It
was a time of “fiery trials” for disciples as the
cruel wrath of Nero was
turned toward them. Disciples had
suffered persecutions from various sources throughout their
approximate 35-year
history but this was the first imperial persecution. The
church would need encouragement, so Peter wrote, “To the
exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.”
Because this was the area of much of Paul’s work, it has
been suggested
that this letter possibly could have been written and sent by
messengers to
comfort them at Paul’s martyrdom.
Encouraging
them to proper conduct as they braced themselves for and endured
bloody
persecutions brought by false accusations of Nero, Peter gave
this startling exhortation:
“Honor
the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17).
“What! Honor the emperor! Peter, you must be
out of your mind! How could you make such an odious demand
of us? His armies continue to occupy Judea and our
holy city, Jerusalem. He burdens us
with taxes to support his military conquests and persecutions of
innocent
believers. Our taxes support pagan
religions. The populace worships him as
a god, confessing ‘Caesar is Lord!’
Peter, you are asking us to violate our own consciences by
supporting
evil through taxes and submissive conduct.
Honor that corrupt, evil man! No
way!” Would you have expected some such
response?
Misunderstandings
causing conflict between religion and civil government were not
new. It was needful for the child Jesus to escape
the sword of his own earthly king. The
Magi had inquired, “Where is he that is
born king of the Jews?” That got
Herod’s attention. He, being a Jew,
should have looked for and welcomed the son of David to sit on
David’s throne,
but he thought only in terms of his own literal throne being
threatened. So, he had the infants slaughtered.
The
great temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was for him to use
his powers to
bring all people into awesome subjection and to provide for
their physical
needs under his reign as an earthly king.
Thus he would have avoided the cross, and a temporal kingdom
would have supplanted
the eternal kingdom, offering no escape from sin and death.
Historically,
Israel had been ruled in a combined political-religious system
administered
by
prophets, priest, Levites, and later with kings, but at that
time they were
subjugated to Rome, a galling situation for Jews. The Jews
expected a Messiah who would deliver them from
Rome. When they heard John the Baptist
proclaim, “The kingdom of heaven is at
hand,” they interpreted it as, “The restoration of
David’s earthly throne
is at hand.” They would be freed from
Rome! In his time of popularity, the
people were ready to crown him as their king
Jesus
gave no encouragement to that. He
selected no army to defend or empower himself.
All
along, Jesus stressed the spiritual nature of his reign.
In veiled figures his parables were
emphasizing the spiritual character of the kingdom of heaven,
yet their earthly
expectations were so strong as to
survive his death and resurrection. How
sad it is that even today many
believers expect him to return and reign over an earthly
kingdom.
There
is reason to believe that Luke wrote to Theophilus, a Roman
official, in order
to dissociate the Christians from the nationalistic Jews who
resisted
Rome. So, very early, in telling of
John the Baptist’s proclaiming of the kingdom of heaven,
Luke wrote that, “Tax collectors also came to be
baptized, and
said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’
And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than is appointed
you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what
shall
we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Rob no
one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your
wages”
(Luke 3:12-14). It is evident that John
planted no seed of resistance by siding against Rome’s tax
collectors or by
encouraging Roman soldiers to resign or desert the army that
occupied and
oppressed their land. It is Luke who
mentions the Jewish leaders making false accusations before
Pilate, “We found this man perverting our nation, and
forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar” (Luke
23:2).
In
an effort to entrap Jesus, Pharisees asked him, “Is it
lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” After
they had to admit that Caesar’s image
was on their coinage, he declared, “Render
therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to
God the things that
are God’s” (Matt. 22:15-22).
All
of this was disappointing and galling to the rulers among the
Jews who
themselves resisted Rome, so they testified at his trial that
Jesus was a
revolutionary threat to Rome. Pilate
saw their political deceit and would have released Jesus had the
Jews not
intimated that it would reflect on Pilate’s own allegiance
to the emperor.
Years
pass as the church spreads and the Jews continue to resist Roman
rule. Because the early disciples were Jews, the
Romans associated them with the revolutionary disturbances
caused by the Judean
Jews. So persecutions continued to
escalate throughout the empire. How
should the disciples react to this? The
leaders among the believers advocated “political
correctness” rather than
giving the Romans any reason to think that the church was
politically
involved. Both Peter and Paul,
prominent among the disciples, made sure that their writings
could not be
interpreted as revolutionary against the political system.
For
an example, though we can be confident that they (and Jesus) had
deep feelings
about slavery, they did not advocate the church becoming a
political force to
demand freedom of slaves by governmental decree. They paid
taxes in support of Rome where slavery was common. They
continued to honor the emperor while
relying upon the spiritual power of their teaching to influence
corrupt
societies so that slavery and other injustices would be
remedied. History has proved the wisdom of their
course of action.
In
later years Paul was arrested in Jerusalem.
Unable to receive a fair trial in Judea, he appealed to Caesar,
and by
doing so he expressed respect for Roman justice and the
emperor. It will do no harm to imagine that
Theophilus might have been in charge of Paul’s defense in
the imperial
court. He could present Luke’s writings
as evidence that the disciples were not political subversives or
revolutionaries. Then, we can wonder,
if the defense read to the court the following words from
Paul’s epistle to the
Roman disciples:
“Let every person be subject to the governing
authorities. For there is no authority
except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by
God. Therefore he who resists the authorities
resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur
judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct,
but to bad. Would you have no fear of
him who is in authority? Then do what
is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s
servant for your
good. But if you do wrong, be afraid,
for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God
to execute his
wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one
must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for
the sake of
conscience. For the same reason you
also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God,
attending to this
very thing. Pay all of them their dues,
taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due,
respect to whom
respect is due, honor to whom honor is due” (Romans
13:1-7). The defense could rest its case.
Peter
was the other “big name” associated with those called
Christians. With the persecutions of the believers
throughout the empire, he could not expect to escape the wrath
of the emperor. We do not know that he was ever in Rome
but,
at least, tradition is strong that he was crucified for his
faith and
leadership. He, like Paul, had written
to instruct disciples far and wide that which could be read in
his own defense
in his trial:
“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 wrong and to praise those who
do right. For it is God’s will that by doing right you
should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live
as free men, yet without using you freedom as a pretext of
evil; but live as servants of God.
Honor all men. Love the
brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor”
(1 Peter 2:13-14. Please read the context.).
Though
governments differ in various countries today, all believing
citizens should be
able to gain practical guidance from these Scriptural
references. Perverse, evil, and oppressive men may be in
power. We may consider them unworthy of
respect as men, but we are called upon to honor them because of
the office they
hold. Disciples should promote peace
without becoming subversive to the society and government.
When
the church tries to become a political power instead of a
spiritual influence,
it has lost sight of its mission.
Perhaps the worst thing that has happened to Christianity is
when the
church gained power in the Roman Empire through a state
religion. Individuals should work for improvement in
society, but when they organize into a political movement, they
exceed their
bounds. Though effort has been made in
recent times in our country to band all believers together for
political
influence, the most evident result has been the disdain
attached generally to the term “the religious
right.”
Governments
have policies that violate the consciences of sincerest
citizens. Maybe it is support of the death penalty,
warfare, abortion, assisted suicide, prostitution, special
rights granted
homosexuals, stem cell use, cloning, or social injustice.
Does that give offended persons the right to
refuse to pay taxes, to disregard the laws of the land, to
dishonor the rulers,
or to undermine the government? Apostolic
teaching and example would rule against that.
Our
influence must be through example and teaching. It is not
likely, for example, that the “pro-life” movement will
ever eradicate abortion by legislation.
But they can boldly teach sexual
morality, parental responsibility, sacredness of life, and
sanctity of marriage
while providing counseling, adoption services, and other
supportive services. As these spiritual concepts and
precepts are
taught and practiced sincerely, they should have more positive
effect than enforced legislation.
In
many countries past and present, the citizen had little voice
and was
prohibited from criticizing the government.
The teaching of Peter and Paul would have special application
for them. In our democratic republic we are blessed
with freedom of speech to criticize the government and its
officials. We can become politically active, promoting
ideas, communicating with our representatives, and voting to
retain or dismiss
them. This is a great blessing for us
individually. But the church as an
organized group must not be lured into political activity
because campaigns
tend to become dirty and demeaning, it divides sentiment toward
religion along
party lines, and seeks to make religion legislative.
(Cecil
Hook; January 1, 2002) []