Explicit Commands

I don't need a coward for a husband.

So he gets up and basically he says, we as Christians should be glorifying Christ and our allegiance should be to him alone. They cut the mic. And soon after, government officials kidnapped him and he wound up being tortured for like 14 years. So there are sobering examples of just how bad oppressive governments can be, and how sad it is when churches and pastors are intimidated into compromise. And instead of speaking up, they ally themselves with the government instead of being faithful to Christ. So there's a real danger there. But on the other hand, Scripture commands us to submit. So disobedience or resistance is the exception, not the rule. And I think we have to be so careful that we don't wind up just wanting to think about exceptions to the point that we start abusing the exceptions and excuse not actually doing what scripture commands us to do. And if we just think back to the time of the New Testament when Rome is the governing power. I mean, Rome is far from a shining example of righteousness. And yet even then, there is this clear command to submit. So we need to think really carefully about this, about why, when, how, and only if we're very careful will we be able to think well about, you know, when there's times that we really do need to not submit, but how we also normally should. So I thought the best place to start for tonight will be just trying to look at scripture and say what are the most clear and explicit commands for us as Christians in terms of how we're supposed to relate to the government. I have to say that Keith already did a fantastic job of sort of overviewing this on Sunday. That wasn't really planned, at least by me, but it dovetailed well. And so that was a fantastic overview. I hope tonight doesn't feel redundant, but I do want to make sure that all of us can see very clearly in scripture, where did those commands come from? And also, why? What are the reasons given behind them? So, tonight we're going to try to look briefly at three texts, and what I'm going to do is read it, and then I'm going to open it up, but I want you to tell me from the text, what are we commanded to do with respect to governing authorities, and why? So first, if you want to flip in your Bibles to Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13, and this is verses 1 through 7.

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. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 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 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 and avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing. 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.

All right, so what do you see commanded there? Be subject, okay? And be subject, so this is sort of a term, speaking of hierarchy, right? It's recognized that they are above us. It's the same word that's used of a wife to her husband, of Christians to pastors, servants to masters, okay? Now, can you be subject without obeying? We'll come back to that next week. But at least normally, being subject implies obedience. Good. Anything else? Yep. Is that a reason? Or you're saying, so don't resist. Yeah, so kind of the alternative to being subject would be resisting, opposing, interfering with. Don't do that. Good. What else? Yep. Do good. Good. And obviously, ultimately what's good is defined by God. But here Paul seems to be saying that, at least ordinarily, the government is encouraging good conduct. So for example, if the government says, in the interest of protecting the lives of children on their way to school, you're supposed to drive slower here. We should do good and drive slower. That would be one example, I think. And if you do that, you won't have to be afraid of getting a ticket. Good. Anything else? No. Yep. Pay taxes. Good. Pay our taxes. And then I think the last one is sort of by implication, honor. Because you see right at the end, pay taxes to whom taxes are owed, honor and respect to whom honor and respect are owed. I think the implication is governing authorities are deserving of that. Now why? What reasons are given here? Yep. Good, yes, so they are, God has all authority and whatever authorities there are have been instituted by God. So ultimately we submit to these authorities in recognition that God is the one who's at the top. He is the one who has all authority. Good, what else? What other reasons are here? Yep. Yeah, he's assuming in general, like rulers are, you know, trying to promote what's good and suppress what's evil. So we should go along with that. And perhaps related to that would be the idea, I mean, they are ultimately sent by God for this good purpose. So just like if a fire truck's coming down the road, I'm like, hey, you should get out of the way of the fire truck, because it's trying to go save people. Well, when God has sent forth governing authorities to reward good and punish evil, we shouldn't be resisting that. We should be supportive, yeah. Well, I think it's sort of saying in general, yeah, authorities are promoting what's good. So we have laws against murder. Well, that's good that that is outlawed. Yeah. Good. Anything else? Jason? Yes. And tied to that is the idea of avoiding judgment. Right? I mean, if we resist, we're going to face judgment. And it's pretty clear as you keep reading, it's both the judgment of God, and it's also the judgment of the sword of the state, that God has given them the sword. Another thing to notice is that he calls the governing authorities God's deacon. Both God's deacon for our good, And then also God's deacon sort of for wrath, to bear the sword. And so we'll come back to this. We're going to look at this more carefully next week, but just noticing that the state is described as the deacon of God. Yep. Yes. Yeah, for conscience sake. And I think his point is it's not merely that we should obey to try to escape punishment, but we should obey out of this recognition that it's actually right, that it is good and right to submit to these governing authorities. And then one last thing that I noted was the way right at the end, I think verse seven, he says, taxes and honor are owed. There's thinking that there's a sense in which it's paying our due. You know, you would never hire somebody to come, you know, paint your house and then just not pay them. Well, it's striking that the language here is taxes being owed, honor being owed, respect being owed. They are sent by God to perform a certain task for which we owe something. All right, well, we are fast losing time. So let's hurry on to 1 Peter 2 and look at that. And the main thing I want you to see here is how much overlap there is. These are pretty strikingly similar. So 1 Peter 2, verses 13 through 17. Peter writes,

be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good, for this is the will of God that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a coverup for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

All right, so what do we notice about the what here? Be subject. Once again, good. Anything else? Do good. Yep, once again, he's tying doing good to being subject to governing authorities. Once again, honor and... So live as those who are free. Good, yeah, I wanna come back to that. Okay, so I think that's under the Y. Do good, honor. And then one other thing under do good, notice that he emphasizes to every human institution, whether the higher, like the emperor, or the lower, the governors that he sends out. So he's making very clear, it's not sort of this selective, it's all of it. Now why? It's the will of God, okay? It's God's will for us to do good. Part of what that means is submitting to authorities. And notice how he connects it to our witness. That, as was pointed out before, we might put to silence the foolishness of ignorant men, the ignorance of foolish men. It's, in other words, and if you think about 1 Peter, later he's gonna talk about how people are maligning the Christians, how, you know, there's others in the society that are against them, that are sort of looking for ways to discredit and to attack. And interestingly here, Peter is emphasizing, well, one of the ways we're going to put to silence people that want to speak ill is by doing good in submitting to governing authorities. and therefore silencing these people. So it seems that this is a really important thing for what our witness should be. We want to be regarded as those who do good by submitting. Notice again he says for the Lord's sake. Once again he says that they punish evil and praise good. And then the last thing is, notice that he ties this to Christian freedom. He says,

live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

And I think what he's getting at here is, you know, we as Christians shouldn't cower in fear of authorities. We are not ultimately, our ultimate accountability is not to them. They have no final sway over our destiny or our lives. We're free in Christ. We serve a higher king. We're citizens of a different kingdom. And yet, and so therefore, if we're gonna submit, Well, it's not just out of fear or weakness, but we should submit out of this reverence for Christ as servants of God. But as we have this freedom in Christ, well, don't use it as a cover for evil. Don't think, well, I'm a citizen of Christ's kingdom, so I don't really have to submit to this. No, for Christ's sake, we submit. So our Christian freedom is given as a reason here. All right, and then I'm sorry, it's so short on time. Finally, just very briefly flip over to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy 2, and this is verses 1 through 4. Paul writes,

first of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

All right, so what is being commanded here? Pray, and specifically he says supplications, so this word kind of has to do with like entreating, pleading, seeking. He says prayers, which is a general word for praying. He says intercessions, which is the idea of standing between, praying on behalf of, like representing that person before God. And then he says thanksgiving. Now, how can we give thanks for an ungodly government? Jason? God established it. Yeah. God, in some way, we can trust is going to use for good. Yep? I want to say that every government, to some extent, has some scope of the image of God, right? Even though it's marred, right? I mean, we recognize that our government still does punish people for their sin. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think it takes a lot for a government to be worse than no government. If we keep that in mind, there are things that we can and should be thankful for. So I think that's a big challenge for where's our heart posture toward our government and our leaders. So he says, pray, and he says pray for all people, and specifically that's kings and all who are in authority. And then what should we pray for? Well, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. And then I think the implication of verse four is also that we would pray for their salvation. So pray for those two things for them. Now, why should we do this? Well, again, he says this is good, right? It's good to submit to them and it's good to pray for them. And then he says it's pleasing to God. And why is this pleasing to God? Well, because God wants people to be saved. So it's good to pray for the salvation of people. And I also think the implication of verse two, is that this peaceful, quiet life where we can live godly, dignified lives, well, that's the kind of environment where people will be saved, where the truth can spread. And so on one hand, I think we can recognize that in the sovereignty of God, he might be able to use a situation like communism in Romania for spiritual good. But we shouldn't pray for that kind of environment. We should pray for and desire a nation in which we can lead peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. On the other hand, note that Paul isn't telling us here to pray that the government would privilege Christians or oppose any and everything that's non-Christian. It's a fairly modest request that the government would enable us to have a society in which we can live peacefully and quietly in dignity and honor, seeking to serve Christ. So that's what we're supposed to pray for and why. Now, as I said, this is just, I just wanted us to see kind of this this brief big picture of like, what are the specific things we're commanded to do? Next week, we're gonna start diving in a little deeper to, okay, when are there exceptions to this? And how do we think about that? And how does this all tie together to this bigger picture of what the government is called to do and what kind of government we should even be seeking for our country? So, well, let's close now in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that your word is sufficient and clear. God, we pray that you would help us to have hearts that are rightly submissive, that are rightly thankful, that are rightly prayerful for and obedient to the authorities that you've placed over us. God, we pray that you would give us great wisdom to think through this topic well. We pray that through this, it would make us all the more grateful for Christ and the fact that he is the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the privilege we have of serving him and the great hope we have in looking forward to his kingdom. It's in his name we pray, amen.