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To Obey or Not to Obey: An Inner Dialogue

The commands of God found in the Scriptures are often at odds with our personal inclinations.  This is to be expected; it is the unfortunate reality of post-lapsarian existence.  If you read the Bible and do not find anything insulting to the desires of your flesh, you're reading it incorrectly.

For Americans this is perhaps most apparent when we comes to the sections of Scripture that instruct us to submit to our governing authorities.  When we read passages like Romans 13:1-7, Titus 3:1, or 1 Peter 2:13-17, we may feel the natural man rising up against the clear command from God to honor and submit to the authorities, whether civil, religious, or familial, that He has placed over us.  There is nothing mankind loathes more than submission.  Our parents' first sin in the Garden is often identified as pride, but it was rebellion against the sovereign authority of our Creator that truly plunged our race into the darkness of guilt and sin.

At the same time, we must not oversimplify the issue.  Some have used submission to governmental authority is an excuse for sin and cowardice.  However, the Bible is just as clear that, when we are forced to choose between the two, we must obey God rather than man.  But how are we to know when to obey and when to rebel?  How do we know when to submit and when to revolt?  How do we know if we are giving vent to our natural inclinations or if we are obeying God rather than man?

This is the struggle I am experiencing of late.  I recognize in myself this universal human tendency to reject authority.  Like Paul, I find a spirit within me that simply doesn't like being told what to do.  Stay home?  Heck no!  Wear a mask?  Nah, I'm good.  At the same time, I genuinely believe that the actions of our government officials have been politically motivated and will do more harm than good.  Am I being stubborn?  Or am I resisting unjust laws?  Am I rejecting the proper authorities God has placed over me?  Or am I standing up for liberty and justice?  I honestly cannot say.

Complicating this matter is that I was blessed to be born in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  We Americans are all descendants, physically or politically, of rebels.  After the Colonials had thrust off the yoke of the Monarchy, they developed a government founded upon the principle of Lex Rex, which teaches that the law is the supreme government of the land.  What this means for the common man is that every citizen, including government officials, are bound by the laws of the Land.  No one, not even the King, is above the law.  Our governing authorities, properly speaking, are the laws of the land, not the public officials who are elected to administer those laws.

So, what are Christians in America to do?  Do we submit to the governing authorities?  Or do we stand up and resist the asinine and arbitrary restrictions they have placed upon us?  Where is the line between obeying God and obeying man?  I don't know.  I suppose each individual, and each church body, will have to make that decision.

As we attempt to navigate our cultures and crises by the map of God's Word, we must examine our hearts.  Are we obeying God rather than man?  Or are we rejecting God by rejecting the authorities he has placed over us?  Are we fighting for liberty?  Or are we trying to justify a spirit of rebellion?

I will leave you today with a quote from the revered Presbyterian Stephen Charnock.

"Magistrates must then be obeyed when they act according to God's order, and within the bounds of the divine commission.  They are no friends to the sovereignty of God, that are enemies to his magistracy, his ordinance." 

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