4. Obedience to Christ is First

In the previous three suggestions for Christians taking a stand in the world, or preaching the Gospel in unfriendly surrounds, the primary emphasis is on personal safety, and dealing with civil authorities.  We turn here for a brief consideration of when civil disobedience is called for, and when it is an expression of carnality.    For the world, 'carnality' means simply things to do with the flesh, particularly substance abuse, sexual sin, or perhaps greed or other 'driven' type sins.   The mature Christian though, has a mature understanding of 'carnality'.  Even a disciplined Christian can have 'sins of the flesh' which do not show at all on the outside:  what few consider, is that with obedience to Christ as central and foremost, even a good desire, or an outwardly righteous work, can and may be in truth carnal.   The 'carnality' has to do with wanting our own stubborn will over that which Christ wishes for his purposes in the world and in our lives.

Consider the following example from the Scripture (My daughter pointed this out as a child).  At the height of evangelistic activity in Antioch,  God calls Philip and asks him to go stand in the Gaza desert,  without giving him a purpose for the action or any reason for leaving the thriving ongoing winning of souls in the early church.

[Act 8:26 KJV] 26 And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

If Philip had fought  God,  he might very well have reasoned, "Well, here I am, winning souls to Christ, this cannot be wrong, and if I leave and go stand in the Gaza desert, I will be very uncomfortable and encounter wild beasts.  Nothing could be accomplished there, so it must not be God speaking."    Note the last 'supposed' reasoning:  "Nothing could be accomplished there so it must not be God speaking."   Is this a reasonable statement?  Yes, it certainly is reasonable by human reason alone, but God rarely induces 'human' reason.  He turns instead to his own 'divine' reasoning.   This is God who stands outside of time, who created time, and man, the universe and life.  We are for HIS purposes, not him for ours.   When we choose our own reasoning, no matter how skillful, nor seemingly sound and good, we are 'carnal' in that we are choosing a path away from God, away from his will.   We are rearing up Adam's sin,  provoked by the serpent who cries, 'hath God said' in order to go our own way.   Though we may be teetotalers, live stoic lives, fast daily and be chaste and pure, we can still be carnal Christians by the worst form of idolatry: self worship.

What if Philip had not obeyed God back in the first century?  What if, reasoning that he was more beneficial to God where he was, he stayed, and failed to go to Gaza.  What might have happened?  To begin with,  he would not have encountered the Ethiopian eunuch, of Candace's court,  and secondly, the servant of the Queen would not have been saved.   Is that of great importance?  Certainly, for though it was an interaction between one disciple, and the man reading Isaiah on his way home,  it was not the magnificence of the event that mattered, but what it would lead to, which is the salvation of one man,  who then took the gospel down into Northern Africa,  which became one of the most productive areas for the gospel in the first 4 centuries!  If Philip had stayed, he might have won a few more, with the other apostles and disciples, but his radical obedience led to the introduction of the Gospel a thousand fold to what might have been.

The point is, that even today, the most important point of obedience to the Gospel, to the Lord and Savior, is that we 'trust and obey'.   It is easy to facilitate the formation of a crowd these days with social media, to support 'Christian causes' even very good ones:  it takes a lot of work, on the one hand, but people like to gather to defend their beliefs.  Two errors are commonly made in this regard: one is that it is wrong to protest or become politically active,  some seeing that as 'non-spiritual', and the second is to believe that socio-religious political activity in any way substitutes for obedience to Christ.   It is not wrong to march for religious freedom----unless God tells you not to.  It is not wrong to march on Washington D. C. to protect the lives of children and unborn children: unless for some reason God says 'don't'.  Could he?  Yes, there could be a dozen reasons:  he might see impending danger which if circumvented by a week saves lives and still accomplishes the goal.  He might direct us to expend the money in some more immediate issue:  walks and marches are great, but they last for a day or two, and then they are over: if we are fortunate, we make our point,  and show our numbers.   Obedience however, as we all know, is better than sacrifice:  both outward shows of faith, and demonstrations of Christian rights, memorials of Christian or others' deaths, are all good things, but first and foremost, is one on one obedience to the Lord.  

Sometimes the hardest decision we make, is to follow Christ in a burden he lays on us, rather than do the expedient, and even 'religious' thing.   What if you are on your way to church, and God burdens you not to go to church but to turn in another direction and go see a co-worker you don't particularly like?  Would you go?  Most of us argue to ourselves, that (like Philip) God would always want us to go to Church, and beside, that co-worker was argumentative and hateful towards belief.  Most would continue on to church, thinking they are 'doing God a favor'.   What if, though, what if that co-worker was lying in pain on the floor with a broken hip, and had just prayed for the first time ever for help?  Obedience in that case would both lead the person to Christ, establish your faith,  and, well, there's always the 6:30 service and quiet time.   The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath!

  How does this apply to righteous Christian civil disobedience?  The issue at hand is not a simple 'right ' or 'wrong' in dealing with the state or some local power.   The issue is to accomplish the will of God, God's way.  Did Jewish protests change the attitude of Ahasuerus' court?  No, it was the simple, and very brave action of a young Jewish woman in a very difficult position in life: she took her own life in her hands and entered' the King's presence.  The result?  The Jewish nation was not destroyed,  her life and her uncle's life was saved, and the events eventually led the nation in captivity back to Israel.   Some will then argue that we should never stand up en masse for our rights: that is an equal error.  Jesus called us to be salt and light in the world.   Jesus said, 'If you love me keep my commandments'.   Jesus taught us to 'render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's' and to 'obey the higher powers'.   He was first though to overthrow the moneychangers' tables, and to confront the hypocritical Pharisees, and even Rome.    The key is obedience.

We always seek the Lord first when we consider an action.  We continue to work 'while the day is light', but we stay in the Word and in prayer.   We do not forsake being the salt and light of the earth, nor do we leave off sharing the 'good news' of eternal life, but we "seek first the kingdom of God": that is how we prevail in an ungodly world.

More next time.
ekbest