[You can read the passage here]
As believers in a hostile world, and as God's chosen people and priests, Peter goes on to talk about how we are to deal with different groups of people. The first are those in authority.
We learned from the passage and from Romans 13 that we submit to the authorities because it is the Lord's will and for his sake. We are at the end of the day submitting to God's authority as the people in authority are there because of God.
By submitting to the authorities, we also silence those who may want to falsely accuse us of disrespecting our Government.
Therefore, as we are doing it for God, we will only not submit if submission requires us to disobey God.
We also talked about ways of how we can submit - being involved in politics, speaking out, learning and sharing our rights, join NGOs etc.
I am of the personal view that we can choose disobey the government but still submit to them - ie to follow the example of great men of God like Daniel and his 3 friends in the OT, Peter and the apostles in the NT, and activists like Martin Luther King Jr in recent times.
Finally, we also talked about the role of Christians in the society - the sharing of the gospel (as emphasised the previous week in 1 pet 2v9) must go hand in hand with the show of God's love in practical ways.
1 Peter 2 v 1 - 12 (5th March 2010)
[You can read the passage here.]
Chapter 2 of the epistle talks about the function that we Christians have in this 'hostile world'.
In last half of chapter 1, we were asked to be holy. We continue in chapter where Peter concludes 'therefore' that we are to put off the negative things like slander, envy, deceit and hypocrisy.
He then goes on to tell us Christians that we are all "living stones" when put together make up the entire household of God! Jesus is the cornerstone - and he too faced the hostility of this world when he was here physically.
Peter concludes with the wonderful verse 9 - "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light".
So although we are living as aliens in this world, we are to be reminded that all of us with NO exception are chosen by God to be set apart as his people and priests, offering spiritual sacrifices.
During our study, we shared many examples of the spiritual sacrifices that we can offer - let us start and/or continue to do so.
Chapter 2 of the epistle talks about the function that we Christians have in this 'hostile world'.
In last half of chapter 1, we were asked to be holy. We continue in chapter where Peter concludes 'therefore' that we are to put off the negative things like slander, envy, deceit and hypocrisy.
He then goes on to tell us Christians that we are all "living stones" when put together make up the entire household of God! Jesus is the cornerstone - and he too faced the hostility of this world when he was here physically.
Peter concludes with the wonderful verse 9 - "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light".
So although we are living as aliens in this world, we are to be reminded that all of us with NO exception are chosen by God to be set apart as his people and priests, offering spiritual sacrifices.
During our study, we shared many examples of the spiritual sacrifices that we can offer - let us start and/or continue to do so.
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