| Day
37 - “Acceptable Christian Civil Disobedience”
Passage: Acts 5:29-32
“Peter
and the other apostles replied: ’We must obey God rather than
men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom
you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his
own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance
and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things,
and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey
him.’"
Devotion:
The
Sanhedrin believed they were divinely appointed by God to administrate
God’s will on earth, so everything they did was God’s
will. You can imagine how angry they must have been when Peter and
the apostles continued to disobey their orders and answered, “We
must obey God rather than men!”
I think we must be careful that we are not self-serving when we
apply this principle of civil disobedience. John Stott, a well known
Christian commentator, once said, "If the authority concerned
misuses its God-given power to command what He forbids or forbid
what He commands, then the Christian's duty is to disobey the human
authority in order to obey God's". We can get into trouble
if we follow this advice too literally or liberally. After all some
of us might think a seventy mile an hour speed limit set by the
state is too slow, and therefore misuses its God-given power to
command.
There are two primary biblical requirements to keep in mind as we
consider an act of “Christian Civil Disobedience”. I
pose these as questions, the first is: Does it have scriptural support
and authority? The apostles weren’t following a feeling; they
were following a direct order of Jesus from Mt 28:19, “Go
make disciples of all nations.”
The second is: Will you carry it out with humility? Peter and the
apostles were willing to take punishment for their disobedience.
Throughout the scriptures we see other examples of those who say,
“We can’t do this because we have a higher authority”;
however, they do so without anger, resentment, or violence.
Question to Ponder:
Can you remember a situation recently when you had a choice to obey
God or man? What was your decision? What was the outcome? Did you
accept your punishment with humility?
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