We have to obey God

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men. – Acts 5.29

The disciples stayed in trouble with the Jewish authorities. They kept preaching and they kept getting arrested. At one point the Jewish courts sentenced them to jail, but then decided the release them.  You can almost hear the officials begging the disciples to stop preaching. When they released them they told them that they really had to stop. 

But Peter and the other disciples were clear in their response. 'We have to obey God instead of man.'

Why would they say something like this? After all, doesn't the rest of scripture tell us that we have to obey those in authority?

It does, but there comes that rare time when what the law tells us to do is in drift opposition to what God tells us to do.

It reminds me of when the three Hebrew men in captivity in Babylon were told that they had to now down to the king's image. As God's people they knew they were to obey the law, but here they could not obey the law and stay true to God. So when they were brought before the king to explain themselves they  told him they could not obey. The king reminded them that he had the power to have them thrown into the fiery furnace. They politely replied 'If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.'

Just like the disciples they were not arrogant, they were not haughty, they were not rebellious - they just could not obey.

There is a lesson for us today here. We have to submit to authority. That is as clear as it can be in scripture. But when the issue is clear that we can’t obey man and God both we have no choice but to obey. There is no room for haughtiness or rebellion or demonstration – we simply have to obey God. We do so with respect toward those in authority, and we realise that we may suffer the consequences of that choice.

Disobedience is not something to be taken lightly, but sometimes we may have no choice.