October 27 – 1 Peter 2:11-17

Main Focus: A life built on Jesus points others to him, even in political engagement.


The next few weeks will provide some interesting and sometimes challenging content for discussion. This week, just one week shy of the election, we’ll discuss submission to government, while the following week will cover first-century slavery and wives’ submission to their husbands. It’s gonna be a ride.

You’ll notice 1 Peter 2:11-17 has two main sections, verses 11-12, which discuss honorable conduct among non-Christians, and verses 13-17, which discuss submission to governmental authority. The two are connected, though, by a through-line of good works; this honorable conduct and submission to authority are meant to display noticeable good works, which have an evangelistic objective. The way followers of Jesus are meant to carry themselves in public, both in relation to their neighbors and in relation to their government, is meant to bring glory to God and bring some of their neighbors to a point of glorifying God, too (v.12).

One thing we’ll have to keep in mind is the difference between Peter’s world and ours. Peter is speaking to first-century Christians living in Roman provinces in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). These people had little to no influence on or participation in their government. And the environment was one in which being a Christian earned you no cultural advantage; notice he says “when they speak against you” in verse 12, not “if.” Christians were understood to be something like members in the newest cult and were suspected of dissident or even unpatriotic sentiments. Up to Peter’s point in time, persecutions had broken out sporadically but not widespread; the really bad persecutions, involving mass executions and the like, would emerge in the next two centuries after Peter’s time. All that to say, Peter’s immediate audience didn’t have it as bad as you might imagine, but also not nearly as easy as we experience in modern-day America.

So in discussion, we’ll try to take note of Peter’s intentional address to his audience as “sojourners and exiles.” Such a distinction is helpful for us to remember, particularly if we’re prone to forgetting that our primary citizenship is in heaven. The first four questions should help us start to consider the manner of life Peter describes here (demonstrable good works that testify to the reality of the gospel) and start to see how that might fit into our lives, in which we experience a much different context with democratic participation.

In the last two questions we’ll get into the challenge that this lifestyle presents for us, particularly at this point in time ahead of the presidential election. Perhaps we’ll be able to recognize the universal vitriol that characterizes American politics in this day and age, a practice that makes submitting to a government you disagree with unthinkable. Perhaps also we’ll be able to conceive of ways in which we can live, even in such times, as “servants of God” (v.16).

Resources