It is one thing to show love for fellow Christians. Few will argue that every Christian has the duty to do just that. But do you have to love your government? And what about tax-time? Who really enjoys paying taxes? We just had a tax due date for property taxes; most of us are probably a couple thousand lighter in our bank-accounts as a result. Interestingly enough, our epistle for today has quite a bit to say about the proper relationship of the Christian to the political and governing authorities.
And the first thing here that needs be noted is that the governing authorities have the right, from God, to govern us. It is not an optional thing, depending on whether you like the party in power, to honour the government. Unless the government expressly commands you to do something which is contrary to God’s Law, a Christian is honour-bound to respect the government and their laws.
Notice I said honour-bound, not duty bound. For the Christian, the reason why we need to respect governments and their authority is the Fourth Commandment: Honour your father and your mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honour them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them. All the authorities which there are in this world are there because God has established them and given them to us. In theological terms, God has two kingdoms— His eternal kingdom, the kingdom where He rules over all those who are His own, and this earthly kingdom. In the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the right, only God has control. In the kingdom of the left, the kingdoms of this world, God gives the right to have authority to those powers that exist. Some use it well, some abuse it. But all earthly authority is only for a time, where God’s eternal authority lasts forever.
In this left-hand kingdom we pay our taxes, elect our governments, and obey the laws and regulations of our country. This includes all the rules which our governments set before us—rules of the road, regulations on when and where to pay our taxes, and so forth. Because it is a rule given by the government that God has allowed to be over us, if it is not against God’s Word, it must be obeyed. Just as an example, a few months ago, I came to what I thought was a full stop at an intersection, with no other traffic around, but a policeman who happened to be watching the intersection disagreed. On reflecting on my own action, I realized that I hadn’t quite come to a full stop at the intersection, and I was quite upset at myself for breaking this law. The officer let me away with a warning, and since then, I have been much more careful at keeping the rules of the road. The rules are there in order to ensure others’ good in body—an application of the fifth commandment, where we are commanded not to hurt or harm our neighbour in any physical way.
This also includes speeding, passing on a double line, and such other rules of the road. Even if you disagree with them, the rules are there, and they do not contravene God’s Word. So as a Christian you are called to honour these laws. And the government also has every right to exact whatever punishment is fit for the infraction. Hence why our church teaches that it is permissible for Christians to serve in the military or as policemen, as whatever force they may use is on behalf of the governing authorities, and, as such, on behalf of God.
Part of honouring the government that God places over us includes being active in the electoral process. We have the right and the privilege of being involved in choosing our leaders. It appears, from the rumblings on the news this week, as though there will be a federal election next month. I can not and will not tell you which party or candidate to vote for, but I will say that it is important for you to take the time to consider the issues, learn what the parties stand for, and to vote according to your conscience and in accordance with what you believe. In this way you are showing your respect for the government that God gives us.
And please note just how good we have it. Believe it or not, the emperor of Rome to whom Paul was urging people to give respect in this chapter was Emperor Nero, best known for executing many Christians, including both Peter and Paul, and causing the burning of a large section of Rome. This is the emperor to whom these Roman Christians were being urged to show honour and respect towards! How much better we have it in Canada, with our freedoms and rights, with no heavy persecutions looming on the horizon. And yet we grumble so often about our taxes or the job that the government is doing.
Because the governments are given to us by God, when we grumble against them, when we complain about taxes or seek to get around the laws of the land, we are sinning against God. This isn’t to say that all taxation is necessarily fair, and it is right to use the processes available to you to work for justice in how the governance of your nation or your province or your municipality works. We might not like taxes, but the taxes of our nation help provide our road system, our sewers and water mains, our policing and fire service, our armed forces, our health care, and a number of other things that we often take for granted.
But to harbour anger or resentment toward the government is sin. As the epistle says, “Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.” The judgment referred to here is both temporal judgment and also, left unrepented, eternal judgment. To refuse to pay taxes is sin. To get a speeding ticket or other traffic ticket is sin. A fellow pastor who preached on this topic a number of years ago was somewhat surprised when some of his congregation members angrily asserted that since the speed limits are arbitrarily imposed by the government, they weren’t sinning by breaking the speed limits. Yet it is a law given us for the good of those on the road, and one which doesn’t contravene God’s Word. As Christians, we are called to “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”
And yet it is also true that we are in the kingdom of heaven. Our true citizenship is with God in His eternal kingdom, a citizenship bought for us by the price of Christ’s blood shed for us. And here too Jesus’ own example is instructive. Brought up on false charges by the leaders of His own people, He did not rebel against them. Even though He was unjustly accused, mistreated in the worst miscarriage of justice ever and executed for crimes He did not commit, He did not seek to rebel against the governing powers. He simply reminded Pontius Pilate that whatever authority he had was only there because it had been given to him. And then Jesus died, died for everyone else’s crimes against God — for He had none of His own.
Such citizenship comes with duties. On page 328 of the hymnal, in the Catechism section, is the condensed form of the Table of Duties— the responsibilities that fall to people in their “holy orders and positions”. If you scan the headings, you will no doubt see several that apply to you. You are called to live in these ways in this world as a sign that you are one whom our Lord Jesus Christ has called and claimed as His very own.
Ultimately, all the responsibilities we have for good citizenship flow out of love. God has shown His great love for His broken, sin-scarred people by sending His Son Jesus to be the one who received God’s righteous wrath on our behalf, in order that we might be set free from our imprisonment to sin. He has set us free in order to show the world what His freedom means in who we are, how we love each other, how we respect our leaders and other authorities. After all, rare indeed is the despot that punishes people for following the law and showing kindness to others. Such a leader only demonstrates all the more powerfully how much better it is to live as one who abides by the law.
As such, the goal of the Christian is to owe no man anything other than love. This isn’t talking about not taking out personal loans or not holding mortgages or that sort of thing. Sometimes those are unavoidable in the way that our economy is structured. Rather, to owe nothing other than love means that the Christian looks at all they do as a way of showing love to the neighbour. It sounds odd, but it is true. By taking my car to the garage to get fixed, I am showing Christian love to the people who run the garage, trusting them to do the right thing, and willingly giving them a fair price for their training and abilities. By faithfully paying my taxes and other bills, I am keeping the services which the governments and utilities deliver available for those who need them, and showing love and honour for those whom God has placed in the positions of doing such things. And so forth. Look at your life and consider what you do as a citizen and how that reflects on how you love others. The life of the Christian is a life of serving gladly and willingly in love, not of whining and complaining out of a sense of compulsion.
This reflects back again on our life as a congregation. Central to who we are and how we relate to one another needs to be the willingness for everyone to love each other. For we are not our own, but have been bought with the price of Jesus’ own precious blood shed on the cross, that blood which we share in at His holy altar in the Lord’s Supper, that blood which has washed away our sins and made us God’s own people.
Show love for each other, then, in how you live. And most of all, be in the love of Christ, daily in His Word, regularly receiving His gifts of the Lord’s Supper and the forgiveness of sins, so that you have the power that He alone gives to live in His love, now and always. God grant this to us all! Amen.
Last updated September 2008 by the webmaster.