NOTES for Pe1 2:11-25
Peter's words about submitting to human institutions, which mysteriously became “authorities” in the Russian Synodal translation, may seem to contradict what the apostle said when he called Christians strangers and sojourners. Yet the apostle says that this acceptance of human ordinances and institutions follows precisely from the fact that Christians are strangers and sojourners on earth.
Indeed, it would be strange to expect an outsider to try to change the state of affairs in a place where he does not consider himself at home, does not intend to stay, and will soon leave. This is not, of course, a matter of giving up what matters most for the sake of earthly power or human rules and ordinances: it is no accident that Peter says human ordinances and institutions can and should be accepted only “for the Lord's sake.”
Here there is a simple recognition of the generally obvious fact that no change to humanly devised ordinances and institutions, including even the most far-reaching social reforms, can be an end in itself for a Christian. If the world had not lain in evil after the Fall, there might perhaps have been a chance of radically changing the world's situation through social reforms; but we live in a fallen world, and there is no reason to expect anything of the kind. Yet this is not the only point.
There is also the fact that a Christian's main task during the earthly stage of the journey is to learn to live in the Kingdom. Accomplishing this takes so much time that, ordinarily, if a Christian attends to it as he should, he has no time left for anything else. Of course, even social relations can provide the material and the setting for such work, and in that case they should be used to pursue the main task.
But engaging in social or political activity for its own sake is too great a luxury for a Christian. Observing God's commandments in public life is another matter: here the requirement to put God first remains in force, and everything done in this sphere must be done “for the Lord's sake,” just as in any other. But nothing apart from God, Christ, and the Kingdom can or should become an end in itself for a Christian—not even what the world considers absolutely important and fundamental to its own life.