Bible Talks - Family Church (9:45am)
Series: Lean On Me - Sermons From Romans
Politics and Religion
Sunday, 14 July 2002
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INTRO
What do the movies ‘Gladiator’, ‘The bank’, and TV shows like [‘Buffy the vampire Slayer’], ‘A Current Affair’ ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Today Tonight’, ‘Home and away’ and any number of others have in common? [Revenge]
See if you can pick it from this clip from the movie ‘Gladiator’… [Comitus is emperor. Maximus should have been, but the old Emperor was murdered by Comitus. Maximus – now a gladiator – comes face to face with Comitus, who was also responsible for the death of Maximus’ wife and child]
It’s a very common theme in the movies and programs that we watch, and it’s no coincidence that it mirrors so much of our society.
At a human level, little has changed since the days when Roman armies marched over Europe , we are still pre-occupied with getting even, getting our own back, seeking revenge – sometimes in very minor ways, other times in more dramatic fashion – such as an incident of road rage that gets out of hand and people end up injured or dead.
The fact behind the current crisis in public liability insurance, is that we have caught the American disease of suing someone – ‘getting back’ - every time something unfortunate happens to us, of seeking to get our own back against store owners, government depts or even our next door neighbour.
The fact behind so many broken, shattered relationships in society is the drive to get even when we are hurt. To pay back that hurt and extract some more, as payment…
Each one of us here today is guilty of suffering from the ‘get even’ mentality – even if we don’t act on it very often.
But what does God think about this?
In this section of Romans, Paul tackles this very issue: how we Christians should handle the desire for revenge, and what we should replace it with in our lives.
When it comes to matters of pay back – regardless of how well deserved it may be, Paul gives us a tough standard to shoot for.
But let’s look first at how to deal with revenge…
1. Dealing with revenge.
In our culture today, its easy to get confused about what is right and what is wrong – mainly because in our post-modern and post-Christian thinking, we actually have no objective measure of right and wrong – other than what we feel is OK or not according to how it affects us personally.
But we have the answer to this: we have God’s word!. We have His standard by which we are to live, we have His objective measure of right and wrong
So how far do our responsibilities go when a relationship goes sour? Paul gives us the first clue in 12:18.
Note the clear disclaimer: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all”
So, we are to be clearly responsible for our actions and reactions – but we aren’t responsible for the actions of others… All well and good, but what do we do with that urge to pay back people when they do us wrong – even when we haven’t provoked it?
The first part of the answer is in V19:
”Beloved, ‘never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’’”
The principle that Paul is stating here is clear and unambiguous: it is God’s prerogative to punish and no individual – esp no Christian – should seek to take things into his or her own hands and seek revenge. Full stop. No clauses. No exceptions!
In a moment, we’ll see the provision God has made for the issues of justice, crime and punishment to be dealt with, but for the moment, Paul is being abundantly clear about how we should handle the hurts that we experience in the course of normal relationships.
In this area, non-retaliation must rule, and we must refer the matter to God to deal with.
When we feel frustrated with that, we need to note that no injustice will escape God “I will repay…”
But Paul doesn’t leave it there...
Far from pursuing satisfaction for our hurts by our own authority, we are to recall the radical approach that Jesus used and that Paul quotes from Proverbs 25:21-22 in 12:20 “…if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” (ESV)
What’s underlying this radical approach to relationships?
It’s our aim, as disciples of Jesus to push forward His mission to seek and save the lost. If we are to do that we must keep relationships with even those people who mistreat us open and positive, so that they may see our extraordinary, transformed behaviour and perhaps come to repentance themselves…
This is exactly the strategy Jesus himself used, and that the prophet Isaiah foresaw when he called Jesus the ‘Suffering Servant’
So those are Paul’s words to guide us in dealing with hurts and revenge in our personal relationships. He now looks at the situation where we as a community must deal with crime and punishment, law and order, and more general matters pertaining to our attitude to governments and rulers.
2. Revenge and state authorities
The role of governments rulers in the grand biblical scheme of things has always been a difficult one. When Paul was writing this letter, the political situation in Palestine was no less complex than when Jesus was around. Early Christians certainly knew what it was to struggle under various governments, dictators and despots who were antagonistic or even downright hostile to Christians. They were surrounded by official idolatry and inhumane institutions, asked to pay taxes for very dubious purposes, and so on.
Throughout the years since, Christians have tried all sorts of ways to work out their citizenship of the Kingdom of God, while under the day to day rule of some very ungodly human rulers.
So… the first thing we discover about this is that the authority of the state is established by God (13:1). This is saying that the current Howard government and Carr government are there by God’s decree. That doesn’t mean that the current government is any more godly or Christian than any other. It simply means that our constitution and all the authorities that exist beneath it – right to the local council level – are there because God has put them there!
Therefore, Paul continues, those people who rebel against the lawful authorities are actually rebelling against God (13:2).
There will be, of course, extreme situations where dictators like Hitler require a different response – but that’s beyond the scope of this passage.
The primary purpose of the state, Paul says, is to serve the people by restraining evil and promoting good (v4). So governments are part of God’s way of taking care of people.
There are lots and lots of issues which this topic brings up, but we can sum up what Paul says here in one word:
Subordination.
Literally this means to place yourself voluntarily under someone else’s authority. That is, people who subordinate themselves, choose to cooperate with someone else’s leadership. The voluntary nature of this actually transforms what could be viewed as something akin to slavery in cooperation with God’s order of things.
Now, all of us want to be ruled by government that are fair, just and humane. But that can only happen when the members of that society ‘play ball’ and cooperate.
This is a very real challenge to us.
It’s almost an Australian pastime to knock our governments and develop highly cynical attitudes to our political leaders.
This is understandable – many of our leaders are very deserving of our cynicism. But Paul says No! Not knocking. Not cynical.
We must let God transform our minds, and let him develop a very different attitude in us.
We need to begin seeing our right to vote as a special and precious opportunity to play our part in moulding our governments and their policies. We need to teach our children this as well.
We can learn much from our past here.
In the early days of the white settlement, it was Christians who established the first schools, and were instrumental in setting up the public education scheme.
It was Anglican Christians who established the first organised welfare scheme in cooperation with local government authorities… and so on.
The challenge is out: we need to radically re-think our attitude and our actions in the light of God word here…
The one example that Paul highlights here perhaps seems a touch trivial to us, was of clearly an issue for Christians in his day: Taxes.
What a great time of the year to raise this issue! As most of us struggle with the Tax Pack, or trudge off to see our tax agent or accountant, we will do well to make sure our attitude and obedience to the tax laws are transformed by God! Put simply: we must be prepared to pay our due taxes. The spirit of what Paul says here means that we should re-think that endless hunt for more and more deductions, and simply pay what we owe. Full stop.
So Paul sums up that our job as people being transformed by God, is primarily to respect and obey the authorities placed over us, and showing that by – in Jesus’ words – ‘rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s’ (Mark 12:17). Something which Peter echoes in 1 Peter 2:13 and Paul again, as he instructs us to pray for all those in authority in 1 Tim 2:1-2.
But it doesn’t stop there.
In fact, as Paul goes on to speak of the radical alternative that he hinted at back 12: 20. In chapter 13, he ties together all the thinking in this passage by telling us to ‘put on Christ’.
Let’s see what that involves:
In v8, Paul kicks this section off with the simple line: “Owe no one anything, except love each other…”
’Love’ is a really popular notion – even in our otherwise warped world. But the problem is, the world’s idea of love is often badly warped too!
Somehow it’s come to mean that we should approve of anything that people do so long as they are not physically hurting someone. But to love someone is to want the best for them, and that means knowing something about what ‘the best’ for us humans is.
Hence the list of God’s commandments to us that follows. Notice that they are just some of the 10 commandments? They are in fact, most of the commandments that are focussed on our horizontal relationships – that is, the relationships with the people around (as opposed to God).
So when we love our neighbour, we will refrain from adultery. When we love our neighbour we will regard his life as precious and valuable in God’s sight. When we love our neighbour we will respect his ownership of property – a very long way from wanting to extract payback or revenge from him!
We actually live out our love for God in the way we love those around us. We can measure how much we have ‘put on Christ’ by how we treat those around us at home, next door, at work, uni, school, wherever.
If we were to actually leave this place today and begin doing these things, we would an impact for the gospel far beyond what we can imagine!
Our Lifeworks courses would be booked out months ahead! We would have to hold our meetings in school halls and community centres to fit everyone in!
What Paul is urging us to do here is allow our transformed minds lead us into authentic Christian living. Lives guided and controlled by ‘putting Christ on’.
And there is a fresh sense of urgency introduced here, where Paul reminds us that we live in the last days – the time leading up to Jesus’ return.
The language is strong. We are to wake up! Shake off our spiritual lethargy, transform our behaviour while there is still time to love our neighbours!
Friends, as we move forward as God’s people in this place, lets make sure that part of that ‘moving ahead’ is growing in our commitment to ‘put on Christ’, to allow Him to mould us and change us, so that our very lives and attitudes speak powerfully of the one, true God who loves us and has chosen us…
Amen
