Following Romans 13:1-2 is really tough at times. It says, "Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished." As a young person it is hard to follow because let's face we knew it all then and didn't want anyone telling us what to do.
But as an adult when we realize we don't know everything, we do know enough to know that sometimes people in authority do things, or ask us to do things that we just can't agree with. Dungy doesa great job of describing a couple of those times in his life. How many of those times can you think of? The majority of the time, however, those in authority in the various arenas of our life know a little more about a given situation and therefore can make a more informed decision than we can.
As the father of a twenty year old daughter and nearly eighteen year old son, I had to chuckle at he comment by Dungy's daughter on page 70, "I just wish he could have made it until he was twenty, because when I was seventeen or eighteen, sometimes the things that you guys say to us didn't make sense. But about the time I turned twenty they started making a lot more sense." As I mentioned yesterday there are a lot of times that I have made harsh statements that don't even make sense to me when I look back, I just pray that as both my children age things will start to make more sense as gaps are filled in for them.
4 comments:
I think it is pretty clear that this Bible verse is false on its face. Earthly authority does not come "from God." I know that plenty of people think that Obama is The One, and the Taliban of course think they are God's choice, but it is human beings (through elections, or coups, or whatever process) who take power, not God.
The beauty of our creation is that He made us creatures of choice. The difficulty of our creation is that He made us creatures of choice. Sometimes we make good choices and other times we make very poor ones, but if were any other way we would simply be puppets on God's string. The truth is that there are no false verses in the Bible. What God is telling Christians is that until what a leader asks you to do goes in direction opposition to God's teaching that you should follow the rules set before you and by doing so set a good example for others to see. Through this example God is often able to help raise people to positions of authority who can instigate change in unreasonable rules or laws. I think that there are far more people who believe that Obama is the farthest thing from a God-led authority than who think he is "The-One" as you stated. However, he is the president of the greatest nation on the planet, the only one that comes close to being a "nation under God" as it was founded and until he asks me to go against the will of God I am to respect the authority of his position even if I do not respect a particular decision.
RE: The truth is that there are no false verses in the Bible...
What a silly thing to say.
There are plenty of false verses in the Bible, plenty of verses that contradict other verses (if one is true, the other must be false), and plenty that are neither true nor false (opinions, commands, poetry, etc.).
EXAMPLES OF EACH OF THE ABOVE:
1. A false verse -- Mark 16:17 - 18 says that a believer can drink poison and not be harmed. I suggest you try it, if you think this verse is true.
2. False due to contradiction -- Matthew 27: 11 - 14 states that Jesus remained silent at his hearing before Pilate. John 18: 33 -37 states that he answered the charges.
3. Neither false nor true -- Song of Solomon 7:3 is both poetry and opinion, stating that the beloved's breasts are like two gazelles.
There are literally hundreds of other examples in all three categories.
It amazes me how many people claim to know the Bible and have never read all of its contents.
I appreciate the anonymous thoughts( I wish they weren't hidden in anonymity), however it does point out the struggles we all have in our effort to find truth. Faith is such a fundamental part of any system of belief. Having read the Bible in its entirety I have seen how things that seem to be contradictory, not only aren't so, but have a purpose. Now there are plenty of things that I still don't understand, I choose to believe based on overwhelming evidence that God's word is inspired and true. The verse from Mark in no way instructs a believer or non believer to drink poison, but rather points to a God who is powerful enough to heal even something that others can't explain. The difference is whether you are using it to test God. Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake and survived, but he was in no way handling snakes as a practice of worship to in any way test God.
I love the dialogue, I respect your desire for anonymity, I must admit that this is the only forum in which I even read anonymous correspondence.
The beauty of the Christian life is that there are many things that we can agree to disagree on as long as we continue to worship Jesus Christ as Lord!
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