By David ReayFriday 15 Jul 2016LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read 1 Peter 2:13-17
13-17 Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government. (THE MESSAGE)
When it comes to Christians and society we can go to opposite extremes in our attitudes. One extreme is that only if Christians are in power can there be good government. With the implication that only Christians can do good. This leads to denial of the shortcomings of Christians and a naïve belief that if we had Christian authorities there would be no problems. Try telling that to members of some churches!
The other extreme is to hold Christians responsible for the shortcomings of society. They are seen to be hypocritical bigots who wrongly claim credit for any enlightened advances in society. This leads to them being seen as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
As usual with extremes, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Bad things have been done in the name of Christ. Sometimes by those who are ‘hangers-on’ rather than true disciples, but sometimes by those who distorted the teachings of Jesus and caused havoc as a result.
And yet any moderately objective study of social history can see that Christians have done many wonderful things in society over the years. Which is just what our text today says ought to happen. Of course not all advances are initiated by Christians: there is good in all people whatever their belief or lack of belief. But while being properly humbled by our historic and present shortcomings, let’s not put on the black armbands and be blind to the good we have done in the name of Jesus.
Blessings
David Reay