What Are a Christian's Civic Responsibilities?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, Acts 5:29, Acts 8, Acts 10, Romans 16:23

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--what-are-a-christians-civic-responsibilities
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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to answer this question we should look foremost at the new testament which is God God's plan for Christians for the church today of course the New Testament was written when the Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean world including the tiny nation of Palestine so they did not have freedom as we know it they did not have democracy they couldn't vote for their leaders they were under an oppressive in many time cases for foreign dictatorship so even under those adverse circumstances we find two clear teachings of scripture and you can see this in Romans chapter 13.

you can also see this in First Peter chapter 2. so I can say under every form of government two things are important number one we should pray for our country for our leaders even if they're ungodly leaders there is a valid role for government in God's plan government is supposed to keep order safety security protect life property and of course in the Christian context We Believe government should ensure the free expression of the gospel and even in a practical way as we see in the Roman Empire by maintaining roads by maintaining a postal system by maintaining a basic economy where people can live and where even churches can have their needs supplied we see government has a valid role So to that extent number one we should pray that government will fulfill its valid role and that God will help governmental leaders to do what is just and and do what is merciful and and protect peace safety Freedom the economy and so forth so prayer is always in order that's a responsibility of Christians even for secular and ungodly leaders to pray for those leaders for our government for our nation second we are supposed to be good citizens law abiding citizens now not every law is just not every law is necessary but again uh for the valid purposes that government exists which are given and ordained by God we should cooperate with our government we should be known as good citizens we should be known as law-abiding citizens if there's some reason that we are not following the law we should be willing to pay for the consequences of not following that law now all that discussion which I said is from Romans 13 first Peter 2 is assuming that government is fulfilling its valid function as ordained by God but what if the government actually goes against the will of God so in a drastic case we see in the book of Acts that the religious leaders tried to prohibit the preaching of the Gospel they told the apostles not to preach in the name of Jesus well the apostles did anyway because there's a higher law the law of God and so in Acts 5 29 this very important principle stated we ought to obey God rather than men so if the government tries to convince us or Force us to commit sin if the government tries to curtail the evangelism and discipleship of the church the functions that God has given then we have to choose God's will even over the government or Over Law so we have responsibility to be law-abiding citizens and by the way in Romans 13 that includes paying taxes that includes giving honor to secular officials that includes supporting the government financially through customs duties taxes but when the law or the government or governmental leaders go directly against God's plan God's commands to us then we have to still follow God's commands even if there are adverse consequences for us now in a society such as ours where we do have uh we're in the U.S and through most of the West Canada you know we have democracy we have freedom to our greater or lesser extent but we are Republican democracy so we elect representatives who in turn make laws for us ultimate sovereignty rests with the people we choose the key leaders and so in that context we have a a right but I also think we have a duty to participate so in Bible days they couldn't say go out and vote it wasn't an option but I think God would say yes when you have these means of influencing Society you should use that and we do have practical examples in the Old Testament we have biblical leaders who are faithful to God faithful to uh the laws of God they didn't compromise but yet they Rose to high positions of influence in secular Pagan government so Joseph in Egypt Daniel and the three his three young Hebrew friends in the Babylonian Empire later of the Persian Empire Esther became Queen in the Persian Empire so these were all godly people who use their influence to do God's will who did not compromise with sin but yet they participated in society so that indicates to me that if we're able to participate that it's legitimate for some of us to hold office elected or appointed and since we have a right to vote that's one way we can all participate in the New Testament you see the same thing in Acts 8 you have the Ethiopian eunuch who was apparently a high official he was a treasurer of his Nation uh acts 10 you have Cornelius who was a centurion or a captain of a Roman uh band a military unit uh you also have a very interesting reference in Romans 16 23 of erastus who was a high city official the term is sometimes translated City Treasurer or director of Public Works but he was a key Civic official in a pagan Society so again these new testament examples show us that when we have the opportunity to have an influence in our secular society even in government positions not only is it legitimate but I would argue from that there are ways which we all can participate which did wasn't the case in the New Testament so when there's a way that we all can participate I think we should so at minimum we should vote and we should let our voice be heard and I think there's a legitimate role for I don't think the church should promote political parties or candidates because we need to be the church needs to be open to everyone people of every political persuasion need to feel welcome to feel like they could come they wouldn't have to support a certain Canada party to be accepted in our church now once they get in the church they may adopt values that are more in line with the Bible and they may vote for policies and candidates that would be better in implementing biblical values and God's will but the point is officially as the church while we promote Godly values we shouldn't promote candidates or parties in a way that would alienate a section of the population so I'm not talking about official Church action but as individual members of society we can and should participate in the political process in various ways including supporting Canada's parties lobbying and so forth but at least I think we can and should vote because that's one way we let our voice be heard and if we don't like certain policies or certain candidates but yet we don't vote then we have only ourselves to blame I do believe that we should be good citizens in our society and we should use the available means legally and peacefully and we should support freedom of religion freedom of speech freedom of press freedom of assembly uh Freedom uh to make a list of grievances to present to the government freedom of petition you might say and we should Avail ourselves of these freedoms especially when it comes to defending the work of the church