1 Peter 2:11-25 - Pilgrims’ Progress

1 Peter 2:11-25

Living Before the World

11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Submission to Government (cf. Rom. 13:1–5)

13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, 14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. 17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Submission to Masters (Is. 53:7–9)

18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. 19 For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. 20 For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. 21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:

22 “Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;

23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

We are pilgrims traveling through this world of woe corrupted by sin and constantly tempted to join back in after being rescued out of it.  Peter speaks for the Lord to implore we who are in Christ to stay away from our unspiritual desires that wage constant battle against our very lives to tempt us into sin as James 1:14-15 also warns us of the thread pulling us by our inordinate desires (1 John 2:15-16) away from holiness.  We are reminding to live honorable and righteous lives before this world to demonstrate the difference and better way to live as we were created to do in God’s image and not according our fallen nature spawned out of rebellion against God’s word spoken in Eden and meant for our good.  When we demonstrate the changed nature of our rebirth as we choose not to delve back into our corrupt disobedience in which we all have been born (Romans 3:23), then others see and glorify God upon His return in our reflection of His glory in the image of Himself in us.  Because of these things, we pilgrims show our progress in our sanctification as we become more like the Lord in holiness and less like fellow sinners before our conversion and they then glorify God for His transformative work of the gospel in us.  We demonstrate this change by submitting to the government put over us by God (Romans 13:1) to obey and not to fight against them as if we can make everyone righteous and Christians by our efforts of further rebellion.  By submitting to them and the laws put over us at God’s hand through them, we do good instead to silence the arrogance of the rebellious set with violence and anger against these put in place by God and use our true spiritual freedom from sin to serve God and not the flesh.  The command then is to “Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.”  Do we do these things to honor and obey, or join in the battle for “democratic rights” apart from God, uprising against those who have been installed by the Lord for His purposes as if our fighting can work the righteousness of God (James 1:20)?  As God’s servants and those of our leaders and employers, we are to be submissive and righteous in our actions as well.  If we do,what is right according to godly conscience, then our patience in the wrongful and unfair treatment demonstrates the suffering which Jesus Himself allowed for the glory of God to the point of death (Philippians 2:8, 14-15).  Do we do better than Him by fighting back instead of submitting while suffering wrongfully?  He was completely sinless, unlike us, and did not lie to escape the consequences of our sin.  He demonstrated how to love and bear with our persecutors that we may live for righteousness after dying to our sins.  His stripes of undeserved beatings for doing right have healed our souls (Isaiah 53:5-6) by accepting the unfair treatment as we are to do as we imitate Christ in life.  Remember that we were once lost sheep wandering about in sin without a Shepherd to lead us to holiness and righteousness as intended in our original creation in His image, and therefore are now under the care of the eternal and omnipotent sovereign, the Overseer of our very lives forevermore.  May our responses and direction of our lives then not be politically or socially driven, but driven by the nail-scarred hands of Jesus Christ our Shepherd who gives heavenly direction.  We once were strays from God but now are being led by Him to submission in the places He puts us to demonstrate His righteousness to the world of injustice by His undeserved goodness of grace.  This is the pilgrims’ progress of sanctification.