This past Sunday our Bible study classes at Philippi began using Answering God’s Call for the Fall curriculum.
I began writing this about a year ago, long before we knew who Kim Davis was,
but I believe it was timely. This goes to show that we are not jumping on the
Kim Davis bandwagon, but instead are trying to simply live out our faith the
way the Bible instructs. Here is page 11 from the book:
We need to obey the rules. Romans 13:1 teaches
believers to “be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no
authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
It is hard to imagine how God could allow people like this Pharaoh to rise to
power, but He is sovereign and nothing happens without God either authoring or
allowing it.
But even though we are supposed to obey the rulers
placed as authorities in our lives, sometimes those leaders will command us to
do something that is in opposition to God’s Word. In those cases we are to obey
God instead of man.
In Acts 5 the apostles were instructed by the high
priest to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, and in verse 29 Peter said, “We
must obey God rather than man.”
The way things are going in this country it may one
day be illegal to attend church, read the Bible, or, like with the apostles,
preach in the name of Jesus. It may soon become against the law to call
homosexuality a sin. What are Christians supposed to do in those cases?
We must obey God rather than man.
This doesn’t mean that we should be pushy,
arrogant, or obnoxious, but we must not cower and cave; we need to determine
now that if there is a conflict between man’s law and God’s law, we will obey
God.
Believers today may feel their temperature rise as they
engage in a conversation about Kim Davis, the Bible, or religious freedom
today. We should not cower, but neither should we be pushy, obnoxious, or
arrogant. While we disagree, remember to do so in love, for we never want to
win the argument and lose the person.
Comments