Louie Giglio - The Fear of God
First Peter is about the tension of being chosen by God and at the same time being in conflict with the culture. In other words, what Peter is saying is there’s a sovereign God who has ordained all the affairs of your life. He invited you into His story before the world was formed. Yet now, here you are as the people of God—a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who belong to God—but you’re on a planet that, for the most part, is spiritually clueless. You’re on a planet that doesn’t understand who Jesus is, why He came, and what the purpose of life is. We see this when you look at chapter 2, verses 11 and 12. It’s the big story, if you will, of First Peter.
So let’s take a look at that together. If you look back, let me get there to chapter 2, verse 11. He’s coming down to really show us this tension and how it works itself out in our lives. He says, «Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world.» We’ve already underlined and highlighted this idea. What he’s saying by using this language here is your place by God is scattered out into the world. To put it as clearly as he could, he said, «You’re living next door to people who don’t understand who Jesus is. I’m putting you in jobs, cubicles, offices, neighborhoods, families, and in circumstances and situations where you’re right next door to people who are lost without Christ, and you are on display for them in the world.»
In other words, you’re living among the lost and you’re being watched by the lost. Do you ever feel like your neighbors are kind of looking at you, asking, «What are the Christians going to do here?» Your co-workers might think, «I know she’s a believer, whatever that is, so I wonder how she’s going to handle this when it rolls down through the office today.» You’re living among the lost and you’re being watched by them. He says, «I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.»
In other words, what Peter is saying is that you’re the only church service that many people will ever see. They’re not setting foot in here or anywhere else for that matter. You’re the only scripture that many people will ever read. You are the only sermon that many people will hear. Think about that. We’re not offloading by saying, «If we can just get them to church or get them to tune in online to a service, or if I can just get them a resource or a Bible.» God’s saying, «No, you are the Bible. You are the resource. You are the sermon.»
We do hope, pray, and believe that their eyes will be opened to who Jesus is, but that is going to happen because of you. God is placing you in the world as aliens and strangers so that you can live a distinct life on this planet. While others are watching your life, it will draw them into the story of the glory of God. In a world that is angry, you will be a peacemaker. In a world that is filled with angst, there will somehow be a spiritual ease about your life. In a world that simply wants to divide people, you’ll be a uniter of people. In a depressed world, you’ll have seeds of joy that transcend hardship in your life.
When everyone else is looking for the negative, you’ll always be able to walk into the circumstance and find the positive, rallying people to hope. That’s the difference you’ll make in the world, and people will see it and they’ll understand it. The reference point they have for the Christian faith will be positive because you stepped into their story.
So he goes on to say in verse 13 how this really begins to flesh itself out. That’s the big story, if you will, but then he puts it into some contexts that are very gritty and very real. He says in verse 13, «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—there’s the second time we’ve seen that—you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Then he sort of caps it all with this verse, and this is where I want us to focus today: «Show proper respect to everyone, love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.»
As this all works its way out, he says, «I want you to be different on the planet. Be holy as I am holy.» We talked about that meaning to be separate or distinct, or to put it in normal language, to be different from everybody else on the planet. Here are four ways we know we can be distinguished on planet Earth: if you show proper respect to everyone, you’re going to be different. If you have an overwhelming love for the brotherhood of believers, that is, for those of us who are in the faith, you’re going to be different. If you fear God, trust me, you’re going to live differently. And if you honor the king, you’re going to be different.
Peter is going to show us how all of these things fit together today, but they all hinge on this idea of living with the fear of God. We don’t preach a lot on the fear of God because it trips people up, but it shouldn’t. Proverbs 9:10 says, «The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,» or the beginning of wisdom. In other words, it’s having that healthy sense of reverence for who God is—that’s the beginning point of everything in life. Even the thief on the cross understood this. When Jesus was being mocked by one of the thieves, the other thief said to that thief, «Don’t you fear God? We are getting what we deserve; this man on the other hand has done nothing.»
So instantly, we get all of this in one snapshot. We have the Son of God on planet Earth who has submitted Himself to the rulers and the authorities, working in a broken system on planet Earth, but who isn’t trying to blow the system up. He’s trying to do the will of God; He’s got a higher mission and a bigger goal in mind. So He’s submitting Himself to God. He’s believing for the outcome of God, and here He is, giving His life on a cross, being crucified by the power of the Emperor of Rome.
When Peter comes down and says honor the king, he’s literally saying honor the emperor. Under that emperor, my Savior gave His life for the sins of the world. It was the will of man, but the power of Rome, in a governmental sense, that put Him to death. In that moment, Jesus is still above it all, and this thief understands that. He knows something powerful and transcendent is going on. He says to his fellow criminal on the end, «Man, don’t you fear God?»
So think about it: I’ve messed my life up, I’m at a dead end, being punished for my sins, and I have no more options here today, and I’ve wrecked my life. But I still understand the fear of God, and that saves him that day. I wonder, just before we’re too far into the text, if I’m really grasping what Peter is trying to say to me today: Show proper respect to everyone, love the brotherhood of believers, but here’s where it’s all going to come down: fear God. The lack of the fear of God left this guy in the shadows of the story, but the fear of God brought this man into paradise with Christ today. This is going to be, I believe, the distinguishing mark and the dividing line, if you will, of the true church and those who just come to church. It’s going to be the fear of the Lord.
You don’t have to worry about projecting God as being some angry person we should run from or be afraid of in a negative sense because Peter has already told us this in verse 17 of chapter 1: «Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here…» There we are again with «in reverent fear.» So it’s not about being afraid of God in a negative sense, but being awestruck by God in a positive sense—the fact that the God of creation wants to be in a relationship with me as a Father. He’s already offered His Son into the broken system of the world as a sacrifice for sin. I can totally trust Him at every stage of my life with awe and fear, and to do less than that is to belittle who He is.
Peter gets this. Think about it: If anyone could tell us today what it is to fear the Lord, it’s Peter. On the night that Jesus was arrested, they took Him into the house of the high priest. It says in the gospel that Peter and another disciple followed closely behind. Eventually, they got in. They got into the house of the high priest, and more than likely, this wasn’t a one-room deal; it was a courtyard and another hallway, and a room here, and a room there. It was a complex, if you will. Somehow, they got in, and somehow Jesus and Peter caught eyes with each other in the process.
Peter said three different times, «I don’t know the man. I’ve never heard of the man. I wasn’t with the man. I’m not one of his men.» The fear of man stymied the one who was the chip off the old block. Jesus said, «You’re going to be Petros from Petra, and on Petra I’m going to build my church.» Peter thought, «I’ll be right there with you! I’ll be with you till the end! Anything comes against you has got to go through me! I’m your guy!» Jesus said, «No, you’re not my guy right now. Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.» Peter thought, «You got the wrong guy. Maybe one of these other jokers is going to let you down, but not me.»
Then here’s Peter in the moment, thinking, «Wait a minute, stuff’s going down tonight, and we’re not sure what’s going to happen. The high priest has got his hand on the wheel right now. Before you know it, who knows? Pilate might be involved, Rome might be involved; the city’s kind of in an uproar right now. I think I’m going to just throttle down and mind my own business.» The fear of man: What does man think? What’s man going to say? What’s man’s opinion of me going to be? Is man going to accept me? Is man going to like me? Am I going to be the most popular person in the neighborhood or the most popular person at the office?
The fear of man! «I don’t want to lose out on anything in this world, so I’m just going to throttle down and live my life for the approval of the people around me.» That’s where Peter was on that night. «I’m afraid of what might happen to me.» But all of a sudden, Jesus is raised from the dead. Peter runs to the tomb and sees it empty. He sees Jesus come through the wall, he sees Jesus ascend into heaven, and he waits in the upper room until the Holy Spirit falls in fire.
Then he preaches the first gospel message, powered now by the Holy Spirit. He sees 3,000 people get saved on day one. He sees the church born in the power of God, and now he’s an unstoppable force. A few chapters later, in Acts chapter 5, Peter’s preaching, and many people are putting their faith in Jesus. The Jewish leaders don’t like it, and they tell them, «Don’t do that anymore.» Just at the top of the chapter, Ananias and Sapphira are now dead and done because they didn’t come clean about what they wanted to bring to the house of God. So we know something is shifting in the atmosphere; it’s not business as usual.
Later, it says that the apostles were performing many miraculous wonders among the people, and the believers were gathering in Solomon’s colonnade, preaching the gospel. But then I want you to notice what happens in verse 17 of Acts chapter 5. «Then the high priest and all his associates who were members of the party of the Sadducees were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.»
I’m just trying to give us a balance here of this text that we’re in today: «Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to the governors who were sent by him.» What he’s saying, Peter is, live in the system but transcend it by living with a fear of God. Those two things can live in tension together, and you’re like, «No, they can’t live in tension together.» Peter says, «Oh yes, they can!» You have to just rewind a little further back to those early days of the church, and I will model this for you, showing you what it looks like.
They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail, but during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. «Go stand in the temple courts,» he said, «and tell the people the full message of this new life.» At daybreak, they entered the temple courts as they had been told and began to teach the people.
If you’re in prison for your faith, and an angel comes, opens the door, lets you out at night, and tells you to go into the public square the next day and preach the gospel, I would encourage you to do that. They said, «Yes, we’re going to do that. We were instructed to come here, and here we are.» A little further down in verse 21, it says, «When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, the full assembly of the elders of Israel, and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there, so they went back and reported, 'We found the jail securely locked with the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.'»
On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. And then someone said this is awesome in verse 25: «Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people!»
Now that’s a real problem if you’re trying to stamp out the gospel—these guys that you locked up are now in the middle of the temple courts preaching again. So the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force because they feared that the people would stone them. They brought the apostles and made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. «We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.»
Then here comes the phrase: Peter and the other apostles replied, «We must obey God rather than men.» Fear of God! If you fast forward, it gets interesting. They thought, «Well, we’ll kill these guys and put an end to it right here,» because Peter goes on to preach a little more intensely in the next few lines. Then Gamaliel steps into the story and says, «Hey, not a good idea to kill these guys. That’s just going to cause a lot of trouble.»
He makes this brilliant summary at the end of his speech to the leaders: «If this is of human power and activity, it’s going to fail, but if it’s from God, you won’t be able to stop these men; you’ll only find yourselves fighting against God.» And he persuaded them.
So, check this phrase out: «They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go.» And the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.
In other words, Peter is respecting the authority. He’s not rallying in the temple courts and saying, «Hey, everybody! We’re about to get flogged, so we have to take action in a hurry.» He’s just saying, «You do what you do; I’m going to do what I do. You are here in the authority of Earth; I am moving in the authority of Heaven.»
So here we have an apostle filled with power, working wonders, doing miracles, preaching the gospel, and now that same apostle is being beaten for his faith. He actually counts that as joy because now he’s linking up with the Savior who did the very same thing on his behalf.
You may think that must have really put a dent in their plans. The next verse says, «Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.»
So what is happening here? Peter is showing us how this text unfolds in real life. «I’m going to respect you because you are the institution and the authority on Earth under God. However, while I’m respecting you, I’m going to obey God no matter what. My focus isn’t going to change.»
In another place, Jesus said it like this: «I’m going to give to Caesar what’s Caesar’s, because his face is on this coin, but I’m going to give to God what’s God’s, because His image is on my heart.»
So, I’m going to pay my taxes, live in the system, support roads, public works, and the other things that need to happen. I’m not saying that the government spends every dime of my money the way maybe I would want them to, but I’m going to pay my tax. I’m going to honor the king. I’m going to honor the emperor because, as Jesus said, his face is actually on the coin that I’m using to do my business. But His image is on my heart.
With my life, I’m going to honor God. I’m not going to try to separate those two or cause them to come into mortal conflict with each other. I’m going to live in that tension. I’m going to pay my taxes, and with the rest of my money, I’m going to fund the gospel because the gospel is the most powerful movement on Earth. It will transform every culture, bring good out of every evil, and bring the kingdom of God onto planet Earth more powerfully than any government ever can or ever will.
So, I’m going to honor the government. I’m going to honor the king. I’m going to pray with respect. I’m going to show respect to everybody in this house. I’m going to love the brotherhood like they are my brotherhood. I’m going to fear God, but I’m only going to fear God.
Peter says, «I’ll show you how to walk that out.» If you just follow his life all the way to the writing of this letter and just a few years forward, where the emperor that he is inviting the believers to honor puts him to death, he never stopped fearing God. He didn’t lose a thing. He didn’t capitulate to anything; he transcended.
We’re not talking about the emperor today; we’re talking about Peter today. We’re not talking about some government today, which is long gone in the history books. We’re talking about a church today that’s very much alive and well on planet Earth. Where the emperor thought he was God, he’s in the dust now, and God is still God, and God is still at work, and God is still building up this temple of living stones as a house of worship unto Him. The hardship of this world didn’t stop it; it only fueled it.
To get there, you have to have an elevated faith. You have to believe that my God, hello, is sovereign. Do you believe that today? He’s unshakeable—do you believe that today? Your God is eternal; He is holy, He chooses, He ordains, He sets in motion, and He concludes all things. That leads us to this conclusion: I don’t know how everything is working out, but I know that God is working out everything. I know who controls my destiny, and I fear God.
I don’t know what you’re afraid of, but I fear God. I don’t know what you’re concerned with. I’ll tell you what I’m concerned with: I fear God. I don’t know how powerful you are; I just know I fear God. I don’t know what you can do to me; I do know this: I fear God.
Peter is encouraging us today to have that sense of awe for the Father in heaven who is in control of my destiny. I don’t want to mess that up by mistrusting or distrusting the one who gave His very life for me. I want to live with an elevated faith.
First Peter is about an elevated faith, and if I can say it, it kind of hits me in my heart, but this book was not written to American Christians, by and large, who do not have an elevated faith. The truth be told, we have a low-rise faith, not a high-rise faith.
It’s like Monopoly. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but it’s kind of like that. Does anybody like Monopoly? If you’ve got a couple of days and you don’t have anything else to do, start a game of Monopoly, and before you know it, you’ll miss some meals, a few appointments, but man, I got houses on Atlantic Avenue!
Everyone understands, right? You roll the dice. «I’m the hat, and I get to go four places, so here I go! Free parking! I love you, Lord!» Hey, I didn’t manipulate the dice; I rolled them for real. They’re real dice! I got a four, two twos—double twos! Yeah, I did! Right on to free parking! «The Lord is with me! God Almighty! He is my refuge, the Lord is my rock and my salvation. I praise Him in the morning, and I praise Him in the evening, and I really love to praise Him on my free parking! ' And I’ve got cash! I got a house on Atlantic—fact, I got two houses on Atlantic, so if you get on that, man, pay up! I welcome the Lord at my Monopoly board!
Now, if things were to go crazy and somehow I end up over here on a luxury tax and I’ve got to pay a hundred dollars, I’m like, „Lord, I prayed. Please don’t let me get on the luxury tax!“ See, here’s the thing about this view—just stay with me for a moment. I can see the whole board. I know how it all works, and I understand that each action has a corollary. If I roll a three, one, two, three; if I get on the community chest, I take a card—not that one because I already got that blessing. Maybe there’s another one for me: „You inherit 100!“
I am living in the grace of God! But if I roll another number, maybe I have to go to jail, or maybe I’m just visiting, or maybe I’m going to get on chance. I hate chance. „Go to jail! Go directly to jail! Do not pass go! Do not collect 100. I hate this game!“
This is our faith. A lot of us say, „God, you’re welcome at the game, and it really will go better if you do what I want you to do.“ I feel pretty good because I can see the whole board. I understand everything on the board. I understand all the rules of the game, and I see that every action has a corollary. So if my friend over here in the little car rolls and gets 10, I know where they’re going to go. They’re not going to say, „Well, I decided I want to go to the Short Line Railroad.“ No, you didn’t; you got 10, so you’re going to go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten to State Avenue. Do you want to buy it? You don’t? Okay, do you want to put a house on it? Do you have any money?
Okay, but this is not how life works. There is a board, and there are corollaries. Stuff is going on, but here’s a real Monopoly game for you and me: It’s all in the box, and there may be a hole in the box, and you may understand some things about the box, but for the most part, we’re looking through the hole in the box.
I know there’s money in there, I know there are pieces in there, I know there’s dice in there, I know there’s a community chest stack of cards in there, I know that everything in there—Illinois is in there. I can see it, but I can only see it dimly. This is what Peter said in a verse that we did not talk about, which just blows my mind when he’s talking about the gospel in chapter one at the end of this paragraph in verse 12. You don’t need to put it up, but he says, „Even angels long to look into these things.“ In other words, don’t get all cocky and believe that you’ve got it all figured out because angels don’t even have it all figured out.
So the way life works is that we can’t see the whole board. Amen? We cannot see the corollary of every action. So if I take a step and I do good and now I’m being persecuted for that, or my friends are mocking me for that, or I’m taking heat from my faith, I can’t see the corollary. I can’t see the dominoes. I can’t see how God is working. The only thing I really know about this game called life is that it’s not my board; it’s His board. It’s not my game; it’s His game. I’m not inviting Him in; He’s inviting me in.
I know that He’s above all things; He’s greater than all things; He’s in all things; and He uses all things. That’s what I do know. I do know that I have a Savior so that when I’m invited in, I don’t choose the car, and I don’t choose the hat, and I don’t choose the little iron, the piece that I’m playing with. I’m choosing the cross—that’s my piece. And it’s reminding me every single move that this text is possible: to submit to the authority and maintain your fear of God.
To submit to and respect the world’s authorities, whether that’s my coach, my mom, my dad, my boss, or my regional manager, means to show respect to people who are in authority over me in my life. This is not a popular value, period.
To respect, period? Well, to respect my boss? „Well, my boss this, my boss that, my boss the other! I don’t like my boss! I liked my old boss! I’m not going to have a boss! I don’t care about my boss! My boss is a jerk!“ He’s still, or she’s still your boss. There is the opportunity for you to be different—to show respect to that person who is in authority over you. It doesn’t mean that you stop doing good, and it doesn’t mean that you stop fearing God.
You keep on fearing God and you keep on doing good. You don’t do anything that they tell you to do that’s contrary to what God has already told you to do, but you show respect to that position as long as God has you there.
If you’re a child, you show respect to your parents. „Yeah, but my parents are messed up, my parents actually this, my parents that, my parents need help!“ You show respect to the parents that God has put in your life. It doesn’t mean that you do things contrary to what God has already called you to do. You honor God; you fear God, but you show respect to the authority that He’s put in your life.
Those things can live in tension together. They can coexist somehow, and God’s will transcends in it all. He’s saying that when you are different, and you continue to do good, you’re going to be a witness to the world, and you’re not going to see how every action’s corollary plays out until the end of it all when you stand at that inheritance that I’m guarding for you.
But in that day, I’m going to open a box in that day, and I’m going to roll it all out, and I’m going to say, „Man, let me show you what I was doing.“ We are going to stand in amazement and say, „I fear God! I fear God! I fear God! I fear God! God was in control the whole time! God had a plan the whole time! God never left me the whole time! God was ruling the whole time! I fear God! I fear God! I fear God! I fear God! I don’t know what you fear, but I fear God.“
Because at the end of the day, He’s going to open the box, and the one who’s going to open the box is the one we read about right here of whom He says just a few verses down from „fear God“: „To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. He committed no sin; no deceit was found in His mouth. When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, here’s what it looks like to fear God; He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.“
That’s Jesus standing before Pilate, respecting him, by the way. If you go back and look at all of their narrative, He respected him. He honored the position that Pilate was in, and He was God in human flesh. But standing there before him, Jesus was not afraid of him or anything Pilate could do to him. His attitude in all of His speech was, „I fear God! I fear God! I fear God! I fear God!“
„I don’t fear how they’re going to vote: Barabbas or me; I fear God! I’m here to do my job! I’m here to do good! I’m here to do the will of God! I’m here to show the pagan world what God’s love looks like! I am right now the picture of the Christian faith to the world! I am Christ for crying out loud, the Christian faith! And I’m about to show the world what it looks like to be holy as He is holy! I’m going to be set apart in this moment! I’m going to be the most different guy you’ve ever had stay in trial in front of you! I’m going to forgive the guy who nails me to the cross and I’m going to say, 'Father, forgive this guy; he doesn’t understand what he’s doing! '“
What criminal has ever done that? What person giving their life, except one filled with God’s power, filled with the Holy Spirit, like Stephen in Acts, who says, „God, I just want to praise you, and I want to bless you right here at the end because it looks like I’m going out today, so I just want to go out giving some glory because I fear God.“
That’s what Jesus is modeling for you and me. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so no, He was innocent when He went there, but He was guilty when He died there. He was not a criminal hanging until God put on Him the sins of the world, and then He was a criminal so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.
For by His wounds you’ve been healed, for you were like sheep going astray—men fearing circumstances, fearing what people think, fearing what might happen to you, fearing that you might miss out on something, fearing that if you took your hands off the steering wheel, then maybe your life would end up the way you wanted it to. But the whole time, God’s just saying, „Well, you’ve had your hands on the wheel almost the whole time, and how has that gone? Let go! Get a new posture and say, 'I fear God! I fear God! I fear God! ' I’m not going to take the wheel of a God who gave His Son for me. I fear God! I’m not going to take the wheel of a Father who’s invited me into a relationship of love. I fear God! I fear God! I fear God! I’m going to let go of trying to control all the circumstances because I fear God.
I’m not going to go to sleep tonight afraid of what might happen to me because I fear God—and that would dishonor God and devalue God if I do anything tonight but fear God. My God is sovereign! My God is in control! My God ordains things, He begins things and ends things! He’s in control of things! My God is the eternal God, in the ages! He is holy! What if we had an awakening in our hearts, a revelation in our lives, and our whole approach was, „I’m going to respect everybody, but I’m only going to fear God!“
My tone is going to shift towards you, whether you’re with me or against me, whether you’re in my line of thinking of what ought to play out or whether you’re in a different line of thinking. I’m going to respect you because I’m going to respect everybody. I’m going to show love inside this house like nobody’s business; I’m going to build up and not tear down. Not in the brotherhood! I’m going to lift up and not tear down; I’m going to support, I’m going to rally, I’m going to give, I’m going to embrace, I’m going to make sure people have what they need, I’m going to protect, I’m going to love the brotherhood with that same agape love that is the word that Jesus showed when He loved the world and gave Himself for us.
I’m going to love this brotherhood. Oh, don’t you come against my sister! You come against my sister, you’re coming against me! You come against my brother, you’re coming against me! I might not even agree with my brother, but he’s still my brother, and I’m going to stand up for my brother! Man, what if the world said, „I’ll tell you one thing: Don’t go after any Christians because as soon as you do, they band together and there’s a lot of them!“ Oh, somebody goes after one of our brothers and sisters, and we decide which side we want to get on, and we forget the blood of Jesus that covered a multitude of sins, that knitted us together into one family—that gave us one name, one baptism, one Lord, one God and Father who’s above all and who’s in all and who’s through all.
Love the brotherhood and honor the king. We’re all going to have an opportunity to do that very soon. You’re like, „I’ll never honor that person! I’ll never honor that person!“ Well, then you might as well just rip this page out of your Bible and decide right here and right now that you are not going to be different on planet Earth and you will not be the sermon that’s going to tell people on Earth, in this generation, the Christian faith. That’s the faith you want to have. „No, I’m not doing it! I’m not honoring!“ Depending on how it goes, „I’m not honoring! I’m not honoring!“
I will not honor! Listen again: It doesn’t mean that you have to say to the person who’s nailing you to the cross—if you’re Jesus, I appreciate everything about your life. He just said, „I forgive you.“ I’m going to show you respect; you’re a top-level guard in the Roman line of authority assigned to this spot, which is one of the most crucial places of Roman power on planet Earth.
So you’re going to have an opportunity very soon to be different. Show respect—that means I’ll just give you the respect of being a person. You don’t have to agree with me to get my respect. Not my respect in the sense that I’m holding you in high esteem and lifting you up as a model for humanity, but you were created in the image of God.
I will show you respect because His image is in you. I will love this brotherhood! Lord, give me a fierce love for Your house and Your people! I’ll honor the king, but I’m only going to fear God! I’m only going to fear God! I’m only going to bow down before God! I’m only going to ultimately obey God! I’m only going to trust my life into the hands of God!
You fear what you want; I fear God!