Night after night, week after week, and month after month Gregory Dixon Jr., pastor of Indianapolis Baptist Temple, along with other men of the church held a vigil. This wasn’t a typical vigil, however. These men sat up each night drinking coffee, eating donuts, and playing cards. They didn’t gather to pray and fast or remember a lost loved one; rather, they met to keep the doors of their church open. U.S. marshals had been ordered to seize the church according to a court order issued for failing to pay taxes. The pastor and the church were adamant that the government had no right to tax tithes and offerings given to God. In the end, however, the marshals led the members of the church who were participating in the vigil off in handcuffs and chained the doors of the church shut in preparation for auctioning off. Dixon and the other men were willing to sacrifice themselves because they knew they answered to a higher authority than the Internal Revenue Service and the federal courts.
When we become Christians we learn that the old ways we used to have must often change. The ways of the world are not the ways of God. We may find that our perspective on many issues changes. Issues such as promiscuity, casual drug use, or exaggerating the qualities of a product to convince somebody to buy it. The tension one feels is these issues is a natural consequence of salvation. How are we then to respond to our government? Don’t we as Christians have a much higher authority than the men and women who comprise our government? How are we to respond to a government that allows abortions and even subsidizes such procedures for low income people? What are Christians to do when the government allows pornography to be freely accessed in public libraries and on the shelves of convenience and books stores? Who is the authority – God or government? It seems that we, as Christians, must denounce and rebel against such authority that seems so obviously opposed to God.
As Christians we are set apart to do God’s will. We know that in the end, on that final judgment day, we will all have to answer to God. For the most part we know what is right and what is wrong. The Holy Spirit convicts men and women of what is sin and what is righteousness. The problem comes when our government authorities do not have the Holy Spirit to guide them or do not give attention to him. We know there is a vast discrepancy between what God wants from man and what the government wants from man. Isn’t it Christian responsibility to prevent the government from allowing such worldly things to take place? How can we respect an authority who is an open and practicing homosexual when we know that is something God detests.
There are many ways to approach this problem. The Army of God, for example, uses terror and assassination to try to force the government to change the abortion laws. They know that God hates abortion because it is the taking of an innocent life. They believe they are justified in killing doctors who perform abortions to protect the unborn. While their understanding of God’s hatred of abortion is reasonable, God does not call people to murder. He cannot ask a person to break his commandments. There was a Christian group in San Antonio, Texas that peacefully entered a Barnes and Noble book store and began tearing up books that had pictures of nude children in them. The courts had already decided that the pictures, though they portrayed fully nude children from the front, did not constitute pornography because the children were not posed in sexual postures. Once again, the motivation of this group is reasonable and, even though their actions did not harm other people physically, their actions were considered vandalism by the authorities and were not consistent with the Bible’s teaching concerning respect of others’ property. Perhaps simply heckling and jeering public authorities when they make public appearances and speeches is a better way to deal with ungodly authorities. Even though such action is not against the law, it doesn’t fit well with God’s love that Christians are to demonstrate. None of these solutions offer a truly biblical solution.
The real solution to these issues lies not in your acceptance or disagreement with the authorities but in your understanding of and trust in God. When you properly understand God’s sovereignty and trust in his ability to work things out you become less inclined to try to work things out for God. You will also have a better understanding of and respect for authorities, even those who seem very ungodly. It was just such an issue Christians in Rome were facing and about which Paul wrote in his letter to them.
At the time this was written, Christians, considered a sect of Judaism at the time, had been expelled from Rome by Nero during a brief and localized but intense persecution. They were being permitted back into Rome, however, it was with considerable suspicion. Many Christians had also begun to think that their status as Christians permitted a libertine attitude as evidenced earlier in the doctrine section of Rom. 6:1. They felt no allegiance to the government that had persecuted them. It was a licentious government marked by homosexuality, promiscuity, and pagan worship. The words Paul wrote to the Roman Christians in chapter thirteen verses one through six speak also to us today.
I. Government authorities deserve your respect because they are appointed by God. (vv 1-3a)
God is the creator of all things and is, therefore, the creator of any and all authority on earth. Since God created such authorities they are in place to carry out his will. Any disrespect for earthly authority is a denial of the sovereignty of God. Those who oppose or defy earthly authority will answer both to man and to God. Jesus, himself, said, "all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.
Judah was certain of its safety from attack and destruction because of its status as the chosen people of God and the presence of the temple. Jeremiah, the prophet, pleaded with the Hebrews to be obedient, explaining that God was also in control of all other authority and would use them to correct Judah’s attitude. In Jeremiah 25:8-11 it says:
Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: "Because you have not listened to my words, 9 I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," declares the LORD, "and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin
Not only did God use a pagan king of a foreign land to send the Hebrews into exile and to bring about his will, but he also used another pagan ruler to deliver the Hebrews from their exile as Isaiah prophesied more than 150 years before that rule was even born. God used Cyrus whom he called his anointed and even acknowledged that Cyrus didn’t recognize him as God.
"This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut: 2 I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. 3 I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. 4 For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. 5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me… (Is. 45:1-5, NIV)
When you begin to mutter about paying your taxes or a new law that requires you to use your seatbelt, consider the God who called that authority into being. When you think that the government is incapable of making good decisions because those in authority are not Christian, remember the two pagan kings who dominated most of the world, Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, and whose purposes they were serving. Know that when you despise and disrespect authority you are opposing God himself. Not only should you respect those who are in authority over you but you should obey the laws and regulations they create for society.
II. Obedience to civil law is necessary because government is God’s tool to bring order to society, especially to those who do not know him. (vv 3b-6)
Civil laws are generally more permissive and have a looser view of morality than what God would allow. If you obey God you will have more than been in compliance with civil law. Many, however, do not know God and need some form of worldly restraint to prevent chaos and anarchy from reigning on earth. If you disobey the law you not only add to the chaos but should expect punishment and unpleasant consequences. Jesus modeled this when he told the Pharisees to give Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.
Recently the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been in the news because it has been re-opened to visitors after having been closed for nearly a decade. In the early nineties the tower began to lean too far and the risk of collapse was great. It was closed to tourists so engineers could straighten it out just a few inches.
First, the engineers injected super cold liquid nitrogen into the ground to freeze it and thereby minimize dangerous ground vibrations during the work that followed. Then they installed cables to pull the structure more upright. Slowly by slowly the tower was straightened to a position that would prevent a total collapse even with the weight of hundreds of tourists on it at a time. To the naked eye the tower looks the same, but to the engineers it is the difference between utter destruction and confidence to allow school children to once again climb the stairs of this twelfth-century landmark.
Left to itself, our world resembles the leaning Tower of Pisa: tilting and heading toward catastrophe. To prevent total anarchy, God establishes governments to maintain order. Governments and their laws function like the steel cables that will hold the leaning tower. The tower still leans. It’s not perfect, but the cables prevent total destruction.
Remember that your obedience to the law is an acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. It is also an example to the non-believing world. Obey civil law because it is from God. If you are dissatisfied with the ungodliness of your government, work within the established laws to change it. Vote, write letters to your representatives and senators, or even run for office yourself. Become an active agent for change but work within the law. Ultimately, a right attitude toward authority and right actions can only come from a proper understanding of God.
The Indianapolis Baptist Temple would not have been shut down and auctioned off, nor would the pastor and men of the church have faced jail time if they had trusted God and obeyed the law. Even more surprisingly, the church would not have had to pay taxes if only they had complied with the many requests to simply fill out the paperwork to show that they were a religious establishment.
The answer to the question,"Who is your authority – God or government?" is both. When you know God and accept him as the creator of all things you must acknowledge his creation of and sovereignty over all authority. If you do that, there is no righteous or spiritual reason to disrespect those in authority or to disobey the law. Let your respect for authority and obedience to the law be a testimony of your absolute trust in the absolutely sovereign God. Where would we be today if our Lord and Savior had not submitted himself to the unfair government and punishment given by Pontius Pilate. Even this unjust and cowardly act of a Roman governor, however, was part of the divine plan of a sovereign God.
Illustrations:
“Leaning Tower of Pisa” Craig Larson, Contemporary Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers, & Writers (1996) pg 92.
