Friday, January 15, 2010

God Grants Authority to the State

“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities,
to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good.” Titus 3:1

Something I did not understand about my Christian world view was solved for me recently through The Truth Project.  Here is the crisis: If Jesus expects us to love our enemies and do good to them (Luke 6:32-38, Matt 5:43-48), how is it that government is allowed to use deadly force?  Can a Christian be a law enforcement officer or a soldier?  How can a law enforcement officer love his enemy and do good to him?!?

Dr. Tackett points out in The Truth Project, that government has 2 roles;  punish evil and condone good.  This means the Civil Authority must know the basis for calling something evil or good.1  So if the Civil Authority wants to judge between good and evil, he must have some standard by which to judge.  Government is, therefore, built on the back of ethics.  Ethics, for the Christian, is built on the Bible.  So far, so good, but how does the government enforce these ethics?  They do it through their laws, but laws must be enforced to have meaning, hence the need for force.  So here we are: Jesus is telling us to love our enemies and do good to them, but the government needs to use force, sometimes even deadly force.

The answer is that God specifically grants this authority to the state. 
“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.  2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.  3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.   4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.  5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing.  7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”  Rom 13: 1-7 (emphasis mine). 

Did you see it?   Right there in verse four God says the one in authority is God’s servant and agent of wrath to bring punishment if you do wrong.  He “bears the sword.”  This is a reference to his delegated authority and justified use of force when necessary.

We see the same thing in 1 Peter 2:13-14, 17. “13Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right…17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.” (emphasis mine).  These same verses are used to justify war on a national scale, but we must remember they are given in the context of the ethics.  Punishing those to do wrong and commending those who do right assumes a knowledge of wrong and right.  Government should get this knowledge of ethics from the Bible.  So, as long as the government is following the Biblical standard, then we are required to “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mark 12:17).

However, when a government does not base its ideas of right and wrong on the Bible, we may find ourselves in a place where the governments’ laws (or agents’ behavior) is contrary to what God intended.  So what do we do then?  We must follow Peter and the other apostles and “we must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29).  Daniel is another example of this (see Dan 3:16-18 and 6:6-10).  “When a society rejects God, it will increasingly look for someone else to save them.  That ‘savior’ often becomes the ‘king’ [governmental leader].”2   

If we reject God and the governmental leadership is no longer responsible to God, then the governmental leadership is going to very soon determine what is right by what they think.  If the state begins to act as if God does not exist then we begin to view it differently.  We begin to assign it sovereign right over education, over the needs of the poor, over ethics, care of needy, what marriage will look like, etc.  The state rising up and taking control destroys the other social institutions [family, labor, community, church].  If the state rises in power over all the other social institutions, then God becomes the problem because it is His objective truth [Biblical ethics] that is holding back the state.3 

The Christian’s duty is first to pray for the state.  Second, the Christian should, I believe, participate in society, including the government.  Christians should vote and run for governmental office at all levels.  They should represent salt and light to government meetings, debates, and courts.  They should be lawyers and judges, congress persons, and other officials.  If we abandon society’s institutions, then we have no right to decry the darkness we find there.  What else should we expect to find in the absence of light but darkness?  “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”  1 Timothy 2:1-2. 

Footnotes
1 Dr. Tackett poses and addresses this in The Truth Project.  Dell Tackett, The Truth Project. (Colorado Springs, CO: Focus on the Family) Lesson 9: The State: Whose Law?, 1 DVD.
2 Schlossberg, Herbert. Idols for Destruction. Wheaton: Crossway 1993, p. 178.
3 Items in this paragraph are thoughts developed by Dr. Tackett.  Dell Tackett, The Truth Project. (Colorado Springs, CO: Focus on the Family) Lesson 9: The State: Whose Law?, 1 DVD.

References
All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.