by Chadwick Brewer<\/p>\n
“…living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor<\/em>” (I Peter 2:16-17).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Often in Scripture, within a list of commands, one command or concept seems dissimilar to the others. I believe this serves to throw its importance into sharp relief. It is meant to be very attention-grabbing.<\/p>\n
Peter begins by saying that we should live as servants of God. To do that, we need to love the brotherhood and fear God. These two instructions seem obvious but are worth remembering. The readers would also likely accept the concept of honoring everyone. While challenging, it aligns with the command to love your neighbor and to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.<\/p>\n
The command that seems a bit out of place is, “Honor the emperor<\/em>.”<\/p>\n
The emperors of that time would have been extremely difficult to honor, especially those who persecuted Christians. Yet Peter did not include an exception clause. Note that Peter did not say, “Honor the position or office of emperor.” He said, “Honor the emperor.<\/em>” They had no choice in who their emperor was. On the other hand, we have a choice-or at least a vote-in our government. However, that does not permit us to disrespect the person God has placed in office. Whatever authority exists is given by God.<\/p>\n
Fear God. Honor the emperor.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Chadwick Brewer “…living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (I Peter 2:16-17). Often in Scripture, within a list of commands, one command or concept seems dissimilar to the others. I believe this serves to throw its importance into sharp relief. It is meant to be very…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[310,198],"class_list":["post-83370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-government","tag-honor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47653,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/youd-better-earn-my-respect\/","url_meta":{"origin":83370,"position":0},"title":"You’d Better Earn My Respect!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Adam Litmer People often declare that a person must earn their respect. We like to establish criteria to be reached before respect is extended. The criteria may shift or remain static, yet the end result is the same: the ball is in their court, and they need to play\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7553,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-honor-mean-in-i-peter-217\/","url_meta":{"origin":83370,"position":1},"title":"What does “honor” mean in I Peter 2:17?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does the word honor (spelled \"honour\" in the King James Version) as used in I Peter 2:17 instruct followers of Christ Jesus to honor all men, implying that we are to separate the wrong that we maybe aware that a person does from the person and then honor the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42859,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-and-respect\/","url_meta":{"origin":83370,"position":2},"title":"Love and Respect","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ephesians 5:25-33 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are some topics that are joined such that you cannot have one without the other. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Faith and obedience are two sides the same subject. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You can\u2019t really have faith without obedience - James 2:14-18 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And you can\u2019t really have obedience without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50978,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-live-as-people-who-are-free-fit-with-submission\/","url_meta":{"origin":83370,"position":3},"title":"How does “live as people who are free” fit with submission?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted some clarification on what Peter says in I Peter 2:16.\u00a0What does Peter mean when he says \"Live as people who are free\"? The context throws me off a bit because he's talking about being submissive to authority. Answer: \"Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43092,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/honor-your-father-and-mother-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":83370,"position":4},"title":"Honor Your Father and Mother","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ephesians 6:1-3 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the Ten Commandments of the Old Law is brought to the New Law intact. 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I have some questions about this verse: If a husband is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}