October 4
Isaiah 65-66
Psalm 109:1-8
Proverbs 24:10-12
I Timothy 2
Those in Authority
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving by made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:1-4 NIV
This is a challenging passage. Over the last year, we have witnessed more division in our country than we have seen since the Civil War. Hatred and anger are evident on social media, in the workplace and at family gatherings. For almost 250 years we have been a diverse nation. The thing that has made us work for so long is that we have the freedom to express different opinions. Sometimes one side is right and sometimes the other side is right, but most of the time both sides get some of the things right and some of them wrong. None of us have all the answers. Life is complicated and none of us have it all figured out. We can have very strong opinions and believe that we are right, and the other side is wrong. Our forefathers were just as strident in their beliefs and did not waver in expressing them. But what is different now is that we have lost our respect and civility. This country works because we respect our diversity. We know that we function better in community. We work best when we come together and discuss our opinions. When we listen to the other side, we can understand where they are coming from and why they believe what they believe. We may not change our mind and we may still think they are totally wrong, but if we look at an issue from someone else’s perspective, instead of getting angry and hating them, we can empathize with them. It is not necessary to hate someone who has a different opinion than we do. We don’t have to “pick sides.” If you are an Auburn football fan, it is required that you hate everyone who is an Alabama fan (at least during football season). In real life, we don’t have to do that. We can love people who have completely opposite opinions than we have. We can love people who voted for the person we think is horrible.
Both sides of the political aisle are equally guilty of this. We have made it personal. Instead of listening to the other side and trying to understand where they are coming from, we have vilified them and called them all evil. If you voted for ________, you are a bad person. Or if you didn’t vote for _____________, then you can’t be a Christian. Don’t get me wrong. I know there are very important issues at stake. I have very strong opinions about most of those issues myself. I am preaching to myself here. This passage in I Timothy tells us what we need to be doing instead of getting on social media spewing hatred. Paul urges us to pray for each other. He tells us to intercede for our leaders and to live a peaceful, quiet life of godliness and holiness. God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. That means that those leaders that we are bashing and vilifying, God wants to save. The ones we are calling evil and terrible, God loves and more than anything He wants them to turn to Him. Instead of hating them, we need to be praying for them. Instead of saying terrible things about them, we need to pray for their souls. We need to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Paul is telling us that we not only can live peacefully with those we disagree with, but we should. As believers we must be different from the world. We should stand up for what we believe. We should fight for godliness and holiness in our culture. We should be concerned about the things that concern God. But we should do it in a way that is loving, respectful and godly with much prayer and seeking God for wisdom and clarity.
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