Three Instances Where The Bible is Badly Misinterpreted!

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Respecting People in Authority - 1 Peter 2 and 3

13 For the Lord’s sake, submit to all human authority—whether the king as head of state, 14 or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right.15 It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you

Slaves

18 You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect.[c] Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. 19 For God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment. 20 Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you.

Wives

3 In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over 2 by observing your pure and reverent lives.

These are 3 passages from 1 Peter that are widely misunderstood. They are misinterpreted when they are taken literally and not interpreted in their historical context. Remember Peter is writing to the early Jewish Christians who were being severely persecuted. So we need to remember that these passages are descriptive of the culture they were living in and how they should handle these circumstances with the mind to use them for the sake of the gospel. 

First, Peter tells them to respect human authority. He is not endorsing, nor does God, endorse some of their behavior. Obviously he does not support them persecuting and killing his children. But God has appointed earthly rulers for keeping order in society, including punishing those who break the law. Therefore, the Christians should obey the earthly authorities or else face the same punishment as anyone else. Also, their behavior would give a good example of how Christ follower lives. 

Second, Peter addresses slaves. Slaves back then were more like servants. They played a certain role in the society in some ways similar to "blue collar" workers today. Christian masters were told to treat their slaves justly, kindly, and respectfully. In no way does this approve the abusive slavery we have seen throughout the history of ours and other countries. To say this passage supports the claim that Christians were in favor of the degrading kind of slavery in our past would be grossly wrong. This is not say that Christian slave owners did not practice this kind of dehumanizing slavery either. And when they did they were not living as a Christian in any sense of the word. 

Finally, we have the passage admonishing women to accept the authority of their husbands. Note the context shows us that some of the women were going too far in their newfound freedom in Christ. This caused a tremendous amount strife in homes and relationships between husbands and wives, especially if the husband was an unbeliver. Instead Peter told the women to continue to respect their husbands and win them over to Christ by their Christ-like behavior. Again this in no way supports the abuse or neglect of a person's wife! Nor is it justification to treat them in any way other than as a precious gift from God. Since two become one in marriage, the apostle Paul says to mistreat your wife is like mistreating your own body.

The consistent theme is that the scripture is not endorsing sinful behavior but is acknowledging the existing norms in early Christian culture.  These passages call on Christians to show their faith by the way they acted in everyday life. In this way they had a much better chance to win over these people, usually men, to Christ!

Where do you need to submit to the authorities in your life to be a witness for the gospel? Note this does not mean allowing yourself to be abused by anyone, including anyone in authority!