Submission: Peter had first-hand experience of oppression and tyranny. Most of his life was spent in Palestine which was under Roman rule.[1] He was also a Jew with an evocative history of slavery, invasions and exile.[2] Yet he gives an injunction to submit to governing authorities, both at the imperial and the lower levels. He provides the rationale: it is “for the Lord’s sake,” not for the sake of personal aggrandizement or political expediency. Our Lord’s kingdom is not the kingdom of this world (John 18:36), and our goal in this age is to live as His disciples and to make disciples. We submit to authority because we obey the Lord and because we fear God (2:17) and we are His slaves (2:16)!
Testimony: We are to maintain a good testimony with outsiders through good conduct (2:12), which includes submission to authority. If we have clout to influence public policy, we can certainly leverage it for good,[3] but we don’t resort to methods of subversion or civil disobedience. We don’t need to, because we trust God, for whom nothing is too difficult, and His sway is over every king and kingdom.[4] We trust Him who makes Assyria the rod of His anger (Isaiah 10:5) and takes Cyrus by the hand (Isaiah 45:1). Our aim, then, is to obey God and win souls, not to improve a world destined for destruction. We seek a better country and a heavenly one (2 Pet. 3:11-13; Heb. 11:16).
[1] Once Archelaus (Matt. 2:22) was deposed in 6 AD, Judea was ruled by Roman governors, including Pontius Pilate. Civil unrest was common with zealots and insurrectionists (Mark 3:8; 15:7), culminating later in the great Jewish revolt (66 AD), the destruction of Jerusalem (70 AD) and the siege of Masada (73 AD).
[2] The history of Israel is fraught with these. Enslavement in Egypt is recalled at their annual Passover and as often as they redeemed their firstborn (Ex. 13:1-10); throughout the period of Judges, invasions were the norm (Judges 2:11-15); and their Babylonian exile was well remembered in their psalter (Psalm 137:1-4).
[3] Many from history leveraged their position of influence thus (Neh. 2:1-5; Esth. 4:14; 10:3; Dan. 2:48; 4:27).
[4] Cf. Job 42:2; Jeremiah 32:17, 27; Luke 1:37. Cf. also Proverbs 21:1; Daniel 2:21; 4:17.