I really love the way today’s reading (1 Peter 2) ends. Read verses 21-25 again. Is not it amazing what Christ did so that we can return to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls? Reading that passage made me tremble.
While that is an amazing thought, I want to focus today’s post on another section of the reading. Today we are living in a changing America. I do not know where you stand on the issues of Healthcare, Immigration, President Obama, or even the Constitution. I know where I stand, and on many issues I am not happy. While I personally do not believe our government is out to personally hurt anyone or do the wrong thing, I believe their intentions are ok; I just disagree with them fundamentally. I do believe healthcare needed reform, but what was passed was not the best for this country. While I disagree with many things our government does, I am still called by God to submit to their leadership.
Peter urges his readers to submit to authority, whether to kings or governors; people in their day who ruled with an iron thumb and military power. In their day life was tough, and if you rebelled you died, no matter how much you disagreed with them. Fortuantly we live in a country where our government cannot suppress our speech. So even though it may hurt us at times to follow the authority of government we must submit to its leadership.
The thing you can do when you disagree is thank God that we live in a country that has protected our rights as human beings. We have channels we can go through to oppose legislation. That is where we must fight. That is where we must take action. But rebelling against the government by not paying taxes or doing something far worse is not submitting to the authority of our government, and in return is disobeying God, which in return is the definition of sin.
The above image was borrowed from the blog Stellavision
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