It's Always Right To Do What's Right Series

* Just one chapter later, after being put in jail and then miraculously set free, the apostles began teaching and preaching about Jesus again and the authorities are really upset now and so the chief priest lets them have it. Look at Acts 5:28: “‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,’ he said. ‘Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching…’” I love the short but profound answer the apostles give in verse 29: “We must obey God rather than men!”

5. The Bible allows for civil obedience when the government commands us to do something that God forbids. Let’s look at these examples from the Bible.

* In Exodus 1:17, after being ordered by the king of Egypt to kill all new-born baby boys, “The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.” By the way, if you want to hear about a modern-day story of how one person is making a difference by saving children, check out my blog post entitled, Drawn from the Water.

* In Daniel 3, after King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that everyone fall down and worship his image of gold or else be thrown into the fiery furnace, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to do so. When the king gave them a second chance, we read these words in verses 16-18: “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.’”

John Stott summarizes this issue succinctly: “The principle is clear: We are to submit right up to the point where obedience to the state would entail disobedience to God. But if the state commands what God forbids, or forbids what God commands, then our plain Christian duty is to resist, not to submit, to disobey the state in order to obey God.”

6. What fires you up might not fire me up. Follow God and your conscience but don’t expect everybody to feel as passionate as you are about something. The problem often is discerning whether a given law clearly and absolutely “contradicts” God’s law. It’s therefore difficult to set down hard and fast rules covering every situation because one person’s Christian conscience may lead in one direction while another person may choose to do something else or not participate at all. Some faithful people chose to get away from their governments, like the Huguenots who fled from France to England and the Puritans who exited England to practice their faith in America. Let’s make sure we exhibit Christian liberty and charity.

7. If you must disobey, do so respectfully and be willing to accept the consequences. When the three Hebrew boys disobeyed the king’s direct orders, they spoke respectfully to him. We can say that they disobeyed with a respectful heart. Proverbs 24:21says: “Fear the Lord and the king, my son, and do not join with the rebellious.”