1 Peter 2:13-16 -- On Obedience to God and Man

"Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God."
1 Peter 2:13-16


The idea of submission is hard to swallow sometimes, because we want to be big and grown up and it's often hard to admit that we don't make the best choices, especially when it comes to ourselves. Even then, submitting to God is one thing, because we know he's perfect, but submitting to the ordinances of man? Yikes, right? What if we don't agree with them? What about conscientious objection and standing up for what we believe?

God is trying to help us out here, by giving us a reason to obey laws and to follow rules set forth by man. He doesn't want us to fight against them, but rather to accept and follow them. There may be exceptions, as there are to most things, but God is asking us (as the prophets ask us) to assume we are part of the rule *first* rather than assuming we are part of the exception.

Exceptions are not evil, as long as God is okay with it... I mean, Nephi murdering Laban was God-approved disobedience to law, but we should make sure that we are absolutely certain that God is asking us to do something else... otherwise, we are using our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness. (Excusing our own selfish actions and saying that God justifies us.) When a rule or law rubs us the wrong way, the default should be to obey, but if it contradicts our beliefs, then we should first pray and find out what God desires of us. Daniel and his friends worked within the rules to try to obey God's laws about what to eat. They didn't martyr themselves by refusing, but worked to find a way. When they were asked to worship an idol later though, they refused, knowing the consequence was death. They were saved, but as we know from the scriptures and from life, we all have to make the choice without knowing whether God will choose to deliver us or not. All the more reason to make sure that if we do make a stand, that it is something God wants us to make a stand about. Some things are important and some things aren't. Working with God, we should make that determination... and if we don't get a clear impression, then let's remember these verses, and follow the guidelines imposed on us by man. By doing so, we will be obeying God.