Musings in Search of a Muse

That little box of Daily Wisdom below the adverts on this page earns me no money but it does stimulate my thinking with some regularity.

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
1 Peter 2:13-15 (read in context)

My first impression was that this passage describes that the faithful should not bow to any ruler not justified by God. Reading a fourth time I finally noted that him in "sent by him" was not capitalized therefore there should be no inference of the divine.

So then what is this scripture about? It seems to simply be an affirmation of "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's" (see also). Not a new concept or one that is especially critical at first glance. The important part -- or, rather, the most important part -- then revolves around "by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men."

We who openly profess to be Christian can cloud or even destroy the image automatically conferred upon us when we fail to honor this concept through faithful modeling of Christian ideals in daily life. Having a Fish stuck to your car is a good way to announce your faith, but then driving as if the devil is your co-pilot is not good (thanks, Tanya and Mike), in other words.

When someone that I am speaking to as a representative of my employer says "God be with you" or something to that effect in the conversation it hurts a bit that I can't reciprocate -- some sort of behavior violation that no one has been able to explain to me -- but I can model good, Christian behavior. More importantly, when someone invites me to blaze a trail to the netherworld or questions my parentage, I can still model good, Christian behavior. In either instance, if my faith were to then be known then my actions would reflect well upon the Lord.

Perhaps this is what the scripture all about, or perhaps not. If all else is to naught, then at least pondering the Word is sufficient. But that is the point of His Word being ineffable in the first place. "Ours is not to reason why," to paraphrase Tennyson, "but to do well so we don't die" in the mortal sense.