We are Christians; commanded by God to obey the authorities society places above us. However, as Christian wives, we are also commanded to obey our husbands. Still, we must remember God's other commandments that sometimes supercede these. We are to "render unto caesar what is caesar's" (yes, you’ve got to pay your taxes!) but also, "unto God what is God's" (yes, you need to act like a CHRISTIAN).
Yes, we must obey our societal authorities and our husbands, but never to the extent that we give them honor only due our God or that we sin against God, another human being (or even an animal) by doing so. We honor God by obeying God. We honor our society and our husbands by obeying them; as long as we are simultaneously obeying God.
We cannot bring Godly honor to our husbands (or our society) if we are disobeying our Lord God, even if we are doing exactly what our husband (or society) commands us to do.
This week we will focus on obeying our societal authorities. ( Next week we will get into the very tenuous matter of disobeying our husbands in order to bring them honor before God. ) Let me give you some examples of how to live in our society, but not of it:
So, your societal authority wants you to sin (disobeying any commandment in the Bible is sin).
1. Let's say, your boss wants you to lie on some paperwork, it is not an out-right lie, but you are to leave out some information to give a somewhat false perception. . . a Christian CAN NOT do this. God commands us not to bear false witness. Any type of lie, out-right, "white lies", leaving out information (or adding a little in) to create a false perception, or just ignoring truth, are all types of bearing false witness. As a Christian, we CAN NOT participate in any such behavior, NO MATTER WHO TELLS US TO BEHAVE THAT WAY!!! We honor our God by disobeying such commandments because it proves we love God more than man or the honors man may bestow upon us.
Real-Life Example:
We have good friends, whom are a single-income family with 7 children (5 still living at home at the time). They were moved across America (yes, the new company paid for their move) for a great new job opportunity; just to be fired less than a year later because he refused to boge-up paperwork. Yes, he was fired (and had to take a job over 1,000 miles from his family to be able to keep providing). Was it very difficult for him and his family? YES. Could he have lied and still been at home all this time? Possibly. Could he have lied and stayed in the presence of God? NO. He may not have been in the presence of his family on earth through those tough times, but he was ALWAYS in the presence of God. Now, as God is gracious, he is at home again, still in God's presence. If he had lied and stayed home, he may still have been there all this time, but all this time he would not have been in God's presence, he would have been in sin. He was (and is) a righteous man for choosing to live in God's presence even over the presence of his family. He passed the test.
2. Okay, you are on a road-trip. Your road companions (and you) are very eager to get to
where you are going. The speed limit sign has read “70 mph” for most of this state, but since crossing the new state line, the new signs read “60 mph”. The ever-so-flat landscape has not changed a bit, there is no town in sight, and hardly ever any other cars. You wonder, “what’s the point?!” Yet, now (only to be able to write better speeding tickets you grumble) your societal authority tells you not to exceed 60 mph. Traveling along at 60 mph instead of 70 mph feels sooo slow and sluggish. You were making great time. You try to justify your disobedience, however, nobody in your vehicle is in a physical state of absolute emergency (about to bleed to death or give birth to a baby), therefore, you grimly recognize, it is not a sin to obey the speed limit. Do you obey? . . . that is your choice. SHOULD you obey? . . . Absolutely: YES.
Real-Life Example:
Myself. Some years ago now (about 6-7, I believe), I was convicted to obey God in ALL things, especially the small ones. I grew up in California. I did my best to obey the rules. But, nearly everyone speeds there, 4-8 mph above the speed limit is the very safe general rule. Even my driver training instructor said it is better to go the speed limit than even a single mph under it (as to avoid causing traffic or an accident by driving too slow). My brother (at the time an M.P. for the U.S. Marines) also informed me they had a general rule on base regarding traveling above posted speed limits: “Nine your fine, Ten: You’re mine”. The law told me to obey, but credible human witnesses told me there was no need too. I did not even rack up a bunch of speeding tickets for the constant disobedience (I only got one ever, over 10 years ago and it will never be on my record, thanks to a not so comedic, “comedy” driver training course). So, why bother obeying now? Because my God tells me to be faithful in all things, especially in the” little” things. My pastor would not let off the subject one year, (apparently he heard my guilty conscience spewing out the excuses) until I gave in. So now I drive the speed limit.
I may get places a tiny bit slower (or, as on long distance trips, a lot slower) than others, but I bring honor and glory to my God and my husband by being an obedient friend and wife. The peace of knowing, anytime I am driving, I am glorifying my God in heaven and my husband on earth greatly out-weighs the brief earthly pleasure of getting to my destination sooner.
It is the way we travel in this life that really matters, not the destination we reach, or when we reach it. The “ends” DO NOT justify the “means” by Biblical standards. We are Christians. Let’s act like it! Obey God. Obey your societal authorities.
If there is ever a choice, be sure to choose Jesus, your God, or you are choosing to leave Christ’s presence and make society your god.
Scriptural References from Biblegateway.com:
Exodus 20:3
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Mark 12:17
And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him.
Luke 19:17
And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.
Mark 10:19
Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.
James 3:5
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
Exodus 20
1And God spake all these words, saying,
2I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13Thou shalt not kill.
14Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15Thou shalt not steal.
16Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
18And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
