Nuggets 75: Freedom Versus Respect

  • B. Shelburne
  • Jun 30, 2007
  • Series: Nuggets

Is it right for a Christian to verbally trash the President?  This becomes an issue in a country with extreme emphasis on freedom of speech.  In some cultures it would not occur to most people to speak disrespectfully of a leader.

Respect for authorities is a fundamental Biblical value.  Without it neither society nor family nor the church can function for long.   I don't mean mindless, robotic submission as done in cults.  Confronting wrong in a superior is not only right but sometimes a duty, when done in the right spirit.  And "we must obey God rather than man" where these two conflict.  But that is not where most of us have our problem.

King Saul was murderously insane.  David confronted him respectfully but refused to dishonor or harm God's anointed king.  Michael would not even slander the devil.  We are taught to obey parents because "this is right," not because parents are always right.  Respect for authority is basic.  Under Moses one who cursed a parent deserved death.  The Christian slave was to respect not only a good master but a wrong-headed one, and a wife was to respect an unbelieving husband, because Jesus modeled redemptive submission on the cross (including his speech).  Our Christian witness depends on respectfulness.  Peter says we are to respect authority at all levels.  Paul writes that all authority derives from God.  Those who resist/disrespect earthly authorities resist and disrespect God.

Jesus says a person who completely sets another (even a president?) at nought ("You fool!") is in danger of hell fire.  It is a spiritual problem.  The person who can arrogantly trash another person is looking down from a mountain of self and pride.  The Bible puts serious limits on judging.  Since God made people including leaders in his image, we are not to characterize them as trash but see their potential and want the best for them.  Some Caesars were very messed up.  Yet Paul had the early Christians giving thanks for them and praying for them.  In our fallenness we gravitate toward cursing rather than blessing.

The freedom to say anything does not mean I should.  The right to openly discuss public policy and hold our leaders accountable is one of our greatest blessings.  It just needs to be exercised with godly respect and sobriety.

 

 

Acts 4:19;  5:29;  1 Samuel 24;  Jude 8-10;  Ephesians 6:1-3;  Exodus 21:17;  22:28;  Leviticus 20:9;  1 Peter 2:13-25;  3:1-6, 15,16;  Romans 13:1-7;  Matthew 5:22;  1 Timothy 2:1-4;  Titus 3:1,2

 

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Copyright 2007 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons.

 

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