Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ (Part 4)
This is the fourth week of our fall sermon series, “Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ” dealing with Romans 12-16. Part 4, this week, is titled “Life Under Temporal Law” and works with Romans 13:1-7 concerning the relationship of the Christian and government. This sermon was originally preached September 28th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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September 28st, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets
Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“Life Under Temporal Law”
Romans 13:1-7
Introduction
Good morning. This is week 5 of our fall series, “Viva La Vida Christus.” We’re just about half way through the series.
Today’s text, the next section in Romans is a “hot text.” It’s hot because it is all about politics. Nothing gets people’s blood boiling more these days than politics. General election is coming up on November 4th…The first presidential debate took place the other night…this is a “hot text.”
People right now are extremely passionate about what is happening in our political world. You guys all know they say there is one sure fire way to get a person or a group of people all riled up and that’s, “religion and politics.” That’s why you’re not supposed to talk about them if you want to make friends and keep peace. But we’re taking on both this morning so oh well.
Have you ever wondered how the Bible views the Christian is supposed to relate to government? Are Christians supposed to care? Are they supposed to be involved? Are they supposed to vote? Be democrats, republicans? What does the Bible say about those who love and follow Jesus and what that means in regards to government? We’ll try and answer some of those questions today.
Before I read our text for today and pray over it I think it would be very helpful for us all to take a quick look at the Bible’s story of government and it’s relationship to God’s people. That will help us place this text a little bit into the grand scheme of things.
Politics in the Bible begin right off the bat in the garden of Eden. From the garden of Eden onward, through the law, the prophets, the psalms…the Bible universally pictures God as the King. Thus, those who believe in and love God are part of a theocracy where God is King and ruler over the earth and mankind ought to worship and serve him as the governing King over our lives, families, and societies.
Here’s a key text. 1 Samuel 8. What happened is as God has called and gathered his people together, he’s shown them he’s a good and worthy king, he mightily led them out of Egypt showing his great and kingly power and rule, then he led them into the promised land and set up judges and prophets to care for the people under his rulership…but in 1 Samuel 8, the people come to him with a complaint. The elders of Israel get together and they come to God and they say this, “appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations…(we want) a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles (1 Sam 8:4,20).”
In response God tells them that if they have a human king, he will abuse his power and never be able to rule perfectly because he is a sinful human (which is exactly what we have seen throughout human history). The people still say, “No, we want a king.” So God gives them what he want and says these key words, 1 Samuel 8:7, “they have rejected me from being king over them.”
Two whole books of the Bible, 1 & 2 Kings gets devoted to seeing how every king, 44 of them in all, fail at being king. Only God is the perfect king. The prophets of God begin telling of a messiah, a Christ who would come, who would be God himself and rule as the perfect king once again.
Jesus comes on the scene several hundred years later. But in this first coming he doesn’t come in all his heavenly garb, putting out on display for everyone that he is the divine king of heaven and earth. He comes first to show that he is the perfect and worthy king because he is humble and loves the people. Jesus was homeless. Jesus was a servant healing the people, feeding the people, teaching the people, and ministering to the people’s spiritual needs. But he acknowledges that he is in fact the king of heaven.
Even right before his death, Pilate, the Roman governor asks him, “‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world (Jn 8:37).” And so Pilate hangs a plaque above Jesus’ cross, saying “King of the Jews.”
Jesus dies for the sins of his people, comes back to life from the dead three days later, showing himself to hundreds of people, and then he ascends on a cloud up into the sky. He tells his followers to go out into all the world and tell everyone who he is and what he is done and once everyone has heard, he’ll come back on a cloud with the sound of a loud trumpet, with all his angels, in his full kingly divine glory, he’ll destroy all who oppose him and set up his perfect rule and throne here on earth. That’s going to be an amazing day.
Now, I tell that whole biblical story to help us get it firmly in place in our heads that the core government of the Christian, our core allegiance, is a theocratic loyalty and commitment to Jesus the King. We are part of what he called, “the kingdom of God.” It’s what Jesus preached about most, life under his rule in his kingdom. Jesus constantly preached about the kingdom of God, over a combined 121 times in the gospels, Jesus is talking about life in his kingdom, where he rules as King. That’s the government Christian really belong to and are part of.
Okay, that’s kind of a long introduction to our text but I think a necessary one. I’ve given today’s message, the subtitle “Life Under Temporal Law.” Because our text addresses how we are to live under temporary rulers until the permanent rule of Jesus comes. Next week’s text will look at the “Life Under the Eternal Law” of love and the day when Jesus will return to ensure it.
So let’s read and pray over our text that addresses how the Christian is to relate to these temporary governing rulers, the Christian and politics.
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Structurally there are three main parts to this text: [1] God Rules Government (vs 1). [2] God Repays Wrongdoing (vs 2-5). [3] God Records Money (vs 6-7).
God Rules Government (vs 1)
We start off with a command, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” And then we get three reasons why. But notice a couple things first. First, look at those two words “every person.” That means everyone, without exception. Christians are not to be anarchists or anti-governmentists. That’s the wrong attitude. Much of this series, Viva La Vida, the texts this series covers concerns our attitude as Christians. We’ve talked about our attitude toward one another within the church in regards to our gifts, we’ve talked about our attitude toward our community, the city in which we live, we’ve talked about our attitude toward our enemies, those we don’t get along with, and now we’re being taught about our attitude toward our government, who temporarily (until Jesus comes again) physically rules over us.
Remember our very first sermon in this series began with the theme of “All of Life is Worship” from Romans 12:1-2 where we are told not to be conformed to the patterns of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Perhaps Paul, the human author here, is concerned that we might take that a little to far…that we might think, “Oh, well Jesus is king, so I don’t have to listen to or abide by other governing authorities…I’m not going to conform to this world!” So he addresses that specifically here, how being transformed by the gospel effects how we relate to authorities or rulers in our land.
And this is for everyone. If you’re wondering whether this text has anything to do with you today, you can be sure it does, because it clearly says right here that it is for “every person.”
The second thing I want us to notice from this command is the words “be subject to” or it could be translated and some versions do translate it this way, “be submissive to.” Submission, that is not easy for anyone. The reason is because of sin. As we’ve talked about, heavily caught up in the heart of sin are issues of pride, where we want to be the own ruler of our lives. We want to do what we want, when we want, how we want, with who we want, and we don’t want anyone else to say anything about it.
The difference with being a Christian is that it changes you from being a rebellious person to be a submissive person. In large, much of the Christian life is about obedience, where being obedient becomes not something that is oppressive but something that is a joy. Where it makes you happy to obey and do what God tells you to.
So once we become a Christian our rebellious tendencies begin to get curbed and we become much more willing to submit. Here’s a number of things the Bible says get affected by our new submissive attitude, places where this word “submit” gets used: As fellow Christians we joyfully submit to one another (Eph 5:21). As employees joyfully submit to master/bosses (Tit 2:9). Christian wives joyfully submit to their husbands (1 Cor 14:34; Eph 5:24; Col 3:18; Tit 2:5). And Christians are to joyfully submit to spiritual leaders, their pastors (Heb. 13:7).
Do you have a submissive attitude? How is your rebellion? Is it your joy to submit? Or does the sinful tendency to fight and do your own thing get the best of you most the time?
Okay, let’s move on to the reasons why we are to submit. The first reason is God is the only real authority. Look at the rest of verse 1, “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” That is a huge statement. Now I’m sure if you’re like me you’re automatically thinking, even evil rulers and government? We’ll talk about that in a moment. But first let’s get a hold of this and see what the Bible has to say about these temporal governments.
This idea that God rules over all governments is the universal agreement of all the biblical writers. The Bible views God as the only true sovereign. Sov, means all, reign means rule. God is the only one who has completely free reign. All other ruler’s power and authority is limited. That is because they are not God. God is the author of all and thus he has all authority.
Let me give you some other verses to help you see what I am saying.
Psalm 22:8 “Kingship belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.”
Proverbs 8:15 “By me Kings reign (says the LORD).”
Proverbs 21:1 ” The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.”
Daniel 4:17 “The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”
GOD RULES GOVERNMENT. The universal picture of the Bible, is no matter who the king is, no matter who the ruler is, no matter who the president is, no matter whether it is a human theocracy, oligarchy, democracy, or communist government…GOD rules over every one of them no matter what who or what the government is!
You might ask, “How can that be, how does God do that?” This is what we have talked about before called compatibalism. Which means God is the only one who has a sovereign, free will, and all human have a compatible will that make real and meaningful decisions which are ultimately determined by God. God has an amazing ability to order a host of circumstances in such a way that certain things will happen and God also has an amazing ability to work deep in our heart in a way that no one else can. Through these means God accomplishes his ultimate will, especially with human rulers.
God rules over human rulers. They are placed and instituted by God. We might think it is because of our elections. We might think it is because of certain family traditions or power. But the Bible teaches us here that ultimately, whoever the ruler is and whatever the ruling system is, it is placed and instituted by God.
God Repays Wrongdoing
Which brings us to our second main point for today, “God Repays Wrongdoing,” answering the question of what God’s purpose is with temporal human rulers? I think on one hand God is trying to teach us something through history…that only a perfect sinless and divine ruler will ever be able to bring worldwide peace and life the way it should be. Until that time when God does that in Jesus, he chooses to use these temporal human governments as instruments of his justice.
Let’s read the verses which say this. “2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.”
First let’s look at what is obviously clear here. One of the best hermeneutical principles, hermeneutics means rules of interpretation, is that whatever the easiest reading is or whatever a text seems to be saying is most likely what it means.
So here’s what’s obvious. One, resisting or rebelling against authorities is really resisting or rebelling against God since he placed the authority. Two, if we don’t rebel or resist them we should have any reason to be afraid of them and in fact the opposite, authorities will praise and reward us. And three, if we resist or rebel, God’s gives rulers the right to judge and punish you even put you to death.
I’ll say a couple things about each. First, rebelling against authorities…running from the cops. If we really believe that God places authorities in power as this text clearly states, then if we resist them, we are really resisting and rebelling against God. That’s bad. Opposing God is not smart. It is so easy for us to depersonalize God as some sort of nebulous moral force.
Sometimes I’ve tried to draw this out by using an analogy addressing the personal nature of wronging a thing or a person. If I step on a spider (I’ve got a ton of them in my office, since it is really a garage!), it can’t really do much back to me. If I miss it will just run away and maybe tell it’s other little spider friends to come make more webs for me to get annoyed with and have to clean up. If I do something to a little bit bigger creature like say a dog, say I kick a dog. Well, if I wrong or hurt a dog, he might be able to bite me or lunge at me and hurt me back…but probably not kill me. Say I do something to wrong to a fellow human being. They could either do the same thing back to me or what happens most of the time is they tell other people and my name and reputation could get dragged through the mud. Say I do something to make a bear mad. Well, then I got a pretty good chance of getting mauled and dying. But say I offend God. The creator and source of the universe, I wrong him. That is a big deal. God is an eternal God. Then I’ve got an eternal issue on my hands.
Sin is serious. Rebellion is against God and wrongdoing is an eternal issue of the heart and it has eternal consequences if we don’t get right with God. Sometimes our rebelliousness comes out in our attitude toward government.
What about the second thing? Not needing to be afraid but instead receive praise. It’s funny. Working in the system as a social worker in our state I often get the chance to talk to teenagers who’ve been to Juvenile Hall before for various crimes. Sometimes I’ll ask them, “Well did you learn you’re lesson?” It’s funny. Most of the time they say something like, “I learned not to get caught.” Is that our attitude with God and/or government? Well, it’s okay as long as I don’t get caught. Then we live in fear in a constant state of us versus them. That’s not the way it is supposed to be, we are to live in harmony receiving praise and approval for our quality of life as Christians in our city.
There is a great passage of the Bible on this. 1 Timothy 2:2 “(I urge you pray) for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” That is our goal, to live peaceful and quiet and godly dignified lives. We are to put the gospel, to put Jesus on display and show how great living for him in his kingdom is. That is one of the reasons our community groups are adopting a city mission project once every two months. So that people in our city will see our good deed and then turn and glorify our God and king, Jesus (1 Pet 2:2).
Look at verse 4, where it says, government is God’s servant for your good. That is interesting because the word servant here is minister, a word that is usually only used in reference to Christians and their service to each other in the church. But here God calls government officials servants. And if you think about it, it is true. Governments by nature do not produce anything. They are a public service to the people meant for the people’s good. We need to remember that.
Now the third thing, the sword. Government’s right to put people to death. The sword in the time the book of Romans was written was the symbol and instrument of capital punishment…putting people to death for crimes punishable by death. For us in California, the equivalent would be an electric chair. In other states it could be lethal injection. The death penalty.
So many of you probably know this is a subject of debate in our country. Some don’t believe we should have a death penalty because they say its either inhumane or because of the chance that the person was innocent. The way they curbed that in the Torah was by only convicting a person on the basis of two or more eyewitnesses and if it was discovered that an eyewitness lied, they were put to death (Deut 17:6-7).
But here is the reason why I believe God gives governments the right to put people to death. Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The reason is because murder assaults the very being of God, the life-giver. Humans are special because they are made in the image and likeness of God. Thus, to kill a human is a heinous thing in the sight of God.
So God gives governments the right to avenge and put to death. Last week we learned that as individuals we are to live according to love rather than justice. Here, regards to government, we learn that they are to exist according to justice rather than love. Last week we learned that we are not to repay evil, it is God’s to repay. This week we learn that God repays evil through the government. The point we are to get is that government is God’s servant of justice, to administer his wrath.
Wrath is ultimately the eternal judgment of hell which comes for the unrepentant when they die. Other times the word wrath is hellish things which happen here on earth leading up to that time. Here, judgment, the sword, is wrath. That most likely refers to the immediate physical death one experiences but we know from other Scriptures that then comes the spiritual and eternal experience of wrath. You don’t want that. That’s why verse 5 ends by saying, this is important not only for avoiding physical pain and suffering wrath, but because of conscience…because you also have the eternal God to deal with for wrongdoing.
Okay, let’s talk about the big elephant here…what about evil governments and unjust leaders? The Hitlers, Stalins, Saddams? Are we to submit to them? Did God institute and establish them too? I mean Paul presents a pretty rosy view of government here, like they are always all good and nice. But that’s rarely the case.
I’ll try and be brief on this because we could really take a whole sermon addressing it, indeed there’s really a whole book of the Bible written on this subject. I was reading from it the other day in my morning devotions, the book of Habakkuk. As far as Paul being ignorant or naïve of evil governments we know that is not true. Paul was a Christian, who loved and followed Jesus, who was unjustly killed. Paul himself was unjustly thrown into prison several times. In another of his books he says an evil ruler will arise. And Paul was ultimately beheaded by the Roman government. So Paul writes this being well aware of evil governments and rulers.
So to answer the first question, Does God institute and establish evil rulers? Yes God allows evil rulers to exist and appoints them. Why? What does the text say? Yes, all rulers are appointed by God and God appoints them as instruments of his justice. Well, sometimes they don’t exercise justice, sometimes they are tyrannical. True. Three things.
One, quoting R.H. Stein, “Even oppressive governments by their very nature seek to prevent the evils of indiscriminate murder, riot, thievery, as well as general instability and chaos, and good acts do at times meet with its approval and praise.”
Two, God’s use of evil rulers could be an act of judgment against the world. In Romans 2, we learn that God’s judgment is in part expressed by leaving to our sinful selves to see what happens without the intervention of his grace.
Three, sometimes God intentionally uses evil rulers to judge his people. This happened several times throughout the various stories of the Old Testament, it is the subject of much of the books in the Bible known as the Prophets. It ultimately culminates in the kingdom of Israel being destroyed and God’s people taken off to Babylon. And God says he did this intentionally to judge Israel. Read the story of Habakkuk, that is what it is all about. God using evil, oppressive rulers to judge his people.
Then if that is true, then comes this question. Are we to just obey and submit to evil governments regardless of what they say or do. No. Two principles make our action clear. Principle number one is we are to obey and submit to God first and foremost, always. Principle number two is we are to obey and submit to governments. If principle number two clashes with principle number one, then we follow principle number one and obey God instead of the government.
Here is an example. Acts 5, Peter was in the city of Jerusalem. He was preaching the gospel, about who Jesus is and what he had done and calling people to put faith in Jesus. He and a few other of the apostles get thrown in prison. During the night, the story says an angel came and opened the prison doors and brought them out. So what does Peter and his friends do? Go into hiding? No, instead the next day they go back out into the public into the temple courts and start preaching about Jesus again. The law officers are furious, so they arrest them again and bring ‘em to the court in front of all the people and they say, we arrested these men for preaching in the name of Jesus and we put them in prison, but this morning we went and the prison doors were locked and the guards were there but here these men are outside here preaching in this name, Jesus again.
Here are Peter’s words, Acts 5:29-32, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
You see, principle number one, we obey God. Principle number two, we obey authorities. If authorities tell us we can’t do something God has told us to do in his word, we obey God and not the authorities.
This is the way God’s people have always handled government. In the book of Exodus, Pharaoh ordered all the newborns to be killed, but God’s people would not obey. In the book of Daniel King Nebuchadnezzar commanded God’s people to worship his golden image. But they refused and three dudes ended up getting thrown into a furnace of fire for it. Again in Daniel, another king named Darius commands God’s people not to pray to God, but Daniel refuses and gets thrown into a lion’s den for it. In Rome, one of the biggest problems the Roman government had with Christians was not following the Roman laws, but they refused to say “Caesar is Lord” when commanded to do so, because they believe only “Jesus is Lord.” And the early Christians suffered much for it.
We must obey God rather than men if men tell us to disobey God…but other than that we should obey earthly rulers as much as possible so that we can peacefully be about spreading the mission of gospel.
God Records Money
Okay our last point for today is another main area that Christian submission to government plays out…money, God Record Money. God cares about what we do with our money. Why? Because money often very easily gets a grip on our heart and God wants to loosen that grip so that we hold on and trust in nothing but him.
Let’s look at the text, verses 6-7 “6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”
Taxes in a government go to financially enabling a government to function. Here two types of taxes are mentioned, “taxes” and “revenue.” Those are technical terms. The first is direct taxes, translated “taxes” here. This included property tax for your land and poll tax for elections. The second is indirect taxes, translated “revenue” here. Revenue was tax on goods and tolls. We have sales tax which is tax on goods and if you ever take toll roads, they had tax on those too, like us.
Taxes were a big point of contention in Rome during the time this was written. The historian Seutonius records that taxes were exorbitantly high. Another historian named Tacitus records that there were a lot of complaints about the taxes and the extortion of tax collectors. Even the evil Emperor Nero considered repealing indirect taxes. Paul was probably undoubtedly aware of this and saw Christian submission in this area as a prime way of putting on display the peace and joyful obedience with God that comes from the gospel. Christian are commanded here to pay there taxes and not make a big stink about it. They are to honor and respect their government because they recognize that God has placed it.
Paul here carries on the same teaching of Jesus here. Often times when people ask me what I think about government I go to this story of Jesus because Jesus attitude toward government is so superbly displayed in it.
The Pharisees come to Jesus and ask him if they should pay taxes to Caesar, the Roman Emperor or not. They were essentially asking him how God’s people are supposed to relate to government. Jesus does something interesting. He asks for a coin. Like our coins who have pictures of presidents on them, their coins had pictures of the Caesar on them. Jesus looks at the coin and asks, “Whose inscription is on this?” They say “Caesar’s.” And then Jesus replies, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s (Mk 12:17).”
You see here, Jesus attitude toward government is one of placation or appeasement. Jesus is about something different. He is about the kingdom of God. You do whatever you have to do to make the temporal government happy so you can be about the business of God. Jesus, with one sentence here, just dismisses getting all hyped up on the government and what it’s doing.
Sometimes I get worried about Christians who get so hyped up and involved in politics and what is currently going on because the Christian’s main goal is to be about the mission of Jesus. The mission is the gospel in the message of the kingdom of God. Jesus and the apostles both had an apolitical or non-political ministry method. If churches and Christians get too heavily into current politics it sends a mixed message to the individuals and cities Jesus’ church is on mission for.
Christians must beware of getting distracted from putting a false hope for peace, joy, and justice in any other government but a theocracy where Jesus rules as King. All governments will fail and to become passionately devoted to a particular political party and/or system becomes spiritual treason to the theocracy of Christians who belong to the Kingdom of God.
God cares about what we do with our money and our attitude toward government with it. He keeps a record of whether we have a humble and submissive attitude or whether we treat our money as if it were our own. The Bible’s perspective is that we are stewards. All the money we make is on loan to us from God and God wants us to use it wisely for his glory and fame.
Conclusion
Well, let’s wrap up today’s message. What I want to do is try my best to address a couple real practical application issues regarding Christians and politics and then address our heart.
This is my perspective, so you can take it or leave it…but after studying a text like this and considering what seems to me to be a widespread overemphasis in politics by Christian I feel impelled to say some things.
First on voting. The Bible nowhere commands Christians to vote and one is not required by law to vote. If we were, then according to Romans 13, we be disobeying God if we did not vote. Democratic systems like the U.S. and others did not exist in Bible times and therefore one cannot superimpose a democratic worldview onto the Bible and hypothesize what the Biblical writers would say about it. Building a theology based on speculation is never wise. Thus, it is wrong for Christians to put a moral obligation and/or ethical responsibility on other Christians to vote when the Bible (our base for ethics) is silent on the issue.
It may be wise for Christians to vote if the culture of the land they are living in is a voting culture and it will help to understand and build a bridge with the people we are living for. Yet this decision is up to the individual’s choice and conscience as the Holy Spirit guides them in their incarnational evangelism. God may move upon certain individuals to try and reach people who are anarchists and it could be wise for them to dismiss voting in order to reach them to show them where their true allegiance is, to Jesus.
Christian involvement in other political sectors such as government, military, elections, etc. is acceptable as long as the main goal is to put the gospel on display to the people they work with. In addition, it is good for Christians to work to uphold universal moral law, as long as Christians are careful not to attempt to legislate particulary Christian beliefs and practice.
Christians should live their lives in light of the Bible regardless of wherever they live and whatever is happening within the political sphere of the country they live in. A real and lasting difference is made in a city by the quality of Christians’ lifestyle before friends, neighbors and co-workers and not through political involvement and/or influence.
Christians are commanded by Scripture to abide by the laws of the land (Rom 13:1). Section 501(c)(3), Part VIII, of the Internal Revenue Code, forbids a Religious Non-Profit Organization, to “Support or oppose candidates in political campaigns in any way.” OR “Attempt to influence legislation.” Thus, it is illegal within the U.S. for a church to encourage its members to support or oppose elections or legislation in any way…so you will never hear me do that.
Okay, if I haven’t offended a bunch of you let me end with the gospel and our hearts. The theme of this chunk of Scripture is submission. It is about humility. Part of living in this fallen, sinful world, is that we get hurt and wronged…sometimes by individuals and sometimes by the government.
The Christian response is peace and forgiveness, not retaliation and fighting back. Sometimes we think the only thing that will make us feel better is justice. Our name being cleared. Wrong being called out. Someone paying for what they’ve done. The truth is such response could never bring us the peace and the comfort we’re looking for.
The truth is we are the ones who deserve justice, who deserve to pay, for we have all wronged and offended God and his glory. We don’t want justice we want mercy. And as recipient of mercy and forgiveness in Jesus it’s supposed to change us into merciful and forgiving people.
Maybe you have a deep seated resentment against a family member, a brother or a sister. Maybe you’re mom or your dad. Maybe a friend who was once close. Maybe a government you once trusted. Lay it all down today and receive the healing of our Lord Jesus. All him to be king of your life. Serve and worship him only and put no trust in any other person or government.
Let’s allow him to minister to us today. He’s both a powerful king and merciful pastor.
