¹υπομιμνησκε αυτους αρχαις εξουσιαις

      You remind             them        to rulers    to authorities

υποτασσεσθαι πειθαρχειν προς παν εργον

to be subject,              to be obedient,   to          all    work

αγαθον ετοιμους ειναι ²μηδενα

  good          ready           to be,      no one

βλασφημειν αμαχους ειναι επιεικεις

to slander,            un-contentious to be,    forbearing,

πασαν ενδεικνυμενους πραυτητα προς

   All          showing forth              meekness       to 

παντας ανθρωπους

   all                men.

attitude to authorities 3:1-2

 

So we have an election result. I don’t suppose any of us are happy about it and we have up to 5 years to regret our choices. But what does that have to do with our gospel? We are constantly told to keep religion out of politics, but Paul jumps in with both feet.

 

 Remember last week? It was all about the grace of God, which revealed salvation for all, is about saying “No!” to ungodliness and looking forward to the glorious appearing of our grate God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Previous to that he had been telling Titus what to teach and for slaves to observe the protocols of slavery even when their masters were their spiritual brothers.

Other relevant passages in the New Testament to the subject of how we view authorities can be found :

Matthew 17:24-27;  22:17-21

Romans 13:1-7

1Peter 2: 13-17

1Timothy 2:1-2

 

 1. The grace of God does not entitle you to reject the political systems that are in place. You will have to accept the government as it is both national, international and local. You don’t have to agree with it and in a democracy, I see nothing in the scripture to suggest you should not engage in the democratic process. For many of our brothers that means paying the infidel tax, accepting that they cannot get jobs other than menial ones.

Jesus had quite a lot to say about politics. Faced with the Roman Procurator, Pilate, he could meet him eye to eye and say in John 18: 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

Tragically this principle was lost as Constantine’s enthusiasm for the gospel turned into political power. The church became a military power fighting crusades and dominating all dissent from its rule.

The kingdom of God is on earth when and where the followers of Jesus submit to his authority. He, when Peter cut off Malchus’s ear. Stopped Peter, healed Malchus so there was no further bloodshed except his own as he laid down his life for bring about salvation.

 

 2.PAY TAXES Jesus said you are to pay taxes even though you have the right to refuse as sons of the king.

Matthew 17: 25 When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

²⁶ “From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. ²⁷ “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

3.PRAY FOR GOVERNMENT

1Timothy 2:1-4

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— ² for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³ This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, ⁴ who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Can I draw your attention to the objective of your prayer – peace and the ability to live godly lives with the overarching passion of God that all people be saved.

Our prayers are to be in line with the passions of God, peace, holiness and the salvation of all. So lets pray now for Boris Johnson, Nick Hurd, John McDonnell, David Cameron that they may enable us to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

 

 4. KEEP THE LAW  to be obedient, speeding included.

 

GOOD Government There is very little in the New Testament about what good government is because the Kingdom of God is ruled by the Holy Spirit. It is not ruled by people. Leaders are under shepherds, guiding the church by the Holy Spirit. The church  was never intended to create a Kingdom of God on earth as such. The Old testament was different. Israel was chosen by God to be his special people, an example of what good government would be. So in Deuteronomy we read quite a lot about guideline for government. For example: Deuteronomy 17:14-20 an edited sample of what it says is:

 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself …

make the people return to Egypt to get more of them,

He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. ..

He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold….

he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, … It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law

… not consider himself better than his fellow …

Not  turn from the law to the right or to the left.

 

So we should as electors judge this government by its sharing of wealth rather than acquiring it,

Protecting people rather than itself,

following God’s ways in its personal lives as well as in legislation,

Its ability to treat all people equally particularly the poor, the widow, the orphaned and the immigrant.

 

But regardless of your opinion of the government, you are to be a

5. Be a GOOD CITIZEN to be ready to do whatever is good, In Paul’s day that included accepting the maverick demands of the authorities who could demand you carry loads up to one mile, however inconvenient. It also means obeying God’s law on matters that the state does not proscribe. Like providing for the poor even when the government accuses them of being malingers. I find no reference in the Bible for refusing aid to someone because they are wasters or its their fault. But we are not discussing what the government should do, we are discussing what you should do.

For us good means caring for the poor, the widows the orphans and the refugees. If the British Government will not tolerate Syrian refugees, we are still under obligation to care for them where they end up. We live in days which we describe as a global village.  Saturday I meet my niece, Sian, for a coffee before she flew to Nepal to assist in child protection in the aftermath of the earthquake. It helps that she speaks Nepali and has lived and worked there over the years. So we raise money for the care for the Nepalese and the give to our neighbour who has run out of cash. It is right and proper that, if we can, we encourage them to support themselves by better money management and finding a job, claiming the correct benefit, etc. but our first response is to deal with the immediate need.

to slander no-one

Grace revealed leads us reject ungodliness,  to respect others and that means not slandering them.

Slander comes in a variety of forms.

We have had a basin full through the election as in the later speeches we were more often told the consequences of supposed policies of the other parties, rather than the plans of the party itself. Truth is in very short supply in politics.

We have it over religion as well. It is easy to parody others views. When I was in Liverpool, the minister kept saying what those in the other side of the road believed. I thought it a strange expression until, walking out of church, I realised the Catholic church was ‘on the other side of the road’.  I hear a lot about what Muslims believe but rarely does it match with the Muslims I have met.  Be careful of repeating what you read about others beliefs. It is far better to listen to your neighbour and find out what they actually think.

The devil is keen on slander. Remember Genesis 3. “Has God said”… “ Well what he really means is…”

 to be peaceable

Romans 12: 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Let me read the context.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

 

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰ On the contrary:

 

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

 

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

At heart, being a good citizen means, for a Christian, to love your neighbour as you love yourself. So we are called to build relationships with our neighbour, even the unpleasant ones. To seek to resolve disputes with our neighbours and between them. Definitely not stirring things up by repeating the complaint of one neighbour to everyone else. That is the worst form of gossip and probably slander as well. It means that we have to forgive as God has forgiven us. Letting go of our anger, our righteous indignation and moving on to rebuild relationships where we can.

We are called to be considerate. That means thinking what effect our actions have on others, our neighbours, our family or our friends. 

 

 And we are called  to show true humility to think others better than ourselves.

Back in Romans 12:3 we read

³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

 

 To summarise. What we are called to do because of the grace that has been revealed to us, is this:

To  the UN, EU, HM government and London Borough of Hillingdon

·        Pay taxes

·        Pray for governments

·        Keep the law,

·        be ready to do whatever is good,

 

To our community, our family, our neighbours, our colleagues, and anyone else

 

·        slander no-one,

·        be peaceable and considerate,

·        show true humility.

There are clear reasons for this.

God gives authority to government

You are a witness to the grace of God

You recognise that your citizenship is in heaven.

As Hebrews 13:14 says

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

As such you are an ambassador in an alien world. What matters to you is Jesus and knowing him.

 

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