The Church and Civil Government Part II

Way back in October of 2022 I started a series called, “The Church and Civil Government”. Part I was mostly some principles re: government from the book of Proverbs which you can find here:  https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/the-church-and-civil-government-part-i

Then because some of those principles touched on the subject of evil, I felt it necessary to make sure we all had a decent theology of evil, so I posted four studies on evil, which you can find below:

https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/defining-understanding-rightly-responding-to-evil-part-i

https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/defining-understanding-rightly-responding-to-evil-part-ii

https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/defining-understanding-rightly-responding-to-evil-part-iii

https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/defining-understanding-and-rightly-responding-to-evil-part-iv

Maybe some day I will resume that series as there is much left to say about the subject of evil.

But today I want to share some more thoughts about how disciples of Jesus should see civil government, feel about civil government, engage civil government, etc.  Sadly there continues to be division and I believe diversion in the body of Christ regarding this topic. My hope and prayer is that I can shed some needed light on this subject that will enable all of us to be more focused on what our Savior and Lord wants us to be focused on, and to give grace to those who’s focus is different from ours.

The first principle I want to propose in this post is:

Believers should faithfully pay their taxes per Jesus’s command to “…render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” Matthew 22:21  Now specifically Jesus in this passage was being asked whether Jews should pay taxes to Caesar or not. Caesar was the Roman emperor at the time Jesus was ministering on the earth.  He was in no way a believer or righteous. But Jesus clearly expected His followers to pay their taxes to him regardless of his character. Another example of this is when

Peter was challenged/questioned by tax collectors in Capernaum as to whether Jesus pays the “two drachma tax”. To keep those people from stumbling Jesus had Peter pay the tax – curiously with a coin found in the mouth of the first fish Peter was to catch in response to Jesus’s command to go catch a fish and get the payment for the tax from its mouth. (see Matthew 17:24-27). What is interesting about this passage is Jesus basically says as citizens of the kingdom of God we are exempt from paying these taxes, but to not be a stumbling block go on and pay them – knowing God will provide for such.

The apostle Paul similarly commands: “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” Romans 13:7 Never in these verses about paying taxes is there an exception clause as to whether the governing authorities are righteous or not.

Now this of course need never prevent us from trying to get tax laws changed both re: taxes we have to pay and what those taxes are used to pay for. A recent example of this in the U.S.A. is all the efforts made by various entities to see no more of our tax dollars going to Planned Parenthood, which has to be one of the most corrupt and racist corporations in our nation. Thankfully they continue to close their doors all over our nation as more and more see them for what they are.

Finally re: taxes - needless to say -  believers or disciples of Jesus do not have the option of getting pay “under the table”. Or under-reporting one’s income.

A second principle is Believers are commanded not only to give taxes to governing authorities, but also to submit to and honor all those in authority per Peter’s commands, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. …Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.” I Peter 2:17    Why would Peter command such a thing especially when some of these government rulers and/or institutions are clearly evil/unrighteous/unjust?  Well he explains why in vs. 15, “For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.”   When we humble ourselves and submit ourselves to such people and institutions, we demonstrate that we answer to a higher God/King than any earthly king, who will reward us and provide for us and protect us for doing so. The wicked are always looking for an excuse to justify their rebellion, and one of their favorite excuses is hypocrites in the church or people in the church who practice lawlessness. Peter says our godly behavior and uprightness in observing the laws of the land actually silences such people.

So what else can we learn from the gospels about disciples of Jesus and politics or government? Well I believe we can learn a few things from John the Baptist’s short lived ministry as well as Jesus’s in terms of how they dealt with the evil rulers ruling in their day over their land.

The primary principle I see from John the Baptist is, If a Christian leader feels led by God to confront a ruler about his ungodliness and wickedness, he should do it straight or directly to him/her and not malign him before others. We know John was a godly and holy man. He feared God and God alone. He was probably grounded in the principles we talked about in Part I of this series from the book of Proverbs re: how rulers ought to live and rule. Thus when he learned that Herod the tetrarch was having an ongoing adulterous affair with his brother’s wife Herodias, he began to confront him directly of this sin “For John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Matthew 14:4.  We know John had huge crowds (see Matthew 3:5,6) coming to hear him and to be baptized by him. But John never told those crowds about Herod. He spoke to the crowds about themselves for at least a couple of reasons. First because he knew he was commanded to honor kings and people in authority (see Exodus 22:28, Proverbs 24:21, Ecclesiastes 8:2-4, etc). Second, he knew people are always looking for someone else to focus blame on so they can ignore their own, and he never allowed that to happen – commanding everyone to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2). There is a king that every man, woman, young person and child is going to have to answer to single file, and that should be all of our primary concern.

I have great concern about Christian leaders who regularly speak to their congregations or ministries about the evils of governing leaders. Granted in the U.S.A. we have many such leaders in government. And granted God has made it very clear in His word how such leaders are to live and govern. And granted He has made it very clear how serious it is to live and govern unrighteously. But I find it very instructive that the civil governing authorities of Jesus’s day were just as unrighteous as any of the ones in America today, and Jesus rarely ever spoke to the crowds or to His disciples about them. Surely if He ever had the opportunity to do so it would have been right after John the Baptist was cruelly beheaded, because just hours after that Jesus was again ministering to a “large crowd” (Matthew 14:14); and yet in His hours/days ministering to this crowd of five thousand men, plus women and children, He never once mentioned this horrible atrocity. 

The consistent focus of Jesus’s ministry (as was true of John’s) was for everyone to “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). One day when people were trying to get the focus on wicked governing rulers instead of themselves (specifically re: Pilate mixing the blood of Galileans with their sacrifices – see Luke 13:1), Jesus responded, “…Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no , but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2,3). Jesus knew the human tendency to always try to find someone more obviously evil than themselves to redirect focus on to, and He would not stand for this diversion for a second! Christian leaders must be very careful herein.

Yes, I am aware that Jesus one time called Herod a fox…. Let’s look at that passage in Luke 13:31,32, “Just at that time some Pharisees approached, saying to Him, “Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.” And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach my goal.”   First I would observe that Jesus was not addressing a crowd. Rather He was responding to “some Pharisees” so at least two, perhaps a handful of them. Second I would observe that He consistently as a way of life only said what the Father told Him or directed Him to say – that is – Jesus never once spoke an impulsive, self directed, arrogant or maligning word (see John 5:19, 8:28, 12:49,50, 14:10). So this response we know  was pleasing to the Father and was not out of anger, resentment, macho-ness, etc.  Third as to the choice of the word, “fox”, Dr. Harold Hoehner once said it speaks of “….a person who is an insignificant or base person. He lacks real power and dignity, using cunning deceit to achieve his aims.” (H.W. Hoener, Herod Antipas, 347).  Jesus must have felt it was necessary for these specific Pharisees to know what kind of a person Herod really was in contrast to the King of Kings they were speaking to who knew exactly what He was doing and no one could keep Him from it. Finally it shows that though He rarely spoke to the crowds about a specific individual in government, He was very well aware of what they were made of and how they operated.

I hope to continue this series soon, but in the meantime may our Father give all of us abundant grace to keep the focus on ourselves and to look to Him for how He would have us respond to evil governing authorities in jurisdiction over us. Much grace, peace and mercy to each of you.