Government
Devotion 6: Obey God or Obey Man?
Pastor Roy Townsend
Have you ever heard the question of whether you should obey God or obey man? As followers of Christ, we are often caught in the middle of this question. We have many who do not want to submit to the authorities because we disagree with them, their decision, or the direction that they are taking our country. I often have to help people as they are grappling with the decision to follow the direction of our government or to strike out in their own direction. I often take people to Romans 13:1-2, which says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” We have pretty specific instructions here that we, as followers, are to obey the governing authorities. Further, it says that God gave them their authority and that they exist because God instituted them. From there, we get a warning: if we resist the authority of the government, we are resisting what God has appointed.
Some people say that to obey means that we agree with the government, but we are told to obey, and there is no requirement for agreement. Since they are appointed by God, they are appointed above us. Then comes the question: what do we do if the government orders us to do something contrary to God’s commands? We see this in Acts 5:27-29, which says, “And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, ‘We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’ But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’” Here, the Apostle Peter and the other Apostles were arrested and told they could not preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but they gave the answer, “We must obey God rather than men.”
We teach a high view of Scripture at the River Church, and when we are told to submit to those that God has put in authority in positions, we are to obey them unless their laws force us to obey man rather than God. We see this in the Old Testament when King Nebuchadnezzar demanded to be worshiped like a God. What did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do? They did not bow down to worship the image of the king. What does this mean for us? We have a duty to obey God, and a duty to obey God by obeying the authorities unless the authorities are forcing us to disobey God.