Sermon Transcript — October 20, 2007
Well, we are about one year from a decision, an election of our next president of the United States. Already we're beginning to see news coverage on TV and other ads regarding various candidates. Someone wrote recently about our election process. I thought that was kind of interesting and quite telling.
It said, "Elections are a time for verbal acrobatics; political snafus, brickbats flying all over, murky pasts are raked up; double innuendos are made out of each remark; and deeds or misdeeds are meticulously examined."
We've become accustomed to such mudslinging, haven't we? And we've got a whole year of it yet to go. With this in mind I couldn't help but think about the very positive and encouraging, at times challenging perspective that God gives us in the scriptures regarding what our attitude should be toward civil, secular government.
What kind of thoughts does God want us to have running through our minds when we think about our State, local, and Federal governments. What does God want to go through our minds when we see candidates for the election, when we hear results and hear discussions? It can be a challenge to have a perspective, a right perspective. What attitude does God want us to have toward civil government? What should be our attitude toward the US government, or towaed Ohio government, that sort of thing? And what about our actions too? If you're like me it's easy to forget and lose the perspective that God's Word has and tells us to have regarding civil government.
A twentieth century historian referred to one particular chapter of the Bible and said this about it. This was a historian. He said, "It contains what are perhaps the most important words ever written for the history of political thought; yet it would be a gross mistake to suppose that men at any time took their political opinions from it."
What chapter of the Bible contains the most important words ever written about the role of human, civil government? Can you think of what that chapter would be? We'll be reading from that chapter today and I hope it will be inspiring to us and reassuring and educational for us in some respects because God gives us the gift of understanding regarding politics and civil government that few people on the earth have. We're some of the few that really understand the perspective that God has and the perspective we should have.
I titled my sermon today, if you enjoy titles is: "This World's Governments: What's a Christian to do?" We'll see God's answer to that question, and we can test ourselves to see whether we're living up to the high standard that God gives Christians as their obligation and instructions.
Before we go to that chapter, let's turn to Philippians 3:20; we'll see what that historian was referring to, but I think we ought to lay some foundation first of all, Philippians 3:20. We're all, I think, familiar, with the concept of a person having dual citizenship. That's not a strange term to us. A person can be a citizen born in one country and later in life can become a citizen of a different country, a second nation.
Philippians 3:20 says, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, (the Lord,) Jesus Christ.
The reality is that every Christian has dual citizenship; we all do. We're citizens of the kingdom of God even though its not yet time for the kingdom of God to take over the other governments and rule the entire world, and our most important citizenship is the one in heaven, referring to the kingdom of God. We're also of course, for the most part, Americans and maybe a few Canadians also, but we're citizens of the U. S. and more specifically of Ohio or of Kentucky.
Our ultimate loyalty, of course, is to the kingdom of God and to its values. That's why as Christians we don't volunteer to engage in military service or bear arms. As Christians we avoid voting in political elections, and we avoid getting involved in the political campaigns that are so common. Well as long as we live in the world we also have certain obligations to our country, the one in which we live. The question is, what are those Christian obligations?
Now let's go to that chapter of the Bible that the historian referred to, he called the most important words ever written for the history of political thought. That's Romans 13. Let's go there. At the Feast of Tabernacles we zeroed our minds in on the kingdom of God; how we were citizens of that kingdom. We'll see that our citizenship in the kingdom of God does not cancel out, does not eliminate our duties as U. S. citizens. In fact, we'll see that God puts the subject of our response to the political powers of the world in a very prominent, very high plane, high expectations. In fact, it will test our Christian character.In much of the book of Romans Paul discusses doctrine. He explains a lot of important doctrines. They take several chapters also to explain principles of Christian living, important principles: how Christians should honor God and serve Him. Now I wonder how well we understand what Paul was teaching here. We'll take some time to explain this and I think, see it hopefully as clearly as we can of our role of being able to honor God by serving properly our country. One of the chapters on Christian living that I mention is Romans 13. It's a good section on Christian living.
You have a chapter heading above chapter 13. It may say something like this: "The Duty of Submission to Civil Authority" or, perhaps "The Christian and the State." That gives us a snapshot of what the chapter contains. It's an important topic of Christian living.
Before I read that chapter, I think it might be important to ask the question, "What was going through Paul's mind to cause him to write these things?" I think the chapter doesn't explain specifically in detail, but I think we can know enough about the history of the time that we can safely speculate some of the issues that were going through Paul's mind.
Of course the governing power at the time Paul wrote this was the Roman empire. Paul might have been concerned about a number of concerns; a number of issues, one of which may have been that some members had Jewish background before they came into the church, and at the time there were Jewish groups that instigated revolts and rebellions against the Roman Empire. These groups believed that God was their king and they weren't going to submit to any pagan government. Instead they used force and violence to resist the Roman government.
Paul might well have been concerned that some Christians could sympathize with these groups and movements and even perhaps be tempted to participate in them. Another concern Paul would have had or could have had would have been the gentile Christians. They were aware of some of the corruption and intrigues of the Roman rulers. They might well have reasoned that God had called them out of this world; called them out of the pagan society, that the civil government no longer had any legitimate authority over them. They may have felt justified in refusing to submit to this pagan government. Another factor in Paul's thinking could have been that even the Roman government's perspective of Christianity, how Christianity began.
I'll read you a short quote from one of the commentaries. It gives us a short snapshot of how the Roman Empire could well have looked at Christianity. "Christianity began with a great handicap in the eyes of the Roman law for the sufficient reason that its founder, Jesus Christ, had been convicted and executed by the sentence of a Roman magistrate. The charge against him was summed up in the inscription attached to the cross which said, "King of the Jews." The one record of Him known to the Roman law was that he had led a movement that challenged the sovereign claims of Caesar."
Jesus, of course, did not try to overthrow the Roman government. He had been falsely charged as an agitator and a leader of a revolt which was not the case at all. So it was all that much more important that Paul, one of the Christians at the time, to counter the perspective that many of the Romans could have had toward Christianity and was instructing them to submit themselves to the government of Rome and not agitate, not give Rome any excuse but rather to be above reproach as a group of people.
What's more, this whole matter that one could have had a direct impact on Paul was his ability to preach in the area and develop churches as well. In other words, the more negative Rome viewed the church, the more difficult it was for Paul to establish churches, to preach the gospel.
We won't turn to Acts 17, but it tells a story of Paul and how he was traveling through Thessalonica. He was preaching; he was raising up churches. Some of the Jews in that area became very jealous and unhappy with the success of Paul's ministry. They rounded up some low lives and they created a mob and they began to make false accusations and claims against Paul. They said he was acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there was another king, Jesus. These troublemakers twisted the truth, and understandably the rulers of the city were upset. They were concerned about this; they were concerned about conflict and division, that sort of thing, but this wasn't Paul's fault.
It was a difficulty Paul had to contend with and live with for much of his life. Paul realized that these situations and it made it more necessary for him to emphasize again to the church, "Let's be a good example. Let's set the right example."
God inspired Paul to address this subject, a very important subject for Christians to understand whether we live under good governments or whether we live under persecuting governments.
We're ready for chapter 13. Let's go to Romans 13 now. Whatever the specific situations were that Paul had on his mind as he wrote this letter, it's clear that the instructions and the principles apply to every Christian living in every age, in every culture. These are weighty, important principles supplied by God and ones that I hope we'll apply in our own lives. Notice Romans 13:1 -
Romans 13:1 - Paul began by saying, "Let every soul...," meaning every person, every Christian "...be subject to the governing authorities..." What's required of us as Christians is to be subject to, to submit and submission is a voluntary, putting ourselves under the authority of someone else; in this case civil government. Submission involves cooperating with the will of the government, yielding to the will. Paul went out on verse one to give a foundational principle. He tells us why we should submit. He said, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God."
We're told that God is the only source of authority. God has the right and the authority to do what He wants and He has the power to back it up. We're introduced to the fact of authority. That's a reality of life. We live in a universe where there is order; where there's authority and there's submission to authority. That's just the way things are in the universe. That's like we parents train our children when they're very small, tender age to obey us. We're doing so, and by doing so we're beginning to teach them and build within their lives the understanding that there's authority and there's submission to authority, and that's just a reality of life, and life goes a lot smoother if we understand the dynamics and cooperate with the process.
If I've counted correctly, I believe the Bible refers to seven specific authority submission relationships involving human beings. Today we're going to talk about one of those.
So God has authority and He delegates certain authority to other beings. Even Satan's temporary authority in the world is authority that he has been given by God. He only has it because God gave it to him. And verse one tells us that human governments have authority. They have the right to decide matters, and to take action in certain matters. Where did they get their authority? Well, the Bible makes very clear they got it from God.
Whether we know it or not; whether they know it or not, rather, and most of them don't, of course, but it's still a fact of life that God gave governments authority. Does that mean then that God is pleased with every style of human government, and all the rulers, and everything they do? No, not at all. It does mean that it's God's idea to have human government in place and giving them authority is what God has in mind; that rulers of human governments are in their position either because God put them there or God allows them to be there. We are not excused from submitting to the government's laws or rules just because we don't like them or because we don't like the officials.
Are there then any restrictions, any limitations to this command that we read in verse one to submit to the authority of civil governments? You're probably aware the Bible gives one exception to the rule. We won't turn to Acts 5:29, but it gives us a principle; that when there's a conflict between God's law and human law there's one thing Christians should do. It says, "Weought to obey God rather than (men) man."
For example, if God commands us to worship on the Sabbath day, and civil authorities command us to worship on Sunday, in that case we should obey God. It's very clear. As a consequence a Christian may be required to submit to a penalty that the State imposes on them. Normally though, the duties to God and to civil governments are not in conflict; at least not frequently, especially in our country, and Christians can and should obey both. Lets look at verse 2 of Romans 13. There's a strong statement that prods us to be sure that we're making the right choices. Humanly we would never think of laws and rulers in this term, but we see God's perspective.
Romans 13:2 - Therefore whoever resists the authority... , that is, of the civil government, ... resists the ordinances of God, and those who resist will bring judgment, or punishment, on themselves. When we break laws and resist the government, God says we are rebelling against something that He has ordained. We honor God by honoring the arrangement and the rules that have been set up by those civil governments, by governing human beings. The punishment that's mentioned can either come from God or it can come from civilian ruling authority.
In Paul's day, if a Christian revolted against the Roman Empire there would often be swift punishment, but as I mentioned before these principles apply at all times to all Christians. Whether it's a big matter of civil law or a small matter it's still important. For example, if our states, if the state of Ohio, for example, set a speed limit on a particular highway and said, "Speed limit thirty-five miles an hour." And if we decide we're going to do seventy miles an hour on that stretch of highway we're breaking the law. But also we run a big risk of being caught, of being fined, being given a ticket. We broke the law. Therefore we would be punished in that respect. Notice verse 3 -
Verse 3 - For rulers are not a terror to good works,...Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. This is describing how a civil government typically works. The law abiding people have nothing to fear. While Paul was explaining this was he being naive? Was he being unrealistic in his day about the Roman government? No, he knew that mistreatment and persecution were certainly possible for God's people, but he's saying in general terms God's people should be law abiding and the law abiding people rarely have conflicts with civil governments. That's just the way things work. It's a typical state of affairs; you obey the laws of the land; you receive the benefits; and you're not in trouble with the law. Notice verse 4 -
Verse 4 - For the ruler or the government, for he is God's minister ...or servant ...to you for good.... Most interesting phrase there, isn't it? Why would Paul refer to the Roman government and by extension all civil government, for that matter, as God's minister or God's servant?
At the feast we focus on the great need for Christ to return to take over the governments of the world; to establish His own government. That will happen. Christ will return. He'll take over the governments but God has to wait for the right time to do this. In the meantime, he's doing something good for human beings. He's allowing human governments to be in place so we have a measure of security, order, and peace. Governments are essential. We must have them and without them society would collapse. We'd have anarchy and chaos. One of the most terrifying conditions possible would be no government, no laws, or rules or order. People would be stealing and killing without any restraint. Most likely we would have dangerous mob rule and no one wants to live like that.
So in that sense, in a sense of protecting and providing society with a necessary stability and a protection that human governments in that sense are God's servants even though they're not in reality, they wouldn't think in terms like that, but we as Christians with converted minds can understand that principle. Governments serve an important purpose. They benefit us in many ways, and our lives and our country would be far worse off if we did not have them.
Paul himself, on more than one occasion, was on the receiving end of benefits of the Roman law, the Roman government. Let's keep our place here in Romans 13. We're going to turn back to Acts 18:12; we're going to notice one example. A Roman official named Galio was governing the area of Achaia, or Greece. Jewish leaders in Corinth, who were opposing Paul, tried to use the Roman government against Paul. Let's pick it up in Acts 18:12.
Acts 18:12 - When Galio was proconsul (of) in Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. Paul's life was never easy. God didn't call him to an easy way of life at all.
Verse 13 - saying, "This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law." Now this wasn't true at all, and Galio was perceptive enough not to be fooled. What's important to understand here is that the Jewish religion had certain rights that were protected actually by Roman law, and Galio saw Christianity basically as another sect of Judaism.
Verse 14 - So the charges had been made against Paul, false charges. ...Paul was about to open hismouth ...to explain his side; to develop his argument of defense. Before he could, before he even said one word, Galio, the Roman official said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be reason why I should bear with you." 'If you had broken the law, then I'd be involved,' he said. The Roman government would have gotten involved.
Verse 15 - "But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves;..." solve this problem yourselves "...for I do not want to be a judge of such matters." Galio understood this is a religious issue; it was not a civil issue; it did not involve breaking and violating any of the Roman laws, but the Roman laws did protect him. It gave him protection in that situation.
Verse 16 - And he drove them from the judgment seat. So they failed to get Paul into trouble. So Paul himself did benefit from the authority and the law of the Roman government in that particular situation. Lets go back to Romans 13 again. This time we'll begin in verse 4. We read the first part of verse 4 earlier. We'll begin the verse all over again and see that there's one of the most important components of civil government is to restrain criminals, punish crimes which includes serious crimes.
Romans 13:4 - " For he , ...referring to the secular government, secular leader in that case, ...he is God's minister, or God's servant to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Now I find it fascinating that in that verse Paul refers twice to the fact that the civil governments, the civil leaders were considered God's servants. He mentions it twice, and typically when God mentions something twice it's because He's concerned we missed the point the first time and He's emphasizing it so that we don't miss the point. He mentioned it twice in one verse.
These rulers are God's servants. Swords, of course, are given to people to exercise control; even put people to death. Paul was saying that all Christians should have a healthy respect for the government because it has the power to punish crimes at times even inflicting the death penalty. I think it's especially interesting here to notice that God delegates to civil governments something he forbids Christians to have, to do. To the Christian God says, "Vengeance is mine and all who live by the sword will die by the sword."
In other words, God is saying, "You, Christians, you're in a special category. You're My people. You're called out of the world. You're being prepared for a permanent part of the permanent government in the family of God. You're not to take vengeance. You're not to bear arms or to kill." But to civil governments God says, "Vengeance is mine and I delegate to you the authority to avenge crime and serious crimes. My kingdom is not here yet. I can't leave societies in chaos and anarchy with human lives unprotected so I will allow you human governments to use the sword to avenge." The point is that God is using Christians for one purpose and he's using civil governments for another purpose, a different purpose. That's an important distinction for us to be able to understand.
Verse 5 - Therefore, He said, "You must be subject, ..." interesting term, quite strong. It's not optional even when government officials are corrupt; or even when they persecute God's people. Christians are still to be subject; you must", He said. The only exception is referred to before; is when the civil government is telling us to disobey God's laws. In that case we will obey God and remain subject to the human government even if it means a penalty. "Therefore, you must be subject," He said, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake." Hmm! Interesting twist there.
This verse tells us that to submit to human government, we do it for two reasons; Christians would do it for two reasons. One reason would be, as was given in verse 4 that we're lookin' out for our own skin. We don't want to get ourselves in trouble. We don't want to be fined, sent to jail, penalized and if we don't want to be in trouble then we obey the laws. That has benefits for us.
Second reason he lists here has a much higher rationale to it. It says "for conscience sake." In other words we do it because it's the will of God and because it's part of the Christian religion to obey the laws of the land. We do it to honor, to serve, to please God. We obey the authorities for God's sake. He tells us to. We may not get caught or punished every time we break a law; that is, by the civil government, but it should bother our conscience if we break a law. It should honestly bother our conscience, and the very idea of considering to break a law should bother our conscience so much that we wouldn't do it; we wouldn't break the law.
For example, if the law of the land says the legal drinking age is twenty-one then Christians should obey the law "for conscience sake." If a law requires us to have insurance on our automobile before we drive it then we buy auto insurance before we drive the car "for conscience sake." And if a Christian is a hunter, and the law says that the gun season for deer doesn't begin until a half-hour before sunrise Monday morning then "for conscience sake" we would not go out Sunday afternoon and shoot our deer.
The next command in verse 6 presents another interesting challenge because it hits us right in the wallet.
Romans 13:6 - For because of this...,because God gives governments their authority and because of Christians having sensitive consciences, ...you also pay taxes.... Notice that Paul was assuming that Christians were already paying taxes. He said, "...you also pay taxes...." At the same time it's a command that we should be paying taxes. Let's finish verse 6 - For because of this you also pay taxes, and notice again, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. That's three times in a short section of scripture Paul said "they're God's servants; they're God'sservants." If you missed it the first two times he says it the third time, "they are God's servants." That gives us a perspective of how God wants us to view civil authorities.
In other words, God expects us to support the government financially. And governments do provide for us a number of outstanding services: wide roads to travel on, water to use, police force, fire departments to protect us, and it's wrong for us to take the benefits that the government provides but not also give the financial support. We're understanding the government is "God's servant." At least it should make paying taxes a little more reasonable; a little less painful, a little less painful.
Verse 7 - "Render therefore," He said, "to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor." Meaning we must show respect at least for the office, at least for the office of various government officials even if we don't respect the person's lifestyle. Probably a few government officials come to mind as far as their lifestyle, and no, we don't appreciate that, but we're to at least respect the office.
In the past I've known a few church members who felt that they did not owe the government any taxes. They found a way that they felt it was proper for them not to pay taxes. Others believe that it's okay to cheat the government by taking money "under the table" and not reporting the income to the government. But God's instructions here in verse 7, I think, are very clear. We are obligated to pay taxes accurately, honestly, carefully - even when taxes are oppressive or unjust. We're expected to pay them until things change; i.e., the kingdom of God comes.
Paying taxes can be a difficult financial challenge; I understand that; but like every other part of Christianity there's something bigger at stake than just the immediate issue of paying taxes. God is actually teaching us a lesson about government and preparing us to rule in His family. He's working with us along the line of applying the principle that a person who's faithful in something that is small can be trusted to be faithful in things that can be much larger in the kingdom of God. Even in the area of paying taxes God is very aware of what we do. He's also with us and will help us do our part.
This subject of submitting to civil government was something that Paul repeated in another one of his letters. We'll look at that in a minute but the apostle Peter also chimed in here. Peter gave his two cents worth, and it's interesting; we won't take the time to read his account, but if we did we'd see that Peter insisted, he insisted to the church: he said, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake..." That's pretty clear, isn't it? ...For this, he said, is the will of God." He also said, "Honor the king," meaning, show respect and honor in our attitudes and in our words toward government officials.
There was a segment recently on a PBS station that I think provided quite an interesting and an outstanding example of honoring government officials even in a very difficult situation. You may have seen this. The woman who was being interviewed was Iranian by birth. She was a sixty-seven year old grandmother. She lives in the United States and is a director of a Middle East program based in Washington, Woodrow Wilson Center. She's also an author.
Last December she flew to Tehran to visit her ninety-three year old mother. She had been there a month, and the officials arrived and interrogated her. They then arrested her and imprisoned her on the charge of endangering Iranian national security although she had done nothing wrong. Since then she's been released, and here's what she wrote about that experience. There's a real lesson here for Christians.
She said, "The steel door closed with a clang of finality. Suddenly I was cut off from the outside world; surrounded by four high walls and completely alone. It was solitary confinement.
"It's difficult to describe the feelings that overtakes you in a prison cell. First comes overwhelming dread, then disbelief ..." 'How did I end up a political prisoner? "...and doubt. Will I be here for weeks, months, years? Will I be able to bear up under the pressure?'
"The charge seemed ludicrous. I, a sixty-seven year old grandmother was accused of threatening the security of the most populous and powerful country in the Middle East because I'd organized conferences in Washington on Iran and other States in the region? The implications were frightening. To be in solitary confinement means to cling to hope and to struggle with despair.
"For nearly four months my only human contact was with prison guards and interrogators. I decided from the start that if I were to avoid falling apart I must impose a strict discipline on myself and maintain a positive attitude. To stay focused I avoided thinking about my family. I adopted and stuck to a strict regimen of exercise; walking, or pacing in my cell and outdoors when allowed, and reading. While exercising I wrote an entire book; a biography of my grandmother. I wrote it in my head; editing, transposing paragraphs, rewriting passages."
For the sermon today, what I found especially interesting was what she said in regard to the interrogation sessions. She went on to say, "I decided from the beginning to remain polite and because I had nothing to hide to answer truthfully."
She also made a decision, a conscious decision to speak politely to the guards; those who brought her food and those who directed her activities. In other words, she demonstrated respect; respect for the civil authorities.
From hearing her talk on this PBS interview it was obvious that she had not been respectful primarily out of fear or self-interest. She clearly was a warm and dignified and very articulate woman, and she had an air of moral authority and confidence about her. Certain people have that quality of moral authority, because they live by right principles. Her moral authority in her imprisonment motivated her and made it possible for her to interact politely even with unjust officials.
You know, I couldn't help but think that if Christians should ever be persecuted by a civil government, hopefully we'd be able to show similar proper respect and have the same moral authority because we faithfully live by the principles of Romans 13, including the principle of showing honor to civil authorities.
Let's pick up our final point today in I Timothy 2:1 where again we read a letter from the apostle Paul. Paul wrote more than once about this subject, both to the Romans, but he also wrote to one of his ministers, Timothy and his duty was to explain this to his churches. Tell the members this; be sure we all are on the same page.
Here we see one more duty of a Christian in regard to civil governments. What makes this section of scripture especially striking is that at the time Paul wrote this, the emperor in power was Nero. Now that name probably has an emotional reaction in those of you who are familiar with Nero because he's famous, or infamous in that sense for persecuting the Christians and for just being cruel. Paul wanted Timothy to teach the church members to be spiritually healthy; to be growing spiritually. Notice I Timothy 2:1 -
I Timothy 2:1 - He said, "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men." Part of our prayers, as we've already been taught and I think most of us understand - part of our prayers should include thanking God. What for? Notice what Paul singled out and gives us a direct command to do; to be thankful for.
Verse 2 - For kings (and) for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
Verse 3 - For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Do we thank God for our civil governments, for our leaders, civil leaders? You know, as we well know our civil system of our government is not perfect and has many weaknesses and many flaws but it's better, far better than many governments around the world. People come to our country because they see the benefits and the freedoms that we have as a nation, and it's definitely better than no government at all, by that I mean anarchy.
William Barkley makes an interesting point in his commentary when he was discussing the early church. I thought you would find this interesting; I certainly did. Barkley said, "It is extraordinary to trace how all through its early days, those days of bitter persecution, that the church regarded it as an absolute duty to pray for the emperor and his subordinate kings and governors."
It's very easy for us to forget to pray for our civil leaders; our president, our congress, senators and governor and things like that and the leaders of other nations as well. It's especially easy for us as Americans to overlook this responsibility because we take for granted that we live in a peaceful country. We have all these freedoms, and we assume, it's easy to assume we'll always have these.
Our brethren in other countries don't have nearly the ideal conditions we have, and they would appreciate us praying for them to have peace and for favor with the government in their countries.
Verse 1 told us to pray for all people; but praying for rulers is emphasized because they affect the lives of others. Their decisions effect and impact the lives of many other people and also because God can influence them in decisions they make that can be favorable to many of God's people. Your prayers and mine can make a difference. Peaceful, stable conditions are important for Christians to have in order to flourish and especially for us to accomplish our work that God's given us of preaching the gospel around the world.
So how are we doing? In following Paul's points are we fulfilling our Christian obligations as Americans, as Christian Americans or American Christians? We've seen four obligations that God requires of us; practical ways in which we can serve God.
First of all, number one: We're to have a courteous esteem for the government and for the government officials out of respect for God and the office, if for no other reason; a courteous esteem, respect.
Secondly: We're to be careful to obey the laws of the land for conscience sake, and that means something important to those of us who are converted.
Three: We're to support the government financially by paying our taxes and fourthly, we're to faithfully pray for government officials and all those who are in authority.
How are we doing on those four points? Three out of four? Two out of four? One out of four? Don't talk about it. How are we doing on those four points?
The time is coming when human governments will be replaced by the government of God on this earth. Christ Himself will return to establish His kingdom. We'll be part of that world ruling government. Our obligation to secular authorities is only temporary, and it will come to an end.
For now though, let's faithfully live up to the duty as Christian citizens in our nation.