BE SUBMISSIVE

1 Peter 2:13–25 (LSB)

¹³ Be subject for the sake of the Lord to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do good. ¹⁵ For such is the will of God that by doing good you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. ¹⁶ Act as free people, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil but use it as slaves of God. ¹⁷ Honor all people, love the brethren, fear God, honor the king. ¹⁸ Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked. ¹⁹ For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unrighteously. ²⁰ For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this finds favor with God. ²¹ For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps, ²² who did no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; ²³ who being reviled, was not reviling in return; while suffering, He was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. ²⁴ Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His wounds you were healed. ²⁵ For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Introduction

In December 2018, Chinese authorities raided Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu — one of the most openly evangelistic house churches in that nation. More than a hundred members were detained. Their pastor, a man named Wang Yi, was arrested, charged with “inciting subversion of state power,” and sentenced to nine years in prison.

What makes his story so fitting for the passage before us is not merely the suffering he endured, but the way he endured it. Before his arrest, Wang Yi wrote a public declaration titled My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience. In it he explained that Christians must submit to governing authorities for the Lord’s sake — and that they must also refuse obedience when the state commands what God forbids. He insisted that any such disobedience be carried out with love, humility, and a willingness to suffer without retaliation.

When the police took him, he did not resist. He did not revile. He did not threaten. He entrusted himself to God. He had prepared his congregation for that very moment, teaching them that suffering for righteousness is “a privilege granted by Christ.” Even in prison, he has remained calm, respectful, and steadfast — submitting to the authorities’ treatment of his body while refusing to deny Christ or cease preaching His gospel. The government hoped to silence him. Instead, his Christlike submission has amplified the very gospel they tried to crush.

There are passages in Scripture that comfort us, passages that lift our spirits, passages that remind us of God’s unfailing love and tender care. And then there are passages like the one before us today. These texts confront us, humble us, and call us to live in ways that run against every instinct of the human heart. First Peter 2:13–25 is one of those passages.

Peter writes to believers who are scattered, marginalized, misunderstood, and mistreated. They are not living in a culture that applauds their faith. They are living in a world that often despises it. And into that world, Peter speaks a word that is as countercultural today as it was then: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.”

What Submission Is Not

Before we walk through the text, I need to pause here, because many Christians — even now — misread what the New Testament means by submission. They assume that when the apostles told believers to submit to every human institution, God was thereby endorsing the authorities over those institutions. He was not. Scripture never grants divine legitimacy to pagan power structures. These rulers were, in fact, opponents of Christ and adversaries of the gospel. And the apostles themselves sometimes openly disobeyed their commands, because obedience to God outranks obedience to human rulers. When the Sanhedrin ordered Peter and John to stop preaching, Peter answered, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, make your own judgment; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). In other words, genuine Christian submission includes the responsibility of civil disobedience when earthly authority demands what God forbids.

Notice, too, what Peter actually wrote. First Peter 2:13 literally reads, “Submit to every human creature because of the Lord.” The word translated “institution” in some versions is the Greek word for creature. Peter is reminding us that the emperor is not a god. He is a man — a creature, made of dust, breathing borrowed air, eating borrowed bread, living on borrowed time. Caesar claimed divine honors, but Peter quietly strips him of every ounce of divinity. He is a creature, and we submit to creatures for the Creator’s sake.

On Judgment Day, the authorities will answer for their sins. Every tyrant who crushed the people of God, every governor who punished righteousness and praised wickedness, will stand before the tribunal of heaven. The apostles did not ask the church to bring that day forward by the sword. What Peter, Paul, and Jude taught Christians was to let God judge the authorities. And He will. The unrepentant wicked will not be preserved endlessly in torment; they will be destroyed. As Psalm 37:20 says, “the enemies of Yahweh… will vanish; like the glory of pastures, they vanish — like smoke they vanish away.” Peter himself, writing in his second letter, reminds us that God did not spare the ancient world in the days of Noah, nor Sodom and Gomorrah, but kept the unrighteous under punishment for a day of judgment (2 Pet. 2:4–9). Our responsibility is to submit to every human creature when we can, so that the gospel we believe in will not be maligned.

The fact that we live in a democracy with means of controlling tyranny is a good thing. The New Testament does not teach the divine right of kings or any such garbage. We should be grateful for the constitutional protections we enjoy and free to use them. But the principles of submission taught in Scripture still apply to us.

Submission is not a word we like. It feels like weakness. It feels like surrender. It feels like giving up control. But Peter shows us that Christian submission is not weakness — it is strength. It is not defeat — it is obedience. It is not surrender to man — it is surrender to God. This passage teaches us that the Christian life is a life of Christlike submission, and that submission becomes a powerful witness in a hostile world.

Let’s walk through Peter’s message in three movements.

I. Submit for the Lord’s Sake (vv. 13–17)

Peter begins with a command that is simple to understand but difficult to obey: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.” The word “be subject” means to place yourself under, to yield willingly, to line up under the authority of another. And Peter says we do this “for the Lord’s sake.” In other words, our submission is not ultimately about the worthiness of the authority. It is about the worthiness of the Lord. Nero did not deserve Peter’s respect. But the Lord deserved Peter’s obedience, and it was for the Lord’s sake that Peter bent his own will.

Peter names two levels of authority. The first was the king as supreme. The supreme ruler of the provinces where Peter’s readers lived was the Roman emperor — at that time, Nero. He was not a friend to Christians. He was an enemy of Christians. He would soon wrap them in pitch-soaked garments and burn them alive to light his gardens. It was to that king that Peter said, “honor the king.” The second level was the governors sent by him, the emperor’s representatives scattered through the provinces, commissioned to carry out his wishes. That meant they also would often be enemies of Christians.

Yet these authorities, Peter says, have a God-given purpose: to punish evildoers and to praise those who do right. Government is God’s gift to restrain chaos in a fallen world, whether the rulers know they are serving Him or not. Even when governments fail to do this perfectly — and they often do — God still calls His people to live under authority with humility and respect.

Why? Verse 15 gives the reason: “For such is the will of God, that by doing good you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.” The word “silence” means to muzzle. When the church lives honorably, the critics have nothing to say. Their slander is exposed as the “ignorance of foolish men” — the mindless chatter of people who have never actually seen the good works they despise. Your submission is a testimony. Your obedience is a witness. Your honorable conduct shuts the mouths of critics.

Peter is not calling the church to political passivity. He is calling the church to spiritual clarity. Our mission is not to overthrow governments but to display the character of Christ.

Then Peter holds together a beautiful tension in verse 16: “Act as free people, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as slaves of God.” We are free — free from sin, free from fear, free from condemnation. But Christian freedom is never a license to rebel. It is the freedom to obey God joyfully, the freedom to submit without resentment, the freedom to live as slaves of God, gladly doing His will.

Peter then summarizes the whole Christian posture in four short commands in verse 17. “Honor all people” — because every person bears God’s image. “Love the brotherhood” — because the church is our family. “Fear God” — because He alone is holy. “Honor the king” — because God has placed him in authority. Notice the shape of these commands: two commands to honor bracket the verse, love and fear stand within, and “fear God” sits at the very center. The order matters. We honor the king because we fear God. The Christian’s public ethic is honor, love, reverence, respect — and it is not weakness. It is Christlikeness.

II. Endure Unjust Suffering with God’s Favor (vv. 18–20)

Peter now turns from citizens to servants. In the first century, many believers were household slaves. They had little legal protection and few rights. Yet Peter calls them to “be subject to your masters with all fear” — with all respect, with a reverent sense that God is watching over both slave and master.

And then he says something shocking: “not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked.” The word “crooked” means bent, harsh, morally twisted. Peter is not endorsing injustice. He is showing believers how to live faithfully when you are experiencing injustice.

Why would God call His people to endure such treatment? Peter explains in verse 19: “For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unrighteously.” There is a kind of suffering that brings God’s favor — not suffering for wrongdoing, but suffering for righteousness. When you endure mistreatment because you are conscious of God, because you want to honor Him, because you trust His sovereignty — that endurance is precious in His sight. The word “favor” here is the word grace. Your patient endurance of injustice is grace-shaped. God looks at a believer who absorbs evil without retaliating, and He sees something beautiful.

Peter presses the point in verse 20: “For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this finds favor with God.” If you break the law and pay the penalty, you have received nothing but what you deserve. But when you do right and are punished for it, and you endure it with a quiet heart, God takes notice. The world says, “Stand up for yourself. Don’t let anyone treat you that way. Fight back.” But God says, “Endure. Trust Me. Let your suffering be a testimony.”

This is not passive resignation. It is active faith. It is choosing to believe that God sees, God knows, God judges, and God rewards. And then Peter gives the reason Christians can endure unjust suffering: because Christ did.

III. Follow Christ’s Pattern and Trust His Sacrifice (vv. 21–25)

Verse 21 is the heart of the passage: “For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps.” Called to what? Called to endure unjust suffering. Called to follow Christ’s example and called to walk in His steps. The word “example” describes the pattern a teacher would write large for children to trace with their pens — line by line, letter by letter. Christ’s life is the pattern. His suffering is the template. His endurance is the model. And what does His example look like?

A. Christ suffered without sin (v. 22). Peter quotes Isaiah 53: “who did no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.” He was perfectly righteous. He never wronged anyone. He never spoke a false word. Yet He suffered. His suffering was entirely undeserved — and that is what makes His endurance sinless. Any suffering we could point to in ourselves as an excuse, He could have pointed to infinitely more.

B. Christ suffered without retaliation (v. 23). “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. While suffering, He was uttering no threats.” He did not fight back. He did not defend Himself. He did not lash out. Instead, Peter says, “He kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.” The verb is ongoing — He kept handing Himself over, moment by moment, blow by blow, into the hands of His Father. This is the key to Christian endurance: entrusting yourself to God, entrusting your reputation, entrusting your future, and entrusting your vindication and entrusting your justice. Christ did not need to win the argument. He did not need to prove Himself. He did not need to silence His accusers. He trusted His Father — and the Father’s righteous judgment fell on Him at the cross, so it will never fall on us.

C. Christ suffered as our substitute (v. 24). Here Peter moves from Christ’s example to Christ’s atonement: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.” Christ did not merely show us how to suffer. He suffered for us. He bore our sins. He took our punishment. He died our death. Peter calls the cross “the tree,” echoing Deuteronomy 21:23 — “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” He became the curse we deserved, hanging on a Roman gibbet under the curse of God, in the place of rebels. And He did this, Peter says, “so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness.” His death frees us from sin’s power. His wounds heal our souls. His sacrifice restores us to God. “By His wounds you were healed” — Isaiah’s language, applied to us. The healing is real: not a healing of the body first, but of the soul, the conscience, the whole person restored to God.

D. Christ is our Shepherd and Overseer (v. 25). Peter ends with a tender reminder: “For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” We were wandering. We were lost. We were helpless. Notice that Peter does not say we found the Shepherd; he says we were returned to Him — the passive voice of grace. Christ sought us, found us, rescued us, and now He keeps us. He is the Shepherd who protects us. He is the Overseer who guards us. He is the Savior who sustains us. And because He is our Shepherd, we can endure anything. Because He is our Overseer, we can trust Him with everything. Because He is our Savior, we can follow Him anywhere — even into suffering.

Conclusion: The Power of Christlike Submission

Peter’s message is not easy. It confronts our pride. It challenges our instincts. It calls us to a life that only the Spirit can produce. But it also gives us hope.

When you submit for the Lord’s sake, when you endure unjust suffering, when you follow Christ’s example and trust His sacrifice — your life becomes a living testimony of the gospel. The world may not understand it. The world may not appreciate it. The world may even oppose it. But God sees. God knows. God delights in it. And God uses it, just as He has used Wang Yi’s quiet endurance to spread the gospel through the very prison walls built to contain it.

Christlike submission is not weakness. It is strength under control. It is faith in action. It is the life of Christ displayed in His people. May the Lord give us the grace to walk in His steps.