1 Peter 2 v 13 - 17 (12th March 2010)

[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.