Authorities and Judgment

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; (Romans 13:3)

Here is a very interesting new thought to me. It also highlights the hunch that has been growing on me that the emphasis in this passage is on the choices and condition of my spirit in relationship to authorities much more than determining the legitimacy or judging the actions or decisions of authorities.

What I am starting to see described here is a situation involving judgment. Now, it is very important to understand the true meaning of judgment or I will be immediately misunderstood here, and to explain what I am referring to by true judgment would take far more clarification than I have time for right now. I have been writing a series on judgment that I intend to share whenever I get them organized enough, but for now I will simply have to trust the Spirit to help make sense to others what He has been revealing to me.

The link that came to me just now is that if I apply the scenario described here to the trial of Jesus it would not fit very well at all on the face of it. Few would argue that Jesus ever did anything less than good. In fact, one of the things that made Him so unique in history was His continuance in maintaining an attitude and stance of perfect goodness and forgiveness all through the intense abuse and injustice he received from earthly authorities of the world. But it could hardly be said that in response those authorities gave Him praise as Paul seems to suggest in these verses should happen.

Were the rulers who set up Jesus, framed Him, lied about Him, tortured Him and participated in killing Him – could those rulers fit the description given in this verse, rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil? I just cannot twist my mind around to believing that the corrupt system of authority that heaped all the abuse possible physically and emotionally on the most perfect example of goodness ever to walk the face of this earth could be likened to that described in this passage. And yet the authorities that I face on a regular basis are often closer to that which vented their wrath on the perfect Son of God rather than the noble kind of God-ordained, evil suppressing authorities envisioned by Paul in this passage. I am not saying all authorities are as morally bankrupt as those in Jesus' day, but many of the ones I am seeing in operation today are getting closer to that condition every day.

So how do I relate to this seeming discrepancy? Something tells me there is still much more here than what I am yet perceiving. I am definitely not satisfied with stock explanations of this passage, for the most common applications in the past have been, more often than not, endorsements of blind submission to the corruptness and maneuverings of authorities trying to solicit the allegiance of their Christian subjects.

But one thing that did become clear to me this morning in this verse is that the issue of judgment is being described here. Judgment is when the spirit and true intentions of hearts are revealed by exposure to real goodness. The reason that so much evil was displayed in the final hours of Jesus' life on earth was precisely because corrupt authorities were being exposed up close to the intense goodness of Jesus and the result was not praise from them but outraged condemnation. But this very experience is the most accurate demonstration of the real meaning of judgment.

The biggest issue that has been haunting me in this passage is in a way being addressed from a different angle here. And maybe that is the real lesson that God is trying to get through to me, at least one of them. I suspect that my internal sense of justice that causes bitterness in my heart whenever there is abuse of power going on is out of alignment with the concept of justice from heaven's point of view. And the right way to expose corruption in authorities is radically different than the typical way I usually feel it should be done.

I, like most people I know, have this innate sense that injustice should be exposed by direct confrontation or direct exposure to the public. My flesh wants to explore and uncover the conspiracy's, the graft and corruption, the selfishness and crookedness of people misusing their positions of responsibility and expose them for all to see. In reality I want to shame them by such exposure in vain attempts to somehow get them to repent and either be thrown out of their positions or change their ways. This way of reasoning is constantly being reinforced and practiced by most of the news media organizations around us today.

Given the failure of shame to cause reformation, the next step is to look for ways to employ force of any means to make authorities accountable for their actions and corrupt motives. This may involve not only public humiliation but tactical activation of legal means or policies or seeking to involve higher authorities (that hopefully are less corrupt) in an attempt to force change or removal of corrupt people in power. If I look at what is going on all around me, both in the church and the world, this is the typical approach to resolving all problems of corruption in positions of authority. But it is also in direct conflict with the instructions that I find in these verses.

What is thought by many is that these verses are instructing us to blindly submit to authorities with no regard to their integrity or level of corruption. The unspoken implication also involves embracing or at least tacit endorsement of their corrupt ways so that there is no accountability required. Like in the early heydays of Hitler when this passage was widely used to pressure all Christians in Germany to go along with the very popular political movement of the day, it is often the case that this passage is thought to be teaching us to simply turn a blind eye to corruption in government or in leadership within whatever authority structure we find ourselves. It has too often been the case that this passage has been used as an excuse for suppression of all questioning of authority by good Christians.

What I am now starting to see emerging from these verses is a revelation of a completely different method of exposing the truth about authorities. Instead of employing intense investigations, shame, condemnation or political force to expose and humiliate those in power, the example of Jesus shows me that there is a far more effective and even potentially redemptive way to bring about judgment. But it feels like something not at all appealing to my nature of flesh, and of course it never will appeal to my flesh because my flesh is hopelessly antagonistic to the ways of the Spirit and the methods of heaven. What really needs to be confronted and annihilated is not earthly corrupt authorities as much as the corruptness of my own deceptive, conniving, unrepairable heart of flesh that will sell my soul into hell if given a chance to mature.

That brings me to another disturbing insight. The more angry I become when confronted with corruption in the lives of those in authority the more I am really being triggered by the reflection in a mirror of a very similar kind of corruption in my own evil heart of flesh. When corruption causes a strong reaction in me, it is always indicative of a trigger in my own mind that is not yet healed. So when I react to some revelation by focusing on the corruption of those in authority without first facing, confronting and seeking healing and resolution for the trigger within my own heart, I am really trying to shift the focus away from my own internal issues by becoming obsessed with correcting other's faults. I am trying to remove the speck from my brother's eye before removing the log from my own.

In the teachings and demonstrations of what constitutes true judgment given by Jesus, particularly in Luke during the Last Supper and the following events, I am beginning to see that these two subjects are very much intertwined and shed a great deal of light onto my own problems in this area. I am sensing that God is showing me some important principles that I need to have incorporated into my own life in relationship to authorities. I need to begin living and focusing far more on being filled with the real goodness of God, to receive healing for the triggers that obscure that goodness in times of stress and antagonism, and live more consistently in total submission to the influence of the Spirit of God.

It will never work to live in submission to human authorities as instructed in these verses if I am not even more so living in complete submission to the sweet Spirit of One who is never corrupt, One who is completely just and the One who is the example of perfect goodness and kindness. Only as I focus more attention on living in proper relationship with the real Source of goodness will I ever be able to do what is good while living in right relationship to God's delegated authorities in my life on earth.

What will happen if I do this right is that if I allow the real goodness of God to be revealed in me while living under authority, judgment (exposure) will inevitably take place just as it took place in the final hours of Jesus life with those corrupt authorities. I am not responsible for the character, good or bad, of the authorities in my life. But I am totally responsible for cooperating and submitting to the authority of my Creator and Redeemer and Lord. I am responsible to live in such submission to the Spirit of Jesus, the essence of goodness, that whenever any corruption of earthly authorities comes in contact with the goodness of God being revealed in my life in that setting, that the true nature of the hearts involved in that situation will be exposed by default.

True exposure is not accomplished by attacks, force or humiliation. True exposure is accomplished by the presence in a person's life of true goodness in the face of evil, forgiveness in the face of senseless abuse, respectful behavior in the face of obscenity, allegiance to God in the face of intimidation, peace in the face of human wrath and senseless violence. For it is never shame or force but it is the kindness of God that leads us – and others – to repentance.

This does not require me to be blindly ignorant of the evil nature or workings of corrupt authorities. But it certainly redefines my choice of how I am to relate to them. If I feel compelled to directly expose authorities using the normal methods of the world and my flesh, then I am myself being judged, and in a way being complicit in the very same problems. For in real judgment everyone is judged including the judges.

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17 NKJV)

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