Just Take Your Punishment

by Keith Sharp

About forty years ago, I knew a young preacher with a cavalier attitude toward traffic laws. He was known to drive down the highway at breakneck speed, with a Twinkie and a Mountain Dew for breakfast, steering the car with his knees! Sandy and I would not let our children ride with him. When we rebuked him for breaking the traffic laws, he replied, “If I’m arrested, I’ll pay my fine, so I’m submitting to the government.”

The Lord is quite clear about obedience to civil government.

“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves” (Romans 13:1-2).

“Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.” (I Peter 2:13-14).

Submission necessitates obedience.

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you" (Hebrews 13:17).

If a purported Christian told the elders where he was a member, “No, I won’t attend regularly, but it’s OK with me if you rebuke me for poor attendance,“ would he be submissive or recalcitrant? (cf. Matthew 21:28-29)

Oh, we’re informed, you just can’t know all those volumes of civil law! A dear brother informed me a few years ago, “We can’t keep from sinning, because the Bible’s too big of a book to know it all.” I replied, “You don’t have to know all the Bible; you have to know the difference between right and wrong.” He conceded we can do that. “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame” (I Corinthian 15:34).

The State of Arkansas published a reasonably sized “Arkansas Driver’s Manual.” It’s not written in Greek, Hebrew, or Shakespearean English. I suspect your state has a similar book. Speed limits and other regulations are prominently posted on road signs.

I concede the United States income tax code is voluminous and technical. So I hire a tax professional to help me. You can do the same.

I have a dear friend, an elder of the church, who refused to wear a seat belt because he “didn’t vote for that law.” How many Roman laws do you reckon Paul or Peter voted for?

Don’t make excuses for disobeying the law. It’s a sin, and you don’t have to sin.

• “Let every soul be subject to the authorities.”
• “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake."
• “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin.”