Respecting Authority

I don't know if anybody's noticed, but we're in an election year. Yes, you might have noticed. We get bombarded with rhetoric during an election year, messages proclaiming how great one candidate it is, and more often berating and criticizing the other. And when I think about it, it's been mostly focusing on the presidential campaign so far. We've still got the nitty-gritty of all the local offices to come. And, you know, just plain mud-slinging. That's the term we've come to call it, and it's about that bad, and it seems to get worse every year. It seems that it must be the worst it's ever been. Does anybody feel that way? That it's getting... Well, to say that it might not be the worst it's ever been. I brought some quotes about some candidates and some leaders in America or in the United States from the past. So as part of my introduction, I want to read these to set the stage of where we're going. Now, of one president, James A. Garfield, who served in the late 1800s, a former president, U.S. Grant, said this. He said, Garfield has not shown that he's possessed of the backbone of an angle worm. Moving back a few years earlier, a senator, Senator Henry Clay, said of President Andrew Jackson, he's ignorant, passionate, hypocritical, corrupt, and easily swayed by the basest men who surround him. I haven't heard anything like that. Well, I've heard something kind of like that. Now, Abraham Lincoln is widely considered to be the best president this country's ever had. But we might not think of these days about how he was also the most widely criticized and roundly hated president. Harper's Weekly Magazine, which was a very prominent general readership magazine, printed a story that included these adjectives about him. Filthy storyteller, despot, liar, thief, braggart, buffoon, usurper, monstrous, ignoramus, Abe, old scoundrel, perjurer, robber, swindler, tyrant, field butcher, and land pirate.

Yes, and that's in the general readership magazine. Southern newspapers called Lincoln a baboon in terms that were usually reserved for African-American slaves. So often, I didn't bother to look up any quotes because, of course, in the South he was widely hated. But let me read a paragraph to you from the Salem Advocate. That's Salem, Illinois, his own home state. This is a little more lengthy, but I thought it such a good example. Now, it's funny, it's not as mean. Well, it is mean-spirited, but not as vulgar as some others. But it says, the illustrious, honest old Abe has continued during the last week to make a fool of himself and to mortify and shame the intelligent people of this great nation. His speeches have demonstrated the fact that, although originally a Herculean rail-splitter, more lately a whimsical story-teller and side-splitter, he's no more capable of becoming a statesman, nay, even a moderate one, than the braying ass can become a noble lion. People marvel now at how it came to pass that Mr. Lincoln should have been selected as the representative man of any party. His weak, wishy-washy, namby-pamby efforts, embezzle and matter, disgusting in manner, have made us the laughing-stock of the whole world.

The urine-pean powers will despise us because we have no better material out of which to make a president. The truth is, Lincoln is only a moderate lawyer, and in the larger cities of the Union could pass for no more than a facetious pedophogger. Take him from his vocation, and he loses even these small characteristics, and indulges in simple twaddle which would disgrace a well-bred schoolboy. That's an eloquent insult, I would say. Especially for all the mudslinging we have today, I haven't heard any politicians call it facetious pedophoggers. I think I'd have to get out my dictionary to double-check, but I'm sure it's not nice. It turns out that even the father of our country, George Washington, experienced public abuse in the press, and he was widely revered, almost worshipped. But it took great efforts by his closest friends and advisors to convince him to run for a second term, or to serve a second term, because he'd been so criticized. Let me read just one quote. You might have heard of the writer Thomas Paine. He wrote the pamphlet Common Sense, and also the crisis papers. You know, these are the times that try men's souls. Well, he wrote a piece in a newspaper later criticizing George Washington that said this, and to you, sir, treacherous in private friendship and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an imposter, whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any.

That's something. Now, as I said, today we think it's the worst it's ever been, but it seems like it's gone on and on. Most of the presidents I've mentioned have been considered some of the greatest leaders and most universally admired in our history. So, it should be obvious that the mudslinging and the criticism and the harsh insults weren't necessarily based on whether or not the person in office was competent, whether or not he deserved the respect or attack.

And you might be wondering at this point, is Mr. Dunkel just going for humor, or, you know, what's the lesson for us in this? And one of the lessons I think that we can take is the way that we talk about leaders in government position. The way we talk about them also should not depend on whether or not the person is competent. Shouldn't really depend on how much they deserve or earn our respect. Now, that should sound kind of contrary to us. We're Americans, you know, that's not the way we do things, but that's why I wanted to address that today, to remind us that we're citizens of the kingdom of God first and American second. Now, that doesn't mean that we're not proud to be Americans and very patriotic and loyal to our country, because I feel it's a great blessing to live here. But the Bible gives us clear instruction regarding showing respect for government and authority, and those instructions aren't really based on whether or not the person deserves that respect. They're based on understanding God's control of world events. So let's go to Scripture to see this. I want to go to Romans chapter 13. Romans 13 will begin at the beginning of the chapter. I hear the Apostle Paul, writing to the church in Rome, says, 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. Therefore, whoever resists the authority is resisting or resists the ordinance of God. Those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Well, do what's good, and you'll have praise of the same. For he's God's minister to you for good. And that by minister could mean God's servant. If you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. I want to stop there and mention, I've heard some people interpret this to say, well, this isn't talking about government, it's talking about leaders in the church. Which I think that's incorrect. It's talking about government authorities. I think it plainly says, the proof to me is, of course, where it says he bears the sword, not in vain. God's ministers don't use swords to enforce the authority here. It's talking about government. He's an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscious sake. For because of this, this is another proof that is talking about secular government. Because of this, you pay taxes for their God's ministers or servants attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all that are due. Taxes to whom taxes are due. Custom to whom customs. Fear to whom fear. Honor to whom honor. And that honor that's due, I want to emphasize, is based not on a person's competency or moral character, but the position they hold. Now, it's obvious that, you know, the same Paul who wrote this is the one that told us, we're ambassadors. He told us our citizenship is in heaven, but he's telling us while we're here as ambassadors to be subject to government authority and to pay proper honor and respect to the men in that authority. And makes the point that the reason we do this is because they're only in that position because God allowed it or caused it.

And we can show that even the bad rulers are in place because of God. Let's turn to Daniel chapter 4.

Daniel 4, and we'll read verse 17.

This is breaking into a fairly long story where the king of the Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar, has been shown a vision and then Daniel comes to interpret it. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I want to make this point. This is the part of what Nebuchadnezzar saw in the dream. This decision is by the decree of the Watchers and the sentence by the word of the Holy Ones in order that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men. God is in charge in man's kingdom, giving and gives it to whomever he will, sets over it the lowest of men. So God, if there's somebody that seems to us to be the lowest of man in a position, he might be, but he's still there because God allowed that to happen. Now, I'd make the point that it could seem confusing to people who don't understand what we do as far as God's purpose working in this world. Many people out there think God is trying to save the world. He's trying to make it the best it can be now, and there's this great struggle between God and Satan. Well, you know, that's not the case. God is letting this world go the way it goes. Satan is the prince of the power of the air, but God reserves the right to put people in office, whom he will, for his purpose. Let's go to Romans chapter 9 to see an example of that. But knowing that it's not God's purpose to try to save the world now or to try to make it heaven on earth now, he doesn't have to work or it's against his purpose to try to put the best, most moral people in office in every case. Such was the case in ancient Israel. When God determined that he would bring the Israelites out of Egypt, he determined to put someone in office in Egypt who would not cooperate. Let's read Romans chapter 9 beginning in verse 15. This is quoting from the Old Testament. This is for he says to Moses, I'll have mercy on whomever I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it was not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, the Pharaoh who kept hardening his heart and wouldn't let Israel go. God says to him, for this very purpose, I raised you up. I raised you up, put you in the position of Pharaoh so that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in the earth. So God allowed Pharaoh, not a very good ruler for the state of his people, to be in position to work out God's plan and purpose. So we need to realize that God may be doing similar things through leaders right now. He isn't necessarily revealing to us exactly why. And that's important to remember when we might look around and see our country doing what seems to be a spiral downhill or down the drain, governed by leaders who often seem to be incompetent or corrupt.

And by saying that, I don't want to go against what I'm saying of showing respect, but we can look with open eyes and see what's happening. But we need to remember that God is fully aware and he's in control. No one slips into an office without him knowing that.

And I think of that with a presidential election coming up and it's easy to get up tight and say, oh, I want this guy to win or I don't want that guy to win and think, oh, no, what's going to happen to us if he wins? Wait a minute. We don't have to worry about that. As I said, no one can get into an office unless God allows it.

And if God doesn't want someone there, there's no power on earth that could cause it to be. Now, I wanted to bring this up. I'm going to sort of step it as a side light of one of the reasons I think it's a concern. Obviously, our nation does seem to be going downhill and we can't, you know, there's no reason to ignore that. And I do think it's caused in large part by failures of leadership.

And on both sides, or we have two major parties, leadership in both parties I think has been lacking in morality and in character. And of course, if you go to the other different, you know, smaller parties, you could say the same. So we're not blind. Our people in the church see that and get concerned. Another reason, though, I think that we get concerned is that we in the church, we've become a little more free and noticing and voicing criticism of those in office, largely because we're affected by society around us.

Now, it's not wrong, as I said, to analyze as long as we balance it with the proper respect. And as I was saying, we've all along been influenced somewhat by the culture around us. Looking back in history, you know, the church went through its greatest growth in the period of mostly the 50s and 60s. And we think, well, it wasn't like that. We didn't show disrespect back then. We listened to authority. Well, so did everyone in the country. It was a common part of our culture in the United States through that period to respect authority, to show conformity and compliance to lines of authority.

That's because we'd come out of World War II, and, you know, it was necessary to support the work of the nation in that war. And many, of course, men had served in the military and had been taught strict discipline and obedience. That attitude, I think, interestingly continued in the church, even after it started to fade in society. As we went into the 60s and 70s, it became common in society to disrespect authority. The church lagged far behind in doing that, which is good, because as we've seen, the Scripture shows we should respect authority and stick with that. But I think we've swung to another extreme to some degree.

When I say extreme, I'm not saying that we're way out there, but I mean extreme for the church. And I should slow down and say this more carefully so I don't garble what I'm trying to say. What I'm looking at is, about 15 years ago, we went through a crisis in the church of leadership. Many of us had leaders in the church start teaching things that we knew were not true, and we had to stand up and prove to ourselves. And so we became necessarily more self-reliant, and from then on, more willing to be a little more critical of leadership in the church, because we had to.

Well, I think once we took that step, it made it easy to start looking at leadership in secular government and be more critical and activist in that sense, too. And of course, as I said, it's never wrong to think for yourself and to be aware and prove what's right and what's wrong, but we don't want to lose track of the necessity to show proper respect to office and remember who's in charge, who will allow someone to hold an office or doesn't.

That was more clear when I was putting it on paper. People are nodding, so I hope I didn't garble it. Let's see what the Bible says about showing that respect. If you'll turn to Ecclesiastes. As I said, I don't mind, well, I do decry what happened in the church, obviously, and any apostasy that led people to be deceived was terrible, but it wasn't bad that we studied and proved to ourselves. Those of us who came out of it were stronger for it. But as I said, once we started proving for ourselves things and standing on our own two feet, it became easy to start criticizing leaders in all walks of life.

Ecclesiastes 10 and verse 20, Solomon said this very simple, do not curse the king even in your thoughts. Don't curse the rich even in your bedroom. A bird of the air may carry your voice and a bird in flight might tell the matter. Now there he's saying there could be consequences if it becomes known, but I would say the bigger consequence is that we shouldn't even be doing it. He says, not even in your thoughts.

Now, of course, Solomon was king, so when he says don't curse the king, he had a little self-interest, but I think he was inspired by God in this case. You know, it's become so common in our society to speak very disrespectfully about government leaders so that it doesn't even seem unusual when we hear it. I mean, some of the most terrible things, you know, pass and sometimes I find myself not noticing it, but the Bible teaches us differently. And I'll say that, and I made a note here on a side to just admit, of course, I don't consider myself a fan of President Obama's policies or of, you know, some of the people he's put in authority, so I'm not standing up to take one side or another as far as political office goes. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the things that the former president did when he was in office. But I do want to remember what God told us in Daniel 4.17, that he puts rulers in office and sometimes even the basis of men. So when I don't, well, I don't want to become like those who I quoted in my introduction. You know, Thomas Paine said some nasty things about George Washington, of course, the things about Lincoln. They're so wild that they could be laughable, but they stack up well with things today. We also don't want to be like those that we can read in Jude. The book of Jude, verse 7, I always want to say chapter, but Jude, let's go there. Remember, it's about a page and a half long just before Revelation.

And we'll be reminded of the example we don't want to follow. As I said, I'm bringing this out because the rhetoric is running high and we can get caught up. As I said, I don't think we should stick our hole in the ground and not think, but we should be in control of how we think and what we say. Jude 8, or Jude, verse 8 says, likewise also these dreamers. And you might say, well, who is he talking about these dreamers? Up in verse 4, he's talking about these certain men who crept in unnoticed. So these people that are among the church that crept in, he says, likewise, these filthy dreamers, or these dreamers, defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. So people will come in and they speak evil of someone to whom they should be showing respect. Now, if we go into the next verse, it'll show the contrast of what we should strive to emulate. In verse 9, he says, yet Michael, the archangel, and contending with the devil. You want to talk about... this isn't somebody who was like the devil. This was the devil, and he knew it. But when he disputed with him about the body of Moses, didn't bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke. Now, that doesn't sound as clever as some of the things I read early on. As I said, calling Lincoln a buffoon and a monstrous ignoramus, but saying the Lord rebuke you is putting the authority where it belongs and letting the right person correct someone. Now, I should point out, of course, that doesn't mean that someone who's in authority will never face any consequences for doing wrong.

If God puts someone into office, they're answerable to God for what they do wrong. And I think we've had many in office, and probably many in office now, who will be paying that price. But it's up to us to leave God to hold them accountable. Let's turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 26. We'll notice the example of King David after he'd been anointed king, but before he was able to take office and how he viewed his predecessor. 1 Samuel, chapter 26. We'll begin in verse 9.

Now, this is, of course, the time when Saul had become jealous and suspicious of David and was hunting him down wanting to kill him. So David was on the run. He had a good opportunity to be vengeful or want to get back at Saul. And in this case, he had the opportunity to do it. Right there, he could have struck down Saul. And of course, he's there with Abishai. They sneak into the camp when God puts them into a deep sleep. And Abishai says, well, let me kill him. He's your enemy. But in verse 9, David says this. David says to Abishai, do not destroy him. Who can stretch out his hand against the eternal's anointed and be guiltless? And David said, furthermore, as the eternal lives, the eternal will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he'll go into battle and perish. So David said, I'm not going to take it on myself to punish him. David wouldn't say bad things about him. He said, God will take care of him. That's who he's accountable to. Let's also see another example. Back to Daniel, chapter 4. We'll go back to Daniel and we'll continue part of that story where Daniel was addressing Nebuchadnezzar and letting him know that he was, you could say, walking on thin ice. God sent a warning to came Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 4, and beginning in verse 24. Now, after Nebuchadnezzar had this dream where he saw this great tree and then it was cut off and a band of iron put around the stump, and Daniel interpreted and basically said, this vision is applying to you.

Verse 24 says, this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King. They'll drive you from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They'll make you eat grass like an oxen and wet you with the dew of heaven till seven times pass over you. Till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses. Daniel was telling Nebuchadnezzar, look, this dream is telling you, you've gotten lifted up by pride and vanity and if you don't stop it, God is going to make you like a beast. They're going to drive you out. You're going to live out and lay on the ground and you'll lose your sensibility. And why? So that he would know where his authority came from. So that you'll know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and he gives it to whomever he chooses. And basically Nebuchadnezzar was learning that he answered to God. No man could lift him up or move him down. I wanted to read... Oh, but I did want to note that even while Daniel was telling Nebuchadnezzar this, he spoke with great respect to his position and authority in verse 27.

Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquity by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity. That's a pretty gracious, nice way to address the king. He didn't say, you better straighten out, you dirty old so-and-so, or God is going to knock you down.

No, he spoke with respect to the authority and the position, even though the news wasn't so good.

We can see another example of Daniel doing that in chapter 6. The famous story of Daniel being thrown into the lions den. I'm not going to read the whole story of what led up to that. Of course, the advisors to the king had him sign a law that was targeted to get Daniel. Daniel knew it, and he still prayed and allowed them to catch him. Let's read in verse 19. Now, remember the king, once he consented to this because he'd been trapped, wasn't happy. He didn't want Daniel to be killed. So after staying up all night worrying, the king goes to the lions den to find out what's happened to Daniel. Daniel 6 in verse 19, the king arose very early in the morning. He went and hasted the den of lions. When he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel.

Can I imagine? So he says to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you continually serve, been able to deliver you from the den of lions?

And it's funny, Daniel didn't say, yeah, man, I showed you. Daniel said to the king, oh, king, live forever. Have you ever read that? He said, what in the world? How come, you know, he was just saved from lions and he's saying, oh, king, live forever. Well, he was using the proper respect and the terminology that was used in that day. Actually, if you look across the page in chapter or verse six of the same chapter, the governors and satraps throng before the king. And whenever they have the custom of the day to show respect to the offices, when you first address the king, they said, King Darius lived forever. Now they knew that he was a man that he wouldn't live forever. But it's sort of like in Britain today, a common phrase is long live the queen. You could say this is the equivalent to that. Whether it's a good queen or king or not, that's the phrase. Here, Daniel, he was in a position where if ever you could be defiant, I mean, what could the king do worse than throwing him in den of lions? Daniel didn't have to show that respect, but he wanted you know, he still did. Daniel served in high office, he served under many kings, both good and bad, and he used the proper protocol. Paul did that likewise. I want to look at a case, let's see, when Paul was in legal process, he used a certain way of addressing. Let's go to Acts chapter 23.

Acts chapter 23. We'll see an example of the apostle Paul acknowledging that you should address someone differently depending on how they're off, what officer, what, my words just are stumbling today, please pardon me for that. And we can see that when Paul didn't know the office someone was holding, he spoke a little more freely. Acts chapter 23, now this is after he'd been taken in the temple and they were accusing him of things that were untrue and he's put on trial.

So in the first verse, Paul looking earnestly at the council, so he's in front of a legal tribunal, and he says, men and brethren, I've lived in good conscience and all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by to strike him on the mouth. You hit him on the mouth and they did. You can imagine Paul's temper rose up and he said, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. For you sit to judge me according to law and you command me to be struck contrary to the law. So Paul lashed out. Who do you think you are? You're violating the law. Paul's rights were violated and he knew it. And the people were aghast. And they said, do you speak to God's high priest like that? And what did Paul say? He changed his tone. Paul said, I didn't know, brethren, that he was the high priest. I didn't know he was the high priest. Basically insinuating, I would never have said that. And he quotes scripture. For it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. So Paul quoted, and he was quoting Exodus 22 verse 28, where it says, and my King James said, you shall not curse the ruler of your people. He translated as, you shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people. Now Paul knew that Ananias, as a person, didn't deserve this respect. He was violating the law. But Paul wanted to set a proper example, and he quoted scriptures saying, you don't speak evil of a ruler, even when you see them doing wrong. Now this law in Exodus doesn't say that you have to like the ruler. It doesn't say you have to approve of what he's doing, or even that you have to flatter him or say nice things, just show the proper respect of the office. Now, and I'll stop and admit, that goes diametrically opposite to our American way, doesn't it? Our American way is, I'm not going to show any flattery to anyone just because of an office. You know, I'm an American. I can say whatever I want about anyone.

You know, that's okay. It's okay that that's our American tradition. But as Christians, we should stand out as being a little above that. I'm not sure I want to say it. You know, holding to a higher standard. And speaking of the American tradition, I couldn't help but think of a little bit of the history. It wasn't always that way, or at least there was some debate as to maybe it being different in America. When our government was first adopted, you know, the Constitution was adopted, they had their first elections, President Washington was elected unanimously, and the Senate, you know, and Congress gathered in New York City. This is before Washington, D.C. had been built. And they got there before General Washington, now President Washington did. And one of the first debates they had in the Senate was, what do we call him? What do we call him? And there were serious, a serious long-term debate, and some people were proposing that they call him his excellency, or his high mightiness, or the high protector of liberty. And James Madison said, well, wait a minute. I think the Constitution already gives him a title, President of the United States.

And Washington, when he did come into town, confirmed that. He said, none of that, you can call me Mr. President. And I really respect Washington. He could have said, no, I like his excellency, or, you know, well, I don't know, I'm tempted to say something amusing, but let's just say Washington, you know, wanted, he maintained the dignity of the office, but with a fairly humble title, and it's been so ever since. So I think it's not asking that much for Christians in our day and age to address office holders with the title, Senator so-and-so, Governor, Congressman, or even if it's just Mr. Whatever. Especially, I know, I'm just gonna, well, let's turn to 1 Peter 217, because I know I've heard some people say, well, calling someone Mr. or your honor, or something like that is a form of idolatry. Well, I don't think so. It's not meant to be, it's meant to just acknowledge the position they have. 1 Peter 2 and verse 17, and I think this is another indication, it wasn't only the Apostle Paul that said to do this, Peter said, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King. So showing proper honor, and if you go into a court, it's common to address the judge as your honor. Well, since he says show honor to whom honor, honor the King, I think that's okay. Now, I did make a note, I wanted to address something that, I'm saying we should use the title and show that respect. I will point out, in formal writing, and in sometimes speech, there are rules, style rules. I had to learn this when I went to grad school. One of the first purchases I had to get was a little book, they call it, they call it Turabian. It's Kate Turabian's Chicago Manual of Style. It's based on the manual of style for the Chicago Tribune, I believe, and it basically says all the rules for how you write things. And one of the things, the Chicago manual, if you study history, or I think English, they follow this.

But some use the, what's the MLS style? Anyways, what it says is, the first time you mention someone in a paragraph or say in a news story, you give their full name and title. And then, subsequent times, you can give just the last name. And it's not meant as a disrespect, it's just a stylistic thing for brevity and things like that. Now, I had trouble with that as a grad student. I was writing about President Washington, and I held him in high regard. So sometimes it was hard for me to just write Washington when I meant, you know, be Washington. So I would often stick the Colonel in there. Now, this is when I was talking about Washington as a 23-year-old militia Colonel, who got into trouble more than he did good. But still, you know, it's not wrong to use the title, but I wanted to point out, sometimes in speech or in writing, if you see just the last name, if it's following that tradition, that's not meant as a slight, it's a formal style that's okay.

Now, some people go the opposite, and they want to use the full name. Some people delight that with our current president. They want to use his full name and call him Barack Hussein Obama, which there's technically nothing wrong with that. But it's good for us to analyze our motives, and, you know, are we saying the Hussein with a special venom in our voice?

And I've had some of that, well, not that particular in my house, but it's amazing what children pick up. Our son, Connor, surprised me. I didn't know that he ever listened to the radio and television, but he does. And it seemed out of the blue, suddenly he started saying Obama, and he loved to say, he'd say, Obama! And so we started teaching him, it's President Obama. Now, he's nonpartisan, so he also started saying Mitt Romney. And I didn't tell him to call him Governor Romney, but it's just interesting. If you hear Connor, as I said, the way he pronounces Obama is humorous. But I've been trying to get him to include the president because I, well, actually, when it started, I had this message in mind, is one I might give. So, although when he says Mitt Romney, the Romney part sounds a lot like mommy. Sometimes I'm not sure what you're saying. Before we leave this subject, though, and this is going to come out okay. One other important thing to add as part of it, though, is I want to make the point that respecting authority and being submissive to authority is not always the same as obedience to that authority. Now, are we still in... I'm in 1 Peter 2, so let's read this again. 1 Peter 2 in verse 13. He says, Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, or as those who are sent by him, for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. I have a note here. Peter said, submit yourselves, but he didn't say necessarily obey, because Peter knew from experience that those aren't always the same thing. Sometimes you can't obey the law of man and still obey the commands of God. And especially if you look down and it said, by doing good, you may put to silence. Well, if the law of man requires you to break the law of good or law of God, you're not doing good.

Let's see an example of how Peter and the other apostles put into practice the principle I'm trying to explain in Acts chapter 5. Acts 5, and we'll begin in verse 25.

Now, this is early on in their ministry after that first Pentecost, and I'm breaking in because what had happened is the apostles had been teaching, and they'd basically been arrested and thrown in prison, and then an angel would come and release them. So the Sanhedrin, the counsel of the Jews, the Pharisees, and Sadducees is meeting, and we're going to break into that in verse 25.

And then in verse 29, this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Very simple. We have to obey God rather than men.

The counsel had given them an order, a command, saying, don't preach in Jesus's name. Well, as I said, later Peter wrote to obey every ord- or submit to every ordinance. Now, in this case, they could not obey that ordinance and still be obeying God. If you have to make a choice, God comes first. You obey God. Now, can you be doing that and still submit? Well, you could say, in a way, yes, because they were willing to accept the punishment that came that was part of that ordinance. Let's look down to verse 40. This is after some discussion among the counsel, and so they're going to call the apostles back. In verse 40, and they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

So the apostles were told again, don't speak in the name of Jesus. So they departed from the presence of the counsel, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. So they were rejoicing that they'd been beaten. Notice, they submitted to the beating. The command was, if you do this, we're going to beat you. I said, okay, you'll beat us. They submitted to the ordinance, but they did obey God. And it says, they went on daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that Jesus has the Christ. So what I'm saying is, we can submit to a law by being willing to bear the punishment that it imposes if, you know, that's what we have to do to still obey God. Now, I want to put a sort of disclaimer there that that shouldn't be our first choice. It's better to obey God and not have to be punished, as long as we can do so legally. So let's see how we can do this because, well, actually, I want to turn back to 1 Peter and then we'll come back to that point. Because I also want to make, I also want to say that it's easy to say this. It's easy to say we ought to obey God rather than men. It's not always easy to do. Sometimes the lines can get blurry or we're not sure or we can just have a difficulty doing what's right and being in good cheer about it. 1 Peter 2 and verse 19.

I keep coming back to this, but here's the point where I wanted to read this particular chapter or this particular verse.

I wanted to include that last part because every time we might think that God is asking something that's a little too hard for us, we want to remember that our Savior already suffered. He's not asking us to do anything He didn't already do. Christ didn't deserve to be punished, but He took it. We can think back to that story of Daniel and the lions then. Remember, the law was made. You can't pray or petition anyone besides the king. He said, okay, I understand the law. He went and prayed anyways and then submitted when they said now you're going in the lions then and trusted that God would save him or not, but He was going to do what was right. What I wanted to make the point of is that it's still okay to use legal means to avoid that punishment if you do so lawfully. The apostle Paul did that as well. We'll go to Acts 22 and we'll start in verse 24.

This is the case where, once again, Paul went into the temple and he was wrongfully accused of defiling the temple. He was put on trial by the Pharisees and when there was this big uproar, the Roman commander came and rescued him, but he wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on. Why in the world was all this uproar? Well, we'll have to scourge you to find out. What they would do in Roman times is, you're not sure about something. Well, if we start beating him with the scourge, he'll tell the truth. So they were about to do this to Paul. Paul was willing to submit to the law, but he also wanted to have his legal protection. We'll see that in verse 24.

It says, the commander ordered him to be brought back into the barracks and said that he should be examined to under-scourging so that he might know why they shouted so against him. And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is Roman and un-condemned? So basically, he's saying, you're about to break the law. I'm a Roman and not condemned. When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, well, take care of what you do. This man is a Roman, meaning he's a Roman citizen.

And the commander came and said, are you a Roman? He said, yes. And the commander answered, of course, with a large sum, I obtained this, meaning he had to pay for his citizenship. But Paul explained that he was born a citizen. So there's nothing wrong with appealing to the legal recourse to avoid that punishment. And what I would point out is there have been men in God's church who have done that to avoid military service. They saw in the scripture that we should not join an army of men and be willing to take people's lives. But rather than just go to prison, they would appeal to the conscientious objector law that the nation has. So they could appeal and say, okay, I'm going to obey God, but I don't necessarily want to be punished. I want to accept this legal recourse that's available. And in some cases, that worked, you know, and they were exempt. Other cases, they were made to do community service or some have done jail time submitting to the law. And there are other ways we pay respect to the authority. And I'll just mention in passing, one, of course, is paying taxes. I don't like it. Most of us don't like it. But when it's legally done, it's a good, the Christian way is to submit and pay the taxes. And we could see that in Romans, we read chapter 13, where it said pay taxes to whom taxes are due. Jesus said to render to Caesar what to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Let's look to one more scripture. I also want to say another way we can show respect. That's 1 Timothy, chapter 2. 1 Timothy, chapter 2, and we'll begin in verse 1. This other way of showing proper respect for government officials is to pray for them. And that can be a tough one. But we're commanded to do so. Here the Apostle Paul writes, I therefore exert, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and reverence. As I said, well, it's not easy to do, but I've also found it's hard to continue to have any type of hard feelings or disrespect for someone if you're praying for them. And that doesn't necessarily mean approving of that person's policies or wishing him success, but you might pray that he'll come to have an understanding of what's right and do it. And of course, praying that we'll have the freedom under man's law and government to preach the gospel and to live peacefully. We do live in an era of open speech, freedom of speech, we call it, but often it's freedom to show gross disrespect and insult. And as I've shown in my introduction, that's not exactly new in American politics, but in whatever era or whatever situation we find ourselves, Christians should stand out as being different. We've got a different standard to live up to. And especially in this election year, it's tempting for us to get caught up in that rhetoric and emotion that's raging throughout the country. But we need to remember who we are and what we are. We're God's children. Our citizenship is with him, and we're his ambassadors here on earth. So as such, we need to do what God expects. We must always make our highest loyalty and obedience to God and his government. But we're also required to show respect to the people that God puts in office or allows us to be in office. We're to submit to the laws and governments of man, but of course, always put God first and foremost.