The word "submission" is a dirty word in the vocabulary of most Americans. Not nearly so much for the early Christians. today's Sunday School dealt with 1 Peter 2 with a reference to the start of 1 Peter 3. With what do these verses deal? submission, that dirty word.
To work backwards, Chap. 3 deals with wives submitting to husbands. Uh oh! We Americans don't never submit to nobody no time, under no circumstances, no way, no how, no further discussion. Now you are being sexist, mysogynistic, and stupid. No way any self-respecting woman is gonna ever submit to nobody, under no circumstances, no way, no how, no further discussion.
Except of course that's CLEARLY what the Holy Spirit is telling us. We American evangelicals are capable of some high-level Scriptural gymnastics, and here's a concept worthy of our best contortional-distortional efforts.
But back up a bit. In the last verses of 1 Peter the same message is given to EVERY Christian regarding submission to governments and all officials. Hmm, what was teh contemporary situaiton when the readers read this letter?
Paul was writing from... a Roman prison. His immediate authorities to whom to submit were prison guards! The emperor of Rome was everyone's favorite... Nero! Yes, the Nero who burned Christians alive to light his garden parties!
Whoa, there must be some mistake!
Check it out for yourself.
I have puzzled over this, and came to the conclusion that we are to indeed submit. There is a place for civil disobedience, but it must be civil. See Acts 5, Daniel 6.
There doesn't seem to be any place for:
Personal attacks on authorities at any level (including our boss),
Disrespect towards any authorities,
Insubordination, and
Ridicule.
The Christ was submissive even to the point of his own death. The Christ never criticized those in authority, though he has plenty of criticism for the religious officials in the seats of honor.
We ought to be more like the Christ.
My hypothesis for all this is that, just as the Christ was submissive, we ought to submit so as to develop a habit of submission so that we learn to submit to G^d.
In my view, we need, I need, very much to practice submission.
To work backwards, Chap. 3 deals with wives submitting to husbands. Uh oh! We Americans don't never submit to nobody no time, under no circumstances, no way, no how, no further discussion. Now you are being sexist, mysogynistic, and stupid. No way any self-respecting woman is gonna ever submit to nobody, under no circumstances, no way, no how, no further discussion.
Except of course that's CLEARLY what the Holy Spirit is telling us. We American evangelicals are capable of some high-level Scriptural gymnastics, and here's a concept worthy of our best contortional-distortional efforts.
But back up a bit. In the last verses of 1 Peter the same message is given to EVERY Christian regarding submission to governments and all officials. Hmm, what was teh contemporary situaiton when the readers read this letter?
Paul was writing from... a Roman prison. His immediate authorities to whom to submit were prison guards! The emperor of Rome was everyone's favorite... Nero! Yes, the Nero who burned Christians alive to light his garden parties!
Whoa, there must be some mistake!
Check it out for yourself.
I have puzzled over this, and came to the conclusion that we are to indeed submit. There is a place for civil disobedience, but it must be civil. See Acts 5, Daniel 6.
There doesn't seem to be any place for:
Personal attacks on authorities at any level (including our boss),
Disrespect towards any authorities,
Insubordination, and
Ridicule.
The Christ was submissive even to the point of his own death. The Christ never criticized those in authority, though he has plenty of criticism for the religious officials in the seats of honor.
We ought to be more like the Christ.
My hypothesis for all this is that, just as the Christ was submissive, we ought to submit so as to develop a habit of submission so that we learn to submit to G^d.
In my view, we need, I need, very much to practice submission.
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