Living in the World

Isolation

In my isolation this week I’ve actually started to watch a reality TV show which is very unlike other reality shows. I’ve been watching this one on the catch up service “SBS on Demand”. Perhaps the fact that it was on SBS is the clue that it’s going to be a bit different.

The show is called “Alone”, and to be honest, it was only when I was writing this message that I noticed the irony that I started watching a show called Alone while in isolation.

The premise of the show is that they send 10 men into a very remote part of Canada, which notably has wild bears, cougars and wolves. They scatter each of them such that they are inaccessible from one another. And so it then becomes a contest - whoever can survive the longest in the wild, wins $500,000. There are no film crews. No producers. Just each contestant with a camera and a satellite phone in the event they need to tap out.

What has been fascinating to watch, is the way that highly capable grown men just crumble in the face of the isolation. Everything is harder because they are alone.

If you’re after something a bit different, then I’d recommend it. But while I’m enjoying the show, what’s really clear in the show, is that God has not designed us to be alone.

People can be very adaptable when forced into a situation where they are alone - but this is not the way that it is meant to be.

This was actually a fact that was noted right at the start of the Bible. Genesis 2 in fact, just after God had created Adam, he says: “It is not good for the man to be alone”.

And so from the beginning of humanity, the focus is not just a God’s creation of humanity giving him praise - although this is a big part of it - but of humanity get along with one another.

And so relationships become very important.

If you listened to my message last week, it was these various relationships that we explored - and exploration we did in light of what God has done for us.

But here’s the thing. Back in Genesis we might have started with Adam and Eve. We then famously had their children Cain and Abel, where even with just two people, they weren’t able to get along.

But as more and more people came on to the scene, the complexity kept growing. You see, once you have a large number of people, it’s no longer just about the individual relationships between people, rather it becomes necessary to have some sort of systematic structure to manage the way everyone gets along.

If you followed things from Adam and Eve on, you’ll notice how by the time you got to Noah, things were essentially chaotic. I don’t know exactly what, if any, structure they had to their society, but it didn’t seem to be very effective.

You might recall the tower of Babel came next - people had finally figured out how to work together to achieve a goal. Unfortunately, they were doing it in such a way that tried to counter God.

It’s interesting then as God raises up Abraham next, not only do we see a system of redemption emerging, but also a better system of governance start to emerge.

You see, we might not always think about it, but the way our society is governed is also important to God. God gives the young nation of Israel ways in which they can manage themselves.

Now this might all be fairly straight forward if it remained the fact that Israel were able to govern their own affairs. It gets a bit more complicated however, when, for reasons we won’t get into now, Israel are essentially overrun by foreign power, and the foreign nations then essentially rule over them.

You see, this is where is gets interesting. Just because it might no longer be God’s chosen people who are in charge, we quickly figure out that God has not lost interest in how things are governed. In fact, not only is God interested, he remains firmly in control of the overarching events that happen.

Now, very shortly, I’m going to try and explore how all of this interaction plays out, but the main focus of what I want to think about is how we relate to it.

You see, last week we looked at how we should think about our relationships with one another, but today we’re going to think about that in the larger context of a government that is secular by nature - and I’ll explain what I mean by secular very soon.

The problem I particular want to address, is the problem whereby we can be very aware of the need to relate well with others, but almost oblivious to the fact that God also wants us to relate well to our government as well.

So what does that mean and how do we do that? Well, that’s what we’re going to explore now.

Roman context

Now, as I did last week, I want to firmly keep this in the context of the gospel that Paul has given us in the first eight chapters of this letter.

That is, the good news of Jesus Christ, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and now we can be firmly in the love of God, and love that we will never be separated from.

We need to remember this context, because the reason why Paul is telling us how we should now live, is not because he wants to dictate to us what we should do, but rather what the natural response should be to the good news.

If God has redeemed us - then we need to live as people who are redeemed.

Now as we move into chapter 13 - it’s worth remembering where we landed at the end of chapter 12.

You see, the last part of that chapter dealt with the way we relate with our enemies. And the final line was: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”.

Now I suspect that was perhaps directly in his mind when he comes to his next thought which he gives us at the start of chapter 13. That is: “Let everyone be subjected to the governing authorities”.

I’ll explore what this means in our context in just a moment, but at this point, I just want to highlight that in Paul’s mind, when he talks about relating to governing authorities, he’s not doing so with the experience of a government that is sympathetic towards God and Christianity.

Limitations of Romans 13

Okay, well as we move into looking at the details of this chapter, I think it’s perhaps worth saying what this chapter is not. Because unfortunately this chapter in many ways becomes weaponised by people who want to use it to force people into falling in line.

What you find, is that when a Christians preferred political party is in power we raise Romans 13 almost like a banner and say - look, you should all just submit to them. Unfortunately, when a Christian non-preferred party is in, the banner goes conspicuously missing.

But this chapter does not say that everything a particular government does is good and right. A quick reading without much thought might lead to this impression, but if you look closely, he never says that all they do is good. We can be quite sure he doesn’t think all they do is good - after all, Paul himself ended up on the wrong side of the Roman authorities, even ending up in prison on more than one occasion.

Unfortunately, Romans 13 often gets misused. There a story about a prominent person who stood up against Apartheid in South Africa. He had a particular meeting with President P. W. Botha. Apparently the president actually read from Romans 13 to this person in opposition in an attempt for him to stop his opposition. The attempt didn’t work.

It didn’t work because this person knew that Romans 13 is not intended to legitimize everything a government does.

Submitting to authorities

Okay, so if it doesn’t legitimize governments, what does Paul mean when he says that everyone should be subject to governing authorities?

Well, I actually don’t think that we need to think that Paul is trying to think of every possible scenario before him - he’s actually just trying to say that because we’re people who have been redeemed, we need to live at peace with others, and the best way we’re going to achieve this is to not constantly be fighting with the governing authorities, rather work with them, because at the end of the day, believe it or not, but those governing authorities also want a peaceable society.

I do not believe that Paul is saying, without exception, do every little thing that government says. But given that the vast majority of what a government is about does not conflict with living a godly life, then if you want to live at peace, then be subject to those authorities.

Sometimes, we can over complicate these matters. We can think of some governments as more Christian than others. And to be fair, some will be more sympathetic to Christianity than others, but for the most part, particularly in a country like Australia, there is going to be very little, if anything, that is going to force us to behave contrary to our beliefs.

So don’t over complicate this first verse of Romans 13. There may be exceptions, but be subject to the government.

The theological framework

Well, after making this statement, Paul goes on to give the theological framework to support it.

You see, the reason we should be subject to these governing authorities is because they have been established by God.

Did you notice that he didn’t say, well the good government… they’re established by God… but the bad ones… well, that must have been the devil.

No, all of them, the good and bad… they are all there because of God. Even Jesus made this point to Pilate when he was being tried. Jesus told Pilate that he would have no authority unless it was given from above.

Of course, we might then ask the question, why would God establish a bad government? We might be able to come up with a few answers to that question, but at the end of the day, I think we just have to accept that God has his reasons for why he does things the way he does, and we’re not always going to fully understand that.

But if we accept that God establishes the government, then in the words of Paul: “whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted”.

Now, remember, understanding this in the wider context of the whole Bible, this is not without exception. But God is a God of order - and so he doesn’t want us to unnecessarily rebel.

Purpose of Governments

Interestingly, as Paul continues his exploration of this topic, he even starts to consider the purpose of governments.

Firstly, they are for your good - and before you throw your objection at me, this is not to say all governments are universally always good. But for the most part, almost all governments, whether you like their policies or not, actually want what’s best for their people.

Secondly, governments have a role to play in punishment. On a personal level, we might need to be careful in not passing judgement on others, however, I think there is clearly a role that governments need to play in dealing with justice within the world.

And thirdly, as we see in verse 6, Paul even provides a theological legitimization of taxes. As much as you might not like paying taxes, if governing authorities are to give their full time to governing, then they need some of our taxes. This is the system that we are going to have that will allow us to best live at peace with one another.

Now none of this is to get to the specifics of how things should be done. This does not tell us whether we should have higher taxes or lower. It doesn’t say whether we should have harsher penalties or softer.

All it’s saying is that it is the governments business to figure this stuff out.

Paul point in all of this is not to give a political manifesto. Rather, it’s to say that when we think about how we live, it needs to include how we relate to governments.

And how do we relate to them? Well, in recognising God’s role in their establishment, unless there is a specific conflict with what God tells us to do, then as far as practical, live at peace with them. In fact, as it says at the end of verse 6, even to the point of respecting and honouring them.

Now, I want to add to this that advocating a different perspective, if done with respect and honour, can actually be done while living out this chapter. If you see something that could be improved in the government, by all means, add your bit to the conversation - but do so in a way that promotes peace and harmony.

Importance of Love

Which brings me to the next section of this chapter.

The whole point of this is love.

If we keep love as the central tenant of all that we do, then we won’t go too far wrong.

You see, love can stop us being all legalistic about all of this.

Did you notice at the end of verse 5, when it was telling again to submit to the authorities, that not only should we do so because of possible punishment, but also as a matter of conscience.

The conscience for the believer, is directed by the Spirit, and that Spirit is love because God is love.

You see, whether it’s about obeying God’s laws, which we get a sample of in verse 9, or the law of the land, if we have love in our heart, then we’ll be fulfilling the law.

Because even the law of the land, while it might be written from a secular perspective, it is designed to enable society to work peaceably.

The Day is Near

Okay, so throughout this chapter, Paul has been helping us to think about how we should be living out our lives in light of our place in civic society. He’s telling us that not only should we work on our relationships with those around us, but we also should consider the wider place where we need to submit to the authorities.

Paul then concludes this discussion with reference to the time we are living in.

You see, understanding the present time we are in, colours the way we view all of this.

In case you’re not sure exactly what he’s talking about here, Paul’s talking about the fact that we’re living in the time when Jesus has already won the victory with his death and resurrection, but we await the final consumation of this victory in his return.

In this way, both in the time when Paul was writing this, and now, we are both living with this same dynamic.

If anything, for us we have more urgency. When Paul says in verse 12 that the night is nearly over and the day is almost here - well, he’s talking about the return of Christ, and we know for a fact that we are at least 2000 years closer to this day than Paul was.

You see, because we know that Jesus is coming again soon, there is greater impetus to live in a godly way.

It’s interesting that Paul has put this little section so closely to the section on submitting to the authorities.

As that day draws near, we might perhaps start to get more wary of the ways of governments. But while we should never stop being discerning, we should not allow our concerns of the governments from stopping us living peacefully together.

Knowing that the devil is causing more havoc as we near that final day does not give us an excuse to live lives that go against the way of Jesus.

If anything, it should be pushing us much more strongly towards the ways of Jesus. As it says in verse 14, clothing ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

There is much more that could be said regarding all that is in this chapter.

As we open up this whole issue of thinking how we relate with the governing structures in our society, there is so much we could consider.

But the bottom line is that as far as practically possible, and without going against what God says, we should be working with the government, not against them.

We should be obeying their laws, rather then thinking where somehow special and don’t need to.

God has established the government. Whether you like them or not. Whether you think their sympathetic to Christianity or not.

God has placed them there, and we need to trust that his ways are ultimately good.

There will be times when we need to stand against something the government is promoting. But don’t let these exception get in the way of you being a peaceful citizen.

Romans 13 is not something we can pull out when it suits us, and put away when it doesn’t. Rather, at all times, and for the matter, with greater urgency as the day of Jesus returns, we need to be living the way of Jesus, and this means promoting peace in society.

But in all of this, I urge you to keep praying for our government - all three levels of it.

We have a new Prime Minister, and whether you like him or not, he needs our prayers. Pray that he has the wisdom to govern us so that we do have a peaceful, prosperous society.

God has placed him there, and so we need to give him the honour and respect he deserves.

Let me pray...