Inside: Christians must be in the middle of the fight to make sure that Government officials are God’s Deacons to do His work on earth.

The church needed help.  The tired Pastor was running around, taking care of so many different things, taking care of so many different people.  It all needed to be done, but he needed more time.  He loved his times of study and preparation for his sermons, but his study time was getting nudged out by the constant barrage of other duties that had to be done to keep the church going.  Finally, someone pointed out this wasn’t the first time this has happened.  The New Testament church in Acts 6 ran into the same problem and the solution was to appoint helpers!  This Pastor needed help.  He needed a Deacon, or maybe a team of them.

“Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”     – Acts 6:3

Help from within

In the New Testament church, the search for help was “among you”, so someone in their number would step up to fulfill this role.  Can you imagine if our fictional Pastor did not think it appropriate to take help from “among” him and chose instead to go out to the world?  Should he go to those who hate God and hate everything the church believes to find help in doing the work of the church?  How much help do you think those people would be?  If our Pastor did that, we would absolutely think he had lost his mind.  What if, instead of a busy Pastor, we are talking about the very God of Heaven Himself?  What if God wanted an agent, a “Deacon”, to carry out duties on His behalf?  Do you think He would choose His own children, or would He choose those who hate Him for the job? 

In Romans 13:3-4, we find God’s purpose for the civil government official.  It is to be God’s “Minister”, or literally the same Greek word as “Deacon”.  What is the official supposed to do in this job?  Romans 13:4 says he is supposed to be working “for good”, and to “execute” God’s wrath in punishing evil.  1 Peter 2:14 says the same thing…  In that passage, we read that God sends these officials “for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.”  In both passages, we clearly see the government officials are God’s people, sent by God Himself to encourage good, and to punish evil.

Help from without?

In our example with the Pastor, we would think it completely crazy if he decided to entrust these duties to an outsider – or even worse to a known enemy.  If a church needs a Deacon, we would all think it only makes sense they would absolutely look first to Christians in their own membership!  Why would we think any differently about God Himself?  All too often, when God Himself is choosing a Deacon to encourage good, and punish evil on His behalf, here on earth, we say, “No, I’m sorry Lord, we just don’t feel it is right for your people to get involved… We’re just going to leave the job to those who hate everything about you…  those who will turn the whole thing upside down…  those who will punish good and reward evil…” 

Civil government was made by God.  The officials in government are literally God’s Deacons to encourage good and to punish evil here on earth.  Should Christians be involved?  HOW CAN WE NOT BE??  We frequently say that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and those are Biblical terms.  It is important to remember “King” and “Lord” are civil government titles.  Jesus is the supreme, highest, civil government authority there is in the universe!  Everything is subject to Him and He is over all – even the civil government. 

Commissioned by god

When it comes to the officials filling the positions of civil government responsibility in our land, from our local school boards and city councils, all the way up to the President, they are commissioned by God to act on His behalf to encourage good and to punish evil.  If these things are out of whack – and they are very much out of whack – then Christians should be taking every opportunity to make those things right.  If someone is in one of those positions who is out of line with the rightful authority of the King of Kings, then we should never be quiet until those wrongs are either made right, or that person is replaced with someone who will do the job correctly.  Anything less is to allow what rightfully belongs to Jesus to be stolen. 

It’s all god’s

One day Jesus was asked about whether His people should pay taxes to Caesar.  His famous guidance in Luke 20:25 is to, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.”  Ladies and gentlemen, I am afraid we are way too negligent in the first part of that command.  While we busy ourselves with things we think are the things of God (and they may very well be), we are all too quick to discount the role of God’s minister, God’s Deacon, God’s agent on earth as something where we should not be involved.  All of it rightfully belongs to God, and He deserves to have His people faithfully doing His work in all of those roles.  God’s people do not have liberty to pick and choose which parts of God’s work we will, or won’t, engage in the way He has designed them to work. 

Government officials are supposed to be God’s Deacons to do His work on earth. Christians must be in the middle of the fight to make sure our government reflects that truth. As I have asked many times before, if the church doesn’t fight this fight for the heart of our country, who will?