How Shall Christians Relate to the President?

by Aaron Shafovaloff

Since Biden was inaugurated as President we should:

1) Pray for
2) Submit to
3) Call to repentance

1) "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way." (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

2) "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good." (1 Peter 2:13-14)

3) "Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled." (Psalm 2:10-12)

Additionally:
 
- We can praise the good he does, and not see everything in the worst light.
- We can overlook many sins and foibles, choosing instead to call attention to the most serious of issues.
- We can avoid demeaning or degrading jokes of his person, his royal image-bearing dignity, his appearance, or faux pas.
- We can avoid slandering him with rumors or unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.
- We can pray for his repentance and well-being.
- We can pray godly imprecatory prayers against his unrighteous schemes.
 
Referring to unrighteous schemes, there is no contradiction between this and praying the best for our enemies. The Bible promotes both.
 
How shall we speak to our president?
 
- We can address him with reverence and honor (as God appointed him for this time), imitating Puritans who respectfully petitioned their rulers for redress of grievances.
- We can be a "prophetic voice", a smelling salt of clarity over the most overt and serious of issues, appealing to the authority of our High King.
- We can call our ruler to repentance, to bend the knee to Jesus in both word and deed.

When should we practice civil disobedience?
 
Criteria for situational civil disobedience:

- When a ruler commands what God prohibits or prohibits what God commands. 
- When a ruler commits clear overreach of "sphere sovereignty" -- principled boundaries to institutions of family, church, government, and conscience.
- When a ruler contradicts legal government. When he disregards the higher rule of law.
- When a ruler disrupts freedoms necessary for obedience to conscience or Scripture in an ongoing or substantial way.
- When a ruler's emergency incidental interference with regular freedoms is no longer “temporary and localized", but "lasts longer and extends farther than the conditions that gave rise to it.”
- When a ruler opposes Christ in a way that presents an opportunity for holy and meaningful (perhaps symbolic) defiance from believers.

Apart from these, we bend sharply in the direction of cheerful submission, including in attitude.

The Westminster Confession on honoring superiors (in rank)
"The honor which inferiors owe to their superiors is, all due reverence in heart, word, and behavior; prayer and thanksgiving for them; imitation of their virtues and graces; willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels; due submission to their corrections; fidelity to, defense, and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks, and the nature of their places; bearing with their infirmities, and covering them in love, that so they may be an honor to them and to their government."
 

Common sins:

"The sins of inferiors against their superiors are, all neglect of the duties required toward them; envying at, contempt of, and rebellion against their persons and places, in their lawful counsels, commands, and corrections; cursing, mocking, and all such refractory and scandalous carriage, as proves a shame and dishonor to them and their government."

 

May the Lord mature the way I think and speak about this.

Thu, 01/21/2021 - 19:33 -- john_hendryx

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