Honor The King (A President's Day message)

Honor The King (a President's Day message)

There has been a murder with no eye witnesses. The police make an arrest and the accused is standing trial. How do you prosecute someone if there are no witnesses to the event? With evidence, of course. Let's say they find hair and blood samples at the crime scene of this accused person. In this case, the DNA sample would be the evidence of the unwitnessed action (the murder). Granted, many other factors must come in to play such as a motive and a means, but even those are circumstantial and therefore pointless if there is no evidence.

Imagine you are put on trial, what kind of evidence would they have to accuse you of having faith? James states that faith is not possible without works; if there is no evidence then your faith is meaningless (James 2:20). Our faith is the evidence of our salvation (which is unseen). So, if we are filled with God's salvation, there should be evidence in our lives. Paul writes in Galatians 5:6 "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

We therefore do not all have to be preachers or heavily involved in some sort of ministry. The world should know we are Christians by our love and our morals. Peter writes, "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." (1 Peter 2:12). He goes on to write in verse 17 "Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king." (the Greek for "king" here can be translated as ruler, or in our case, President of the US).

Peter wrote this in a society in which Christians were accused of being wrong, they were literally persecuted and murdered by the "king" that Peter tells the believers to honor (emperor Nero). He doesn't encourage the believers to "claim their rights" and demand justice, but to live good lives and honor their rulers. This to me, is indisputable faith, the evidence is bold and clear of these believers' salvation.

So, back to your trial. What sort of "evidence" of your salvation would they be able to bring into the court room? Would it be overwhelming, or would they have to dig deeply to find it? Would they see a life of love and respect for all you encounter and even for the government with which you might strongly disagree?

I know there are many Christians who are not big fans of President Obama; and there were also many who were not big fans of former President Bush. But would others around you look at your life, your attitude, etc and be able to say, without a doubt, that with your words and actions you honor our President?

I ask this not for Obama's sake; but I ask this for your sake: for the sake of your witness of who you are in Christ. We are poor witnesses if we throw out parts of the Bible that are not convenient to our political preferences. Peter wrote to "honor the king" regarding emporer Nero (remember, this is the same "king" that crucified Peter upside down later in his life). If Peter could honor Nero, than you can certainly honor any President we have, present or past.

The trial I asked you to imagine above is going to take place one of these days. You and I will stand before God and have to give an account to him. There's no time like now to ask God to fill you with his love and help you honor your neighbors and your leaders.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen
(Hebrews 11:1)

This blog focuses on the latter portion of 1 Peter 2:17; it is part of a larger work in progress on faith.