Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 13. Jos 1:16-18; Rom 13:1-3; 1Pe 2:11-17.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 13. JOS 1:16-18; ROM 13:1-3; 1PE 2:11-17.   

 

Delegated authority #4 - the government over the citizens.

 

It is clear in Rom 13 that no believer is exempt from the duties of citizenship in his nation even though he understands that he is a citizen of heaven.

 

Many of the Jewish Christians in the early church thought it spiritual to disobey Gentile rulers; both Paul and Peter instruct them otherwise.

 

A great area that motivated obstinate attitude was in taxation. The Jews paid their tithes to the Levitical priesthood. They also paid a temple tax every year as well as submitting their first fruit offerings. Because they were now under Roman taxation the priests did not lower their religious obligations and because they paid a fair share of their income to the priests and the temple, Rome was not about to relieve their tax burden. Some estimate that at this time the average Jew paid 40% of their income in taxes. They were the most taxed people in all the empire.

 

1PE 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.

 

"aliens" - sojourner. "strangers" - settle down alongside of pagans. Christians have made their home alongside the unsaved and is settled down among them. He is different and so does not conform to them but is a witness of Christ to them.

 

The word "aliens" is the translation of a Greek word meaning "to have one's home alongside of," thus a "sojourner." "Strangers" is from a word which literally means "to settle down alongside of pagans." The two words describe the Christian in his position in this world. He has made his home alongside of the unsaved and settled down amongst them, a sojourner and one that is a stranger to them in that he is different from them. The exhortation to abstain from fleshly lusts is based upon the fact that Christians are living in the midst of the unsaved. They have a testimony to maintain and a message to give.

 

The fallen nature whose power over the believer was broken when he was saved is still there with its sin-ward pull. The effective witness overcomes this pull, though not to sinlessness, through the power of the word and dependence on the filling of the Spirit. He not only talks about Christ, his life reveals Christ. He not only talks about the life of Christ, his own life is a testimony to it.

 

War in the soul is the absence of perfect peace. The pursuit of lusts brings war and conflict.

 

1PE 2:12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles [unsaved world - ruling authorities], so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

 

Our manner of life is honest, "excellent," when our lives are in accordance with what we are inwardly, cleansed, regenerated children of God.

 

This word can be translated as "seemly" in the sense that our overt lives match what is within. This means no hypocrisy or acting. It means that the new creature within, the treasure in the earthen vessel, must shine forth to the heathen world so that Christ is seen in every Christian. Instead of Jesus walking this earth alone, He now indwells millions and through them can reveal Himself, not just in word but in deed and in excellence while we sojourn amongst our pagan neighbors.

 

The believer must evaluate the new creature in light of the word of God under the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.

 

ROM 8:16

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God

 

If you remember, this is the meaning of honorable as we saw it in:

 

1PE 2:17 Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

 

1PE 3:7 You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

 

The word for "excellent" also has the connotation of that which is honorable.

 

Honor means the ability to evaluate truthfully and then attach a value, and when true value, as God would deem, is recognized, it produces deference, respect, reverence, kindness, courtesy, and obedience.

 

The word excellent, as used in 1PE 2:12, follows the word honor as honor becomes a reality in the believer's soul. If the believer evaluates the new creature in light of the word of God and the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit then he will see its priceless value. This is honor. Being then honorable, his outward conduct, behavior, and the way he carries himself will be intrinsically good, the good that only comes from the source of God.

 

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1PE 2:12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles [unsaved world - ruling authorities], so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

 

1. Regeneration through the baptism of the HS.

2. Evaluation of the new creature from the WOG/HS.

3. Fathom and appreciate its value = honor.

4. Walk in a manner that is intrinsically good.

 

Most people see the results or effects of honor and rightly call that person honorable, but usually people do not know what makes for that honor. What is it in a person that makes him honorable? Since it is within the man and most do not possess it, the true source of honor eludes most people, and sadly, it also eludes most believers who have the potential of honor within them. They received it from God at the moment of salvation. Step two above is not completed as they play church and are involved in legalism or humanistic Christianity which attempts to blend the things of God with the things of the world, and because of this they never achieve true honor though they may try to fake it, and as a result there is scant witness of Christ in this world. For this nation to be delivered Christians must get out of the cosmic system and get to work on step two.

 

This would prove to be the problem with the generation of Israel that entered the Promised Land with Joshua. They obeyed while Joshua's strong leadership was alive, but after his death they and the next generation quickly returned to idol worship. They seem to have found a way to obey outwardly, but they lacked honor from within by failing to recognize the value of God's Law and God's purpose for them and through them. We all end up doing what we love.

 

The word "excellent" is the Greek word kalos and it means that which is intrinsically good, i.e. good by nature, from within, and not an act. It is translated "honest" in the KJV and is translated by Robertson as "seemly."

 

Intrinsic means belonging to the true nature of a thing; not dependent on external circumstances; essential or inherent. The only source of good is God and so the production of good, or fruit as the NT often depicts it, by the believer can only happen from the source of what God has done to that believer within at the moment of regeneration as well as what God is to that believer through his study of the word of God under the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.

 

“Excellent” is here the outward working of what the believer has been made to be inwardly, and the new creature is alive with Christ and so intrinsically good.