Romans 13:1-7 Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.… What has our religion to say to our patriotism? What is the final meaning of our relation to the State under which we live? I. To begin with, THE BIBLE TEACHES US TO TAKE A FAR HIGHER VIEW OF THE NATION THAN ANY WE ARE ACCUSTOMED TO HEAR. In God's Word, the State is not a mere machine for keeping order and peace. The nation is not profane, but sacred; not secular, but Divine. The government derives its sanctions not merely from expedience or convenience, but from the appointment of God. You know how elaborately this idea is wrought out in the Old Testament. Jehovah is the actual, almost visible King of the Hebrew commonwealth. He establishes His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He it is that leads the nation out of bondage into freedom. No matter who sits upon the throne, at Jerusalem, or in Samaria, whether it be David or Saul, an Ahab or a Hezekiah, still Jehovah is their true King. From Him cometh promotion; in His name prophets speak; by Him princes rule, and kings decree judgment. But some one says, all this may be true of Israel. It is easy enough to see God's hand there. But here is our new nineteenth century, where nothing is sacred, how shall we recognise the Divine? In authorities, chosen as ours are, out of the seething cauldron of our practical politics, how can we feel that the powers that be are ordained of God? The man who does not see God's hand in our nation's past history has read its records to very small purpose. Upon every shining page rests the finger of God as truly, if not as visibly, as in Judaea. You may see, if you will, nothing but a happy combination of chances — a happy chance that placed the fairest portion of the Western Continent in the hands of the progressive AngloSaxon race; a happy chance that wafted to our shores the Pilgrims and the Cavaliers, the high-spirited Huguenot, and the thrifty German. "In the providence of God," says Charles Sumner — and a truer student of history never lived — "there are no accidents." He who sees God's hand in history at all, must be blind indeed if he does not see His guiding in our nation's story. "If the Lord Himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say, if the Lord Himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up quick, when they were so wrathfully displeased at us. II. Nor is it only a question of the past: GOD IS NOW IN THE NATION'S MIDST. God's hand is still leading. Thus the state, in its own place, and for its own work, is as divine as the Church herself. Nor is this all. Just as individuals are sent into the world with a calling from God to do some great work, so nations may have a mission. Was not the Hebrew nation called of God to keep alive in the world the knowledge and the worship of the one true God? Was not the Greek nation sent by God to spread broadcast its golden wealth of culture and civilisation? Was not the Roman nation sent to impart its iron strength, its splendid instinct of law and order to the barbarian hordes of Central and Northern Europe? Was not the English people chosen to colonise and settle the new worlds, and to pave the way for this marvellous nineteenth century of ours? Such a mission, such a calling impose upon each of us a mighty responsibility — a responsibility which not a few of us are all too willing to shirk These earthly "powers" speak to us of a higher sovereignty which we must acknowledge. They point us to a "King, eternal, immortal, invisible," to whom we all owe allegiance. There is one will that we wish to be done, on earth as in heaven, in the State as in the Church, in politics as in religion, and that is the will of Him who rules in righteousness. And now what is this again but to say that righteousness must rule? For the will of God is the supremely righteous will. Nor is this all. For our country's sake, for our King's sake, let us be good men and true. Thoreau well says, "It matters not half so much what kind of a vote you drop into the ballot-box once a year, as what kind of a man you drop out of bed into the street every morning." (L. R. Dalrymple.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. |
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