“Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” (I Peter 2:17)
“Honor all people.” Honor, in Greek timi, means respect and more—recognition and dignity—but at times it is a challenge to do so for all persons, especially when they do not respect themselves. A book titled I and Thou, by Martin Buber, left an indelible imprint on my memory. We have lost the distinction held in many languages between the formal “you” and the intimate “thou” for deity, family and intimate friends. In simple terms, Buber said, “All real living is meeting.” Many people in a lifetime pass without much notice. They are things. We come alive when we turn “It” into “Thou.” If you can hold your own personality in each meeting and not become absorbed into someone else’s personality, while treating the other as an authentic being, as a person, fulfillment becomes meaningful. Bear in mind that when St. Peter was writing the above, in the Roman Empire, sixty million persons were slaves. Persons were only owners and freemen. They alone had rights. Often we honor the strangers and take for granted the people closest to us. We treat as things those in our own families. We use and abuse them without considering their feelings. How many divorces start here? If we are hated in various places of the world, it is because we are perceived as self-indulgent, super-wealthy creatures of comfort, using up more of the earth’s resources at the expense of others who provide us with energy, goods and services. Nowhere else is there so great a consumption of illegal addictive drug substances as in America.
“Love the brotherhood.” Every human being is to be honored; active love, however, is reserved for the fellowship of the faithful. The term suggests a band of intimates like the apostles and disciples. Extend it to the parish and all the communicants that are members of the Church; and we have an enhanced understanding of the command: “Let us love one another, that with one heart and mind we may confess…Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Can we confess the Holy Trinity without mutual love? It does not appear so. St. Peter was writing to a Church of Gentiles to shore up their spirits at a time of persecution. Even more would they need encouragement to hold fast to one another. Under adverse conditions, nothing is worse than for the band of believers to turn on one another.
“Fear God.” Often we substitute “awe” for the obvious verb “fear,” and it sounds cool to say, “What an awesome God He is!” However, that misses the mark. Fear not having an answer at the dread Day of Judgment when we shall be asked how we increased the deposit of holiness in our souls. Did we have even a mustard seed size of faith when we were baptized? If so, what was the size of the faith tree when we died [or passed away, as we now seem to prefer]? If we truly fear offending God, displeasing Him, or taking Him for granted, then there is nothing else in a lifetime that we need to fear.
“Honor the king.” The king at the time was that most horrid, cruel, vindictive and licentious Nero who would crucify St. Peter not long after this epistle was sent, and yet St. Peter insisted that his readers honor Nero. The apostles taught and believed that God is the ultimate King, and despite all evidence to the contrary, those in authority on earth serve because it is the will of the Lord. Practically, advantages are derived from order and discipline. The alternative is chaos. Despite the persecution of Christians, Rome provided highways for the gospel to travel via the disciples, a language understood by most, legal appeal for those fortunate citizens among the Way, and a test of faith by martyrdom.