Gospel Outreach International

Have you ever found submission difficult? Not just to people you disagree with, but even to God, even when you know he is right? This Bible study opens up one of the most challenging and surprisingly freeing truths in the Christian life. As we work through 1 Peter chapter 2, we are going to discover what it really means to submit, and why it is not the defeat it might first appear to be. More than that, we are going to come face to face with Jesus himself, not just as Saviour, but as the one who walked this road before us and shows us how it is done. If you have ever wondered how to hold your faith steady in a world pulling in every direction, or how to respond when life feels unfair and the pressure is on, pull up a chair. The answer is closer than you think

Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 1 Peter 2:13

• Submission in the New Testament is a voluntary act, distinct from subjection which is imposed without agreement.
• Christians are called to submit first and foremost to God and his word, above all other authorities.
• Civil authorities are to be submitted to as far as conscience allows, but when they require disobedience to God, God must be obeyed first.
• Church leaders are to be respected and followed, but not blindly. Christians have the Bible in their own language and are responsible for testing teaching against it.
• Christianity is not a religion but a relationship, with God through Christ, with fellow believers through love, and with non-believers in the hope of bringing them to Christ.
• Humility, like submission, is self-imposed. Christ himself humbled himself willingly, as seen in his acceptance of arrest and crucifixion without resistance.
• Jesus is our example in how to respond to suffering and mistreatment. He did not revile those who reviled him, did not threaten those who harmed him, but entrusted himself to God.
• Every Christian is accountable before God, not just leaders and teachers. This accountability should shape how we live and what we submit to.
• We are called to pray for those in authority, both civil and spiritual, that they might lead rightly and care well for those in their charge.
• The goal of the Christian life is to grow in Christlikeness, being changed from glory to glory, until one day we see him and are fully made like him.

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. 1 Peter 2:24

At the heart of everything we have looked at today is Jesus. Not a set of rules, not a religious system, but a person who chose to humble himself, who faced injustice without bitterness, suffering without retaliation, and death without losing trust in his Father. That is the life we are invited into. Not a life where everything is easy, but one where we are never navigating it alone. As we submit to God, draw near to him and walk in the footsteps of Christ, we find that the call to surrender is not a burden. It is the very thing that sets us free.

Bible References

• 1 Peter 2:13-25
• Colossians 2:20
• Hebrews 13
• James 4:7
• Romans 4
• 1 Timothy 2:1-2