Matthew 20:25-28: "Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and that their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."
You've probably read those words at least once already in a previous post, if you have been following along. They are part of the point that I am making overall as we talk about God, country, rules, laws, and how they pertain to things such as the recent Supreme Court non-action on the issue of homosexual marriage.
As I've already stated once, in a perfect world, what God desires and designs, and what rulers desire and design, would be exactly the same. But we don't live in a perfect world. Therefore, rulers will see the value in some things that God designed for life, but will not see the value in others. In the presence of an imperfect, flawed, sinful world, rulers will often simply settle for those things that mostly serve to keep people at peace with one another.
It's great to live in a place where the governing authorities see mostly eye to eye with what God designs and desires. But what about when those two really fail to see eye to eye? Well, some of that depends on the particulars at work. Rulers may be more 'lenient' than God in some things, and Christians would find that they aren't really that imposed upon. Take, for example, the issue of adultery. God is pretty precise about the practice of our sexuality. But rulers tend to be more lenient about it. Sure, we may wish that it were otherwise, since sometimes leniency is taken as permissiveness, but for the most part, we aren't protesting that our rulers don't set up laws against adultery. We may wish that they would, but we'd have to admit that enforcing that particular law would be pretty tough to do.
Part of our problem as Christians comes when the governing authorities go to the other side of the coin. What about when they enforce that people should do things that run contrary to their beliefs? Much issue has been made in recent years about the Health Care Reform Bill that mandated that everyone make abortion-causing drugs available through their health plans. Many Christians protested loudly, and rightly. When the rulers lord it over us to force us to do things that run contrary to our faith, we should speak up. Granted, we hope to do so in both a faithful and a loving fashion, but at such times, it is appropriate to let the authorities know that they have crossed their lines.
However, we often simply throw up our arms in the air when it comes to the authorities being more lenient than what we want. In some respects, this kind of situation presents a challenge to us. How do we work so that people see that God's design is better and more appropriate than that which the authorities may allow? Do we work toward more laws? Do we try to find ways to enforce the things our belief system calls for upon others? Or are there other ways that we go about the task? More on that one in the next post.
You've probably read those words at least once already in a previous post, if you have been following along. They are part of the point that I am making overall as we talk about God, country, rules, laws, and how they pertain to things such as the recent Supreme Court non-action on the issue of homosexual marriage.
As I've already stated once, in a perfect world, what God desires and designs, and what rulers desire and design, would be exactly the same. But we don't live in a perfect world. Therefore, rulers will see the value in some things that God designed for life, but will not see the value in others. In the presence of an imperfect, flawed, sinful world, rulers will often simply settle for those things that mostly serve to keep people at peace with one another.
It's great to live in a place where the governing authorities see mostly eye to eye with what God designs and desires. But what about when those two really fail to see eye to eye? Well, some of that depends on the particulars at work. Rulers may be more 'lenient' than God in some things, and Christians would find that they aren't really that imposed upon. Take, for example, the issue of adultery. God is pretty precise about the practice of our sexuality. But rulers tend to be more lenient about it. Sure, we may wish that it were otherwise, since sometimes leniency is taken as permissiveness, but for the most part, we aren't protesting that our rulers don't set up laws against adultery. We may wish that they would, but we'd have to admit that enforcing that particular law would be pretty tough to do.
Part of our problem as Christians comes when the governing authorities go to the other side of the coin. What about when they enforce that people should do things that run contrary to their beliefs? Much issue has been made in recent years about the Health Care Reform Bill that mandated that everyone make abortion-causing drugs available through their health plans. Many Christians protested loudly, and rightly. When the rulers lord it over us to force us to do things that run contrary to our faith, we should speak up. Granted, we hope to do so in both a faithful and a loving fashion, but at such times, it is appropriate to let the authorities know that they have crossed their lines.
However, we often simply throw up our arms in the air when it comes to the authorities being more lenient than what we want. In some respects, this kind of situation presents a challenge to us. How do we work so that people see that God's design is better and more appropriate than that which the authorities may allow? Do we work toward more laws? Do we try to find ways to enforce the things our belief system calls for upon others? Or are there other ways that we go about the task? More on that one in the next post.
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