How to Live Under a Government That Has a Faulty Moral Compass

            To Christians, it seems that our federal government is wading into some strange waters these days. Particularly in the areas of gender and sexuality, our government is increasingly asking us to treat as acceptable certain behaviors that we would deem to be sinful on the basis of the word of God. On these issues, our government’s moral compass seems to be pointing due south as the Bible points us due north.

            It’s interesting to me that some of the occupations that have been on the frontlines of all of this are represented right here in our own congregation. Florists have had to consider whether or not they would make floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding ceremony, and we have a florist right here in our own congregation. Bakers have had to consider whether or not they would bake cakes for such ceremonies, and right here in our own church we have a young lady who bakes cakes. Most recently, educators have been thrust onto the frontlines, and we have several teachers and administrators among us.

            For that reason and others, the question we’re going to discuss today is highly relevant for all of us. How do we live under a government that has a faulty moral compass? More specifically, how do we respond when our government asks us to do things that we may find objectionable?

            Fortunately for us, we find many principles and examples in the Bible of just how to do this, because many characters in Scripture found themselves living under governments that had a faulty moral compass. In the Old Testament, Israel found itself at times under the leadership of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. Every one of those governments had a faulty moral compass. In the New Testament, every character we encounter was in that situation because they were all subjects of the Roman Empire.

So what do we learn from them? How should we respond when our government asks us to do things that we may find objectionable?

1. Look for creative solutions, and suggest them with humility.

            In Daniel 1, we read about Daniel and his friends having just been taken captive from Israel to Babylon. They were placed into a training program that was meant to prepare them to become officials in the government of the Empire. They immediately faced a moral dilemma however, because the diet they were given did not meet the dietary standards of the Law of Moses that the Jewish people were given to follow.

            But Daniel came up with a creative solution for this conflict [READ Dan. 1:8-13]. Daniel’s creative thinking here is a great example for us. In the panic that we often feel when we find ourselves in a moral dilemma, it is easy for us to think that we may only have two choices available. In reality, there could be a third or even a fourth choice that would solve the problem in a way that would not violate our conscience. So when you’re considering how to respond, a little creativity can go a long way.

            Let’s make sure we don’t overlook the fact that when Daniel suggested his creative solution, he did so with great humility. He didn’t resort to a more coercive technique like a hunger strike; rather, he requested permission to try out a certain approach for a certain period of time. And he continued to respect the authority of his superior—he acknowledged that at the end of the ten days, the steward could decide to do as he saw fit.

            So Daniel continued to submit to the governing authorities even as he offered his suggestion. Along with that continued submission comes our second principle.

2. Be willing to accept the consequences of your actions.

            If you cannot obey what you have been asked to do, you should be willing to accept whatever consequences that you may have to face. Daniel set that example when he told the steward that he could do as he pleased after the ten-day trial period was done. His friends also set that example in Daniel 3 when they refused to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol. Notice what they said to the king when they were called out for their disobedience [READ Dan. 3:16-18]. They knew full well that God could deliver them if He chose to do so, but if He chose not to, they were willing to face the consequences.

            The apostles set the same example in the Book of Acts when they were arrested for preaching the Gospel. They didn’t fight in order to resist arrest, nor did the other disciples organize an attempted jail break. The Apostle Paul put it simply in Acts 25:11 when he said, “If I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death.”

            So, even if we cannot obey a law that the government has made, we must still obey the government’s authority to enforce the law that it has made. If we choose to disobey that law, then we must be willing to accept the consequences.

3. Understand the role of your conscience and respect it.

            With some of the questions we are facing today, the proper response is debatable. For example, if a bakery receives a cake order for a same-sex wedding, is it wrong for the bakery to fill that order? The answer to that question is not cut-and-dried, so for that reason, mature Christians could disagree over the proper response.

            In these situations, your own conscience will play a large role in your decision—and it should! Your conscience is a God-given part of you that prods you to do what you believe is right. Notice that I did not say it tells you what is right. Your conscience can be misinformed, under-developed, or even dull if you have ignored it for too long.

            So your conscience is not an infallible guide to what is right and wrong, but nevertheless, we should respect the role that God means for it to play in our lives. In Romans 14, Paul wrote to the believers in Rome about a difference of opinion that they had about their freedom to eat certain foods or drink certain drinks. At the end of the chapter, Paul states that it is actually a sin for you to violate your own conscience on a disputed matter like this [READ Rom. 14:20-23].

            The principle that Paul lays out here is that it is a sin for you to do something if you are not convinced that that act is acceptable to God. Even if another believer feels free to do that act, you must not do it unless you are fully convinced in your own mind. God gave you your conscience for an important reason, and you should respect the role that God intends for it to play in your life.

Now, because of the possibility of disagreement among Christians on some of these questions comes our next principle.

4. Extend grace to Christians who choose a response that differs from yours

            Since the proper response to some of these situations is debatable, we should not fight with or reject those who choose a response that is different from our own. As we face increasing pressure and even opposition from outside of the church, we need more than ever to seek increased unity within the church.

            Some of our Christian brothers and sisters have faced crushing fines and the loss of income for following the dictates of their conscience. If that happened in our own midst, it would be terrible for us to turn away from fellow Christians simply because we might have chosen a different response to that debatable matter.

            Paul deals with this principle as well in Romans 14. In verses 10-12, he writes [READ Rom. 14:10-12]. We can certainly discuss these matters with tact and love, and we can even try to persuade one another to see the matter in a different light if we think it’s necessary, but let us not condemn each other or reject each other if we cannot come to a unanimous opinion about these situations.

5. Use legal means of resistance first, and do so with great care and wisdom

            Choosing to break a law should never be a decision that we rush into. If we have some legal ways of resolving the situation, we would be wise to consider those first. For example, if you find yourself in a dilemma like this in your workplace, you may have some resources through your union or you may have a provision in your contract about arbitration that would allow you to get a third party involved in the matter.

            In our country, we do also have the option of taking the matter to court if we feel that our legal rights have been violated. So for example, if you were wrongfully terminated from your job because you took a stand on your conscience, you could take that matter to court. That is a decision that still requires a lot of care and wisdom, and in the end you may decide that it is not worth the time and the expense that would be required for you to take that step.

            So, if we do have some legal avenues of resolving the situation, we should consider all of them first before choosing to break a law. And since our study today has grown out of our study of 1 Peter, we should remember Peter’s reminder in 1 Peter 2:11 that we are sojourners and exiles in this world. If we find our rights not being fully respected in a place that isn’t our real homeland, we shouldn’t be surprised, nor should we allow fighting for our rights to become our highest passion and goal.

            We are followers of Jesus Christ – our highest passion and goal must always be to fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples of all the nations. If we choose to defend our rights in court, we must not do so only for the desire to hang on to all of our personal property or to keep America a comfortable place for Christians to live. Those are merely nice fringe benefits in life – they are not our highest passion and goal.

6. Think in advance about what your "line" is in the context of your own life

            Where is the line that you simply could not cross? At what point would you have to say, “I cannot go any further with what I’m being asked to do!” Now, each of us may face different situations because of our occupations or other personal factors. No one is ever going to ask me to bake a cake for their wedding, so I don’t really have to think about a situation like that except perhaps to be ready with some advice and counsel for someone who might ask me about it.

            But I am a pastor, so what if the government started to give me more regulations about what I could and could not say from the pulpit? The government already tells me that I cannot endorse a political candidate from the pulpit, and I’m fine with that because frankly, I have more important things to talk about than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton! But what if they started to give me more regulations about my preaching? Where would I draw the line?

            In the context of your own life, it’s important to think about this question in advance, because when the pressure is on it is far too easy to just cave into it if you don’t have your convictions firmly in mind beforehand. Now of course, it is very difficult to predict some of the situations that we may have to face. I’m sure we can’t anticipate all of them, but with a biblical worldview established in our minds and with principles like these that we’ve discussed today, we can be prepared to chart a course that will be faithful to God even when those in authority over us are not.

Obeying God by Obeying the Government--1 Peter 2:13-17 (1 Peter Series)

            A number of years ago, John Lennon wrote a song called “Imagine,” in which he envisions a utopian society—an actual heaven on Earth. One of the institutions that he sees as holding us back from such a paradise is religion. In the first two verses, he sings:

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people living life in peace

            You might notice that another institution he apparently views as a hindrance is government. From time to time, various people have seen human government as a uniformly negative institution for humanity. They believe that we would be better off without government at all.

            The Bible takes a very different view of government, however. According to Scripture, government is actually part of God’s plan for human society, and we are called to obey our government to the fullest extent that we can without violating the commands of God.

            Last week in 1 Peter, the Apostle reminded us that we are sojourners and exiles in this world. Now, we could get the wrong impression from that idea and think that we are free to cast off and disregard the institutions that bring some order and stability to society. But in the heart of this letter from Peter, we’re going to see that God calls us to submit to these structures to the greatest extent that we can—that includes political structures, economic structures, and family structures.

            First of all in this section, Peter deals with political structures in 2:13-17, and that is what we will consider today. Let’s hear what Peter has to say.

1. Submit to the government out of obedience to God (vv. 13-14)

            In vv. 13-14, Peter writes [READ vv. 13-14]. It is clear what Peter is calling us to do—submit to our government—but the most important detail here is why we should submit to our government. Peter says we should do it “for the Lord’s sake.” We obey the government out of obedience to God, and—as we’ll see in a moment—so that we don’t put any unnecessary obstacles between other people and the message of the Gospel.

            Please understand, then, that the reason we are to obey the government doesn’t really lie in the government itself. Whether we love the system of government we have or not, we are called to submit to it. Whether we love the leaders in our government or not, we are called to submit to it. This is all because our highest master, the Lord Jesus Christ, tells us to submit to these lesser masters in the civil government.

            Now, we might ask ourselves at this point, “Does Peter really mean to say that we should be subject to any form of government at all?” Well, let’s consider the form of government that both Peter and his audience lived under.

            They were all subjects of the Roman Empire, which at that stage of history was ruled by emperors. Those emperors had basically unlimited and unchecked power to do as they pleased. There was certainly no democracy in the government at that level, nor at the level of the regional governors whom the emperor appointed to oversee the various parts of the Empire.

            The emperors thought of themselves as being at least godlike, and some of them may have actually considered themselves divine. And so, the emperors were worshipped throughout the Empire. People were allowed to follow their own religions to a certain point, as long as they gave their highest obedience to the emperor.

            At the time that Peter most likely wrote this letter, the Roman Emperor was Nero, who was known as being incredibly cruel toward Christians. He led a persecution against Christians, and several non-Christian historians record that at times when he wanted light in his gardens at night, he would call for Christians who had been arrested, have them covered in flammable oils and hung on high poles, and then burned to serve as human torches.

            So did Peter really mean that we should be subject to any old government under which we find ourselves? Apparently so. As we’ll see in just a moment, there is a limit to our obedience, but our general principle is to submit to our government to the fullest extent that we can.

            This principle really calls into question some practices that a minority of Christians have advocated over the years, such as not paying taxes. Just this week, as I was doing some research, I stumbled across a group based in Oregon called the Embassy of Heaven. They consider themselves citizens of Heaven, but they also consider it sinful to obey any form of human government, so they do not consider themselves citizens of Oregon or the United States.

            They have really taken their idea all the way—they issue their own passports, driver’s licenses, and license plates. They realize that driving around like that will eventually get them arrested, so they fully except to go to jail at some point in their lives. In fact, they have on their website a 127-page guide on what to expect while you’re in jail.

            I have no idea how they square their beliefs with a command like this in 1 Peter. Their behavior really shows the danger of losing balance in our application of Scripture. Yes, we are citizens of Heaven, but as Peter tells us here, we are also citizens in our various human governments—and we should act like it!

Another reason for our obedience to government is found in vv. 15-16.

2. Submitting to the government will silence some criticism of our faith (vv. 15-16)

            Peter writes in v. 15 [READ v. 15]. I think the ignorance he may have in mind here is the claim that Christians are a threat to the government. Believers faced that accusation in the Roman Empire because they would not give their highest allegiance to the emperor, and Christians still face that accusation today under totalitarian regimes like those in Cuba, China, Iran, and North Korea.

            But this claim is simply made out of ignorance, because even though we give our highest allegiance to Jesus, He commands us to submit to the government. So Christians by and large are actually good citizens—we’re not troublemakers, and in fact we seek to do good for our neighbors. It’s important that we live this way because it removes the hindrance to the Gospel of people thinking that we are some kind of dangerous element in society.

            Its not hard to see why governments might view us as a threat because we will not give them our highest allegiance—nor should we, as Peter reminds us in v. 16 [READ v. 16]. Peter is reminding us here that as servants of God, our highest allegiance is to Him. That does mean that we are free from human governments in this sense. They are not our highest authority, and this can be seen clearly through various examples in the Bible.

            According to examples we see in Scripture, our responsibility to obey the government does not apply when the government commands us to do something that is sinful. Peter himself provides one such example in Acts 4-5. In those chapters, Peter and John had been arrested in Jerusalem for preaching that Christ had risen from the dead. The Jewish authorities ordered them to stop preaching the Gospel, but they refused, saying, “We must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).”

            We can also think of the Hebrew midwives in the Book of Exodus. The Pharaoh of Egypt had specifically told them to kill any boys who were born to the Jews, but Exodus 1:17 states that they “feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them.” The text then says that God dealt well with the midwives, so He was obviously pleased by the choice they had made, even though it defied the human government.

            We can also think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the incident of the fiery furnace. King Nebuchadnezzar commanded everyone to bow down and worship the idol that he had made, but those three men refused to do so out of obedience to God. As we know, God Himself came to their rescue to deliver them from the fiery furnace.

            These examples teach us that our responsibility to obey the government does have its limits. When they command us to sin, we must not obey them. That is the sense in which we are “free” according to Peter in v. 16. But as Peter also says, we are not to think of our freedom as a license to disregard what is good and proper in the sight of God. Rather, our freedom consists of being servants of God. And once again, since He has commanded us to obey human government, that is what we must do unless its commands violate the commandments of God.

            Now, our own government is creating a lot of questions for us these days about exactly when we should choose to disobey them. These questions are a bit complex and very important, and they deserve some careful attention, so next Sunday we will be looking at these questions specifically and studying some principles that will help us navigate these bizarre days.

For today, however, let’s finish looking at Peter’s instructions in this passage.

3. Act toward everyone in the way that your relationship with them calls for (v. 17)

            In v. 17, Peter gives us four brief commands about how we should act toward various people in our lives. I think it’s a bit helpful to focus on these two at a time, because that approach creates some nice comparisons and contrasts.

            So first of all, “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood.” There is a basic level of respect that I am to show to everyone around me. That’s a bit different from what we hear in our culture, where we often hear people say that others have to earn my respect. I think a helpful clarification would be to say that other people do have to earn my admiration or praise, but everyone should receive respect from me.

            We do have a heightened level of responsibility toward fellow Christians, however. They are to receive not only our respect, but our affection as well. We as believers should have bonds of friendship and affection that are unique and special, exceeding a simple respect and moving toward affection.

            Peter then writes, “Fear God. Honor the emperor.” Fear in this context is related to our deepest loyalties and our highest allegiance. That belongs to no one else but God. He alone is the one whom we should fear.

            But don’t overlook the fact that Peter calls us to honor the emperor. We are supposed to show honor to the people who are in positions of governing authority. What a good and perhaps convicting reminder for us during this election season—and obviously anytime, for that matter.

            Here in our country, we’re free to speak our minds about politics and about politicians—and boy do we ever exercise that freedom! Sadly, so much of our political discourse today is so caustic and hateful and disrespectful that it should really put us to shame. And according to this command right here, Christians should not contribute to the hateful tone that is often used toward politicians today.

            You don’t have to agree with every policy that someone promotes or every decision that they make, but you must express your disagreement with respect and honor. A Christian’s discussion of politics should have no place for name-calling or hateful rhetoric. This is not only right, it is also wise—other people are much more likely to hear you with an open mind if you engage them with respect and honor.

            So my friends, whatever you do, don’t contribute to the cesspool that is political discourse in our country today. I’m not saying that you have to be silent about politics—not at all! But when you speak, make sure you conduct yourself with respect and honor toward those who are in authority and toward whoever you may be speaking with.

            As we see so often in Scripture, we are to conduct ourselves at all times with a motivation to promote the Gospel and make our Lord look glorious in the eyes of others. So in our discussion of politics, we should not create any unnecessary barriers that close people’s minds to the Gospel. And by living as good citizens as much as we can, we can show people that faith in Christ is beneficial to our countries and communities, and hopefully draw our fellow citizens to embrace the Lord.