Remind them to obey authority

Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. – Titus 3.1-2

I guess we must be pretty thick. We have to be reminded over and over again to be subject to authorities. Here we are told the attitude we are supposed to do it with. We are to be ready to good, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, and show humility to all men.

That means that we can’t submit with a sorry attitude of grumbling and despair. We can’t do it and tell everyone how unfair it is. We keep doing good, we don’t speak evil of the rulers, we need to encourage peace, and we need to abide in humility.

These are areas to look at over the next couple of days. The context of all these is how we respond to authority.

It can be hard, really hard, to obey authority at times. Let’s be honest, it can be hard to even respect those in authority and if we can’t respect them how can we obey them? That is where we are called on to act by faith and not sight. We don't have to like or admire them or understand why they do what they do. We don’t have to like their politics. We do need to honour them, not speak evil of them, obey them, and pray for them.