“Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
“When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:18-25 ESV)
If you work for an employer, you are, essentially, a servant of that employer. And as a believer in Christ, it is your responsibility to do your very best to do what your employer asks of you and to show proper respect to your employer, even if you disagree with what your employer is asking you to do. The only exceptions here are the same ones that we have examples of in the Scriptures, and that is if your employer asks you to do something sinful, illegal, and/or immoral, and/or if he asks you to deny your faith in Christ.
Now if you live in a country, like the USA, where presently you have a choice of where you can work, then if you don’t like the place where you are working, you are free to choose a different job and a different employer. Not everyone everywhere in the world has those same freedoms. So if you live somewhere where your job and your employer are chosen for you, and you have no choice in the matter, then you must be subject to the boss over you even if you are mistreated, but with the biblical exceptions named here.
And let me add here that the same applies with regard to what church fellowship that you attend. If you are attending a church fellowship that is not operating according to the Scriptures, and not under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and so it is very flesh and worldly and market driven, you do not have to stay there. You do not have to submit to worldly authority which is operating according to marketing schemes. But if you choose to remain, then it is your obligation to submit to that authority, but with the exceptions.
The bottom line in all of this is that we are to represent Jesus Christ in all that we are and do and say. We won’t all do it perfectly all the time, but we must do our best to serve our Lord and to serve our earthly masters (bosses) to the best of our understanding and to the best of our abilities (we can’t all do all the same things at all the same levels), but within the biblical guidelines set down for us by God as to what we should and should not do as followers of Christ, which is why we have biblical exceptions to submission to human authorities, which we are to follow as Jesus did.
For Jesus Christ and his NT apostles did not submit to the authorities if those authorities required of them that they disobey God. And they also did not have any problem standing up to human authority if those authorities were in the wrong in how they were treating them, either. So this is definitely not teaching that we shut up and that we compromise our faith and that we submit in everything and to everyone who is in position of authority over us. Jesus had regular words with the Pharisees of his day, as did his apostles.
But if we must confront wrongdoing, we should handle it respectfully, but not to the point of diluting or compromising the truth. For we are to be people of God who speak the truth in love to one another. And we are to be people of biblical and moral conviction and integrity and moral purity and honesty and commitment to Christ and to his word and to following Jesus Christ wherever he leads us, above all else. So, again, in all that we are and do and say we must be those who represent Christ well, as best as we know how.
So, if that is what we are doing, in practice, we are going to be hated, rejected, mistreated, and persecuted for righteousness’ sake. So we are to bear our cross gracefully for the sake of Christ and of his gospel, and not be people who get even with others who mistreat us. For we are instructed in the Scriptures to be those who love our enemies, who do good to those who hate us, who wish well to those who curse us, and who pray for those who abuse us (Luke 6:27-28).
We must be willing to suffer unjustly for the sake of the name of Jesus, and for the sake of the truth of the gospel, and for the sake of righteousness, just as Jesus suffered for us and died on a cross for us so that we might be delivered from our slavery to sin and so that we might now walk humbly before our God in walks of holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord and to his commands under the New Covenant. For when we stand on the truth of God’s word, we risk being hated and forsaken by others.
And the truth that we are to be spreading to others is the truth that Jesus Christ died on that cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He died that we might be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God. For if sin is what we obey, and not obedience to God, we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what we profess with our lips. So, please take this to heart.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24]
Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken
Hymn lyrics by Henry F. Lyte, 1833
Music attr. to Mozart, 1831/ Arr. Hubert P. Main, 1872
Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken, Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition, all I’ve sought or hoped or known;
Yet how rich is my condition! God and heav’n are still mine own.
Let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior, too;
Human hearts and looks deceive me; Thou art not, like them, untrue.
And while Thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me, show Thy face and all is bright.
Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn and pain!
In Thy service pain is pleasure; with Thy favor, loss is gain.
I have called Thee, “Abba, Father”; I have set my heart on Thee:
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather, all must work for good to me.
Man may trouble and distress me, ’twill but drive me to Thy breast;
Life with trials hard may press me; heav’n will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me, while Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me, were that joy unmixed with Thee.
Haste then on from grace to glory, armed by faith, and winged by prayer,
Heav’n’s eternal day’s before thee, God’s own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission, swift shall pass thy pilgrim days;
Hope soon change to glad fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhIo2o3WLnA
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