On Civil Obedience; 1Pet. 2:13-17

Delivered during the Sunday evening worship service, 11/03/2019. As we have all ready seen, Peter dedicates the second part of his letter to instructing Christians on their behavior. His subject turns to the way Christians should react to the civil authorities under which they live. He makes it clear that all authority comes from God and so Christians should subject themselves to God's sovereignty and therefore His ordained institutions and people of authority. We will consider the qualifications to this principle and analyze Peter's specific examples. Ultimately we will have to disagree with Henry Thoreau's famous essay on civil disobedience (and the culture which extols his ideas) and align ourselves with the Scriptural mandate to respect, obey and even honor the authority God has established for us to dwell under.