Getting Political?

Passage: 1 Peter 2:13-25

Last week I preached the first of two messages on 1 Peter 2:13-3:7.  This is the passage in which Peter tells the church to submit.  In the first section, Peter tells all Christians to submit to every human authority.  He then goes so far as to tell slaves to submit to their masters.  If you’re interested in hearing my treatment of the passage, you can listen here.

Peter forces us to reflect on a topic we’re either too eager to avoid or too eager to engage: politics.  When we avoid politics, we use the excuse that the realms of church and politics should never overlap.  When we engage politics, we’re tempted to do so through the lens of our cultural biases.  Peter prohibits Christians from doing either.  We can’t withdraw from a world governed by human authorities.  But if we are to engage this world, we have to do so as citizens of heaven. 

John Calvin provides very timely insight in the last section of his Institutes of the Christian Religion.  For the next week or two I’ll give summaries of Calvin’s take on the intersection of the church and civil authority.  I’ll also provide links, in case you want to go directly to the source (highly recommended).