The expectation of God...
God expects believers to survive and thrive in every world system. He expects His governance of our hearts, souls and minds to supersede the governance of men's power over our bodies. Granted, as we stand with God, at times, we will stand against the power of men, but at such times we will happily stand with Him who is able to raise us from the grave even as we stand trembling before those who might put us in it.
Still, in general, God expects us to obey HIM and He commands us, in every way we possibly can, to obey the authorities. Again, please understand, sometimes obeying God puts us at odds with men, but God is able to sustain us.
Paul, who lived under repressive, tyrannical, Christian-hating government, said, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 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. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 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." (Romans 13:1-7 ESV)
Two phrases stood out to me:
(1) "Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment." I'm quite interested in not incurring judgment.
(2) "Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience." I'm quite interested in avoiding God's wrath.
I realize this creates a tension for the godly who live in ungodly times, and are subject to the authority of ungodly rulers, and in said tension the only clear mandates are faith, hope, love and humility. May we walk in these as we walk in the tension of obeying God and being subject to man.
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