Submitting to Authority

The baseball manager can be a challenging experience to play for.

A professional baseball player is good with his baseball skills, otherwise he couldn’t be on the team. I wanted to be a baseball player, so I did my darnest to perfect my skills.

I wanted to be a pitcher. It required accuracy and control. Everyday I threw my tennis ball against my garage wall, the backside of a five car garage. My goal was to pitch that ball in the lettered circle of the no parking sign. Practice makes perfect.

In the school yard I practiced fielding and throwing that little white ball with the stitches. It was a mental exercise playing with my friends. Little league baseball was for the young at heart.

Hitting a fast ball coming toward me at home plate required timing and patience. Kept my eye on the ball and didn’t wonder what color hair the pitcher had.

As team players we all faced another challenge, submitting to authority, the team manager. Not everybody did their best, but we learned how to survive.

Many of us don’t respond well to authority. “Authority often strikes people as an inherently negative, abusive, or tyrannical conception. But authority isn’t inherently bad…In fact authority is integral to God’s created order, and when his work of creation was completed, the structure of authority he’d established in the world was good and beautiful,” said Pastor Greg Gilbert.

Submission to authority is a prominent theme in 1 Peter. In another example of how we should live holy lives as people of God and be a good witness to unbelievers. (vv. 12, 15)

Today’s passage focuses on our submission to civil authority (vv. 13–14). By “human authority,” Peter meant legitimate government institutions at various levels. Their larger purpose is justice and the common good, which we should support. In any case, their authority has been established by God and we should submit “for the Lord’s sake” (see Rom. 13:1–7).

What about Peter’s statement,” we must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5:29)? This is true, but it’s the exception rather than the rule. Too often we use the excuse when it’s not really about obedience to God but when we are focused on ones personal rights and opinions. It’s worth remembering that the emperor at this time was Nero (54–68 A.D.) who persecuted Christians.

Peter reminded his readers that spiritual freedom is not an exercise for license, throwing aside restraint, and responsibility (v16: see also Gal 5:13). As Christ-followers, we’re in but not of this world. The gospel’s reputation shouldn’t be tarnished by the “ignorant talk of foolish people” (vv. 15,16). Paradoxically, freed in Christ means we should “live as God’s slaves” (v. 16).

Today, think about the people God has placed in positions of authority over you, at home, at work, or in your community. How can you honor them? Praying for them is one way to start.

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