A Good Question: Part Two

In a political discussion I recently,(probably smugly,) trotted out my usual quote of Romans 13:1-8:

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities..."

"Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority?
Then do what is right and he will commend you."

A gentleman replied:

"Is it being suggested that 6 million Jews (not to mention the 5 million or so non-Jews) had nothing to fear from their govt (Rom 13:3)? How about the 20 million under Stalin / Lenin or the 30 million under Mao?

I am sure, based on the blanket application of this scripture, that these combined 60+ million folks had nothing to fear from their respective governments."

- R.F.

To answer this question will strike at the heart of what a person's main priority in life is built around. If the core of your being is built around serving yourself and Christianity is just the covering that those ambitions are bound within, your response to bad government has to be to effectively look out for your own interests. That's not monstrous, but is really pretty normal.

A rational person so motivated will join with others of like mind and seek to protect their core interests and advocate for changes which will better serve, protect and advance themselves. Even great altruism is often a reflection of a person serving their perception of their best interest. It happens everywhere, everyday and is the philosophical basis for structures as diverse as democracy, capitalism, political parties and tupperware parties.

However the Bible presents a diametrically opposite foundation for a believer's life. A believer is to forget themself and use this life to advance God's interests. And it logically progresses that God's interests are served by obeying God even to the loss of the individual's life. This is highly abnormal, truly extreme and isolating. This will push a person to the fringes of the world and even that is used by God as an additional witness to His power, His Love and His forgiveness.

The person serving themself, in the face of a governmental threat, must respond with obedience or civil or uncivil disobedience in that proportion which will advance their best interest. The path to maximize those interests follows this decision tree:

1) Obey the government when it serves your interests.
2) Obey the government when it diminishes your interests as long as the expected punishment for disobedience is greater than the expected cost of obedience.
3) When the expected cost of punishment is less than the expected cost obedience, disobey the government.

If a person is serving God then they are intent on obeying God and the decision tree is very different:

1) Obey God and the government when they are compatible.
2) When God and the government's instructions are in conflict, obey God and then submit yourself to the government's prescribed remedies for disobedience, (even if it costs you your life.)

It's not easy to watch this process play out. In Scripture we see people submitting themselves time and time again to this process of offering their life in obedience to God's will:

Daniel in the Lions' Den.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace.
Queen Esther appearing to the King without Prior Summons.
Jesus on the Cross.

Each of these is a witness to a time when a person offered up their life to obey God. And the Bible also makes mention of many others whose lives were forfeit through this same process. It really all comes down to who and how you will serve!

Atheist
Serve Who? Self
Serve How? My Way
The Result: Damnation

Christian with Reservations
Serve Who? God
Serve How? My Way
The Result: Sows Confusion

Unreserved Christian
Serve Who? God
Serve How? God's Way
The Result: Brings Glory to God

AND NOTE: If there is no disagreement between God's Word and the goverment, the person founded on serving themself will react and behave in the same manner as a believer. Heck you can fill churches with people founded on self interest who walk talk and sound exactly like people who are founded on obeying God. But when the government and God's Word begin to diverge, things start to strain. Those preserving self will begin to seek ways to maximize self-interest while those built upon service to God will begin seeking those ways in the changed environment that advance God's Will.

Christians often don't like to hear this, but then, that's another post...