If you look at the several passages in 1 Timothy, 1 Peter and Titus there is a consistent theme. “Pray and be grateful for those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” There were no qualifiers on that even though Roman authorities were harsh, overbearing and often cruel. We all know the horrific stories of Nero’s madness and how he ruthlessly and perversely persecuted Christians. Still, they were not to rebel but to suffer. “But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:20-21). “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9). This is why it is so ironic in the political debates that the candidates professing to be Christians are encouraged to do just the opposite by their campaigns as well as their supporters. It is more than ironic. It is sad. We reward them for behavior that is just the opposite of what Paul is teaching.

So, the first thing we see is that the true source of authentic government is God. It is not an invention of man. Whether the authority is benevolent or cruel. Whether we are treated well or badly, the authorities over us and to which we submit are there by God’s design and to rebel against them is to rebel against what God has instituted. It does not mean that every feature of government is divinely instituted. It does not mean there is one particular form of government that is more ordained than another. It simply means that we need government and authority of some sort whether it is bad or good. The option is violence and anarchy.

Some commentators believe Paul was especially strong on this point because the Jews were seen as rebellious, hard to govern and haters of authority so they had to be treated with a heavy hand. Paul did not want the fragile church to be identified with rebels and dissidents. As well, there were some in the early church who disputed the rightful authority of the secular government because they claimed there was only one King and that was Jesus. Any other had no authority over them. In either case, Paul saw the danger of being known as opposed to government and wanted the authorities to see Christians not as threats but as good citizens anxious only to be left in peace. He wanted Christians to honor those who protected them – the Christians – from evil. They were God’s servants worthy of respect.

However, and I know some of you are waiting expectantly for this one, the role of government is chiefly a negative one. In other words, the main purpose of government is to protect us from each other and to provide safety and security so that we might live quiet lives in harmony free from chaos. For Paul, the State preserved the world from chaos. “Take away that Empire…and the world would disintegrate into flying fragments” is the way William Barclay puts it. Government is necessary because of those who do wrong and it is God’s servant in dealing out punishment and securing peace. “We must not expect too much from the state because the business of the state is mainly negative. Its main function is to control and to limit evil and the manifestations of evil.” D. Martyn Lloyd Jones.

Edmund Burke put it this way: “To provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of Government. It would be a vain presumption in statesmen to think they can do it. The people maintain them, and not they the people. It is in the power of Government to prevent much evil; it can do very little positive good in this, or perhaps in any thing else.”

Government’s first responsibility is not to provide good things. It is not to shoulder the burden of making life more satisfying or easier. Benjamin Franklin was right when he said, “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” Government is not a leadership position. That is where Luther went off track and eventually provided the background for the Lutheran State church to go along with Adolph Hitler. They saw the government as a leader and not a servant whose role was to protect people from violence. Once it becomes a master and has a taste of that enormous power it is likely impossible for it to reverse course and voluntarily become a servant again. Government is there to allow people to live in peace and not be fearful of those who would rob them of that. When government strays from that it turns good intentions – even the best of intentions – into tyranny because it has overstepped its ordained limits and violated its mandate. Think about all the good things inspired by Christian values over the years that have ended in disaster. Love your neighbor. Take care of the poor. Bear one another’s burdens. Don’t treat the rich as special people. All of these things are good but government by its very design is incapable of doing anything more than what was intended – to be God’s servant in protecting us from evil and violence.

That would not have been much of a concern to Paul or the early church. Whether the Emperor was good or not was not a point of discussion. What role Christians played in government was moot. They were essentially powerless – even disinterested in such things. They had to learn to live with a hostile environment and as invisibly as possible. As we have said before, the early churches saw themselves as people in a lifeboat waiting to be rescued and not as people hoping to infiltrate and change the structures of the world.

Now, I don’t want you to think that Paul is describing an institution whose sole authority comes from those who are governed. He could not have held to that. These are not Paul’s words or the words of the Apostles. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Do you see the difference between that passage from the Declaration of Independence and Romans 13? What is the source of government authority in the Declaration? Government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. How is that different from Romans 13? Government derives its legitimate powers from God himself. In the one system we are citizens and the final authority while in the other we are subjects and are required to submit to the authorities. This is very difficult for Americans and other democratic countries to swallow. It is especially difficult for societies like ours that were birthed with revolutionary values and whose founding fathers often spoke of the value of revolution whenever governments overstepped their bounds. In a way, we are both citizens and subjects. Do you know the song, “Englishman in New York” by Sting? That’s us. We are subjects (Englishman) in a world of people thinking of themselves as independent citizens (New York). For Paul, the rulers and magistrates did not protect individual or collective “rights” but was put in place to protect us from chaos and punish wrongdoers.

Neither Paul or Peter would have written this:

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States…A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

Or this by Thomas Jefferson: “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.”

Thomas Paine: “The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.”

Paul had not read John Locke and not been formed by the Enlightenment. Neither had his audience. While they were the objects of the worst kinds of persecution they did not have the mindset or the means to mount a revolution. In fact, it was only (like Shadrach, Meshak and Abednego) when the State demanded not only to be obeyed but to be worshipped as God that the Christians refused. They did not refuse to pay taxes or put up with indignities and restrictions. They were not concerned about losing their non-profit status. They chose to suffer instead. They accepted the consequences of their disobedience.

But that does not mean that we are to try and fit ourselves and our circumstances into theirs. We have a different form of government but even so its function in God’s eyes is the same. To protect and not to provide. It is only when the prospect of chaos and insecurity is imminent that there is any reason for government to expand to meet the threat. Of course, that is how growth happens. The threat goes away but the increase doesn’t. Fortunately, we have a means to change the government without revolution or rebellion. Civil disobedience, yes, but not outright rebellion and armed insurrection. Our way is slow and ineffective. It is dependent on our involvement and, in a very real sense, not being involved even at the very lowest level of voting is allowing it to become tyranny and not what God intends. It ends up mired in gridlock but that is the way it was designed. James Madison said it this way in The Federalist Papers No. 51 on the reason for separation of powers:

“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

We should be grateful for the form of government we have. I regret that part of our legacy is a fundamental distrust and disdain for government and those who serve there. I am concerned that we now see the ultimate source of government not as ordained by God but created and accountable only to us. We have lost the sense of God’s interest in government now that it is a purely human institution. What if we treated the ordained institution of the Church like we do the government and talk about the leaders in the same way? What if we heaped the same kind of s scorn and media attention on it that we do government? We would have the same result: people believing it is nothing but a human institution established only by the consent of the people. If that, then we can regulate and define it however we wish. That is exactly what is happening how.

But I have no interest in a Christian government as it would only become another form of tyranny in time and I believe that the State has more to fear from the Church than the reverse. However, as Winston Churchill said, “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper – no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.”

Finally, I would say that if we spent half the time praying, interceding and giving thanks for those in authority that we give toward plotting against our partisan enemies we might well have more of what we desire and less of what we deserve. Instead of focusing on controversy and disputes it might be better, as Christians, to follow Paul’s advice to Titus.

“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.”

Let’s devote ourselves to living in harmony and humility, being at peace with one another, practicing hospitality, honoring one another and doing what is good. I know that is not the way of the world and it is likely not the way to win political battles and power. But, Paul was not giving practical political advice, was he? He was telling how we are to live as citizens of another kingdom even while we are here in the world.

I don’t know what Peter and Paul would write to the American church today about government but I suspect the emphasis would be the same. “Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind…Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God…”