Today we read from these verses in the One Year Bible:
Ezekiel 47:1-48:35
1 Peter 2:11-3:7
Psalm 119:49-64
Proverbs 28:12-13
Let's look at 1 Peter. Peter tells us in this, his epistle, all about submission. He tells us all to submit to the authorities, like the emperor or the government. He tells slaves to submit to their masters. He tells wives to submit to their husbands. Much of this submission sounds very foreign to modern ears, doesn't it? Isn't it old fashioned and outdated for wives to submit to their husbands? Is Peter endorsing slavery by telling his readers who are slaves to submit to their masters? Was Peter saying that the Emperor was all wise and we should obey him in everything?
No, no, and no.
Peter isn't saying that we shouldn't try to reform the thinking in our culture. Slavery was wrong, and Peter would agree with abolishing it. The emperor was wrong about many things, and Christians were not to obey him when what he said conflicted with the gospel. Wives are considered equal to their husbands today and Peter isn't suggesting that all wives return to the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.
But what Peter IS telling us is that we should submit with humility and even with joy to whatever authority we find over us, because they're in authority because God allows it. When it's time for them to NOT be authority anymore, God will remove them. And some people do horrible things when they're in authority. But as long as we are able, we should submit to their authority and do what they say, as long as it doesn't contradict what God explicitly tells us to do.
In doing so, we will win people's respect and can speak love into their lives.
God, thanks for teaching us the value of submission.
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