Living For The Lord Under An Ungodly Government

Feature 2 – March 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Living For The Lord Under An Ungodly Government

Contrary to what many religious leaders teach, it is important to recognize that Israel and the Church, or Assembly, are altogether different from each other. They should never be confounded. The Israelite lived in the era of the law, whereas the Christian lives in the time of grace. The life of the Israelite was governed by the law; the Christian’s example and pattern of life is Christ. Israel’s life and hopes were tied to the earth; the Christian’s life is Christ, and his citizenship is a heavenly one. The Israelite often fought and sometimes conquered his neighboring nations. The Christian’s responsibility is to seek to live at peace with all men and to try to win others to his Savior.

The New Testament summarizes the relationship of the Christian to his earthly government in three words: pray, pay and obey. Nowhere does it contemplate a Christian choosing his government leaders any more than it contemplates sheep choosing their shepherd. Because the natural man has an inherently sinful nature, Scripture makes plain that he sins and is ungodly by nature. Hence, a government that man sets up is essentially an ungodly government, although there are certainly varying degrees of ungodliness.

Peter’s Experiences And Epistles
The apostle Peter experienced this early in his Christian life. Remember, Christianity began on the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. It was then, days after the Lord ascended into heaven, that the Holy Spirit descended upon the 120 believers who were gathered with one accord in an upper room in Jerusalem.

Peter’s first imprisonment is recorded in Acts 4, the second in Acts 5, and another of greater severity under Herod in Acts 12. Finally, Peter glorified God in his death, as the Lord had foretold in John 21:19. Ancient Christian writers tell us when under the viciously cruel Emperor Nero, Peter was arrested and condemned to be crucified. He told his executioners that he was not worthy to die as his Lord had died, requesting that they crucify him upside down.

Having set this example for us, we can appreciate so much the more what he wrote, realizing too that what he wrote was by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Peter 4:16 he summed up, “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter” (NKJV).

Peter pointed out how the Christian is to conduct himself in this world (2:13-25). He is to have his conduct honest among those around him so he cannot rightfully be accused of being an evildoer. The believer is to submit to every ordinance of man, whether to the national government or to lesser rulers. He is to do good; he is free, but as a bondservant (literally, “a slave”) of God. Christian slaves were admonished, or counseled, to be submissive to their masters and to accept patiently even the grief and wrong treatment they might receive from harsh masters.

Finally, Peter set before us the example of Christ, “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (v.23).

Godly women are exhorted in the next chapter, 1 Peter 3, to be submissive to their own husbands, even if their husbands are unsaved. The woman’s adornment is not merely to be outward, but is to be “the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God” (v.4). Husbands are to “dwell with them [their wives] with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life” (v.7).

From the very onset of their lives and testimonies as Christians, even before that name had been applied to the followers of the Lord Jesus, Peter and John told the Jewish rulers, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge ... We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 4:19, 5:29). This is an important principle to remember. God is the highest authority of all. He is the One who sets governments in place, regardless of how, humanly speaking, they have come to power – whether they are voted in, are hereditary rulers, or even if they have obtained their power by overthrowing their predecessors. God never tells us to disobey those who are set in authority over us, but since God has delegated authority to them, we are obligated to obey, except when they clearly overstep their God-given authority and demand something that God has expressly forbidden us. In such a case the Christian is obligated to obey the Highest Authority – God – but he must be ready to bear the consequences, whatever they may be.

Taking A Stand And Being Delivered
God has given us several examples of this in the Old Testament. In Exodus 1 the king of Egypt commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill the boys being born to Israelite women. Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives, “feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive” (v.17). God dealt well with the midwives because they feared God, and He caused the Israelites to multiply.

In the opening chapter of the book of Daniel we find the captive young man, Daniel, and his three friends refusing to defile themselves with the food from the heathen king’s table. They trusted God to stand by them as they stood for Him. God honored their faith.

In Daniel 3 the king commanded the three friends to bow down and worship the huge gold image he had erected or face the penalty of being thrown into a burning fiery furnace. They refused to obey this command, telling the king, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (vv.17-18). The LORD honored their stand, walked with them in that furnace and kept them from any harm.

Daniel, as an old man, held a high position in the succeeding government. At one point his enemies flattered and pressured the king into signing an irrevocable decree forbidding prayer to be made to anyone other than himself for the next 30 days. Even though Daniel knew this, he did not let that keep him from praying as he always had done. “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his window open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days” (6:10). Daniel knew the penalty for his obedience to God, which was viewed by his enemies as disobedience to the royal decree. He suffered the consequences of his faithfulness: Daniel was cast into the den of lions and kept there overnight. The LORD did not allow him to suffer any harm, while the king spent a sleepless night fasting without his usual entertainment.

Taking A Stand And Not Being Delivered
Lest we feel we can expect such miracles of God’s preservation when we stand faithfully and obediently for Him, and then feel disappointed or even cheated if our lot is to suffer, let’s look at John the Baptist. This forerunner of Jesus was termed by Him as the greatest of prophets. He stood firmly and boldly for God’s principles, facing not only the religious leaders of the Jews as recorded in John 1, but also adulterous King Herod who had married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. Herod had imprisoned John and enjoyed listening to him from time to time.

Earlier, John said that Jesus must increase and he himself decrease, but he seems to have been puzzled why Jesus, who did so many miracles, did nothing to free him. He even sent messengers to question Jesus if He was really the Messiah or whether they should wait for another (see Mt. 11:2-5). Instead of a miracle of deliverance, Matthew 14 and Mark 6 give us the sad report that John was beheaded in prison because of his faithfulness!

Hebrews 11 tells about men and women of faith and their accomplishments and deliverances. Verses 33, 34 and the beginning of 35 summarize a number of these without the details of the previous verses. Then the rest of verse 35 and the next three verses go on to say, “Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.” It is clear that to live for the Lord in a world where most governments are ungodly is not easy.

In Matthew 10, when the Lord sent out the Twelve, He told them He was sending them out like sheep among wolves. They were to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, and to expect to be physically mistreated. The Lord told them not to worry about how or what they should speak when brought before governors or kings for His sake, for what they should say would be given them at that hour. John 15 records the Lord telling His disciples that the world would hate them just as it hated Him. The religious leaders who professed to serve the true God and the political leaders of this world joined together to crucify the Lord Jesus.

Today
Many governments today actively persecute Christians or make laws to restrict their activities. Other governments grant what they call freedom of religion, tolerating all religions and mingling little into religious affairs. They would ideally treat all religions alike, although in practice this usually means that Christians who want to serve the Lord fully in accord with the Bible’s teaching are restricted to a degree. To find a truly godly government in the world today is not possible. However, the Lord promised to be with His own always. He has overcome the world and defeated its prince and god – Satan – at Calvary. We know too that “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Prov. 21:1).

When we look at how our Lord lived in this ungodly world we see the pattern we should follow. The prophet Isaiah foretold how He would live in this world: “He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench” (Isa. 42:2-3). The Lord “went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil,” Peter testified to the crowd gathered at the home of Cornelius (Acts 10:38).

Jesus was in the world but not of it. We should seek to be like Him. He did not join organizations to do good. He did a tremendous amount of good personally. Although He did not organize or take part in demonstrations, crowds thronged Him as they followed Him. Though Son of God, He did not insist on His rights. His life was one of dependence lived in constant, close communion with God His Father. May we learn from Him and follow in His footsteps. One day soon He will put down all evil, set up His kingdom and reign in righteousness – and we shall reign with Him! Ungodly government will be ended forever.

By Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.