Submission

Did you know (according to dumblaws.com) that bear wrestling matches are prohibited in Alabama? Or that it’s illegal to have an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time? How about this one: You are breaking the law in Minnesota if you get caught crossing the border with a duck on your head! In Ottumwa, Iowa it is illegal for a man to wink at a woman he doesn’t know! And, one of the funniest laws of all, again in the wonderful state of Alabama—it is illegal to flick boogars into the wind! Yes, as wonderful and vast as our freedom is in the United States of America, there certainly are some “questionable” rules, aren’t there? Did you know the Bible states that we should obey EVERY one of them?

We’ve been studying 1 Peter in our College Sunday School class for the past 6 weeks, and the last lesson was taken from 1 Peter 2:13-20. Peter states that we should “Submit ourselves to EVERY ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.” Of course, as we discussed, the only time this is not the case is when one of man’s laws contradicts God’s Word, but otherwise it’s our duty to submit to each and every law and lawmaker, no matter how crazy they may seem. The reasons are plentiful:

1. Every lawmaker is, himself or herself, accountable to God.
2. It’s a crucial part of our testimony—breaking rules or laws damages our credibility as Christians, and the basic concept of obedience. If we can’t obey common laws, what does that say to unbelievers about our ability to obey God’s laws? Verse 15 says that obeying “puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men.”
3. Obedience, even suffering for our obedience, is “commendable before God.” (Verse 20).

One of the most important things we learned in our discussion of submission is that the ATTITUDE of obedience is nearly as important as the ACTION. How many times in our lives do we obey rules or rulers, but complain about them? Most of us need to think no farther than our daily jobs—there are plenty of dumb rules we probably obey, but how many of us complain about them everyday? I will be the first to raise my hand! In many cases, having the proper attitude toward those rules and toward those in authority over us is much more difficult than the actual act of obeying them. But, as we discussed, having a bad attitude is almost more destructive than the lack of obedience itself—it rubs off on all those around us, and corrodes our testimony as Christians. So, the next time you want to complain about a dumb rule at work, or the stupidity of your boss, remember the lesson from 1st Peter: We are to obey EVERY law and ruler…and have the proper attitude.