Strangers in the world
1 Peter 2v11-15
In the World
Strangers on a train
Two main characters. Guy, a famous tennis player. And Bruno, the lazy son of a millionaire.
Guy separated from vulgar and unfaithful wife, Miriam. But she won’t give him a divorce. So he can’t marry the woman he loves, the elegant and beautiful Anne Morton.
Bruno is a bit of a mummy’s boy. His father is very wealthy but insists that Bruno should go out and do a hard day’s work. He wants to murder his father so that he can get his hands on the money.
These two strangers meet on the train. Bruno recognises Guy and knows all about his marital problems from the papers. Bruno hatches this mad plan for them to swap murders. Bruno will murder Miriam if Guy murders Bruno’s father. If they each carry out the other’s murder they will get away with it because they are strangers so there’s nothing to connect them to the murder.
The whole plan depends upon them being strangers, on there being no connection between them.
Should we be like Guy and Bruno?
Heard Peter was urging his readers to be like strangers in the world. But is this what he meant? When dealing with world are we to be like Bruno and Guy – no connections with those around us who aren’t Christians. Gathered together in little Christian communes cut off from society. Only really having Christian friends. Perhaps occasionally going on little raiding parties to tell the pagans that they need to be saved and give them a Gospel leaflet before retreating behind the safety of our church walls?
Suggest Peter wants us to do exactly the opposite.
We should be in the world
A saying that you frequently hear is that as Christians we should be in the world, but not of it. Taken from chapter 17 of John’s Gospel, which records Jesus praying:
“I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”
Jesus was in the world
Jesus was very much in the world. Not just physically in that he was God incarnate. Just look at his life. Training and working as a carpenter. Talking and sharing a drink with the Samaritan woman at the well when no other Jew would have been seen near a Samaritan. A guest at a wedding at Cana. Touching a leper who was considered unclean. Having dinner and even staying with tax collectors, who would have been hated as thieves and collaborators. Defending the adulteress. Commuting from town to town and village to village. Stopping to heal the blind beggar at the roadside. Just some of the example we know about.
Point is that Jesus spent his life reaching out to and connecting with people. Lived right in the thick of life, not on the edge dipping his toe in. Spent time with people. Got to know them.
Paul was in the world
And we can see this carried on by the early Christians. Look at Paul. In Chapter 2 of the first letter to the Thessalonians he wrote:
“As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”
Amazing language. This is Paul writing! One of the greatest figures of the Christian church. The man who had persecuted Christians violently. Dramatically converted on the road to Damascus. Addressed the Sanhedrin, the religious Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Shipwrecked. Arrested. Imprisoned. Faced the risk of persecution and death regularly. Not your classic “21st century man”. Talking about being gentle and loving the people he shared the Gospel with like he was a mother and they were his children. Paul had a close and intimate bond with these people. He got to know them. Shared his life with them. When you read Thessalonians and Paul’s other letters you can see that he really cared for the people that he shared the Gospel with.
We need to be involved in life
Jesus was not a stranger to the world in the way that Bruno and Guy were in Strangers on a train. Neither was Paul. And neither should we be. We need to be involved in our communities, with our colleagues at work, with parents of the other kids in our children’s schools, with our neighbours, getting to know people, making friends. And not – and this is important – not just so we can skip ahead as quickly as possible to the bit when we tell them about their need to be saved. We need to be sharing our lives with people. Make real friends, real connections. So we can understand people. To care about them and for them we need to know them.
John Stott summed it up well in his book Basic Christianity:
“The Christian life is a family affair, in which the children enjoy fellowship with their Father and with each other. But let it not for one moment be thought that this exhausts the Christian’s responsibilities. Christians are not a self-regarding coterie of smug and selfish prigs, who are interested only in themselves. On the contrary, every Christian should be deeply concerned about all his fellow men”.
Not of the World
So what does Peter mean if he doesn’t want us to be like Bruno and Guy? Go back to Jesus’ prayer in John. He didn’t pray that his disciples would be taken out of the world. But did say that they, like him, were not of this world. And that’s what Peter is getting at here. We are to be very much in the world, but not of it.
Temporary
The ESV translation = “sojourners”. Probably more helpful in explaining what Peter means.
A “sojourn” means a temporary stay somewhere. Underpins everything that Peter is talking about here. This life, that we are living now, is temporary. Not in the sense that once it’s over that’s it. But in the sense that at the end of our stay we move on somewhere else. As Christians we believe that we will go on to claim the inheritance that we heard about from Alex. An eternity with our Lord and Saviour. New bodies when we are resurrected to live in a perfect restored creation for all eternity, living as God’s people. We’ve got to have that promised future, our destination, right in the centre of our hearts and minds as we live now.
Priorities and behaviour
Hotel room. Would you spend huge amounts of time, effort and money on redecorating the room and putting in your own furniture? Of course not. Why? Because only there for a very short time. In the same way, our life here is just a tiny spec of time in the eternity that waits for us when we die. If right, foolish to prioritise things that are only relevant or useful in this world.
Question of priorities. Colossians 3 v 2 sums it up - “Set your minds on things above, not earthly things”. As Christians we’ve got to live with the big picture in mind. Not just the big picture - eternal picture. We need to live in this world. Be a part of it. Right in the think of the highs and lows, the daily grind, the joys, the sorrows. Mustn’t cut ourselves off from real life. But must always live life with our eyes on that inheritance. We’re born again as God’s people. We’ve been promised that amazing inheritance. Need to let that guide our lives and live how God wants us to.
That why Peter wants us to “abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul” and to “live good lives”.
Submit to the World
Could just leave it there, but Peter spends a good chunk of his letter talking about something else – submission. Not a popular word is it. All sorts of baggage attached to it. Emotive and controversial. But an important issue for Peter.
Talks about submission in more than one context. Going to focus on the one in verse 13 on your sheet - submitting to authorities instituted among men – kings, governors and other kinds of government.
Submission generally
Three general points about submission:
- Not just another word for obey. Means to accept or yield to the authority or will of another person.
- Not about someone being better or worse. Or more or less important. Jesus praying in Gethsemane. Asked for the cup of having to face the cross to be taken from him, but said “yet not as I will as you will”. In other words, he submitted to the Father’s will. Jesus could have walked away, but chose not to. Would anybody suggest that Jesus is the poor relation?
- Very complicated issue. Involves different behaviour in different circumstances. Bible not a handbook with detailed instructions on when and how to submit in particular situations. But we can learn from some of the examples it tells us about.
Submission to rulers
Going to look at example of Daniel in the Old Testament to help us understand what it mean to submit to “every authority instituted among men” – to the earthly governments and rulers.
Daniel
When Daniel was a young man the Jews were taken into exile in Babylon. Daniel one of a select group of young Jewish men chosen as part of the king Nebuchadnezzar’s plan to assimilate the exiles into the Babylonian culture. Given new names, training, and positions in the King’s court.
Rose up the ranks. Eventually appointed to one of the most senior jobs in the government under King Darius. 120 regional governors. Directly accountable to just 3 people. One was Daniel. He did such a good job at that that the king planned to make him his right hand man, to give him authority over the whole kingdom. To be his prime minister. Governors and others were jealous but couldn’t find any fault or wrong doing which they could use against him. So they cooked up a plan and persuaded the king to pass a decree that anyone who prayed to any god or man apart from the king in the next 30 days would be thrown into the lions’ den.
What did Daniel do? Keep quiet and avoid praying for a while? After all, it was only 30 days. Run away and try to hide? Gather together the other Israelites and try to start a rebellion. After all, he was in a very powerful position. He must have had friends and resources. Maybe he could have launched a coup.
No. What did he do? When he heard about the decree he went home and prayed, just as he usually did three times a day. Must have known it was a trap. As expected, he is hauled before the king who, reluctantly because he like Daniel, gives the order for Daniel to be thrown into the Lions’ den.
But Daniel was saved. Angels came and held their mouths shut. Result? King issued a decree that everyone in his kingdom should fear and revere Daniel’s God. He made the worship of Daniel’s God a national religion!
Daniel worked in the society that captured him and had taken him into exile. He didn’t fight it. But there were boundaries. Throughout his life in Babylon, Daniel remained faithful to the Lord while also serving in the Babylonian government.
Ultimately submitting meant not obeying the king’s decree about who he could pray to, but accepting the consequences of not obeying.
Look at How God used his submission. The king telling all of his people that:
“For he is the living God,
and he endures forever;
his kingdom will not be destroyed,
his dominion will never end.
he rescues and he saves;
he performs signs and wonders
in the heavens and on the earth.
He has rescued Daniel
From the power of the lions.”
Imagine if they passed an Act of Parliament today that said that! And it all came from Daniel’s submission.
God has put authorities in place
We don't know God’s plans but we must trust he is in control. Don't say lightly or without my own questions and doubts. But God has put in place certain authorities, and we have to live under them.
Even in this fallen and broken world, God is in control. Rulers are established by God (Romans 13:1). It is never right to think "God has lost control of this situation therefore I must take matters into my own hands". Doesn't mean we have to be doormats. Can we protest about what is wrong in the world? Of course. Can we work to change it? Without doubt. Can we disobey when the earthly authorities call us to do something that would cause us to disobey God? Not only can we, but we must. Just look at Daniel. God is not telling us to blindly obey orders no matter how evil they might be.
Submitting
Submitting is about accepting that we are under various authorities and working as God's people within those social structures, which God has put in place, however much we struggle to understand why God has allowed certain people to have authority. We need to leave that bit to God.
Probably don’t have much difficulty submitting to the government in this country, although that may not always be the case and it’s probably going to get harder. But accepting and yielding to some of the authorities in the first century AD was a completely different story. And submitting to some of the governments in our world today is also a pretty big ask.
Not going to try and explore or explain why God has through history allowed some quite terrible people to have enormous power. Too big a question to try and dismiss it in a couple of minutes. But want to recognise that it is there as an issue, not least because of the treatment what we as Christians can receive from those authorities, something Mike is going to look at more next week.
But even Jesus submitted to earthly authorities. More than that in fact. Those authorities, in the form of Roman so-called justice, were God's chosen instrument to bring about our salvation when they executed him on the cross.
Witness to the World
Need to be blameless
But how does submitting fit into being a stranger in the world? Brings us to final point. We need to make sure that anyone who opposes God cannot accuse us of doing wrong. Like those who plotted against Daniel. They tried to find charges against Daniel in the way he did his job, but they could not find any fault with him or reason to complain about him. They knew they would not find any basis to accuse him unless they forced him into a position where he had to choose between God and obeying the law. In the same way we mustn’t give anyone ammunition by giving them reason to complain about us.
Witnesses
The point is, and this the heart of what Peter is talking about, being strangers in the world is about being good witnesses. It’s about standing out as God’s people.
Witness about what?
And what are we witnessing about? Our identity, which Alex was telling us about last week. In our lives people need to see that we are God’s people. What God has done for us. That we’ve been born again. That we trust in this amazing inheritance that God has promised us. That we have our minds set on things above, not earthly things. That God, and what He wants, is our priority. That we trust God, like Daniel did. About living evangelistic lives.
Need to be in the world to witness to it
Coming back to Guy and Bruno, our lives can’t be any kind of witness if cut ourselves of. People need to be mixed up in our lives to see what a difference God makes. Not going to work if we’re safely tucked up in our little Christian commune. People might gaze across the fence at us, or more likely hear tales of us, living in our little Christian world, but if all they get to know about us and what it means to live as a Christian is from the 6 o’clock news about the latest internal church disagreement or our fight with society, how will they ever come to see that inexpressible and glorious joy that Peter writes about? How can we witness to people that don’t know us?
Submit so stand out for the right reasons
Now do you see why we must submit? Not only because it’s a big part of living in the world. How can we witness if we spend our lives fighting against the authorities that God has put in place? The world is going to scrutinise us carefully and judge us by our actions. We’re in the spotlight. As God’s people, his ambassadors in the world, how we conduct ourselves is going to reflect on him and is going to affect how people respond to Him. That’s why we need to fight against sinful desires, to rid ourselves of the behaviour that Christ died on the cross to save us from. That’s how we stand out.
But how much harder is it going to be to get people to listen to us about God if they see us kicking against the system all the time. Or it could be the opposite. How can we stand out if we’re rebelling against the system in the same way everyone else is. So by submitting to the authorities we make sure that we are good witnesses so that God can work through us, just as he did with Daniel. We need to stand out for the right reasons, for reasons that point to God.
Daniel’s example
In submitting to the Babylonian authorities Daniel gave us a perfect example of what it means to live in the world but not be of it. Despite being abducted from his homeland and made an exile, he couldn’t have been any more “in the world” when he was in Babylon – nearly Prime Minister! But he always put God first and he trusted God. And God used that. Darius saw how important God was to Daniel, how He trusted God and ultimately how God came through for Daniel.
Don’t underestimate the power that living the right kind of life can have or how God can use it. People need to know us to see that our lives are different for the right reasons. In ways which point to God. When they see that they might just start to question why we are different, and think about joining us. Just like King Darius did.
Morgan James