unpleasant examples of sin and corruption like pride, selfishness, lusts, greed and so on.

By this we are able to appreciate the urgency of this teaching and exhortation of the apostle Peter. He goes on in verse 15 and says 'For it is the will of God that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men'. The world despises the believer for seeking to be good and submit to these authorities which God in common grace has introduced into the world, but in fact as Peter tells us here, they are foolish men. The world in its wisdom knows not God, and this expresses their foolishness, which will end in their final destruction in hell.

However when we do God's will which is to live godly and good lives, in the mercy of God, this silences the ignorant talk of foolish men, because they are silenced by the fact that they are unable to find any cause for accusation and judgement in the life of the obedient believer. Jesus by his good life silenced the evil thoughts and hate of the religious leaders of his day, and in the end they had to dig up false accusation in order to accomplish their design to achieve the death of Jesus.

So Peter tells us we can live as free people, but we must never use that freedom to cover-up evil. It is a sad fact that Satan's malice and power does so often overcome those who seek to serve God, and so causes much disgrace and harm to the cause of Christ. However God willing these occurrences are overruled by God, and there is repentance and forgiveness when such people are given grace to turn away from evil. The holy King David in the Old Testament succumbed to dreadful sin, but he repented and was renewed as expressed in Psalm 51.

Peter ends the first of his instruction on how living a good life is carried out by giving us five headings. The first is 'live as servants of God'. Here is the heart of living to the glory of God. We are his servants, even more we are sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ as our Saviour and sin-bearer. We are called to be the best servant of God we can, and to do this we must follow the example of our Saviour, and take to heart all the revelation of God in the Bible.

Next Peter tells us that to submit to the authorities which God had graciously ordained and provided in the world we need to show proper respect to everyone. This means showing proper respect, not only to fellow believers; not only to people we like and get on with; not only to people we may fear; but to everyone whatever they are like, and however they treat us and react towards us.

Then Peter tells us that if we submit to God's authority set up in the world we must love the brotherhood of all believers. Paul was so concerned that in Corinth there were factions within the fellowship of believers where things had become so bad between Christians that believers were going before civil courts to sort out their disputes. What did this mean? It meant that the church was 'washing its dirty linen' in front of the world, and so bringing dishonour on the name of Christ, to say nothing of the bad example and image these people were showing in the world. Such disputes often cause people to reject the decisions of earthly authorities set up by God, and far from submitting to them, were showing clear lack of submission to them.

Next Peter touches the heart of submission to authority is to 'fear God'. In Proverbs we read that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is because the whole of creation is under the sovereign power of God. To the unbeliever this fear is fear of retribution when the law of God is disobeyed. So fear of the Lord is the beginning of salvation as it shows a person where safety and salvation alone can be found, which is at the hand of the mercy of God. Such fear is not to be despised. For the believer this fear of God is not a slavish fear and fear of punishment, because in Christ and his salvation such fear is removed, but it is fear of dishonouring God, of displeasing God who has poured out such grace and love towards us, and this is at the heart loving God which we have because of the wonderful love of God for us.