1 Peter 2:13-16
On Authority and On Doing Good
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
St. Peter teaches us to do good...He asks us to be good and if we are good it will silence the ignorant talk of foolish men...
St. Peter writes this in the context of submitting to people of authority...The environment we live is very important...Jesus lived during a time of Roman authority...He did not fight the Romans in authority or try to change the political powers...Nor did Jesus try to over throw the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Ruling Council, out of power...What is interesting about this is, He could have...But that was not the purpose He came to earth...Jesus wanted all of us to come together for a common good...Jesus, in fact, assisted Nicodemus of the Sanhedrin, the Samaritan woman at the Jacob's well, the Canaanite woman (who ask for help for her daughter), and even a Roman centurion....Jesus and His descendants did not get along with these groups at one time or another...
For almost everyone one of us on earth, some ruler or some government official or someone will be in authority above us on earth...Jesus even told His followers to pay taxes, when He said give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give God what is His (Matthew 12:17)...Jesus even sends Peter to catch a fish to pay the temple tax (Matthew 17:24-27)...Paying our taxes, is a form of submission to rules, that Peter is writing about...Even though we might want to be in control of every situation or most of our situations, we should work with other and be good...Jesus teaches us to love our neighbor...We cannot love our neighbor, if we are not doing good things...St. Peter knows that we (nor him, nor even Jesus) pleased everyone... Generally there are critics of us and even Jesus (had them)...When we are doing good, we silent critics...
The is One's will that will always be above us...God is always above us in authority...He gave Jesus His authority...His authority is forever, Past, present, and future...