This week we looked at the controversial and often difficult topic of the church and society. The church is urged to submit to the laws of a country wherever possible (Rom 13), but there are clearly times when the culture and ethics of a society are blatantly against God’s laws, and at that point, our duty is to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)
Holy rebellion is seen throughout the Bible: the midwives’ refusal to follow Pharaoh’s edict to kill all Hebrew boys (Ex 1), the refusal of Moses’s mother to kill him at birth, the lies of Rahab which saved the spies’ lives, the disobedience of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in placing God’s laws above the king’s. This kind of holy disobedience can be unpopular and have terrible personal consequences, as many discovered during the Second World War (e.g. Corrie Ten Boom and her sister who shielded Jews from the Nazis.) But as the apostles proved, we follow a God who is clear about our allegiance to Him mattering more than any other allegiance.
In the West, we have often associated society with the church, but the truth is that the church is called to be holy and distinct from the society around us. We are in the world but not of the world. (See John 17). May we have the courage of those first believers to stand for God over and above our fit in society
