Transcript & Slides: Christian Citizens

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Christian Citizens (1 Peter 2:13-17)
By David Feddes

Today we look at what Peter says about living under government and being Christian citizens. I’ll begin by addressing a desire that many of us have. We wish that elections weren’t so nasty. We wish that the candidates were noble statesmen, as in days of old, when statesmen were decent and upright and campaigns were clean and about the issues. If only we could go back to the good old days, with great names like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams dominant in politics.

George Washington was our first president. He ran unopposed and served two terms. Then it was a choice between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had candidates like that, and campaigns where the press and the media were not so biased?

In the 1796 election, supporters of John Adams called Jefferson a howling atheist and a candidate for cutthroats. Jefferson’s campaign claimed that Adams would destroy the Constitution, declare himself king, and make his sons crown princes. Adams won the 1796 election, and none of those things happened.

So they had a rematch. The 1800 election again matched Adams and Jefferson. This time Jefferson’s supporters invented a tall tale that President Adams had ordered an American warship to bring two mistresses from England for the president’s pleasure. The newspapers favoring Adams warned that if Jefferson won, murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest would be openly taught and practiced. Jefferson would burn Bibles and burn churches. Jefferson won—and all the churches were in flames and all the Bibles were burned. Well, actually, not really. He never did any of those things. But that’s what it was like in the good old days.

The book of Ecclesiastes says, “Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions” (Ecclesiastes 7:10). But if we go back to the good old days one more time—to 1804—we have the sitting vice president of the United States gunning down the former secretary of the treasury in a duel. Don’t you wish for more civility in politics like we used to have?

If we go back a little further to the old days, we go back to the time First Peter was written. In those old days they didn’t have nasty elections. They didn’t have elections. They had emperors—nice guys like Tiberius, who was emperor when Jesus was crucified, and who had his own island of little boys for his pleasure. He had Caligula as a successor, who among other things married his sister and his horse. Then there was Nero, who merely burned Christians in gardens for the spectacles and parties that he held. That’s what was going to come a few years after Peter wrote the words we’re going to read. That was government in the good old days.

What does Peter have to say when it comes to having such people in positions of government? You might be surprised, but Peter says that we need to actually submit to those who are in positions of power.

We looked at this in a previous message, an overview of how it’s divided up. He talks about living under the system: there’s the political system, the work system of that time (often involving slavery), and the marriage and family system of that time. Peter now describes how you live under that system.

He says, “Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:11–12). That’s the overview. Then he goes into the details of living under the system. Today we’re going to look at living under the political system.

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king” (1 Peter 2:13–17).

In those verses the basic points that Peter makes are very clear. He says that we’re to honor God’s image and rule in the human creatures who govern. As I’ve mentioned before, the literal translation isn’t actually “submit to authorities instituted among men,” but “submit to every human creature.” He reminds us that even the authorities are human creatures under God. We recognize God’s image in them and God’s purpose in having some humans in positions of leadership and rule.

He says we need to do this to disprove the ignorant accusations that Christians are ruinous rebels. He doesn’t want Christians to be known as the ones who go around burning courthouses or attacking and trying to bring down governments, or who are eager to smash everything and oppose the existing governing system. Christians were accused of many bad things in those days.

He says we need to live as free people. Live freely, but don’t say, “I’m free; I can do whatever I please, no matter how bad it is or how much trouble it causes.” Live as free people, but live as servants of God, not to indulge your own evil. A little later he says, “If you suffer, it shouldn’t be as a murderer or a thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler” (1 Peter 4:15). You live freely, but that doesn’t mean you’re free to be wicked.

Part of living under rulers is being law-abiding—above all, abiding under God’s law, and also abiding under any good laws that are sometimes run by some pretty bad people.

In the final part of that, Peter says, “Honor everybody.” It’s translated “show proper respect to everyone,” but it’s actually the same word used when it says, “Honor the king.” The sentence begins with “Honor everybody.” Have a special love for the brotherhood, the people who are your fellow believers in Christ and belong to the body of Christ. Fear God. Tremble before God. Let God be the one who makes you shake.

A little later Peter says, “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened” (1 Peter 3:14). A lot of us go around being scared about this or that. Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). Don’t fear anything else, and don’t be scared of the emperor either. Honor the emperor, but realize he’s not the big shot everybody makes him out to be. God is the one both to fear and to love and to worship.

In those days you were supposed to worship the emperor. You were supposed to fear the emperor. Peter says you can honor the emperor, but forget about that fear and worship stuff—that goes to God.

So that’s the overview of what it means, according to Peter, to live under rulers in a situation where the rulers were often very bad people. But overall there was still a governing system that kept some order and allowed room for some good things to happen.

When he says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human creature, whether the king or the governors,” he’s echoing something that Jesus himself said. Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21). So there is a role for government, and government’s role is not to be God. It has a God-appointed role and will answer to God for how it handles that role. So give Caesar what is rightly Caesar’s, but give God what is God’s.

Jesus was asked to pay a tax. This particular tax was to help cover the funding of the temple, but it was a tax imposed by local authorities. Jesus used that as a teaching moment. He said, “Now, Peter, what do you think? When these big-shot governors and kings are ruling, do they make their kids pay taxes?” Peter said, “No, their kids don’t pay any taxes.” And Jesus said, “Yes, the sons are exempt from taxes, aren’t they?” (Matthew 17:25–26). Technically, as sons of God living under a different government, we’re exempt from taxes, says Jesus. “But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you’ll find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours” (Matthew 17:27).

Don’t you wish that would happen about every April 10? Those of you who love fishing—and even some who don’t—might go fishing if you could solve the tax issue that way. But again, Jesus is making the point that when you’re paying taxes, you’re a member of another kingdom. Still, to avoid giving offense, you can pay taxes, support the government insofar as it does some good, but always remember that you’re strangers and aliens here. You’re sons of the King.

Your citizenship in your own country may be precious to you—it may not be so precious; it may be something you put up with, like living under a Roman tyrant. But either way, you live under the King of kings. Paul says much the same thing: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). He also says, “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good” (Titus 3:1).

So submission involves putting up with the government, living under it, obeying it insofar as its commands are right and just, and always being ready to do what’s good—even when the government isn’t telling you to do what’s good. Be ready to do what’s good if the government favors good—well, do that of course—and then do a lot of good things the government isn’t requiring you to do.

What’s right with government? We are often reminded of what’s wrong, but let’s remember what’s right with it. It’s put there by God as his servant to punish evil and to promote good. It promotes order and stability, and the only thing worse than bad government is no government—anarchy—everyone out for themselves, pillaging each other. One good thing about government is that it prevents hell on earth. But it can’t produce heaven on earth.

Remember that, because when you have a government that promises you paradise—a government that will produce heaven on earth, a government that will stop every bug from spreading, a government that will control the climate fifty years into the future if only you hand over total control to that government—then it controls the bugs, it controls the planet, it controls the sunspots, it controls everything. It controls you, is who it controls.

So keep that in mind. If you really want a paradise where everybody’s happy 24/7 and the government is going to provide that happiness and prevent every danger and make sure everybody’s equal and fine—there are governments that have promised such things, and every time they have enslaved and destroyed. Believe in a government that’s going to do a little something to prevent hell on earth, but when they start sounding like heaven on earth, tune them right out. They’re lying.

The Bible says, “Pray for all people, for kings and for all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1–4). That’s a theme that runs through this whole section in Peter about living under the system. You’re trying to win people over to the knowledge of the truth. Your biggest priority is not this or that government. You want all people to be saved, like God wants people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

So you pray to that end. You pray for everybody, and in particular you pray for kings and people in authority. What is your special concern when you pray for kings and those in authority? Their main job—or at least the main thing you want from them as a believer—is that they make space for gospel living. They make space for you to live a peaceful and quiet life. They make space for you to live in godliness and holiness. They can’t make you holy; they can’t make you godly, but they can do a lot of things to make it very hard for you to be godly.

They can’t make you do wicked things, but they can threaten to punish you if you don’t. They can take your money through taxes to pay for wicked things. They can make it hard for the righteous. So you pray for government that it won’t make it so hard for the righteous. Sometimes they will anyway, and then, as Peter teaches throughout the whole letter, you’ll have to be able to suffer—and suffer with a smile—and keep spreading the gospel.

But pray. Pray, says Paul, that you can live a peaceful and quiet life in godliness and holiness—that the government will leave you alone. Is that too much to ask? Is that too much to pray for? Pray that government will leave you alone to live a peaceful and quiet, godly, and holy life. That may not sound like much, but throughout a great deal of history, government will not leave the disciples of Jesus alone to live peaceful and quiet lives.

So that’s part of our prayers: “Lord, whatever the government’s up to, please make room under their rule for God’s people to live like God’s people without being hunted.”

Throughout time, things often got a little better than they were under the Caesars. There have been governments that, though not perfect, saw major improvements in governance—and much of that was due to biblical impact, to the influence of Jesus Christ and his followers on ideas of government. So as we move from the context of Paul and Peter writing in the Scriptures and apply it to our own time, we want to think about how the situation developed throughout history and where we find ourselves today.

Our coins say, “In God We Trust.” Our pledge says that we are “one nation under God.” The idea of being a nation under God means that the rights of the people are guaranteed not by any politician but by the Almighty himself. It means that government will answer to God for what it does. The idea of government under God is one of the most liberating in the history of humanity.

Always, there have been governments that tried to pretend they are God—the ones who proclaimed emperors and kings to be divine, or the dictatorships of modern days who claim to be atheists and have ten-story-high pictures of the “dear leader.” They don’t believe in government under God, and you can tell by the way they rule.

Another great principle that has characterized the best of governments is rule of law. Not this guy or that guy gets to determine and decide whatever they want, or this woman or that leader in a position of governance. Rule of law means laws are made, and then those in positions of executive power apply and enforce the law—but they don’t get to make it up as they go. They don’t get to say, “Last week the law was this thing, but this week I decided the law is that thing.” That’s not how good governance happens.

Rule of law is rooted deeply in the Bible. When you read in the book of Deuteronomy, it says the king himself should realize that he’s not different or above all the other citizens, that he’s not above the law. Instead, the king is supposed to be reading the law regularly to know what the law is, so that he can be applying it (Deuteronomy 17:18–20).

In the Bible, we also get the idea of separation of powers. The power of the priesthood, for instance, was always separate from the power of the king. Even within government, judges often were not the same as kings. And there’s a statement in the Bible which later Christians read and drew ideas of governance from. The prophet Isaiah said, “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us” (Isaiah 33:22).

They read that and said, “The Lord is judge, lawgiver, and king—and he can save. We don’t want anybody else to have the position of judge and lawgiver and king. Let’s separate the powers of the judges from the power of those who make the laws, and have that be separate from the executive or kingly power.” So we’ve got those three different branches of government—judicial (the judges), lawmaking or legislative, and executive. Let’s have them separate so that no one person holds all those powers, because we don’t trust anybody with that much power. And none of the branches of government can save us. “The Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our king; it is he that will save us.” Now we’ll have three separate branches of government, none of them being savior, and we’ll move on from there.

The value of each person—the lowest and least—is treasured by God himself. Again and again in the Bible we read that the Lord watches over the alien, the widow, the fatherless, and the poor (Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalm 146:9). You don’t write anybody off. Everybody counts. That idea—that everybody counts, that everybody gets to vote when they reach an age of understanding—is rooted in the belief that every person matters.

If you have authority, it’s not authority to get richer and richer for yourself or your family, using government power to do that. It’s authority to serve. Jesus taught a different model. He said, “The kings and rulers of the pagans lord it over them, and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves” (Luke 22:25–26).

Even though the label isn’t always true, I still love the label “public servants.” Public service is what you do when you’re in government. It isn’t ideal, not always fulfilled by a long shot, but it is an ideal that comes from the Bible. If you hold a big public position, it is to serve others.

The vision of the Bible was also different. The ancient dictatorships did some amazing things—you can still visit the pyramids today; they’re still standing. They’re impressive. But thousands of slaves died building those stone monuments to people we don’t even care about anymore. Real government has a vision that “every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid” (Micah 4:4). Each person has his own small property, his own home and family, a place where they can flourish and be who they were meant to be. Away with all those stinking pyramids built by slaves for the arrogance of the grand pooh-bah on the throne.

These were some of the ways the Bible has influenced good governance. To one degree or another, various governments have been shaped by the Christian faith where it has taken deep root.

Dr. J. I. Packer said that representative democracy as we know it is not the only form of government under which Christian citizens have lived and served God. You can be a Christian under all kinds of different governments and systems. If that’s the system you’re dealing with, then you learn to live under that system—sometimes to suffer under that system. But Dr. Packer goes on to say, “However, there’s no doubt that from a Christian standpoint, representative democracy is a fitter and wiser form than any other.”

Since we have opportunities to make the case for better government, we as Christian citizens don’t just have to submit to and live under the system—we have opportunities to have a voice in it and make a difference in it ourselves.

Now, what is the purpose of governance? It hasn’t changed all that much: to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. That’s supposed to be the basic thing governments do—punish what’s wrong and reward or praise what’s right. Romans 13 says the same thing as Peter: “Do what is right and you will be commended. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing” (Romans 13:3–4).

It’s about punishing wrong and rewarding right. That’s very clear-cut and simple—but in real life, governance is not so clear-cut and simple.

Do you want government to punish everything wrong that is prohibited in God’s Ten Commandments? I don’t. Do you want the government to figure out who’s coveting and then hunt them down and imprison them, or whip them, or punish them in some other way for coveting?

The question usually with government is this: what should it permit, what should it prohibit, and what should it promote? Those are three basic attitudes a government can take toward any behavior or action. It can prohibit, permit, or promote.

When government prohibits, it says, “You may not do that—end of story.” If you do it, you get punished, and the degree of punishment may vary. If it’s a really bad thing that’s being prohibited, you may get executed—if it’s treason or murder. If it’s something frowned upon, you may get a big fine. If it’s something not as bad as murder but more serious than a frown, then you may be imprisoned for a while. So government prohibits and punishes certain kinds of things: theft, murder, kidnapping, treason.

Government also prohibits certain things and says, “You need to build a building this way, and if you can’t pass a building inspection, you don’t get your building approved.” It’s trying to prohibit dangerous building practices. And what government prohibits or won’t allow can grow and change over time.

Formerly, many governments would prohibit Sunday commerce so that everybody would have a day off at the same time. Sometimes governments would prohibit blasphemy. They would prohibit divorce—or at least no-fault divorce. If there was a divorce, they would put some work into finding out who was to blame, and if you were the one who bailed out on your spouse, you came out of it in worse shape than the person who was not at fault. So the way government has handled or prohibited various things over time has varied.

Another stance is permitting. You’re not approving it or punishing it, but you’re not interfering in the first place. This is sometimes called freedom—where you don’t make a law against something, and you don’t make taxpayers pay for it. You just say, “Okay, you do what you want in that area.”

Under some governments, for instance, from a religious point of view, blasphemy is a very serious offense against God. Unbelief in Jesus Christ is dreadfully serious. Rejection of Christ, heresy, swearing, gossip, rage—these are all things that can destroy a soul. But they are not necessarily things that government weighs in on or tries to control. There have been, of course, governments that tried to force one kind of religious belief or practice, but not all. They permit.

And permitting something doesn’t mean you approve it. It just means you’re not going to interfere in that area. Sometimes there’s permission with a frown—like government will permit but try to discourage.

For example, government once tried to prohibit alcohol—the drinking or sale of all alcohol. That didn’t work very well. So then it tried the so-called “sin tax.” “We’ll make it legal, and we’ll get rich off it.” So we’ll tax the daylights out of alcohol. The same thing happened with cigarettes—you’re paying a little bit for the tobacco and a lot for the tax.

It’s permitted, but government tries to discourage it somewhat—or maybe not even that anymore, just raking in money. Gambling too: it used to be prohibited until government got into the gambling business. Then it permitted it and made a lot of money off the casinos and the lotteries that the government itself runs. You always see something shifting when it moves from prohibit, past permit, into promote. When government is running gambling, it has made a major step from the days when it prohibited gambling because it knew it wrecked a lot of people’s financial well-being.

These are tough calls that a government has to make—do we prohibit it, do we allow it, or do we promote and fund it? Because there are some things government wants to happen, so it pays for them. It thinks education is a good thing, so it pours a lot of money into education. Sometimes it’s not very good education, sometimes even anti-Christian education, but it’s heavily funded because government wants to promote it. Government wants to promote good health, so it may have policies about insurance or even fund health care for all citizens.

There’s a variety of things a government will promote. But living in a time such as ours, you can get a little dizzy trying to figure out all the different issues a government should get involved in or shouldn’t, and what it ought to do or ought not to do.

Just looking at those three possibilities—prohibit, permit, and promote—I hope it clarifies in your mind a little that just because you think something is good, do you really want government to enforce it? I want everybody to believe in Jesus, but I don’t want them to believe in Jesus or say they do at gunpoint, because government wields the power of the sword.

You want people to be generous, so you say, “I think there should be equality—that means government should take money from those who have more than I think they ought to have and give it to people who have less than I think they ought to have.”

That raises the question once put to Alexander the Great. He had a pirate in custody and was scolding him. The pirate said, “Well, King, because I take one ship and take its goods, you call me a pirate. You take an entire empire and call yourself a king.”

The ability to use power to seize what is someone else’s does not always mean that it’s the right thing to do. Even if you think wealth ought to be redistributed, there are little things in the Bible such as “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15), which are not made right by saying, “Except if you’re the government.”

That doesn’t mean the government has no right to tax or no right to do anything in redistribution—I’m not saying that. But I am saying that using government to do any good thing you think ought to be done is often a mistake, even if they are very good things.

Throughout history, government of whatever kind has needed to do at least two things: protect life and protect property. It’s not going to be able to ban all coveting, stop all blasphemy, or correct all heresy. But murder is a pretty serious matter.

I was interacting with somebody the other day who was very offended that anyone would call them pro-abortion when, in fact, they said they were only pro-choice. They didn’t want to be considered pro-murder. I said, “Yes, I believe it’s not pro-murder to be pro-choice; you’re just leaving it to people.” Let’s say there’s a person who thinks that everybody ought to be able to shoot people they don’t like. It is pro-choice to say, “Let them shoot people they don’t like.” It is pro-murder to say, “The government will fund the hitman and provide the bullets to shoot people you don’t like.”

So, pro-choice says, “Murder’s up to you.” Pro-murder means, “We will pay for the murders.” When we think about the matter of killing babies, if you’re pro-choice, you say the murder is up to you. What are you saying when you add, “And we will pay for it too”? At every stage, then, you’ve moved—from prohibit, to permit, to promote. I think killing should be prohibited. Permitting is a disastrous step; promoting and paying is absolutely horrendous.

So when we think about these matters, we have to get through the lies and false descriptions of things. To be pro-Pilate was to be pro-choice. He said, “I do not favor the killing of Jesus, but I defer to your will on this matter. You kill him if you want to.” That’s what it means to be pro-choice when it comes to matters of life. Pro-murder means, “And I’ll also throw in my soldiers to handle the execution for you”—which Pilate ended up doing.

Take another matter. It used to be prohibited to engage in homosexual relations. Then it was permitted, and the appeal of people who had that desire was, “Leave us alone.” Then it was promoted—“Exalt this to the same level as the holy institution of marriage.” And now it’s, “Punish those who even speak against it or refuse to make cakes for celebrations of it.” You can see the change over a couple of decades from prohibit, to permit, to promote, to require—where anybody who says anything against it gets fired or penalized.

It used to be a crime for a doctor to lop off healthy body parts from somebody—that was prohibited. Then it was permitted to do gender reassignment surgeries. Now the government insists on paying for them. There’s one party that says, “We are going to enshrine in law the rights of people to have their desires paid for by the government.”

You need to understand that although government doesn’t enforce everything all the time, you need to discern within your own culture when something has moved swiftly from being prohibited to being permitted to being promoted. And when you have your own responsibilities as a citizen, you ask: Is that something I’m going to support? Does it matter if the government allows a certain class of people in my country to be killed? Does that matter? Should I try to resist that where I can? Should I pay for that without protest if the government decides it’s going to fund it? Those are the kinds of questions you face as a citizen living in our society today.

Now, when we think about what role we ought to play as citizens, there are a few different approaches we can take. Dr. J. I. Packer identified some of these in an article he wrote back in 1985. I haven’t worded them exactly as he did, but they follow his way of approaching the issue.

He says there are some Christians who tend to redefine the gospel as social justice and shalom in this present world. They want God’s kingdom to come—they want it to come now—and they believe it can come in this world through social and political action. The disaster of that, of course, is that we’re strangers and aliens in this world. We are not going to achieve paradise right now, and, as I’ve already said, attempts to achieve paradise by these means generally lead to very calamitous consequences.

Another approach is to stay out of politics altogether—avoid social action, be a godly person, pray, read your Bible, stick to personal piety, evangelism, and outreach, and don’t get your fingers dirty in politics. That’s kind of appealing, and there’s something to be said for it. In Peter’s day, there’d be a lot to be said for it because you didn’t have political influence anyway. So there may be times when that is about the best approach you can take: live for the Lord, stay close to him, try to win people to him, and leave politics to everybody else.

But it’s not necessarily the case that when you live in a society where you actually do have the opportunity to make a difference, you should stay out of it. If you can protect some of the helpless, if you can help some of those in need, if you can stand up for what’s right—even though it’s not going to be heaven on earth—if you can make your society just a little better, well, if you love your neighbor, make it a little better.

A third approach that some Christians take is, “Let’s take back our country. Let’s run it the way it ought to be run, and we’re going to be the ones doing it.” So you wield political power and you’re going to make those nonbelievers behave like Christians whether they want to or not. “If we get 51 percent of the vote, you’re going to do what we say.”

That has its problems. It will have the effect of turning people very sharply against the gospel and against the Christian faith if you did manage to gain that kind of power. And let’s be realistic—real biblical Christianity doesn’t have that kind of numbers or power in our society today. It just doesn’t. Face it and deal with it.

And if it did have that kind of power, then you’d have the situation like they had with the Emperor Constantine and many others throughout history. It is not always paradise when a Christian bully is running the show either.

So there are some missteps to avoid. One is the social gospel—that we’re just going to turn Christianity into politics. Another is to avoid politics totally. Another is to become domineering, forcing others to behave as Christians.

As I mentioned in a previous message, we need realism. The system’s human; it’s not divine. Don’t think your socio-political engagement is going to make everything good. And yet the system is needed and helpful, so don’t try to throw it all out and overthrow it. The system is worldly and wicked. Sometimes it’s called “the beast,” sometimes “Babylon.” The Bible doesn’t say the system is peachy and wonderful—and yet it’s needed.

At the same time as it’s worldly and wicked, the system is also fragile and fleeting. So live as strangers here. Do not think that if only you got the right people in for the next couple of minutes, you would now be living in paradise. Whatever system gets in—even if it’s an improvement on the previous one—is going to pass away. The system can’t save souls, it can’t purify people, it can’t produce paradise.

Keep all those things in mind. At the same time, that doesn’t mean stay out of political engagement entirely. And it means you don’t have to win everything you want. It doesn’t mean that on every issue it’s all or nothing because you’re a person of principle. It doesn’t mean that when you’re picking a candidate it’s all or nothing either—it’s going to be King Solomon and King David and Pericles and George Washington all wrapped into one, or it’s going to be nobody because you will not compromise.

When you’re dealing with politics, you’re dealing with possibilities. J. I. Packer says, “Compromise in politics means realistic readiness to settle for what one thinks to be less than ideal when it’s all one can get at the moment,” whether that’s legislation or the persons being offered as choices in an election. When you’re in politics or debating with people, you may say, “I believe in defending unborn children, and I will not compromise.”

Now, you shouldn’t compromise your conviction. But let’s say you could pass legislation that would defend all unborn children after the first trimester. You could say, “Anybody who votes for that is a no-good rat and a compromiser because they’re saying that any unborn child who hasn’t made it to three months of gestation isn’t worth protecting.” Not necessarily. You might be saying, “I’m trying to protect as many as I can, and I can’t yet win the political clout to protect the others.”

So you take what you can get. Sometimes, in political situations, something is better than nothing. Political compromise is not moral compromise. It is not doctrinal compromise. It’s saying, “This is that messy realm of politics where the wicked often mingle with the righteous, where different priorities are at work, and if you’re living in something that engages a lot of different voices, this is about the best you can get at the moment.”

I wouldn’t want to be a politician. I’m a lot better at saying, “This is right, this is wrong; live for the Lord.” And I think that as Christians, we need to keep seeking King Jesus and not try to round off little corners about how we ought to live in holiness. That is a different thing than saying, “And therefore we’re going to be able to make the government do everything that is perfectly in line with the rule of Jesus Christ.” He’s coming again. It’s going to happen.

Until then, when you’re involved in the give-and-take of politics, there will be choices that are much less than perfect, but one still is less bad than the other—whether it’s the persons you’re choosing or the policies you’re choosing. That doesn’t mean, “Now I believe that wrong is right.” It means that this is as far as we can get. As it’s sometimes said, politics is the art of the possible. You take what’s possible at the moment and see if you can make a bigger difference as time goes by.

So where does that leave us as Christian citizens today? Submit to the governing authorities. That means obey good laws and resist evil orders. That’s what it’s always meant. “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) when the orders are bad. And even when the orders are bad, that doesn’t mean we start a revolution, but it does mean we don’t obey bad orders.

There have been dictatorships where you’re supposed to inform on your fellow citizens. You see some of that coming back. You’re supposed to squeal if a governor who is unauthorized—in Michigan, for instance—wants you to tell on your neighbors if you see them doing something they’re not supposed to be doing, like having a party. Just go away. There are needed orders by government, but you don’t go squealing on your neighbors to keep a governor happy. If you saw somebody get shot by your neighbor, then you should be a witness in court. But unjust laws—ignore them.

Use your voice and your vote to protect life and liberty under law. It’s hard to sort through all the different issues that are part of a particular election, but don’t let go of the basic fundamental role of government, and that is to protect life and liberty under the law. Make sure the people you choose are people who actually live under law. Those who tell you, “If elected, I’m going to change how the institutions of this country are”—think very hard before pulling the lever for somebody who says, “I’m going to change that whole system of checks and balances that has existed for hundreds of years.”

Use your voice and your vote to protect life and liberty under the law. If you’re called into public service, do it. Some of our members serve on the village board. People who serve in the police serve in that way—that’s an arm of government. People who serve in legal professions are involved in governance. So don’t feel that’s a dingy, murky, or bad calling. That’s one of the great callings that Christians can be involved in—in governance, in making a difference in the political realm.

If you have a calling, ability, and aptitude for public service, go for it. Pray for officials, police, and military. Be prayerful—they have a hard job to do. It’s easy to knock them, but they have a very challenging job. Even those who are not Christians—in the New Testament, none of the ones they were praying for were Christians at all. They were bad, a lot of them. And the call was: pray for them, because they’re serving a function that God wants served.

And in all of it, put your heavenly citizenship first. You’re strangers and aliens here. So as these elections come and go, as these politics come and go, if there’s something I’ve said today that rubbed your politics the wrong way, please pardon, overlook, and forgive that—because our love for one another in Christ matters more than our political positions.

And whoever happens to win on Tuesday, I can tell you who already won: Jesus Christ is on the throne. It’s not going to be any of the politicians who win on Tuesday that are running the throne of the universe. So be glad. Rejoice, the Lord is King!

Christian Citizens (1 Peter 2:13-17)
By David Feddes
Slide Contents

Living under the system

• Political system (2:13-17)

• Work system (2:18-25)

• Family system (3:1-7)

¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.¹⁵ For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. ¹⁶ Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

Live under rulers

• Honor God’s image and rule in human creatures who govern.

• Disprove ignorant accusations that Christians are ruinous rebels.

• Live freely to serve God, not evil.

• Honor all, love brotherhood, fear God, honor ruler.

Caesar and God

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human creature: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors sent by him (2:13-14)

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. (Matthew 22:21)

 
Tax exempt—but pay

“The sons are exempt,” Jesus said to Peter. “But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”  (Matthew 17:27)

Living under rulers

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. (Romans 13:1)

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

What’s right with the government?

• It is put there by God as his servant to punish evil and promote good.

• It maintains order and stability.

• It prevents hell on earth (though it can’t produce heaven on earth).

Room for gospel living

Pray for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:2-4)

Biblical impact

• Government under God

• Rule of law

• Separation of powers

• Value of each person

• Authority to serve

• Vision: free to flourish

Wisest, best system

Representative democracy as we know it is not the only form of government under which Christian citizens have lived and served God. However, there is no doubt that from a Christian standpoint, it is a fitter and wiser form than any other. (J. I. Packer)

Punish bad, praise good

… to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. (2:14)

Do what is right and he will commend you… But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. (Romans 13:3-4)

Three options in governing

1. Prohibit
2. Permit
3. Promote
   
   

Missteps to avoid

1. Redefine gospel as social justice and shalom in this present world.
2. Avoid sociopolitical activity; stick to personal piety and evangelism.
3. Wield political power to make non-believers behave like Christians.
   
   

Systemic realism

• System is human, not divine.

• System is needed and helpful.

• System is worldly and wicked.

• System is fragile and fleeting.

• System can’t save souls, purify people, or produce paradise.

Compromise

Compromise in politics means realistic readiness to settle for what one thinks to be less than ideal when it is all that one can get at the moment. (Packer)

Political compromise is NOT moral or doctrinal compromise.

Christian citizens

• Obey good laws; resist evil orders.

• Use your voice and your vote to protect life and liberty under law.

• Pursue public service if called.

• Pray for officials, police, military.

• Put heavenly citizenship first.