Barber challenges Southwestern community to ‘submit’ to authorities as those who are free

Christians must submit to authorities—both governmental and others—as free people, preached Bart Barber, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, during his Aug. 29 chapel message at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College.

In his introduction of Barber, President David S. Dockery expressed his excitement and gratitude to have the two-time Southwestern graduate return home. Dockery said Barber “has invested his life in ministry” with his congregation in Farmersville and continues to provide “outstanding” leadership for the SBC.

Barber shared his fond memories and enjoyment of chapel during his studies at Southwestern Seminary and noted the institution’s influence on him, especially through members of the faculty.

Barber preached from 1 Peter 2:13-17, which he said is “a poignant and forceful word from the Lord.” He presented three characters from the passage of Scripture to consider how believers should conduct themselves regarding the government and the society, especially when they oppose Christians.

The first character Barber mentioned was the government. “God knows some things about human government,” Barber expressed. “God knows why government serves a useful function here on earth. Government has been ordained by God. We read in Romans 13 it exists as an institution which through God all vengeance has been allocated.”

He added, “We see the same idea conveyed to us here in 1 Peter 2, where he says governors are sent out by the emperor in order to punish wrongdoers, and also he says here to praise good doers. That’s a reason why government is a good thing to have.”

Barber said while people complain about government, he asked the gathering to imagine what life would be like with no government as he expressed examples of what would happen if the strongest person or best-armed always had the upper hand or there was no means to ensure contractual agreements are honored by the other party.

Barber added even though God has these amazing things He wants to accomplish with government, God’s expectations of government are actually pretty low.

“You see the king here is Nero,” Barber explained, noting his notorious persecution of Christians and who would one day take the apostle Peter’s own life.

Barber said, “It’s not as though Peter is writing with rose-colored glasses, saying at the end of the letter that he is bringing greetings from the church that is in Babylon, which is not a compliment.” Barber continued, “Instead, he’s saying that this place where he resides at in the Church of Rome from where he is writing this letter is the place that is the equivalent of an enemy of the people of God in the Old Testament.”

Barber reminded the congregation that while God ordains government, “in no way offers the warrant to you that government will do the right thing most of the time or that government will even do the right thing a fraction of the time.”

He added, “God, nevertheless, is saying that bad government provides some good things for us that we lack when it’s missing. God, in spite of the fact that government fails to live up to the ideal that it should provide for us, God says submit to it anyway.”

Whether taxes are too high and the current political leaders are not to their liking, believers must submit, Barber said.

He observed “the whole thing is tainted by sin. That’s why it doesn’t look the way it should. But God does not tell us to submit because He has high expectations, but God tells us that even with what it is for, the Lord’s sake, submit.”

The second character from verse 15 is the unbelieving neighbor, he said, who Peter refers to as “Gentiles” who act in accordance with their identity.

Barber said the text informs believers that there is an ignorance that applies to those who are lost, but believers know things lost people don’t know, including, “Important things, decisive things, worldview-shaping things that you know that they don’t know.”

Barber said God has a solution to that problem: “God wants us who do know to help those who don’t know. But in the meantime, we are surrounded by people who act the way they do because there are things they don’t know about.”

 “Their ignorance will someday be removed in the last day,” Barber said. “There will be no uncertainty in hell about who was Lord.”

Like government, Barber said that God’s expectations are also low about society. “If God had high expectations for what could be done with government or society, why would He have come?,” he asked.

Barber said God detailed everything for those in the Old Testament yet even that which was accomplished was to show humanity’s profound need in something other than government or those who are in power.

Introducing the third character in the passage, Barber said, “God knows about you, has high expectations for you, and knows what you can accomplish.” He added, “Anything that government does to praise what’s being done rightly and to punish what’s been done wrongly helps you to accomplish what God sent you to do. You’re here to do rightly.”

Barber said, “God wants you to behave well so other people can get to heaven. He says, ‘by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. You should act as free men.’”

God wants believers to behave in a way that their actions are a rebuttal of foolish, ignorant things against the Gospel. “God wants you to behave well against a world against you and also to demonstrate what true liberty is and what freedom actually is,” he said.

Barber said a believer’s freedom does not arise out of relationships with peers or government but out of their relationship with Jesus, which is beyond the reach of man.

“We believe in the ultimate, absolute, unfeatured liberty in matters of faith of everyone – universal religious liberty,” Barber said.

In closing, Barber encouraged the congregation that God knows who they are and is optimistic about His belief in them.

“You will do amazing things because, taking from the last verse of the passage of the Scripture, you will do it because you will show honor to the King and the people who are around you,” Barber concluded. “But you will do something higher for God and your fellow servants: you will love the brotherhood, and you will fear God and in doing so, we will become unstoppable for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Barber has been pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, since 1999. He was re-elected in June as SBC president during the annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, for a second one-year term. Barber earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Baylor University and both the Master of Divinity and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Southwestern Seminary.

Barber’s entire message can be viewed here.

Chapel is held every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 10 a.m. (CT) in MacGorman Chapel on the campus of Southwestern Seminary and TBC. Chapel may be viewed live at swbts.live.