You may have heard this phrase “Rules of Engagement” this is widely used by many defense people (army / navy and air force). All the defense forces they work for the respective Govt (it can be for any country), their primary goal is to protect the country, in this they have to live by certain rules, they are to follow these when they are in the defense campus / at war, they have to adhere to these rules and when they retire and live as ordinary citizens they still are attached to the some of these rules and live a disciplined life compared to many of us.
We who call as Christians are select people who have been chosen by God with his mercy and grace. The reason he chooses us is to make us live free from sins and become righteous and in the day of judgement, we pass his judgment and live an eternal life that our Lord Jesus has prepared.
But in this journey, we live in world, we are constantly put up with Sins and dirt’s of the world, he gives us his grace and mercy, this is what the word says
'Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. ' 1 Peter 2:10
So, with this mercy Peter explains how we should live in the world which will take us to the path of righteousness, I call these as the rules of engagement with world, like how an Army solider would need to follow when serving the country, like wise as Christians, we must follow them.
Rules of how we should live in the world
We read many of these in 1 Peter 2:11-25 and 1 Peter 3, I have summarized them here and use the respective references to make us understand these rules.
1. Live as Foreigners / Exiles –
'Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage 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. ' 1 Peter 2:11-12
"I urge you, as foreigners and exiles" - We must treat this world like how a foreigner lives in another country. I have lived in foreign (Outside of India) and most of the feeling is you live in a suitcase, if anything happens back home you must leave any time and get back. That does not mean you enjoy the place you live, yes people go to foreign country to live and earn more, but not get too attached and forget your homeland. Peter tells us to live like that and not treat this world as a permanent place and get attached with worldly things
We must “to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.” - To be a Christian means to fight against the lusts of the flesh, and the battle continues as long as we live in this flesh. Many times, our lust can destroy our physical body as well, say for example Alcoholism creates liver damage, Sex Addiction can lead to deadly disease like AIDS etc.
“though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” – many times the world may say we are out of line with them as we don’t live like them or don’t indulge in the pleasures of the world like how they do, but they actually are seeing all of our good deeds and all these will help in the day of judgement where they will come and glorify to God. Think of this for a moment. You get mercy from God not only from your actions, but from someone who lives a worldly life comes and gives a testimony about your life to God. So when you fall short of many things this can help God give his mercy as well.
2. Submit to Authorities of world
'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. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. ' 1 Peter 2:13-15
Submit to the Rules and every human authority – Do this for Lords Sake “for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors,”
Many times we may feel the rulers and the human authority is not doing things correct, but continue to submit, God will judge what is right / wrong, we have no power to judge anyone.
By continuing to do Good you silence the ignorant talks of the world. “For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.”
3. Using our Freedom wisely
'Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. ' 1 Peter 2:16-17
Many times, I have wondered why God gave so much freedom, if he had cut some of these freedoms, we would not have sinned so bad, the perversity in humans can be less.
'Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil” – Many of us use our freedom to do the opposite of what is written here, cover up the evil and the sin we get into.
“live as God’s slaves” – Live as a slave attitude with God, once you do that your heart will be filled with the qualities of God and your actions will express “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”
4. Submit to your Human Masters
'Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. ' 1 Peter 2:18-19
Our Lord instructs us to Submit to our earthly masters (Employers if you are employee of a company). He asks us to submit not only to people who are good to us, but also to the people who are not good to us as well. All these are in reverent Fear of God not just because of the human master. ‘in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh’
In this process of submission, we may suffer many, but this suffering is commendable in Lord’s eyes. ‘For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God’
5. Husband / Wife
'Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. ' 1 Peter 3:1,7
Peter asks Wife’s to submit to husband “submit yourselves to your own husbands so that” , many times there is pain in doing that as well, some husbands treat fairly some have unfair treatment, don’t use that as reason not to follow this.
The bad behaviour of husband can be won by wife not by fighting but by her submissive behaviour “not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives,”
For Husbands word says, to treat them with respect, Only thru your wife God has blessed you with children “treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life”
Effects of Following these “Rules of Engagement”
1. Guilt of Looser attitude
If you go thru this list and you may say, if I follow this, I will have to live a life of priest hood or like a monk living in a cave and I will lose everything in the world and I am looser of this world.
Think of this, God did give us this to follow so that we become righteous as we are constantly bombarded with sins / challenges of world to stay away from these principles. Yes, as we follow these we will fail, but the attitude we should have is to get up quickly and ask for his mercy / grace to get back to his plan rather fallen in the same position and drift from his path of righteousness.
'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 Peter 2:20
God will never make you a looser in this world by following him. Yes, we may suffer doing many things that God has called us to do, but you will not lose anything that God has planned in your life. The word says, “But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.” He commends us for suffering, just imagine God commending your work, the only person in Bible who has received that type of commending is Job. Strive your life to be like of Job.
2. Tower of Refuge
Once you walk to the path of Righteous, God will be our tower of refuge
'The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. ' Proverbs 18:10
As righteous people when we run to him on challenges of the world, we will be safe “the righteous run to it and are safe” there can be many things that can come like a pandemic or famine or any others that may impact everyone, but God will protect you and you will be safe.
Always keep in mind, he is a jealous God who protects his people. No one can harm you.
3. Eyes and ears on his people
'For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” ' 1 Peter 3:12
Remember he is watching the righteous with his ears and eyes attentive, if God watches us who can harm us. There is no schemes of Devil that can harm us, some of the struggles he allows us is make us realize that he is with us and he guards us so don’t confuse the struggles you go thru.
Remember Christian life will always be filled with struggles, but there is peace of God that will rule in the trouble.
Depend on him daily to receive the attention you need from him. 'For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer”, this can happen only if you pray and have continuous fellowship with him.
I did compare the rules of engagement in my own life, and I rated zero. As I follow some, in some situations I don’t follow many, there is no small sin / big Sin, there is only Sin. So, we cannot say, I am little better than one vs. other as God’s standards are very high, strive to get this higher in God’s eyes.
One thing that God made me understand is God’s standards are very high compared to what we think. So, that does not mean we are not children of God, yes, we may fall but as soon as we realize the mistakes and not walk into this again that’s the attitude God is expecting from each of us. Dedicate and surrender to him to walk in the path of Righteousness with “rules of engagement” so that we are prepared for his eternal Glory.
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