Good morning Church family,
I hope that you enjoyed a good Sunday with our spiritual family and with your biological family. And I pray that we are all in better mental, emotional and spiritual shape for the upcoming election.
It felt a little hard for me to speak about the government from Romans 13 as our presidential election looms. I think that that very fact proves that dissension, disunity and disagreement penetrate the air that we breath and make up the ambiance of our culture (& potentially even our Church!). I’m sure that we all feel that and know it well. There is so much negativity in the hearts and minds of many Americans concerning our political landscape, governmental leaders, and upcoming election.
For that reason, I was honestly surprised at how positive God’s commands are for His people as we think about and act towards our governing officials. The Bible’s command to us as Christians is irritating in its simplicity and may even seem impractical…just submit to them…even the bad ones? How about the system as a whole? Should we just submit to the evil that is going on in the political sphere?
The absence of God addressing how we amend government or hold them accountable to their actions is remarkable (because He knows what we need to hear). Although this does not mean that we are silent in every way about governmental sins, failure and dangers (John the Baptist told King Herod that he was wrong for marrying his brother’s wife – Mark 6:18), yet it does mean that God does not give us commands to change our government.
This sounds very un-American and far too passive for some. We have the privilege of voting for our governing leaders in America, and that is an anomaly within the history and current landscape of the world. We should leverage that opportunity to promote justice, righteousness and the goodness of God. There is a sense in which that makes us feel like our spiritual battle is happening on the political front and that we have great influence in that way. The mentality can easily become for Christians, “I will fight to maintain truth and righteousness in our governmental sphere.” I can’t say that’s wrong. I think that is a rather fundamental responsibility that we have.
HOWEVER, as Christians, we get pulled off track when we start over-emphasizing how much attention and energy should go into reforming our government. We should never prioritize that mission above God’s mission for the Church.
As far as the Bible says, God’s mission is to influence governing authorities, and He does it perfectly and for His good purposes (Prov. 21:1, Daniel 2:21, Is. 44:28). Our mission is to submit to the government as an expression of submitting to God and trusting that He indeed does control the king for ultimately good reasons. By submitting to “God’s servants for our good”(Rom. 13:4), we submit to the sovereign goodness of God and we express that we believe all of God’s decisions are good (Rom. 13:1), even in a corrupt government (in many cases).
I know this is easier said than done. It may not even be easily said because we find it hard to even accept the notion.
However, our mission in Scripture is so primarily to transform the hearts and minds of folks through the Gospel instead of swaying our culture through the laws of our land. Our laws certainly are good and for our good (if they are just and right laws), but even if they go south, the Holy Spirit spreads the Gospel and transfers people from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God in the midst of any governmental system, even the communist ones and even the socialist and demonic ones.
I believe that it’s for that reason that the New Testament Church is virtually silent in their attempt to reform government. And yet the first century Church transformed the world through its spreading of the Gospel and charitable deeds because that’s the power of God. Government reform is an ancillary mission at best meant to promote goodness and truth and for the sake of living as a good citizen of this nation who loves fellow mankind enough to try to preserve what we believe are God given gifts of American prosperity.
However, I fear that American prosperity and the idea of a “Christian nation” has usurped our identity as the Church Who is “the Kingdom of God” (1 Peter 2:9). The Kingdom of God is the rock that crushes all of the other nations in Daniel 2:44. The nations are just a drop in the bucket to God as He says through Isaiah. Therefore, we must put MORE WEIGHT on working diligently within the Kingdom of God MORE THAN our efforts in the sphere of our government. The Gospel is the power of God to those believe, and our governmental laws and leaders are submissive to God’s plans. Therefore, we can rest in who God has placed over us and run with the Gospel message as it’s the power of our great God to truly make a difference in society for eternity!
Again, we discover the reason that every N.T. command addressed to the Church concerning government tells us how to do good in society instead of how our government does bad. Yet if you are like me, I am prone to get far more caught up in the bad of our government than the good that I should be doing. It turns out that we can do much more good & make a bigger difference individually than the government can do publicly. I know that is surprising, but that’s the perspective of the Holy Spirit’s words to the Church.
I’ll end with this:
Yesterday, I was not able to expand on 1 Peter 2’s commands concerning our governmental involvement like I would have wished, so I’ll mention it here.
I was very excited to discover the reason that the Holy Spirit would lead Peter’s train of thought to lead into his command that we submit to God’s governing authorities over us. Listen to his rational:
- “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
- 13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme”
I love the context of 1 Peter 2:13 which is an echo passage for Romans 13;
(1) sojourning is the context for submitting to government leaders.
Being sojourners who belong to the Kingdom of God while we live within the nations of this world leads Peter to speak about how we correspond with government.
The implicit question that arises from that is that if this is not our home, then why should we submit to a foreign government if Jesus is our King?
Christians are tempted to take the view, be too separated from this world.
But Peter is going to tell us, here’s the reason for why you submit to government when Jesus is your King from another domain:
Because it’s actually submitting to God our King’s men (they are His servants!) (Rom.13:1-4).
1 Peter will say, as sojourners who have been saved from this world and have become a part of God’s Kingdom (1 Peter 2:9), understand that the governors set over us are a part of God’s Kingdom rule.
As sojourners who have been saved from this world and have become a part of God’s Kingdom (1 Peter 2:9), understand that the governors set over us are a part of God’s Kingdom rule.
They are not Satan’s pons, but they are God’s persons. They are not Satan’s spawns; they are God’s servants (Rom. 13:4) They are not the devil’s people, they are God’s puppets! I admit that some politicians may be Satan’s parrots, but they’re God’s puppets (Prov. 21:1).
(2) Proclaiming the Gospel is the context of 1 Peter 2’s command for us to cooperate with governmental officials.
Peter talks about how we are God’s nation called out from darkness to proclaim His excellencies Who called us out from that darkness to marvelous light. Then Peter mentions in vv11-12 how we are not only to be representing Jesus well with our mouth but also with our actions. And v12 implies that some may actually get saved through this!
So 1 Peter 2 is talking about how we see people transformed by the Gospel through our lives and how eternity will be impacted by that. Then Peter mentions our part to play in government and seems to take a soft approach: “submit to them, honor them, and make sure that you say out of trouble” (my paraphrase).
Why would Peter say that?
Because the Gospel is going to travel through and work in any government, good, bad, or even plainly evil. That has never stopped the Gospel from spreading, which is our primary mission and is the primary point. So it seems that Peter makes our governmental responsibility more passive and submissive while he makes our Kingdom of God responsibility more active and authoritative.
I pray that this all makes sense to you and that we will all live submissively to our government and look at each and every one of them as “God’s servants for our good.” May you have a positive perspective on God’s sovereignty throughout this election and not forget that even while our American nation may be drooping, God’s Kingdom is running strong. Let’s seek the welfare or our nation (Jer. 29:7), but even more seek the eternal good of those who are in darkness, that they may be transferred into God’s Kingdom of light.
With love,
Aaron
