Obey the government

 

Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. – 1 Peter 2.13-17

 

Here is a tough one. Submit to and obey secular government is not always easy. Governments are led by mostly lost men and women. They are frail human beings and most government get where they are by pure ambition and determination. Government leaders can be hard to follow because they are just like us they make mistakes they get confused and they don’t know what to do.

 

And yet the word of God tells us here and many other places that we are to submit to human authorities. How are we supposed to do that when that pass laws that seem to make no sense? Why should we follow dumb laws? 

 

Because God is a God of authority. We are people who should submit. We cannot be a proper testimony to this around us if we flagrantly violate the law. We cannot be good citizens in the earthly realm when we ignore laws that we are supposed to follow. Its pretty simply. God puts governments in place and we must submit. Full stop.

 

What if obeying a law means that we have to disobey God? Then it’s simple. We must obey God and not man. But, in doing so we must be ready to suffer the consequences of our actions. The state has the right to punish us for breaking their laws. We are living under their rules. Like Daniel and the others the disobeyed the kings and broke they law we may very well be sentenced and punished. They were delivered from their punishment. But Joseph, Paul, and others were cast into prison for lengthy periods. Martyrs through the ages and even now are tortured for their faith and may even pay with their lives.

 

When Peter wrote this Nero was the king - obey him - Peter said. We must obey the law. When we can’t we must obey God and leave the results with God. Like the three Hebrews who refused to worship the idol we must be ready to say ‘God can deliver us, but even if He doesn’t we cannot obey.’

Our pattern is clear - we obey and we trust God with the results.