When civil disobedience is permissible

When the Scriptures speak about the Christian’s relationship to the government, the emphasis is consistently on the civil obedience, not civil disobedience. For instance: The believer is to pray for his civil authorities (1 Tim. 2:1–3) The believer is to submit to his civil authorities (Rom. 13:1; 1 Pet. 2:13–15) The believer is to obey […]

Sermon: Essential Reminders About Our Responsibility to the Government

“Essential Reminders About Responding to Government” Romans 13:1-7 September 18, 2016 Last week we began talking about “Election Essentials” — understanding what the Bible has to say about politics, the church, and you. We began that series by thinking about the role of government and the authorities in government — what is the role of […]

Sermon: Essential Reminders About the Role of Government

“Essential Reminders About the Role of Government” Romans 13:1-7 September 11, 2016 Robert Wilson, in his book Character Above All seeks to answer one fundamental question: “What is the relationship between the President’s character and presidential leadership?” He asks the question because it is his observation that as a group, the American people “‘started out […]

What should we think about yesterday’s Supreme Court decisions?

Yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States handed down two significant rulings concerning homosexual marriage. What should we think about them? First of all, Joe Carter tells us, “9 Things You Should Know About the Supreme Court’s Same-Sex Marriage Cases.” His article helps to simplify the complexity of these cases and provides an overview […]

Two articles worth reading today

From Justin Taylor: I recommend that you read Russell Moore’s “Christians, Let’s Honor the President” and Collin Hansen’s “From Me, Yesterday.” Both exemplify Christian engagement with politics in the best sense. Here’s an excerpt from Moore: We are going to disagree with the President on some (important) things; there will be other areas where we […]

The election is over. Now what?

Yesterday was election day. Today the election is over. And the results are (mostly) in. If your candidate or referendum won, then you likely are happy. If your candidate or referendum lost, then you likely will be tempted with sadness or discouragement or even despair. But for the believer in Christ, nothing has changed. Not […]

John Piper: I Am Going to Vote

There has been much discussion among believers in this election year about whether or not to vote. There are many who are discouraged and disenchanted over the political process. Many don’t believe there is a godly and biblical choice (Thabiti Anyabwile is one who has articulated the position particularly well). But John Piper has some […]

Sunday Leftovers — Me and the Government

For two weeks, we’ve been thinking on Sunday morning about the relationship between the believer and the government from Titus 3:1. The primary principles and their implications in this passage could be summarized this way: Our responsibility before the Lord is not to change the government but to submit to it (v. 1). We are […]

When we’re unhappy with the government

Several years ago I had a conversation with another believer after a Sunday worship service about a believer’s relationship to the government. We differed on when it was appropriate to disobey the government. He was refusing to pay taxes. I wrote a follow-up letter, which I reproduce below (with some modifications) as a reflection on […]

Jesus, taxes and the government

Ask most people what topics are the most controversial and should be avoided if interpersonal conflict is also to be avoided and most people will reply with the paired answer, “politics and faith.” And yet Jesus very willfully and intentionally injected Himself into that very discussion in Matthew 22: when the debate about whether or […]

After jury duty

I spent the first two days of this week serving our community in the juror’s box. On Monday I was part of the selection process for two different juries before eventually being seated as a member of the second jury. I’ve been called for jury duty before but never had the privilege of sitting on […]