One Way to Shut Up Critics

One Way to Shut up Critics

Third after Easter

Collect of the Day: Almighty God, who showest to those who are in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s Religion, that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Epistle: 1 Peter 2:11-17 (BCP, p.196)

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

What do you do when people criticize you? The natural tendency is first to become defensive: “No, I’m not like that at al!” And then to go on the offensive: “How dare you say that to me, when you’re as bad as you are?!

Christians can expect criticism from the world. How should we respond? St. Peter tells us to take the offensive by doing good works.

1. The Status of Peter’s Readers

St. Peter was in Rome, when he wrote this letter to Christians living in several cities in the area of modern day Turkey. He wrote in the the early 60’s. Nero was the Emperor, but it was before the great fire in Rome that Nero blamed on the Christians.

The Christians and churches who received this letter either were being persecuted or were facing the threat of persecution. This was before the general Empire-wide persecution carried out by future Emperors. This was a time of sporadic local persecution of varying degrees of severity.

• Peter reminds his readers’ “for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials” (1:6).

• He encourages them that if they “must suffer for righteousness’ sake” they “will be blessed” (3:14).

• He knows some will be brought before courts, so instructs them to be “always prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (3:15).

• He tells them…

• not to “be surprised at the fiery trial that come comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (4:12),
• that “if you are insulted for the name of Christ you are blessed” (4:14),
• and that “if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed” (4:16).

• He lets them know “that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brethren throughout the world” (5:9).

What Peter told first century Christians is also for us as 21st century Christians. Experiencing various forms of persecution is  is not unusual for Christians. It is intense for our brothers and  sisters in North Korea, China, and a number of Islamic theocratic countries. Our lives as western Christians are relatively easy, but we should not be surprised when we experience insults, false accusations, exclusion, or other hardships because we are Christians.

Peter tells his readers and us how we should see ourselves in this world.

• He calls them “the elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1:1).

• He says they are  “sojourners and pilgrims” (2:11).

The background for Christians thinking this way about ourselves is the experience of the Jewish people in the Old Testament. Some were taken into exile in Babylon. Some were scattered throughout the known world. They participated in the life of the countries where they lived, but they never forgot their identity as Jews, and they lived as Jews, worshiping in the synagogues and following the laws and customs of Judaism.  

The church is the new Israel and Christians are the new Israelites:

• But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9,10).

As Christians, wherever we live in this world, our true identity is as citizens of the kingdom of God who are waiting to go to our true homeland, the new heavens and new earth that Christ will create when he comes again. We are citizens of the United States and the state of Virginia, but the most important thing is not that we are Americans or Virginians or Republicans or Democrats, but that we are Christians, citizens of a heavenly kingdom waiting for the arrival of our King and Savior, Jesus Christ.

2. Answering Critics by Pure and Honorable Lives

In the first century Christians were accused of being “evildoers.” A Roman historian (Tacitus) wrote that  Christians were “loathed because of their abominations.” Another writer (Suetonius) approved Nero’s persecution of Christians after the great fire because they were “a class of people animated by a novel and mischievous superstition.”

Christians often receive criticism today. Sometimes we deserve it. Later in his letter Paul says that, if Christians suffer, it should not be “as a murderer or a thief or evildoer or as a meddler” (4:14).

But, even if we are not evildoers, we will be misunderstood and criticized. The media are one example. One of the reasons Christianity is misunderstood is that few in the media practice any religion, so it is not surprising that they have misconceptions of our faith and conduct.  Some of the most common criticisms against those who believe and practice historic Christianity is that we are:

• Homophobic - that we hate homosexuals - because we believe that homosexual practice is sinful and that marriage is meant be a relationship between a man and a woman.

• Misogynistic - that we hate and demean women - because we believe that only men should be ordained to the priesthood and because we teach what St. Paul says in Ephesians 5 about husbands loving their wives and wives submitting to their husbands.

• Islamophobic - that we hate Muslims - because we believe do not believe that they worship the one true God, the God who makes himself known to us and saves us through his Son Jesus Christ.

One of the most interesting inconsistencies of media portrayals of Christians is that Christians are accused of hating homosexuals, of not respecting women, and of intolerance toward Islam, while Islam is defended even though it executes homosexuals and suppresses women.

Well, how do we respond to such criticisms? We may pity ourselves. Or, we may get angry. But how should respond?

• St. Peter tells us to live pure lives, avoiding the lusts of the flesh. Sins that take advantage of our bodily desires and pleasures are making war on our souls. It is not that the body or its needs and desires are evil, but the devil uses them to lead us to gratify them in evil ways. In Peter’s world, many Gentile Christians had come out grossly immoral culture and some had trouble breaking with it. In our day, we feel the pressures and temptations when almost all the former standards for sexual behavior have been rejected by society. Nevertheless, we are called to Biblical purity.

• We lead honorable, attractive, consistent lives of good works. Unbelievers should see how we treat one another with genuine love. They should notice that we treat them with goodwill.

We live our lives in this way because this is what God wants, but who knows how God will use our lives? God may visit our critics with his salvation, and they will come to see us as the light of the world and glorify God for our  good works. Or, when God visits the world with final judgment, they will have no choice but to glorify God for the good works they witnessed in the lives of Christians.

3. Answering Critics with Right Relationships

Another charge against Christians was that they disrupted relationships, particularly the relation of citizens to government.

Peter tells us how to respond with good works:

• Submit to the various levels of government, honoring the Emperor and obeying local officials he has appointed to keep order in the provinces. Remember Peter is not talking about a Christian or democratic government or Christian rulers, but about the about unbelieving officials of a sometimes harsh and cruel government. Christ calls us as Christians to submit to government - whether we like its officials and laws or not -  so long as government does not require us to do what God clearly forbids or forbids us to do what God clearly commands.

• Use your Christian freedom rightly. As a Christian you are free in Christ, but don’t use your Christian freedom as an excuse for doing what is wrong. Real freedom is not doing whatever you want to do, but living your life as God’s servant.

• Honor all men. Treat everyone with respect because they are made in the image of God.

• Love the brotherhood. Let it be obvious to the watching world that we love one another.

• Fear God. We do not live our lives with the fear of man and what he may do to us. The one Person we fear is God. We are in awe of his glory, his holiness, majesty, his power, and we love our lives submitting to and obeying him.

One of the purposes of the church’s worship is that it reminds us who we are - strangers and pilgrims in this world, citizens of the kingdom of God, brothers and sisters in Christ’s church. We should be keenly aware of this as we come to the Lord’s Table. We have been bought with the price of Christ’s precious blood, and we are his. By his cross he has broken down human barriers and brought us together in his body, the church, where we dwell in him and he in us.