The focus of scripture is to be subject to the powers that be because they are ordained of God.

And you must allow God to be sovereign because he is, in ruling as he chooses. Welcome to Grace to you with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

Voting against anti-family legislation, voicing your opinion against abortion, campaigning for a political candidate, or running for office yourself.

There's certainly nothing wrong with those activities.

On the contrary, you should lend your support to causes that honor God.

But as a Christian, can you take those activities too far?

How much latitude to influence the government does scripture give you?

And when government runs afoul of biblical standards,

are you still obliged to obey the laws of your land?

And does the Bible ever allow you, even call you to rebel against your government?

Find out today as John MacArthur continues his study,

singing the Lord's song in a strange land. And here's John with the lesson.

Well, let's open our Bibles to 1 Peter, chapter 2.

1st Peter 2, 11 to 20 is our text,

and we're talking about silencing the critics.

Silencing the critics. Silencing the critics.

You will notice that we have begun this look at this wonderful chapter in

in verse 11, with a discussion of verses 11 and 12 we are now in a discussion of

verses 13 through 17 it's the second paragraph of this larger passage

but the whole text from verse 11 through 20 is about how we as believers are to live in order to eliminate criticism.

How we are to live in order to eliminate the criticism that the world wants to throw at us.

The key statement here we have already noted, it's in verse 15. It says for such as the will of God that by

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