General to Specific #1...1 Peter 2:13-17

This is Gravel Mountain from a great vantage point to see the slope.  It is a favorite spot for snowmobilers who have the thrill of climbing it on their sleds.  There are 3 decks below for staging so your buddies can watch you scale it.  While it is beautiful, it is also very dangerous because of avalanches.  It becomes a slippery slope and everyone below can be put in danger if your sled causes an avalanche.  Let me see if I can post a couple videos below of this.  The first is of an avalanche last year and broadcasted on the local news.

This second one is of a couple of sleds going up and coming over the top.

Why I speak of it is because it is a great illustration of a slippery slope.  It looks beautiful and can be fun for awhile but there are real dangers to hanging out here on or near the slippery slope.  So it is with the slippery slope of ignoring or being around those who ignore the roles, rules and responsibilities of God's created institutions.  Things will eventually come avalanching down, a danger to all.

Peter moves from the general instructions to Group #1, those who believe, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, keep your conduct honorable and doing good to a more specific situation.  He speaks about the human institution of governing authorities that they are under.  The slippery slope would be to adopt some of their practices that don't line up with God's roles, rules and responsibilities.  Each God created institution, family/marriage, civil governments, and His Church all have roles, rules and responsibilities provided by Him in the passages of Scripture.  All 3 institutions can go awry from those 3 "r"s and have.  God's Church is the holder of those 3 "r"s because we are to abide in His word.  There will be times that we need to "raise our hand" when a God created institution has varied from the 3 "r"s.  Peter's readers are in that position.

They are being commanded by the governing authorities to declare that "Caesar is lord" but the Christians can not say this.  There is only one Lord and Master whom they belong to.  Their rallying cry is "Jesus is Lord!"  Because they will not say the government approved answer, they will suffer the earthly consequences for it.  They are deemed evildoers and deserve punishment.  This has happened many times in the Scriptures when the governing authority has gone directly against what God has commanded and God's followers have had to "raise their hand" no matter the cost.  Here is a small list: the Hebrew midwives in Egypt before Pharoah; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace; Daniel and the lions' den; the prophets and "thus saith the Lord"; John the Baptist and his beheading by Herod, Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, Paul and Silas in a Roman jail and Jesus Himself before Pilate.  

The question is "How did they raise their hand?"  This is where Peter is with his readers.  They were to keep their conduct honorable and continue to do good.  This confounds the civil government because they are called evildoers deserving punishment but they are also doing good deserving praise.  This will silence them, muzzle them, cause them to pause like Pilate did after some eye opening conversations with Jesus in the Gospel of John before the crucifixion judgment.  Peter knows there are some in those governing authority positions who don't believe at the moment but will believe in the future.  Their eyes will be opened by God to see Jesus as the Savior and they observed Group #1's good deeds in the midst of persecution.

I think of Stephen, the first martyr for the faith.  Who is present to witness his words, demeanor and actions during the stoning?  None other than Saul/Paul who at the time was a great persecutor of the Christians, people of The Way.  He witnessed Stephen's good deeds in the midst of being deemed an evildoer.  Saul/Paul would go from Group #2, those who do not believe, and specifically the subgroup that was antagonist against Jesus to Group #1, those who do believe.  

The slippery slope for the Church is to get slack on the rules, roles and responsibilities that God has given to us to follow.  We might look at it as a good thing and maybe a way for more to join us but underneath an avalanche is getting ready to let loose.  Soon we have nothing to stand upon because we have abandoned what lasts forever, God's very words.  We just don't see how it will work and therefore we abandon God's instructions when being persecuted.  Once you have went down the path of the slippery slope of abandoning God's words or some of them, it is awfully hard to climb back up.  It takes a total surrender and submission to His footsteps again.  

Know where you stand and make sure where you stand is on what God has said then "raise your hand" with a conduct that is honorable and continue to do good deeds which glorify Him.  Following His instructions on how you "raise your hand" will have an impact and actually more of an impact than if you modify His instructions or even abandon them and do things your own way.

Adam