Wednesday 11 Oct 2017

October 11: Romans 13:1-7

Key Verse: Romans 13:5
Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

Devotion:
If we are to listen to and obey God's Word, then we will ourselves learn to be in submission to authority. As stated here every authority is ordained by God. If He wanted to make sure someone did not get into a position of authority, He could do exactly that. Each position of authority is recognised by God; not that we should obey those evil ones, but it is still a position of authority. So, when we resist the authority, or go against the wishes of those in authority, we go against God (unless of course the person in authority wants us to go against God). So, each one of us resisting authority is piling up a bit more judgement against ourselves!

If you are a person who is honest and quiet, you will probably not get bothered by evil authorities, yet as soon as you make yourself heard, they would work against you. Generally speaking, rulers are not a terror to the quiet ones, but to the evil doers themselves. This means many will actually be kept back from crime simply by being afraid of the consequences rather than by wanting to do good. We must be aiming at being good because of our conscience rather than just because we are scared that we will get into trouble!

Our conscience is going to guide us through many walks in life. If we go ahead and corrupt it now with minor things, when we really do need it to guide us, it will be so corrupt we will not have a clue as to what we should be doing. If we are going to reject our conscience from the start, then when we do get a bit of authority in our lives, we are more likely not to listen to authority because it goes against our wants rather than with our conscience. When we get God in our lives, we may well find it hard to listen to Him because of the things we have allowed ourselves to get involved with and because of the anti-authoritarian manner by which we live our lives.

Points to Ponder:
When do you start listening to instruction?

When do you listen to God's instruction?