To Encourage You

1 Peter 2:13-15 “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”

Do you realize that from God’s perspective the motivation behind why we do or don’t do things is more important than the actions themselves?  Jesus pointed this out in the Sermon on the Mount when He said “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart’” (Matthew 5:27-28).   In other words, although a person may not actually sleep with his neighbor’s wife, to lust after her is a sin of the heart no matter whether he acts on that lust or not.  And God sees it all. 

In 1 Corinthians 13:3 we are told this: “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Here it is the motive behind the actions that is the problem.  Although other people who see such “devotion” might be impressed by what we do, the Lord, Who sees our hearts, is unmoved.  Likewise, it’s the issue of motives that is the focus of the passage above from 1 Peter 2. It’s telling us that it is God’s will that we obey the civil authorities.  It’s telling us to obey the laws of man “for the Lord’s sake.” In other words, the REASON that a Christian should obey the speed limit is to honor the Lord, not just so he or she doesn’t get fined.  It’s a matter of honoring the Lord rather than our wallet with our actions, for to do otherwise is to make mammon rather than the Lord the master we love. We can’t have it both ways (Matthew 6:24). 

And notice that we are told that we are to obey “every human institution” no matter at what level that authority resides.  Therefore, if I want to do everything I do “to the glory of God” as my motive (1 Corinthians 10:31), I will see obedience to all the laws of the land as an opportunity to do just that.  I won’t lie when I prepare my income tax at the federal, state, or local level. I won’t be negligent with respect to things like building permits or local building codes although they might seem trivial and make little sense to me at times.  And I won’t disobey the game and fish laws when to violate them can be so tempting, especially when no one else knows what we’ve done.

You see, the fact is, for the Christian, both the Lord and they always know what they do and why they do it.  And, more often than not, others find out what we’ve done in one way or another.  To disobey the Lord can damage our witness before those who don’t know God, although they may engage in the same acts of civil disobedience and see nothing wrong in it themselves. 

May God help us to glorify God by obeying the laws of the land, not to impress anyone and not to just keep from getting caught. May we do it all “for the Lord’s sake,” for we can be sure the God Who knows everything knows the motives of our heart.