The Believer As A Citizen
Matthew 17:22‑27
I trust you have your Bible with you this morning so that you can study along with us and our lesson is a continuation of our study of Matthew's gospel. And we're looking at chapter 17 and for our study this morning verses 22 through 27...Matthew 17:22 through 27.
Now the subject of our study today I've entitled "The Believer as a Citizen." And it brings us to a very very important understanding, I think particularly for the day in which we live. Evangelical, fundamental, orthodox Christianity has for the first time in my life time become very very involved in worldly politics and economics. There are many Christian lobby groups. There are many protesting Christian groups who are seen as being against what the government is doing, against what leadership is doing both on a state and national level. There's a lot of questions being asked about how involved should Christians be in politics...how involved should we be in fighting against the system...how critical should we be of our leaders, our senate, our legislature, our judicial branch. And I really believe that this particular passage gives us a bottom line principle by which we can answer those many questions.
There are people telling us today that it's a time to be angry and that we need to come together in a great mass of Christian people and protest our government, we need to take on the drift and the direction of our government. We need to elect other people to office. We need to get involved in politics and economics, and so forth and so on. And there are others who are saying to us no, we need to make sure that we maintain our very clear word of the gospel and not get it clouded up with other issues. Where does the Christian really find his balance and what is a believer's relationship to the world and its authority, its government and so forth?
And that's really the issue to which our Lord speaks in this particular portion of Scripture. Let me give you just a little biblical background. There's no question at all but that we have been called as Christians to be apart from the world...no question about that at all. We are, in fact, designated in the Bible as citizens of a heavenly kingdom. We're not even called citizens of this earth. For example, in a very important passage to which you might look, Philippians chapter 3, we read this beginning in verse 17, "Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them who walk even as ye have us for an example. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things."
The Apostle Paul then sets a sort of a pattern of description of people who mind earthly things. And in verse 20 says, "For our citizenship is in heaven and we're set over and against the people of this world and we look to heaven from whom...from which also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our lowly body that it may be fashioned like His glorious body according to the working by which He is able to even to subdue all things unto Himself."
So, on the one hand we have these earthly things, but we are citizens of heaven. Our citizenship is clearly there.
In the book of Ephesians chapter 2, we find a very similar statement made in verse 19 where it says, "We are fellow citizens with the saints." So we are citizens who belong to a very special group, a heavenly group with other saints who are of the household of God. In Hebrews chapter 12 there's an important statement also made in verse 22. It says that we have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable accompany if angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are written in heaven." And again we find that we belong to an assembly of people who are heavenly.
Now because of the reality which clearly is indicated in Scripture that we are citizens of heaven, it follows as a corollary that we are called to be apart from the world system. That's very clear. Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing..the Bible tells us. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. Friendship with the world is enmity against God. And James even went on to call people who are friends of the world adulterers and adulteresses. Paul wrote to the Colossians, "Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth." We are called to be distinctly apart from such things.
In Philippians 2 it says that we are to be blameless and harmless children of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life. So we are called to separation. We are called to be apart from, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, says Paul in Ephesians chapter 5.
Now let's talk about that for a moment. If we are citizens of heaven and if we belong to an assembly of people whose names are written there who are the household of God, the saints of God, if we are only strangers and sojourners in the world, if this isn't our home and this isn't our country and this isn't where our citizenship lies, then we might conclude from that that we really have no obligation here at all...that we're not responsible to respond to the system in any way, that we are called to a higher order. We might also conclude that not only do we by belonging to God have some kind of religious immunity, but because we have been infused with eternal life and made possessors of the Holy Spirit, we also have come to a state of superiority to the people around us which belies any need to respond to them no matter who they are. And in fact, if you follow this long enough, we could actually not only not respond but we could begin to criticize and to tear at and attack the system rather relentlessly from the viewpoint of our citizenship in heaven.
And so, that brings us to this question: what is a believer's relationship to worldly authority? How are we to respond in the world? And the Bible has some very clear and very specific answers. To begin with, look at 1 Peter chapter 2 and we'll work our way back to Matthew 17. Now remember that Peter is writing to believers who unquestionably were going through some tremendous persecution, tremendous trial for their faith. They were under an oppressive government, a government which gave them perhaps not anywhere near the liberty that we enjoy in the United States of America and in other countries in our world. But he writes to them in chapter 2 verse 9 with all of this in mind and says this, "Ye are a chosen generation," that is you're elected by God, you're a collection of people brought together by God's sovereign eternal choice...very special people chosen by God Himself.
Secondly, "You are a royal priesthood," not only are you priests to serve the most‑high God, but you are royal priests. You have not only the role of the priest but the role of the king, you are royalty, you are majesty. "And you an holy nation." Holy being separated, unique, set apart. And then it says, and I love this phrase, "You are a people of His own," or a peculiar people, it really means a people for special possession. You are unique. All of these speak of your uniqueness. You're not like the world, you're chosen out. You're priests to God, you're royal priests, you're a holy nation, different than any other. You are a people of divine possession in order that you would show forth the praises of Him whose called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
You've been chosen by God to demonstrate His praise, who called you out of the darkness of this world into the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and His glorious kingdom of light, as Colossians 1 calls it. In verse 10 he says, "In time past you were not a people, but now are the people of God." You were nobodies, now you're people of God. You had not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy. And so in those two verses he speaks of our infinitely high calling. And in verse 11, "Dearly beloved, because these things are true, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims." In other words, you don't belong in this world. You're sojourners and pilgrims. You're like a person in this world traveling in another country. You're a United States citizen, you travel in another country, you're just a stranger there. Now you don't belong to that country. And so he defines us as strangers...not citizens, sojourners, not residents.
And what does he say? First of all, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the world, or against the soul rather. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. The thing you want to first of all note as you walk through the world is to stay away from its contamination...stay away from that which will pollute you. And then he says have your behavior honest or upright among the Gentiles that whereas they speak evil, implied of course, against you as if you were evil doers, they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation. In other words, you want to take away their criticism basis, you want to live so upright, the word honest, upright, you want to live that way so that they may try to speak against you as if you were evil doers, but when it comes down to the end and they really examine your life, they're going to see that it wasn't the case.
In other words, he says you're not a citizen of the world, the world really has no claim on you. You belong to another economy. And he gives us all those details in 9 and 10. But as long as you're in the world there's a negative command. And your negative command is stay away from the pollution and your positive command is to live such an honest life among people that they find nothing to criticize...nothing.
How you going to do that? How can you so live so that they're not going to criticize? Verse 13 says it, here it comes, "Submit...hupotasso, get underneath, line up under, rank yourself under...every ordinance of man. Obey every law. Obey every law for the Lord's sake."
And there's the key. It isn't that every law is right, as God judges right. It isn't that every law is equitable, as God judges equity. It isn't that every law is even sensible as God would judge what is sensible. But we are to submit to every law of man for the Lord's sake. Why? I'll tell you why. Because if you're going to be perceived by your society as a good upright honest person with integrity and character and moral quality and proper values, they're going to evaluate you on the basis of what they understand to be the code of right and wrong, right? And society sets up laws and rules and then it says the people who keep these are the law abiding people, the people who fight these and rebel against these and protest these and disobey these and don't abide by these, they are the antilaw, they are the rebellious people, they are saying you don't know what you're doing, we reject you, we reject your laws, we reject your standards, we reject your morality, we reject your value system, we're going to live our way. And when you do that by their perception, all you are is a rebel and an insurrectionist and an uncooperative person and a lawbreaker. And so even though we may not see all the laws as being morally reflective of God's mind, we are called to submit to all of them...I believe not only in our physical act but in our mental attitude so that our submission is a willing one to the law of man.
You see, the world evaluates people in it or any part of the world evaluates people in it by how they conform to its applied standard of morals. And when the world sets up laws, we are to respond to those laws so that we demonstrate that we are not rebellious people, we are peacemaking people, we are disciplined people, we are people who are righteous good people. And the demonstration of that even by their standard lays a foundation for credibility for the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, if Christianity was reduced to an insurrectionist movement, no one would be interested in it who believed in law and order and understood it the best way they can, and that is by the government that exists. So you see there that we are not to submit for the sake of man, but for the sake of the Lord in the sense that we're doing it because it is for the advance of His Kingdom.
Then he says whether to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers...whether you're talking about kings or governors or police...and remember now, the people to whom Peter was writing were under an oppressive situation. But he doesn't tell them to have a revolution. He doesn't tell them to throw over the yoke. He tells them to submit. That's the basic principle.
Now there is a footnote that needs to be added at this point because someone will say, "Well, now wait a minute. What if they tell us to do something against the Bible?" Very simple to answer, then you don't submit. We submit at all points except when the law of man counteracts the law of God and then we are in Acts 4 and 5 and Peter says there you judge whether we ought to obey God or men. They told him ‑ stop preaching ‑ and he said I can't, I have a higher law. That's where you've overstepped the bounds of civil government and you've entered into the divine realm. And at that point I opt out for God. If the government came along and tried to force a person to abort a baby, I think at that point you have a higher law in the Word of God and that's when you say I will do what the law of God says and you willingly and with the right kind of spirit accept the consequence.
Now in saying this I am not saying you don't try to change things. I am trying...I'm saying that if you think things are wrong, then you seek to change them through the government ordained channels for change...not by rebellion insurrection or non‑compliance. Because we are called to be good citizens.
Now notice that it says, verse 15, and here's the sum of it all, "So is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." In other words, God wants you to be such good citizens that you shut the mouths of the critics, that they look at you and they admire you from their value viewpoint because that's where they have to start, isn't it? You see, they can't evaluate you from God's viewpoint, they have to evaluate you from their own. And if you are one who conforms to the best and to the standards that society sets down, they see you as a person with values. And that's the beginning. And even though you're free, verse 16 says, you've been set free, as it were, from the world, you are not to use that freedom as a covering for your maliciousness. You're not to say, "Well, I'm free, I can do what I want," and then go out and act what amounts to a malicious way against others. But you're to be slaves of God, submissive.
Then verse 17 sums it up, "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God and honor the king." You know, it really bothers me the way people attack the President. Now I'm not necessarily here to defend any one President or one presidential viewpoint or party or anything else, but I want you to know something that you must have already thought about at least once or twice, the problem in America is not the problem created by any President we ever had...it is the problem created by a mass of Godless, Christless, selfish greedy people. And built into democracy is the seeds of its own dissolution ultimately because when men find that they can vote to themselves things out of the public treasury, ultimately they'll destroy themselves economically and in every other way. And then you add to that the disintegration of the family, the disintegration of marriage, the rise of the drug culture, and all of the things that are related to the rise of crime and you cannot put the blame at the foot of any party or any President or any Congress. Because they cannot infuse morality into an immoral society. Now we are called then because we're not going to be able to change the drift of society by rank...wrangling over the political leaders, we are called then to pray for them, 1 Timothy 2, and to get out into that society and sew the gospel in the hearts of people. And we do that when we are perceived as people who have a desirable life style and a desirable value system and a desirable morality and a desirable message, not when we're seen as political lobbyists for a certain viewpoint or insurrectionists.
And I know that's a strong statement but I intended to make it anyway. The truth is the truth.
Turn to Romans 13....Romans 13, and here we have the Pauline perspective, "Let every soul," and notice how nobody gets away in that one, "Let every soul be subject," same word, hupotasso, "come under the higher powers," speaking of government, "there's no power but of God, the government is of God," He put it there, government is a divine institution as much as the church is, as much as the marriage is, as much as family is, for the preservation of man and so every soul is to be submissive even if you're under a Roman emperor who believes he's God, and even though the laws may not be equitable, even though they may not be sensible, even though they may not be fair...you're to be submissive. "For there is no power but of God, the powers that be ordained of God." They're there because God put them there, it doesn't mean we don't take our processes to change things if we want to and God works through that process. But they're there because God put them there, it's a divine reality. So if you resist the power then you resist the ordinance of God.
Have you ever wondered why Christianity didn't start a slave insurrection in Rome? Because the Roman government was ordained by God. Do you know that? We can see that now. It was the Roman government that provided one world language which it facilitated the preaching of the gospel...the Greek language. It was the Roman government that provided the Pax Romana which brought peace to that whole part of the world which allowed intercourse between countries and nations all over the place so the gospel could spread so freely. It was the Romans who established the Roman roads and highways and trade routes and ship routes so that the gospel with its missionaries could be carried all over the place.
You see, God put the Roman government there to facilitate the gospel even though they didn't believe it. And so it's not our role to second guess God but to accept what the Bible says that the powers that be ordained of God, if you resist the powers that be, you resist God. And if you do that, verse 2 says you bring judgment on yourself. For rulers, and here is a general principle, are not a terror to good works but to the evil. And that's true in almost every society. There may be some very isolated exceptions to that, but every society sets up laws and the people who conform to those laws find they can survive and the people who don't, fall under punishment. And that's the way it is in human society. "Will you then not be afraid of the power?" You don't want to be afraid of your government? Then do what is good then you'll have praise of the same. "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. And if you do what is evil, then you have a right to be afraid, for he bears not the sword in vain, he's a minister of God and avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
The government has been set there to punish the evil doer and reward the one who does good. And if you conform to the society's laws as they exist, you will find that in all those societies..and there may be some very rare exceptions, but for the most part this is always true...within those rules you conform and you'll survive. And we look at a country like Iran and we say, "Boy, I mean, they do things that are terrible, they massacre people." And there are times when, of course, they're way out of line with what would be considered to be right and they're acting against the will of God. But in the main, they have rules. And if you keep the rules, it's okay. I know some people were upset when they found out that when you steal something in Iran they chop off both your hands so you won't steal anymore. But all you have to do to make sure you keep your hands is don't steal to start with. I mean, that's the way the rules are.
Generally speaking, government sets rules. They may not be equitable. They may not be sensible in all cases. But as we conform to them, we give honor to God and we silence the mouths of the critics who are looking to morally discredit us and they will invariably do that on the basis of the morality which they perceive to be the genuine morality and that usually is that which has been posted in terms of their own country. So we are to so live to shut the mouths of the critics. And if we live right, then those policeman and those who are in authority in verse 3 will do us good and if we do evil, they'll do us evil in verse 4.
Verse 5 then brings it down, "Wherefore you must needs be subject," and there we are back to that same word again. We're to be underneath, submissive, not only to avoid wrath but to have a clear conscience. So there's a negative‑‑stay away from judgment that way. There's a positive‑‑you have a clear conscience, you've done right.
Now what does this mean? Well, here's the hardest part of it. "For this cause, pay your taxes also." That's right. You say, "But I don't like my money to go to buy a yacht for some African sheik, $45 thousand of tax money last year went to buy a yacht for some African...I don't like my money to go to pay for an atomic development thing...I don't want my money..." See. The powers that be ordained of God, pay your taxes.
Pretty simple command, I think. For they're God's ministers. You say, "The IRS?" That's right. The IRS. And they are tending continually on this very thing, "Render therefore to all their dues, all of it, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom is due." And those are two different things, two kinds