Tag: Romans 13:1-7

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What We Owe the Government

I believe that the United States of America has been uniquely blessed by God. Some people refer to this as “American exceptionalism.” For 250 years we have enjoyed the blessings of liberty. If this is true, then this must mean that “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). 

The late pastor Ed Dobson wrote, “Christians have a God-ordained responsibility to government.” What is being asked of us? What, in Jesus’ words, is being demanded? If we expect the government to promote the general welfare, and to maintain an ordered society, then what is our response as Christian citizens? The Bible gives us specific guidance.

We should speak. The church exists to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to make the argument for God’s standards of morality. The church should never abandon its mission of communicating the gospel to become a political institution. Christians should never think that governmental power ought to be used to impose Christian law on society. Our role is persuasion, not coercion. Our job is to make the Christian moral vision attractive and to demonstrate how it is best for society.

We should pray. “I urge, then, first of all, that prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). It is my regular practice to pray for our president and his family that they will be kept safe from harm. I pray that God will give him good advisors and that he will listen to the wisdom of their counsel. I pray that the president may come to the knowledge of the truth that is in Jesus.

We should submit.  The apostle Paul wrote, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). It is the institution of government that has been established by God, and in submitting to the authority of government, we are submitting to his will. Submitting and showing respect to government leaders is sometimes difficult, especially when they are anti-Christian in their attitudes and actions.

We should get involved. Vote according to the guidance of your conscience and scripture. Participate in community projects and actions that promote what is good for society. Give money to support those causes. Exercise your freedom to help address the needs of the community.

We should pay taxes. We receive many benefits from government. We have a responsibility to support the government by paying our taxes. Some men came to Jesus and asked, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Matthew22:17). The question was intended to trick Jesus. If he favored paying taxes to Caesar, some could accuse him of religious compromise. If he did not, some could accuse him of treason. Jesus answered, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” Christians recognize that we owe allegiance to God’s kingdom first, and second to our earthly nation.

What about civil disobedience? Are Christians ever justified in disobeying the laws of the land? The Bible tells us of the Hebrew midwives who disobeyed the Pharaoh’s order to kill every male child at birth (Exodus 1:17, 20). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego disobeyed the king of Babylon’s command to worship his idol of gold (Daniel 3:16-18). The early apostles refused to obey the Jewish leaders who told them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:18). From these cases, we conclude that there are rare occasions when it may be necessary to disobey a human law if obeying means we would disobey God. “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

What is the church’s duty to society, and to the government? To be the church of Jesus Christ. To boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. To recognize that the transformation of society will not come through political power. It will come through the power of the gospel, one person at a time. It will come through the influence of people of goodwill who will love and serve their neighbors, as our Savior said to do.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

 

 

 

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Faith and Public Policy

Journalist Cal Thomas, writing about political power, said, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. People may have wealth, position, and fame, but unless they have power, many of them believe their lives are incomplete. Power can not only seduce, but also affect judgment. It can be more addictive than any drug, because it deceives the one who ‘takes’ it. Power can be used to rationalize the most outrageous behavior because the power abuser sincerely believes his ends are justified and so any means of achieving them are legitimate.”

He was writing this as a warning to Christian people about the dangers of relying on political power to accomplish moral goals. He cited the words of the late chaplain of the Senate, Richard C. Halverson, who spoke of the “powerlessness of political power” in that it lacks the ability to change hearts.

Having noted that warning, I have to ask, “What, then, is the role of the church and individual Christians, in influencing public policy?” Are we to keep silent in the face of the nation’s moral decline and leave the political process to those who are hostile to moral absolutes?

There are too many important issues troubling our nation for concerned citizens to remain on the sidelines. Here are just a few: euthanasia, pornography, abortion, war, terrorism, poverty, homelessness, the impact of social media, homosexuality, gender confusion, the national debt, drug abuse, mass shootings, racism, immigration, inflation, etc.

The fact is, somebody’s moral values will shape public policy. All governments pass laws against murder, theft, sexual abuse, and public endangerment. In doing so they legislate morality. If the role of government is to regulate society so that people don’t hurt each other, then the Bible was right all along, the government is supposed to punish evil and protect its citizens (Romans 13:1-7).

Our Founding Fathers were not all Christian believers, and they did not always agree. But they were unified in the conviction that our nation was to be founded on a base of moral values. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers were the result of applying a Judeo-Christian worldview to their conception of government. President John Adams said that the American experiment required that citizens be of strong moral and religious character. Otherwise, democracy is “insufficient” and cannot hold together.

Therefore, those who are hostile to religion or to moral absolutes are just wrong when they try to hinder people of faith from expressing their views in the public arena. Religion has always shaped the values and politics of our nation. I have read that 84 percent of Americans say that religion is very important in their lives. If they are excluded from participation in shaping the laws of our nation, then it is left to a small minority to do so. That is un-American.

Secular materialists seem to want to impose their minority agenda on the rest of us. They seem to approach every issue with an anti-religious bias. There is no fixed morality or transcendent truth. Right and wrong are sociologically determined and proclaimed by pollsters.

The response of Christians is not, as Cal Thomas pointed out, to try to manipulate the electoral process to gain raw political power. Our response is not to impose particular religious beliefs on the general public. It is not to try to apply a religious test to candidates running for office to determine whether they believe in God. It is not to declare that America is a Christian nation and should be governed by Christian laws. Cal Thomas said, “The marriage of religion and politics almost always compromises the gospel.”

The church is nowhere told to control the culture. We are told to influence the culture as “the salt of the earth and the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-16). Instead of trying to control society through political power from the top down, the Christian ideal  is to be who we are, the living church of the living Lord Jesus Christ. We must boldly preach the gospel and boldly proclaim our moral values. Then, in the words of Cal Thomas, the flow of values will “bubble up” from people of faith living out their faith.

The answer is spiritual power not political power. We can keep adding laws but legislation cannot change people’s hearts or redeem them from sin. Cal Thomas wrote, “The ultimate hope for society is not in politics, it is in the church and individual Christians.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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The American Flag and Christian Faith

Many American houses of worship proudly post our nation’s flag. We place the American flag in our churches out of respect for our national ideals. We do this to encourage prayers for the nation and its leaders. We do this for the same reasons citizens of other nations have the flags of their countries in their churches.

It is not because we believe America is or should be a theocracy. It is not because we believe America is a covenant nation the way ancient Israel was. In fact, Christians hold dual citizenship, and our primary loyalty is to God’s kingdom. Philippians 3:20 says, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Most churches have two flags, the American flag, and the Christian flag. This does not mean that we think that our earthly citizenship is as important to us as our heavenly citizenship, or that the two are equal. They are not equal.

On this weekend in which we celebrate our nation’s independence, we are praying for our nation with gratitude for our liberties. Liberty depends on the ability of citizens to govern themselves. Self-government depends on an informed and intelligent electorate. For that to be true we need good schools that teach civic responsibility. We need a free press that shines the light of truth into hidden places and holds leaders accountable for their decisions and actions.

Most of all we need healthy churches that will produce citizens of a strong moral character whose lives are shaped by the gospel of Christ. What is the church’s role in helping to encourage an informed and intelligent electorate? It is to produce a biblically informed and intelligent electorate.

It is not to tell its members who to vote for. It is not to be aligned with any political party. It is not to assume that to be an American is to be a Christian. Theologian Francis Schaeffer wrote, “We must not confuse the kingdom of God with our country. To put it another way, we should not wrap Christianity in our national flag.”

If there are American flags in our church sanctuaries, let it be for the reasons we find in Romans 13:1-7, where Paul wrote about the Christian’s relationship to the state. There he stated his belief in the sovereignty of God. “There is no authority except that which God has established” (v. 1). God rules. All powers, governments, and human authorities are subject to God whether they know it or not.

At his trial, Jesus told Pontius Pilate, “You would have no authority over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11). The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar was humbled and forced to acknowledge that “the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom He wishes” (Daniel 4:3, 17).

Romans 13 goes further and states that God has authorized human government as an institution. God established the family as the foundation of society. God established the church to proclaim his truth in the world. And God established human government to create an orderly society where the family and the church can flourish in freedom.

Thus we are commanded to submit to the lawful authority of government and to do what is morally right. We should be respectful of the God-given authority of those who serve in government and pray for them, whether we personally like them or not. We know from scripture how a sovereign God can and does work his will through leaders who do not acknowledge him.

The ideal that Paul sets forth in Romans 13 is that the proper role of government is to commend and approve good behavior (for public safety and peace) and to punish wrongdoers. Governments and their leaders do not always get this right. Sometimes unjust rulers arise and impose unjust laws and tactics of oppression. The question arises, “Are we to obey laws that violate our consciences and contradict God’s word?”

The answer is an emphatic, “No!” Whenever laws are enacted which contradict God’s law, then civil disobedience becomes our duty. This is borne out in several examples from scripture. Think of the early apostles who refused the order to stop preaching in the name of Jesus: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

But the basic principle stands: There are duties of citizenship which Christians are to observe as matters of conscience. Some of these duties are enumerated in Romans 13: 5-7. These include obeying the law, paying taxes, and respecting the authorities. To these are added the duty to pray for our governmental leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Several years ago my wife and I were worshipping with a congregation in her hometown in Southwestern Virginia. It was a Sunday morning which happened to be the fourth of July. On Independence Day, the people of that church honored America by spending an extended time in prayer for our nation and its leaders, asking God to heal our land.

There was an American flag displayed in its usual place in that small church sanctuary. But the people were not worshipping the flag. Their primary allegiance was not to Americanism. They were worshipping the sovereign God, the ruler of all nations, and Jesus Christ, the King of kings.

I was deeply impressed by the sincerity and honest faith of those prayers. I was reminded that it is just such humble dependency on God that is our nation’s greatest strength. I thought to myself, “This is truly the hope of America.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner