Remind the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone. (Titus 3:1-2)The Occupy Wall Street movement and all of its branches are in full swing. Sixties style rebellion is coming back, complete with unwashed hippie like people and citizen occupation forces commandeering large sections of public property.
But is it right? I saw one sign saying Who Would Jesus Occupy? Lots of people quoted Bible passages about wealth and selling everything you own and riches and all.
But what does God think of all this? If the Bible is true, and I think it is, he doesn’t like it.
What does he say? He says submit to the government and its officers. Be obedient and do what is good. Don’t slander or quarrel. Be gentle. Show humility.
None of those things are evident at the occupations. For that matter, none of those things are evident in the election in general. In fact, the absolute reverse is displayed.
We walk a fine line in our country. On the one hand, we have the freedom to choose who we want to be our leaders. On the other hand we have to live with the majority vote.
If someone is elected that we like, we are happy and things are great. If someone else that we do not like is elected, we are miserable. And we have the right to choose who will lead us and the philosophy that leads us.
But the thing is, when we have elected leaders, whether we have voted for them or not, they are our leaders. And we have to respect them. It is hard to respect a man who you feel is hurting more than helping, but it is what God wants.
When the apostle Paul wrote this, it was the Roman empire and there was an emperor. The one who was around when Paul wrote these comments encouraging people to submit was the emperor Nero. He was bad, cruel, vain, everything you can think about and not like in a political leader. In fact, one of his main missions was to stamp out Christianity.
And what is more, he had absolute contempt for Christians and didn’t care that they submitted to him or prayed for him.
Yet, Paul said to submit and be obedient. And 1 Timothy 2 says to pray for them.
Why do we submit? Why do we not slander? Mainly because of attitude. Christians are the ones that a government ought not to worry about. God tells Christians just to live their lives in a way that others can see the love of God.
That doesn’t mean we cannot participate in the political process or vote or things like that. But the rancor that so characterizes the political process today should be absent from a Christian’s life.
There is no place in the life of a Christian for calling others liars or any of the other pejorative labels used so often. We are not called to foam at the mouth at political rallies. We are called to bring Jesus to this world.
There is nothing wrong with politics and I read about it daily. But we walk a fine line between political participation and sin when we refuse to submit to our leaders, whatever we may think of them.
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