Acts 5:29 – But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’ NKJV
Ah, following the rules. I must admit – if you don’t know me that is – I don’t like to follow all the rules. I like the ones that make sense to me. I’m not trying to be disobedient for the sake of it, rebellious because I just want to make people mad – I genuinely like to follow rules that weren’t just haphazardly placed there and ignore the ones that were. I do try really hard to follow all the governmental laws, maybe not some rules set by other establishments and people.
That being said – I don’t see God’s rules this way. We are charged with following our government – that is Biblical – Romans 13:1-2 and 1 Peter 2:13-14. But what happens if those rules go against God’s? Yep – that verse right up there.
Peter and the apostles had been thrown in jail for preaching about Jesus Christ and they were strictly commanded not to (v.28). Clearly that goes against what God asks all of us – to go and preach the gospel to all the nations – Matthew 28:19.
Most likely we won’t be thrown into jail for preaching about Jesus. Maybe we will be asked by our government to do other things we don’t want to because it goes against our beliefs. It’s happening to believers all over the world and locally.
Just look at the US right now. We have so much push back from citizens who don’t agree with us trying to make us accept that which we don’t believe. Our fellow believers are having to fight to not make wedding cakes for same sex marriages, leaders of churches don’t want to break God’s rules allowing the clearly sexually immoral in pastoral positions, local governments are trying to ban abortion – just to name a few.
We aren’t doing all of this in the name of hate, either. We are standing up for what God has for us in His written Word. God is the God of love and He sent Jesus for our sin nature and brokenness. We are to look on the hurting and the lost in the love Jesus gave away but by no means say it’s okay to keep living in the bondage that was not meant to be ours.
Freedom was bought by the blood of the Lamb and meant for all of us who would choose it. Sometimes we have to fight for it – actually, a lot of the time we have to fight for it. Satan won’t let you have it without a fight. But we never have to fight alone – thanks to Jesus. Oh, and we will win.
It will be interesting to watch all of this play out. Keep fighting for what you believe, break some rules if you must – for the sake of the Kingdom.
