Submission to Earthly Masters – 1 Pet 2:18-25 – Kogarah – 14 December 2025
Submission to Earthly Masters – 1 Pet 2:18-25 – Kogarah – 14 December 2025
Bishop Michael Stead
It is a pleasure to be with you this morning to continue the sermon series in 1 Peter.
A key idea in the 1 Peter is that Christians should live our earthly lives in light of our hope of heaven. The sermon from last week reminded us that we are “foreigners and exiles” on this earth, because heaven is our true home.
But being citizens of heaven does not mean that we are supposed to disengage and retreat from this world. On the contrary, as citizens of heaven, God calls on those who are his citizens to also be good citizens on earth. As we saw in last weeks’ sermon, one of the implications of this is that we need to submit to human authorities. As it says in chapter 2, verse13 “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority”. Peter lists some of these authorities – the Emperor – that is, Caesar, and to his governors and so on.
Peter wrote these words during the reign of Nero – a tyrannical anti-Christian despot. Not long after this, Peter lost his life in wave of persecution started by Nero. And yet Peter can still say – submit to every human authority – not to submit because they are good and righteous – but to submit for the Lord’s sake - verse 15 : “For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men”. From the very start, people said bad things about Christians – that they were subversives and traitors – they were bad citizens – because they didn’t worship the proper gods. But by the way they live, Christians are to demonstrate that being citizens of heaven doesn’t make then bad citizens of the earthly kingdoms they belong to. By doing what Peter said here, Christians eventually won over the roman empire, because they showed by their deeds that Christians who long for the world to come are at the same time a force for good in this world.
One particular way that Christians are to submit to authority is seen in the relationship between slave and master, which is the subject of our passage today.
In verse 18, Peter writes: 18 Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.In the first century, slavery was a fact of life. In Rome in the first century, up to 20% of the population – one in five people – were slaves. Slaves were essential to commerce, labour and daily life. The work done by slaves was not limited to unskilled labour in the fields. Slaves also performed highly skilled roles as accountants, physicians and artisans. The Bible does not condone slavery – indeed, it establishes principles about the dignity and worth of all human beings, which eventually led to the abolition of slavery, when the Christian faith had transformed the culture of our world. But that change took centuries. In the meantime, the Bible doesn’t encourage slaves to rise up, revolt and overthrow their masters. Instead, as Peter writes, slaves should submit themselves to their masters.
Peter is writing to slaves who have become Christians. As a Christian, God has adopted them into his family. Even though these slaves have no rights or citizenship here on earth, they have become citizens of heaven. Does that mean that they can ignore their earthly master, because the Lord Jesus is their new master?
No, they must continue to submit to their earthly masters … even if they treat them harshly. Why do they do this? “In reverent fear of God”. Serving their heavenly master is no excuse to disobey and earthly master, but the reverse. Because they fear God and submit to his as Lord, the need to submit to their earthly lords.
We personally don’t experience slavery like this, so what Peter says here does not apply directly to us. But we can apply the principle of what he says to any situation where someone has an authority over us – an authority established by this world, such as employer/employee and teacher/student, for example.
The reason why we can extend this principle is because of what Peter said earlier - God has established a variety of authorities over Christians. So, if you have a non-Christian boss, or a non-Christian teacher, God wants us to submit to these people, even if we don’t think that they deserve our respect or submission. The gospel message calls on people to turn back and submit themselves to God, and how much would that message be undermined if Christians were unsubmissive and disrespectful to other authorities.
We are to continue to submit, even if it means enduring unjust suffering. Note v.19 19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. Peter is talking about “unjust suffering”. As he makes clear in verse 20, there is nothing commendable about enduring a beating for doing wrong – you are just getting what you deserve. What is commendable before God is to endure suffering for doing good. If someone gets gossiped about or picked on at work for no other reason than that they are a Christian, what should they do? Should they fight back, retaliate with some mud-slinging of their own? No, they should endure it, because they are conscious of God – that is, conscious that what God wants them to do in this situation is not to retaliate, even though every natural instincts says that they should stand up for themselves and fight back.
When we experience suffering for being a Christian, it is hard, because we can’t understand why God is letting this happen to us. We know God is a God of justice, and that God has adopted us as his children. We think to ourselves - how can God let one of his children experience unjust suffering?
When I am in the middle of suffering like this, I cannot imagine how this suffering can be part of God’s good plan for my life. But the amazing truth is that God’s plan in this world is often achieved through the weakness and suffering of his children. This is part of our calling as Christians. That is what Peter says in verse 21: To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. Living as God’s citizen in this world means walking the same path of suffering that Jesus himself took. Jesus was the beloved son of God, and yet God allowed his blameless and innocent son to suffer unjustly.
For us to following in Jesus steps, we need to follow his example. Peter reminds us what Jesus did on the cross for us, by quoting from a passage in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 is an amazing part of the Old Testament. 500 years before the birth of Christ, God explained to his people how he would bring his sinful people back to himself. He would do this through the death of a suffering servant. Peter explicitly quotes Isa 53 in verse 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” – that’s a quote from Isa 53:9. The point of the quote is that Jesus hasn’t done anything wrong – he is the ultimate example of unjust suffering. And how did Jesus react in that circumstance? In Isaiah 53, it says of the servant that “he was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth”. So too Jesus – look at verse 23 “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate”.
Furthermore, this suffering servant was not suffering because of his own sin. It says in Isa 53 “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed”. The suffering servant went through death for our sake – which is exactly what Jesus did on our behalf. Look at verse 24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Why did we need this? Isaiah 53:6 tell us plainly: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Peter alludes to this in verse 25: 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
If you are a Christian, I think you understand exactly what Peter is saying here. Every Christian knows – from their own personal experience – that God’s plan to save them came at the cost of the ultimate innocent suffering. The pure and innocent Lord Jesus died so that we, the guilty ones, could be forgiven. Jesus was the one person in all of history who never deserved death, and certainly not the kind of death that he suffered. But he willingly suffered in our place – dying for our sins – so that we could come back into a relationship with God. As Peter says in verse 24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness;
What happened to Jesus is also true for his followers. When we experience unjust suffering in our lives, it does not mean that God has forgotten about us or has lost control of the world. Unjust suffering is part of God’s plans for his people, and when we experience this, we are called to respond to it like Jesus did.
Look particularly at Christ’s example in v.23 : 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. There are two principles here. Firstly, in the immediacy of the injustice, how do we respond? We do not retaliate. We live no longer by that old law – ‘an eye for an eye’. Instead, the Christian turn the other cheek, as Jesus taught us in the sermon on the mount, and modelled for us all through his live and especially in his death.
The second principle is in v.23 - entrusting ourselves to him who judges justly. That is, handing over justice to God. We need to say to ourselves – “I will let God bring this action to justice, I will not seek vengeance myself.” It is an expression of our hope in the God of justice – that God can be trusted to do right in the end. That kind of a response to threats or persecution or injustice is the ‘other-worldly’ behaviour that we are called to, that is a present expression of our future hope. Our world lives by the rule of ‘You hit me, and I’ll hit you back… harder”. It lives by the rule of revenge. But Christians will do neither of these things, because we are conscious of God, and know that he wants us to endure hardship in the hear and now, while we wait for heaven.
The Christian will respond like Christ; to follow in his steps. Remember the example of Jesus who said from the cross, as he looked at those who had condemned him to death – “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. That is what we are called to. Forgiving your enemies like that speaks the message of the gospel so powerfully into our world, that this world cannot help but be impressed in spite of itself.
Let me share a striking example of this kind of ‘unnatural’ forgiveness. there was a group of armed military personnel who overran a village in Taiwan, and the insurgents had killed the two sons of the Christian pastor because they had proclaimed Jesus. In time, the insurgents were themselves overthrown, and the man responsible for the murder of the two sons was sentenced to be executed. However, the father of the two boys intervened, and asked that the death penalty be overturned, because he wanted to adopt as his own child this man, who had killed his two sons, and to take him into his family. The court allowed this, and in time, that murderer became a Christian, so overwhelmed was he by what this father had done.
Was this man an innocent sufferer? Yes. Did he feel like retaliating? Probably … but he didn’t. Instead, he followed the example of Christ, walked in his steps.
This is what it will look like when we live as citizens of heaven. We will endure suffering patiently, because we know that this world is not our true home. We will long for this world with an unshakeable hope in the perfect justice and righteousness of the kingdom to come, and that will enable us to patiently endure the injustices we experience in the here and now. Knowing that Jesus suffered for us – the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God, we won’t respond with patterns of this world – retaliation and revenge. Instead, as Peter says we will ‘die to sin, and to live to righteousness’. We will, as Peter said in v12, “Live such good lives among the pagan, though they accuse us of doing wrong, they will see our good deeds and glorify our God”