Be a Good Subject

Be a Good Subject 2021 08 15

Romans 13:1 – 7 

Everybody loves to find fault with the government.  Indeed, in a free society, it is our privilege and responsibility to hold our government to account and vote in elections.  But it now seems as if a lot of Western Christians are not willing to leave it at that.  Instead, there is a massive distrust of government, including accusations of the most vile sort, and an unwillingness to be subject to the government, at all.  Leaders are accused of being antichristian – which is often the case, true enough – but then they are accused of all manner of crimes, from pedophilia to mind control.  Indeed, we seem to be living in a time when leaders in the freest countries are reviled by Christians almost as if they were the devil, himself.  Is this right?  Should Christians be pushing back against the government and refusing to obey the law because we think it isn’t right, even if it does not directly disobey the ordinances of God?

Romans 13:1 – 7

Christians must remember that our first loyalty must be to God.  It is our responsibility to obey Him.  We are to read His word and obey.  The Bible gives a very solemn warning to those who pick and choose what to obey or not obey of the word of God.  “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”  James 1:22

But we are to be good subjects.  In the early centuries of the Christian church, Christians were discovered to be good subjects.  The governments that had persecuted them realized their value as citizens because they obeyed the laws, worked hard, and kept out of trouble.  The only time they were a problem was when the government created any law that forced them to disobey the word of God.

I. Be Subject

  1. The Bible says to be subject to the higher powers.
    1. To be subject means to put yourself below, to subordinate, to obey.
    2. Put yourself under the higher powers. It is God’s will for you to obey them, as much as it is possible, as long as the law does not contradict God’s laws.

II. Higher Powers

  1. What are the higher powers?
    1. Some say that they are the leaders of the local church. But in the light of the entire passage, you would have to be wresting the scriptures to come to that conclusion.
    2. This is not talking about church leadership. This is talking about government.
      1. We do not pay tribute or custom to the church. Nowhere in the Bible will you find any hint that we are to pay taxes or custom to the church.
      2. In fact, that was one of the terrible practices that went on in the early American colonies, where the people were taxed to support the government approved church. This was one of the practices that the early Baptists in America refused to support, because it is unbiblical.

III. All Governments

  1. The Bible clearly tells us that there is no power apart from God, that all powers are ordained by God.
    1. What about a government like Germany’s from the 1920s to the 1940s under Adolf Hitler? Surely that power was not ordained by God!!
    2. Yes, it was. The Bible says that the powers that be – that is, all governments – are ordained by God.  That leave no room to exclude any government in history, no matter how bad it turned out.  We must remember that this passage was written when the Roman despot, Nero, was emperor!
    3. But the Bible and history also show us that God also removes any power that continually walks in disobedience. An evil leader will not escape the just judgement of God.
      1. For example, if you study World War II, the German leader should have won. He was winning decisively.  Then he made some incredible and unbelievable blunders, completely out of character, and lost everything, including his life.  He now knows, without any question, that God is in control of history!
      2. The Allied countries still take credit, today, for winning that war. Yet it was certainly God that did it, just as he has over and over again throughout history with any leader defiant enough to try to sit in the place of God.
      3. Look at what God said to Sennacherib, king of Assyria, who thought he was greater than God (as did Hitler and many other despots throughout history): “Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.” 2 Kings 19:28 In fact, 185,000 of Sennacherib’s troops were suddenly destroyed in one night by God, Himself, and the king returned to Assyria where he was assassinated by his own sons.  God is in control of all governments and in fact, history, itself.

IV. Civil Disobedience

  1. Civil disobedience is somewhat legal in this country as a form of protest. Yet is forbidden by God!
    1. God says that if we resist the power – that is – the government, we are resisting the ordinance of God and are bringing condemnation upon ourselves!
    2. As a Christian, you cannot lose your salvation and come under eternal damnation, but if you break the law, you will rightfully go to jail. “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” James 1:20.
    3. For Our Good
  1. God tells us that the government is for your good!
    1. The government is not a terror to good behaviour, but to bad behaviour.
    2. Therefore, obey the law, and everything will be fine.
    3. “But what if the government is trying to take away our freedoms?” you might ask.
      1. Many are grappling with that very question as we go through lockdowns, mask-wearing,
      2. But the real question is, are our leaders telling us to do anything that contradicts the Word of God? If so, what is the chapter and verse of Scripture they are telling us to disobey? Are we being singled out because we’re Christians?
      3. At this time, I would challenge any Christian or Christian pastor to show me where our government has passed a law that we cannot obey because it contradicts the Word of God. But even if it did, remember that the Christians in Paul’s day obeyed the government, even though Nero was about as anti-Christian as any leader in history. They did not obey him in rejecting God, but as much as they could, they obeyed the law and were good citizens.  They did not flaunt the law by holding large public gatherings but gathered together in secret wherever they could in obedience to God.
  2. What is really going on in Canada and the rest of the Western World is that because of the governments we are presently blessed to have, we have the freedom, as Christians, to worship God any way we can, even if we can’t gather in a church building for a while due to a public health ordinance.
        1. It is not illegal to be a Christian in our country!
        2. It’s not illegal to preach the gospel in our country!
        3. It’s not illegal to be completely open about our faith in our country!
    2. But many Christians in the West, today, would answer that if we don’t fight to lose keep our freedom, we will lose it.
          1. God says not to resist the government! In fact, He says that if you do, you are resisting God.
            1. The government is in place by the ordinance of God for our good. If we resist what God ordains, we will reap the reward of lawbreakers, which God says is what we deserve.
            2. We ought to be thankful for the order that God has provided for us, for government that keeps order and makes it safe to live here.

Conclusion

Be a good subject, in spite of all the things and all the uncertainty that is going on in our world at this time.  It is part of our witness, to show the world that Christians are good citizens by nature, not rebels, not complainers, not fearful.  Part of being a good citizen in our country is to vote in elections. But our business as Christians is not to fight against the government, no matter how unjust they may be, but to pray for our leaders, and to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all.  And if we obey God in that, it will have a far greater and more positive affect on the entire world than any kind of political activity.  Take stock of your own life.  Are you a good citizen?  Or a rebel and thus rebelling against God, Himself?