What do you think it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus? You do not need to be a rocket scientist to interpret what Peter’s instructions are in this text. His instructions are simple: Follow in Christ’s footsteps. Practice honorable conduct. Submit to human government. Do good in the sight of God and men. Submit to unjust masters. When in doubt, follow the example of Christ. Why? Because, if you are a Christian, then Jesus has saved you and he continues to watch over your soul.
1 PETER 2:12 – 25
12Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 13Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
18Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrow while suffering unjustly. 20For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Once again, this is not rocket science. The real issue here is that we do not like listening to or obeying God’s Word, especially when it offends us or goes against the cultural standards, we are accustomed to. But here’s the thing, if you and I would try listening to and obeying God’s Word for a change, then we might just get changed. Notice the flow of Peter’s thoughts here as we look at a tree top view of his argument:
In verses 9 – 10 he says, you are God’s chosen, royal, priestly people and you belong to the family of God. In verses 11 – 12 he says that as beloved children of God we must abstain from sin and keep our conduct honorable. In verses 13 – 17 he says that we are to submit to human government, even when that government is promoting evil. In verses 18 – 20 he says that we are to submit to unjust masters. In verses 21 – 25 he says that we are to follow Christ’s example and walk in his footsteps. The broad theme here is that if we are followers of Jesus then we must behave like followers of Jesus; we must walk in the footsteps of Jesus. To that end, Peter begins with instructions regarding the government.
#1: SUBMIT TO HUMAN GOVERNMENT (VV. 13 – 14)
Submission is a difficult topic to wade into; the waters of this topic are deep and tumultuous and full of discomfort. But nevertheless, in verses 13 – 14 Peter says, “Be subject (or submit) for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.” So, Peter says that we are to follow in Jesus’ footsteps by submitting to human government for the Lord’s sake.
Think about the cultural context here. The entire context of Peter’s instruction here is set against the cultural backdrop of emperor Nero (known for using Christians as human lampposts and would later oversee Peter’s execution), Governor Felix who persecuted the apostle Paul (Acts 24), and Pontius Pilate who ordered the crucifixion of Christ (Mark 15).2
This is the historical political context of Peter’s instructions; these men represent the government at the time of the writing of this letter and Peter says that his listeners are to submit to them for the Lord’s sake! These guys make our political leaders look like cartoons!
Peter’s point here is that civil obedience, instead of civil disobedience, is the kind of conduct that honors the Lord, and this point is coming from the man who was ready to practice civil disobedience on the night of Jesus’ unlawful arrest (a point that many American believers would do well to ponder more deeply).3
If Peter can call his listeners to civil obedience (as a man who once was tempted to practice civil disobedience) in a time when the governing authorities were as evil as they were, then how much more do we need to hear this instruction in our Western culture? I believe we are far too quick in our western culture, to rationalize away the clear instruction of this passage, namely that we are to follow in Jesus’ footsteps by submitting to human government.
One recent application of this text would be to all of the recent clamoring within the Western church during the Covid19 pandemic. Rather than taking instruction from this passage to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by submitting to human government, many believers in America threatened and even acted upon ill-perceived examples from Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego who refused to bow to the statue (Daniel 3) or Daniel praying despite the law of prohibition against prayer (Daniel 6) or Peter and John refusing to stop preaching in the name of Christ (Acts 5:17 – 42).
Believers love to justify their acts of civil disobedience regarding masks and gathering restrictions and vaccines as though wearing a mask or restricting the size of a church gathering or mandating a vaccine is in direct violation of the clear written words of Scripture. When someone asks me about whether or not it is time to disobey our government, I simply ask: “can you show me in Scripture where this law is a sin?” And, furthermore, do you faithfully participate in the life of the church family through your faithful adherence to the clear instructions of the Scriptures in the midst of your complaining and your threats to practice civil disobedience?
Do you gather with God’s people regularly? Do you participate in Scripture study through any means necessary? Do you give your time, talent and treasure? Do you actively labor to encourage other believers? Do you work to encourage your spiritual leaders? Do you utilize your social and relational platforms to spread the good news of the gospel, or do you utilize it to spread fear, hate, complaints and conspiracies?
Do you pay attention to the clear commands of Scripture? Do you conduct your life in a way that is honorable in the sight of God and men as you proclaimed to be following Jesus? Doing good in the sight of God and men as we claim to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, seems to be really important to Peter.
#2: DO GOOD IN THE SIGHT OF GOD AND MEN (VV. 15 – 17)
Now I’m sure that many of you may wonder why I would pick on us for our reactions or our responses to the year we just walked through. Why would I advocate for civil obedience alongside the apostle Peter? Truth be told, I am certain that Peter’s original listeners would have asked the same question. They may have wondered why Peter was addressing this topic. And like a good minister of the gospel, Peter foresees his audience’s resistance, and he relies on his authority as an apostle who has been sent by the Lord as his messenger.
So, with the authority of the Holy Spirit, Peter states that his reason for calling for civil obedience is because “this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (vv. 15 – 17). In other words, we are to use our freedom to do good in the sight of God and men as servants of God himself as we seek to walk in the footsteps of Jesus..
Freedom in America is an interesting topic. When we hear the word “freedom” we think of quote-un-quote “inalienable rights” afforded to us in our American Constitution which was constructed on the basis of biblical principles. But I have always been quick to point out that the Constitution is not divinely inspired like the Scriptures are, therefore, we must disentangle our theological understanding of the Scriptures from our existence as Americans.
This is to say that we must not interpret our Biblical freedom through the lenses of the American flag. We must seek to understand the Bible in its original context. Faithful Biblical interpretation and application requires and understanding of the original audience and the original intent of the author before making any application to a modern audience.
We must understand that when Peter talks about using our freedom to do good in the sight of God and men, he had a biblical theology of freedom in Christ in mind, not a loosely strung together set of principles regarding the freedom of speech or the freedom of religion with proof texts ripped out of context in mind. The freedom to do good in the sight of God and men here is the kind of freedom that is afforded to us, not in our U.S. Constitution but in the crucified, risen and returning Savior.
This freedom, is the newfound freedom in Christ to live as servants of God who honor everyone (regardless of political, religious or ideological difference), love the brotherhood (of believers), fear God (above all others), and honor the emperor (regardless of how evil he is). This is what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by using our freedom in Christ to do good in the sight of God and men. And just in case Peter’s listeners found these instructions to be super hard to listen to and to obey, he tosses out another very practical instruction regarding submission to unjust employers.
#3: SUBMIT TO UNJUST MASTERS (VV. 18 – 20)
When we read this portion of the text our minds might easily wander to our horrible history of slavery in the United States, but we must be careful to interpret Peter’s words in light of the cultural context he is writing in. He is not writing to Israelites practicing the form of slavery we are used to in U.S history. Peter is writing to Christians who would be among the “servant class” or “blue collar working class” of his day who are similar to those of us who are working to pay off college loans and house mortgages.4
With that audience in mind, Peter says, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God” (vv. 18 – 20). Peter’s argument here is that we should follow in the footsteps of Jesus by submitting to unjust masters.
Peter leaves no room for the passive aggressive water cooler complaints that believers so easily get caught up in at the workplace or in the church hallways. He argues for a kind of respectful submission not only to leadership that is good but also, and especially, to leadership that is unjust because this is a way to model the grace-filled mind of God that we are called to put on.
It’s easy to do the right thing when someone is watching, and we get the credit for it, but Peter calls his listeners to do the right thing in respectful submission to unjust masters as they follow in the footsteps of Jesus because it is gracious in the sight of God. And just in case anyone wants to argue that God never calls us to suffer, Peter moves on quickly to reminding his audience of Christ’s example of suffering for his enemies.
#4: FOLLOW CHRIST’S EXAMPLE (VV. 21 – 23)
The instructions to maintain honorable conduct by submitting to human government, by doing good in the sight of God and men and by submitting to unjust masters would need a rock-solid example from the Scriptures if Peter would expect any obedience from his listeners. And please note here that Peter doesn’t fall back on Shad, Rad, Benny, Daniel or his own experience with John in front of the ruling body of religious leaders. He calls up the image of Christ crucified.
Peter basically says, follow Christ’s example “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (vv. 21 – 23). What better example could Peter give to his listeners then the crucified Christ? Whose footsteps would be better to walk in then our Suffering Savior?
I am convinced that the American church does not have a good theology of obedience in the face of suffering and persecution. We all have a little bit of prosperity gospel within each of us where we believe that Jesus suffered so that we do not have to suffer. On the flip side some of us have a suffering complex where we see everything as a full-frontal attack and persecution against our faith. But the reality is that if we are really walking in the footsteps of Jesus then we should be ready to face suffering and persecution obediently and graciously.
Following in the footsteps of Jesus simply means that we do not sin in our suffering; we do not practice self-centered deception in our suffering; we do not return evil for evil in our suffering; we do not spew out hatred for our persecutors in our suffering; we do not threaten our persecutors when we suffer at their hands or their policies; we trust ourselves completely to the sovereign and just oversight of our good Father in Heaven. This is what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as we follow his example.
CONCLUSION…
Peter gives all of these instructions (submit to the government, do good, submit to evil masters and follow Christ’s example) and then he explains why he has given these instructions and the answer to the “why question” is that if you are a believer then you must listen to and obey these instructions because Jesus has saved you, and he continues to watch over your soul.
This is how Peter says it, he says that we should follow in Christ’s footsteps “For (because) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (vv. 24 – 25). These closing words are nearly an identical commentary on Isaiah 53 (a text we would all do well to spend some time in). At the end of the day, Peter’s argument here is that we are to listen to and to obey the instructions he has outlined for us here because if you are a believer then Jesus has saved you, and he continues to watch over your soul.
As I said at the beginning of this message, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to interpret this text; it only takes a heart that is willing to listen and a heart that is willing to obey in light of the crucified, risen and returning Christ; in the shadow of a bloody cross, in the doorway of an empty tomb, in light of the promise of eternity. This is what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 David R. Helm, 1 – 2 Peter and Jude: Sharing Christ’s Sufferings (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 92.
3 Ibid., 89 – 91; 93.
4 Ibid., 93 – 95.