daily java

Daily Java: This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. (Romans 13:6).

We have just come from another bruising political season in which we voted for our representatives. It was an ugly one.

Looking through history, the election process has always been ugly. I was looking at some ads for presidential candidates in the 1800’s and the ones today do not have anything over them. Lincoln, a president we think of everyone as loving, was portrayed as a baboon in many of his opposition cartoons. Other presidents were equally vilified.

The problem is, though, that these are God’s earthly representatives. Whether or not we agree with the elected officials, or even whether or not we voted for them, they are God’s servants.

They are his servants, even though they may not know it, or do what he wants. Even servants can be rebellious. But we are rebellious when we do not give them respect.

You have to remember that this was written in the Roman Empire under the reign of Nero, one of the most corrupt and cruel emperors that ever came down the pike. But still, Paul wrote, in the Bible, the written word of God, that he was God’s servant and you pay taxes (in other words support) him, whether you like him or not.

There are many things that I do not like about how some of the offices are run and some of the people in them, but I have to have respect for the office itself. And, because of this verse, I have to have respect for the people in those offices. I will not speak against them.

Sure they do stuff I don’t like. They do not vote the way I want and sometimes lead the country that I love in the wrong direction, but they are God’s servants nonetheless.

Someone says, well, he is not my president. Or he certainly does not represent me, so I do not have to respect him. But that is not true.

As your president, whether or not you agree with him, or even like him, he is the president of the United States. Our government is set up in such a way that the majority rules in election of government officials. If more people vote for him than the other guy, he wins. And because of that constitutional point, he is the president.

All we can do is respect him as long as he is I office. And unless we do, we sin.

Of course, again, the way our country is set up, we do not have to keep someone we do not like. We can vote him out if we want. That is the way our government is set up. Again, that too is God’s servant.

But as long as these people, whatever we may think of them, are in office, they are worthy of our respect and our support.

That is the duty of a Christian.