Romans 13:1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
With our election only a few days away, tensions, expectations and anger are on the rise. For some, everything is on the line, and the level of angst being expressed matches their perception of the stakes. For some, this is just another election, a time for us to express our desire for the direction of our nation.
It can be very hard to see any government composed of human beings as doing God’s will. Even the best examples of governments have their failings that seem to grow over time. The failings seem to grow in proportion to the size and complexity of the government. Small seems better.
So our text can difficult to comprehend. We look at the realities of governments and we see a great disturbance in the force. Governments do some pretty horrible things, so how can they be agents established by God? How can Scripture say that all authorities are established by God?
Notice that it doesn’t say that all governments exercise their authority in line with God’s will. It says that the authority itself is from God. It doesn’t say that all the decisions made under that authority are holy decisions, decisions that further God’s will.
The rub really happens when the governing authority stands opposed to God’s will. We must be very careful when assigning “God’s Will” to actions of governing authorities. There are some decisions that are easy, like the murder of 100 million people under Russian and Chinese rule.
But other decisions are not so clear cut. It think a good question to ask might be something like this. “Can a person of God serve Jesus under this rule?” Remember, persecution is an option on the table, and persecution might be part of God’s will for you! It has been and is for millions of Christians around the world and across time.
The answer to the question posed in the previous paragraph is always a resound “YES!” We can always live for Jesus regardless of the governmental circumstances. There might be some negative earthly consequences for our obedience, but our eternity is sealed.
So no matter what happens after our upcoming elections, no matter which ungodly set of rules prevails, we can live for Jesus. No matter who wins the elections, Jesus is still Lord. We can rejoice in Him, although our rejoicing might be muted depending the outcome.
Rejoice in Jesus, not in the result of an election!
The Arnold Journey 