816 Rom.13.1-7 Love Acts Responsibly
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· 25 viewsThe Christian's responsibility to honour God in our submission to Governmental authority
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- We have dealt with the individuality of the variety of gifting that Jesus has given to His church
Love Acts Responsibly
Love Acts Responsibly
Date: 09-12-18 816 Echuca
- We have dealt with the individuality of the variety of gifting that Jesus has given to His church
- We have dealt with love as it acts towards those within the body of Christ & those outside of the body of Christ
- Now we look at how love acts responsibly toward the governing authorities that, Paul says, God instituted
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- Love is the motivating factor in Christian thinking – but this love is not the world's definition of love
- The world regards love as a feeling that trumps morality & righteous living
- So if we indulge ourselves in the world's way of love, it will not be long before the likes of, say, paedophilia will be removed as a criminal offence because as the slogan goes, “love is love”
- I kid you not, the decriminalisation of paedophilia is being talked about now
- An emotionally oriented love is a self-centred love – I love you because of the feeling I get being with you
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- I do not deny that there is emotion involved with love – of course there is
- But if you disconnect righteousness & morality from love, essentially, all you are doing is endorsing a feeling & if a person has a feeling of love, then no one can speak against that love no matter what it is
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- But love is not left undefined in the Bible
- The form of love that we are familiar with is a responsible love; a sacrificial love; a love that seeks to build up the other person
- We don't always achieve that &, in fact, we have failed at it miserably
- We should be ashamed before the unbeliever that, so often, all we can produce is a mirror image of their own form of love
Q. Should we be concerned about that?
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Q. If we are concerned, you know where change should begin? Yes, us!
- So often, we cannot get passed pride to allow love to begin
- Pride is a great evil when we allow it to nullify a loving attitude
- People hurt each other & that hurt mutates into anger & bitterness
- Then pride comes along & says, “I cannot love that person for what they have done to me”
- We must be so careful of Satan's schemes
10 But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
—10 But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
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- No we are not – divide & conquer is his scheme & where there is anger & bitterness & pride, we run the risk of falling into his trap
- The remedy & antidote for anger & bitterness is forgiveness
- But not a forgiveness without reconciliation for that forgiveness is merely a therapeutic forgiveness & that is self-centred, designed merely as a token to ease a person's conscience
- But the whole purpose of forgiveness is for reconciliation
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- Consider our life with the Lord
Q. What was the purpose of His forgiveness toward us? Was it not so that we could be reconciled to Him?
- Love strives to be forgiving, reconciling, accepting
- To deny these things is to deny the cross of Christ because while we were enemies of God, that is, in attitude & action – Christ died for us
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- Chapter 12, was under-girded by love – Christian love
- Now in chapter 13, Paul addresses the governing authorities who are not Christian
- In the following half of chp. 13 which is our text for next week, he specifically addresses love as it manifests itself in fulfilling the law of God
- So love seems to continue to under-gird our actions even toward a secular or pagan government – pagan as in a government that worships idols
1. Be Subject to Governing Authorities
1. Be Subject to Governing Authorities
- The apostle begins this part of the Scripture with a very strong piece of OT thinking
- God is the ultimate authority – there is no authority greater than God
- Even Satan is subject to God's authority
- I know people ask why God allows Satan off His leash to do things to God's people
- As in the book of Job, we see that Satan had to plead for God's permission to impact Job's life negatively
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- All authority stems from God
—18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
- These are some of the last words of Jesus before He ascended to heaven
Q. Why did Jesus say this? “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”?
- When we consider what He says next makes this become clear
- He says to His disciples that they are to go & make disciples of all the nations
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- So if, in that process, a governor or king says to the disciples, “what authority do you have to defy my command and not speak in the name of this man Jesus”, they have a firm basis for continuing in spite of the ruler's charge to stop
- They would be saying that all authority resides with Jesus and we obey Him before we obey you and this is precisely what had been done
—28 saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
28 saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
- After they received a flogging with whips, we read
42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
—42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
- They had One person in particular in whom they had to obey & He was to receive absolute allegiance
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- But here, in today's text, the apostle tells us to obey the governing authorities it seems without question
- His point I think has to be taken
- If he started to make qualifications at this point, people would see anything as a loop-hope to cause chaos & revolution, so he is black & white on the matter
- It is important in our overall attitude to government that we acknowledge, whether good or evil, that the government is there by God's will
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Q. You might say, “how can that be, if the government is evil”?
- What Judas did to Jesus was evil but it caused all things to work together for good to those that love Christ & are called according to His purpose
- What happened to Job gives many people great encouragement to know that in spite of their circumstances they can know that God is not necessarily against them
- Joseph said to His brothers that God brought about the sale of himself into Egypt for the very purpose to rescue His people, Israel, from drought
- There are many, many pieces of Scripture that shows how God allows evil for His own purposes
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- In spite of this, we are to obey the governing authorities as those who have been placed there by God
- The same is true regarding the leaders of the church
- Not all, perhaps, deserve respect, but the “office” or position does, since that person has been placed there by God
28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
—28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
—17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
- Regardless of what a person thinks is right or wrong in the leader, they ought to have the willingness to submit to God's authority
Q. One might be so bold as to say, if we are required to submit to secular government, how much more, the leadership of the church?
2. Conscience and Fear
2. Conscience and Fear
- Tell me something: “Why is it that when we see a police car behind us, we panic as if we have done something wrong?
- We take the foot off the accelerator as if we are guilty, even though we are within the speed limit
- Sometimes, it is the shear fact that you got a surprise, but it may be that we are used to pushing the boundaries of the speed limit & we think we may be doing that when we spot the highway patrol
- What is happening there is our conscience is triggered by the thought that we might be breaking the law
- This is the conscience in play & even if we are not seeing any Police around, if we are going too far beyond the speed limit (let's be reasonable here) it is still going to trigger the conscience
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- Your conscience is a precious thing & looking after your conscience is an important part of the Christian walk
- To violate your conscience is to violate your relationship with God because they are intertwined
- To know that God's will is “X” but to deliberately go against that, is going the way of sin
- So we must be sensitive to our conscience so that we do not damage our walk with God
- We could talk for a while about this, because the forgiveness of God through the cross is so rich that He can restore the conscience when we repent from the heart
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- A blessing for your conscience is when you do good
- Being in subjection to the governing authorities will help bless your conscience
- I think the apostle is thinking of your standard type laws that governed the people of the day
- Cheating, Fraud, Stealing, Vandalism, Drunken Disorderly, riots, rebellion, Murder & the like
- If we look at what he says next, then we should see that he is thinking of some pretty serious crimes
- He mentions here that the governing authorities bear the judgement of God upon evildoers
4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
—4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
- “He does not bear the sword for nothing” speaks of capital punishment
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- There are instances when Christians need to rebel, but those issues would be when your have to choose between violating the Gospel of Christ or the human authorities
- For example, at the moment, there is a religious exemption in the new legislation that provides, for a religious minister, the right to refuse to conduct a same-sex marriage
- However, you may not be aware that any new religious minister not tied to a denomination has missed the exemption – it was only for existing ministers not affiliated with a religious denomination
- If, in the future, they sought to remove this exemption that applies to me – which would not surprise me if it happened – then I would not defy the government according to this passage
- I would simply resign my license to marry
- That way, I will not be violating the law, nor disobeying Christ
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- Conscience is a very important mechanism & we will be dealing more with the conscience when we get into chapter 14
- In obeying the government, we are not violating our conscience
- Our conscience knows that to violate the law of the land is to violate God's will, in that He gave government oversight over the land & us
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- There is an interesting interplay between the apostle Paul & the government leaders of Philippi
- Philippi is self-governed Roman Colony
- Even though the apostle Paul believes in submitting to the government, he is happy to work the system for the good of the church
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- Paul & Silas were preaching the Gospel & Jesus drove a demon out of a slave girl
- The owner who was profiting from her oracles was upset & dragged Paul & Silas before the authorities where they were beaten & thrown into prison
- Here they are, in prison, rejoicing together singing hymns & the Philippian jailer hears the word of the Lord & becomes a Christian
- The next day, the authorities find out that Paul & Silas are Roman citizens & they panic because they treated them illegally by beating them publicly & throwing them into prison without a trial
- These government officials acted against the Roman law that they themselves were under
37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.”
—37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.”
- So they send word that Paul & Silas were to go in peace, but Paul says, “no way” - you publicly flogged us, you publicly escort us out
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- This was a very cleaver ploy on the part of Paul
Q. How are these rulers going to now treat the church there at Philippi?
- Paul & Silas have a legal case against these public officials – they know that – it was played out in public - & they will not risk upsetting the church Paul established there
- For Paul, hearing about any nonsense from these officials, may come back & then lodge a legal complaint to Rome against them
- It was another way that Paul looked after the church
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- The second reason for submitting to the authorities is because of fear
- No one likes to have an unhealthy fear – there is a healthy fear, of course
- The Scriptures tell us to fear God & this is an obviously good thing from a priorities point of view
- The fear of God keeps us close to Him & to make Him our priority
—28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
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- But there is an unhealthy fear that causes a person to live in dread
- Paul gives us the option of having this fear removed
- It seems beyond us that a Christian could be involved in such crimes that warranted the death penalty, but we must remember, these were different times
- It didn't take a great crime for a person to get the death penalty
- It was not long after the writing of Romans that Christians were put to death by the Roman authorities for just being a Christian
- Paul himself was martyred – beheaded – under Emperor Nero
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- Doing good, earns the praise of the authorities & removes the fear of punishment says Paul
- This is different to holding fast to the Gospel
- The apostle doesn't give any exceptions here because what he is doing is encouraging the Christian community toward being a good witness in society
- Our love for the world – in that they might be redeemed – causes us to respect the authorities put in place by God
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- Furthermore, when our good behaviour is so exemplary in amongst society, it only propounds the guilt of the world when they...
1. Have no excuse for treating us badly
2. When they see what Christ does in us – they should want to at the very least – like the Philippian jailer – ask, “what must I do to be saved”
- So our witness among the unbeliever is important for the Gospel
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.
—13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.
3. The Matter of Taxation
3. The Matter of Taxation
Q. Who pays for these people to govern?
- They are, as Paul says, God's servants
- I think it is fair to say that we don't mind paying people to govern us, but what we do mind is the absolute, indiscriminate waste that we see happening
- We know that if we managed our family affairs the way some governments managed the country's, our family would be homeless & begging on the streets
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- However, the reason that Paul says to pay taxes and custom is so that the government may be supported
- No one likes paying taxes, especially, to a people who do not share our beliefs & values
- However, God calls us to play our part & to enhance the Gospel of Christ by doing what is right & good
- He doesn't say that you have to pay more than you need to pay
- If you can minimise your tax so that you are legally complying with the law, that is all you're expected to do
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- When it comes to the legitimacy of paying taxes to a secular Government, no one despised it as much as the Jewish people
- To them, Rome was the epitome of an idolatrous empire, especially, when they began to elevate the Emperors to the level of deity & insisting that the people worship them as “sons of the gods”
- Not only that, but the land of Israel was sacred land & it was God's territory so to speak – it was Israel's by divine right!
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- This is why the tax collectors were such a hated bunch of people
- They were Jewish men who made a bid for a franchised area to then collect tax for Rome
- It was a profitable scheme
- The Jewish people, however, regarded them as traitors & no better than the “sinners”
- Jesus reached out, however, to both tax collectors & sinners & He was criticised for it
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- Jesus' detractors used the taxation system as an excellent way, they thought, to try & trap Him in His words
- A good Jew would never say it was right to pay taxes to the pagan Roman invaders
- But if He did agree with that, then He could be charged with being an insurrectionist who was plotting to overthrow the Roman Government
20 So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, in order that they might catch Him in some statement, so that they could deliver Him to the rule and the authority of the governor. 21 They questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly, and You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. 22 “Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 23 But He detected their trickery and said to them, 24 “Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25 And He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
- Well, that put them in a spin – they couldn't pin Him on it
- But even here, Jesus acknowledges that it is right to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's
4. Other Responsibilities
4. Other Responsibilities
- We are instructed to pray for our enemies & to bless & not curse them
- We are also instructed to pray for the government
1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
—1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
- The church does not bring about change by being agitators – by rioting & by revolution
- The change is to come from the grass roots – when we change people, you change the structures above it
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- Martin Luther King called for peaceful protest against racial division
- He recognised the Christian responsibility to respect the rule of law
1 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, 2 to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
—1 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, 2 to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
Summary
Summary
Summary
Summary
- Love is the underlying motive of the Christian & it shows itself, even to the point of acting responsibly before the governing authorities
- We submit because God Himself has commissioned human government
- We submit because we want to have a good conscience towards God & men
- We submit to alleviate any fear of punishment
- We pay taxes in order to support the functioning of government
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- We may not like the government that is in power, but we have a command from God to live peaceable lives through submitting to the governing authorities
- Only when such submission would be in violation to the word & Gospel of Christ, would we have to decide to directly obey God rather than man