1 Peter 2:11-17

¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹² 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.

¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honour the emperor.

I was helping my daughter write an essay for her Ministry course. Her job was to reflect on the secular world view from a selected movie clip. The movie was the 2010 Robin Hood movie starring Russel Crow. In the clip, Robin remembers his dad’s motto ‘Rise and rise again until lambs become lions” as his dad was leading an uprising against the oppressing king. This quote is so inspirational for many that some have even tattooed it on themselves. No matter what the cost – seek your best life and if you persevere, you will become the lion.  

When we think of Jesus, who lowered and lowered himself until the lion of Judah became like a sheep led to the slaughter, we see what it really cost him on the cross for us to ‘live our best life’. While we are still here on earth, we will still suffer, we will feel like foreigners and exiles, we might be persecuted and oppressed but we have the hope that our ‘best life’ is yet to come. With this hope and security, it is easier to love and show proper respect to everyone. Even those that treat us poorly.  

Petrina Rangiawha