“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Rom. 13:1–2)

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, 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.” (1 Pet. 2:13–14)

These words bring tears to the eyes. How can such a command be a comfort? What were the apostles truly teaching? Why, in the face of injustice, did they not call for resistance — but for submission?

To answer this question properly, we must first step into the world where these words were written.

I. A History of Misreading

These passages have been gravely misread throughout history. Those with reformist or revolutionary leanings have charged the Bible with this: “Scripture is a book that justifies the status quo — a demonic book that sides with the powerful and the privileged, reinforcing structures of domination.”

The problem ran in the other direction as well. There is a real history of the church colluding with secular power, wielding Romans 13 and First Peter as instruments to compel the submission of the oppressed. Through the age of colonialism, slavery, and imperialism, how many times were these words distorted into a logic of oppression?

But that is a misreading. It is a judgment made in complete ignorance of where the author stood when he wrote these words — and to whom he wrote them.

II. Where Is Peter Standing?

When Peter wrote First Peter, he was in Rome. In the very heart of the empire, at the center of its power.

And what did he call Rome? He called it “Babylon” (1 Pet. 5:13). This is not merely a place name. It is the coded language of that era — a hidden tongue. Just as the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar ultimately fell in the book of Daniel, so Rome too would inevitably fall. That declaration is compressed into a single word.

There is another piece of coded language in First Peter chapter 2: the “living stone.” This phrase calls to mind Daniel chapter 2, where a stone cut without human hands strikes the great statue — composed of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, representing the succession of empires — and shatters it completely. That stone is Christ.

Peter, standing at the heart of the empire, is inscribing in hidden language a truth that cannot be spoken openly in the empire’s own tongue: “This empire, too, will fall — just as Babylon fell.”

III. Who Is This Letter Written To?

First Peter is a letter written to “exiles scattered” throughout the world. Only when we know who the recipients are does this passage truly open up.

Peter addresses three groups of people. First, believers living under the domination of the Roman Empire (1 Pet. 2:13–17). Second, servants living under oppressive masters (1 Pet. 2:18–25). Third, wives living within patriarchal structures (1 Pet. 3:1–7). All three groups share one thing in common: they live under structural oppression, existing in this world as “foreigners and exiles” (1 Pet. 2:11).

Consider the Roman Empire, which sorted the people of conquered lands like livestock — some into slavery, others into particular social strata. Consider the Ottoman Empire, which swept across vast territories with the sword, selling people into slavery across six centuries of domination.

Through that long history of suffering, for those stripped of everything — their possessions, their freedom, even their faith — what comfort could possibly be offered? The one thing they held in their hands was this letter.

IV. Why the Powerful Have Always Feared the Bible

Here we must pause and ask a more fundamental question: why did power fear the Bible?

For roughly sixteen hundred years, Scripture was kept from ordinary people. Laypeople were not permitted to read the Bible freely. Why? Because the Bible is far too revolutionary.

“Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” (Col. 3:11)

The era in which this declaration rang out was one of rigid hierarchy and fatalism. Master was master, slave was slave — that rank, from birth to death, was fixed. This was the common sense of that world. And yet the Bible says: “You are all free. In Christ, there is no distinction.”

This was a declaration that the Roman world of two thousand years ago could not have imagined. What is this? Revolution. A revolution more radical than any political uprising. The seeds of what would later flower in history as the free citizen, the republic, and democracy — those seeds were already present in this passage two thousand years ago.

That those in power moved to suppress this book was, perhaps, entirely predictable.

V. Then Why “Submit”?

We return to the central question. How could the same apostles who carried such revolutionary words simultaneously say “submit to the governing authorities” and “slaves, obey your masters”?

Here we must think about the story of Jericho (Josh. 6:5).

When the Israelites took Jericho, they did not scale the walls with swords drawn. They marched around the city with trumpets. After God brought the walls down, the people entered through the breach and took possession. It was not seized through combat — God first brought the walls down, and then the people entered.

This is the logic of the “submission” Peter speaks of.

“For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.” (1 Pet. 2:19–20)

This is not capitulation. This is not strategy. This is comfort.

To people who had been stripped of everything — their faith seized, their bodies sold like cargo — Peter says: “The fact that you do good and endure this suffering is beautiful before God. And that empire will surely fall.”

Rome fell. The Ottoman Empire fell after six centuries of rule. The Soviet Union fell.

“When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Pet. 2:23)

The faith of those who walked this road with Christ ultimately changed history.

VI. The Horizontal World Paul Revealed

Then how are we to understand “slaves, obey your masters”?

Paul speaks in two directions at once. To slaves, he says: “Serve your masters as you would serve the Lord.” And to masters, he says: “Do not forget — you too stand under God’s authority, and stand before God in the same place as your slaves.”

This is not a vertical structure. It is horizontal. Master and slave alike stand equally under Christ. The one who has loved more, served more, humbled himself more — that person will ultimately be the most honored. This is the new law of the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are those…”

The first place where this horizontal world was allowed to breathe was the church. Slaves came and sat in the assembly and heard these words: “You are free.” And rulers heard these words: “You are servants of Christ.” What an explosive declaration this was in history. Long before the French Revolution, long before the Enlightenment — two thousand years ago, this freedom was already breathing inside the church.

VII. The Bible Is Not a Book of the Status Quo

Liberation theology, turning away from this passage, emphasized simply “solidarity with the poor.” On the other side, some misread Scripture and deployed it as the logic of rulers. But read rightly, First Peter proclaims a freedom more radical than any revolutionary manifesto.

Christ the “living stone” is that very stone which shattered Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. Babylon fell. Rome fell. And in the ruins of those empires, the faith of those who did good, endured suffering, and held on — that faith became the seed of history.

The Bible is not a book of the status quo. The Bible demands fundamental transformation — revolution. Only the manner of that revolution differs from the world’s manner. The world fights with swords. But the Bible changes history through the word, through goodness, through suffering, and through endurance.

Epilogue: What Do These Words Mean for Us Today?

Somewhere on this earth today, there are people being arrested simply for going to church. There are countries where possessing a Bible can mean execution. For those people, these words are not a theological proposition. They are the living word — grasped and clung to through tears, the only thing that made survival possible.

When Peter wrote this letter from the heart of the Roman Empire, he was not writing a document of defeat. He was proclaiming victory: “This empire will fall, just as Babylon fell. And the faith of those of you who have done good and endured — it will change history.”

History was indeed changed. Rome fell. The gospel survived.

We must read two things together in this passage. First, the historical declaration that empires will inevitably fall. Second, the comfort that to do good and endure while waiting for that fall is beautiful before God.

“But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.” (1 Pet. 2:20)

This is the true message of First Peter. This is the deeper truth contained in Romans 13. These words are not a tool of oppression — they are the most powerful comfort and the most courageous declaration ever addressed to the oppressed.

History bears witness: empires fall, and the Word stands forever.

“But the word of the Lord endures forever.” (1 Pet. 1:25)