God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

In our last post from the book of Acts we learned about one big important amazingly helpful thing both Paul and Jesus did to help themselves set healthy boundaries. If you’re interested you can read more here: “Boundaries, Friends, and Acts 22:22-29”.

In today’s post we’ll see how Paul responds to being treated unjustly by his government, and what that has to do with you and with me, and our relationship with politics.

Acts 22:30-23:1-5

But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.

And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

Paul and the High Court

So in an effort to find out what in the world is so controversial about Paul, the Roman tribune orders the chief priests and the council to meet and he brings Paul to the meeting. This group of Jewish leaders is the Sanhedrin, the highest religious court there was in Paul’s day. Paul addresses the Sanhedrin by sharing that he’s lived his life before God in good conscience up to this day.

And then the head of the Sanhedrin, the high priest, has his boys strike Paul right in the mouth.

According to Keener, the high priest at the time was Ananias, “. . . a Roman vassal, known for his greed and for stealing the tithes belonging to the poorer priests. The Zealot revolutionaries killed him in A.D. 66, about eight years after this hearing.”

Paul is understandably angry and his response is emotional. Until he’s informed that the one who struck him was the high priest.

At which point Paul responds with humility, he says, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.'”

Daniel and the Medo-Persian Government

The way Paul responded to the high court reminds me of how Daniel responded to the Medo-Persian government. Consider the unjust treatment Daniel faced in his lifetime. He was taken as a prisoner of war and carried back to Babylon. They demanded that his friends worship the king as a god. When his friends refused they threw them in the furnace. When he went to work for the Medo-Persion government there in Babylon, a group of his colleagues tried to have him executed. The Babylonian government and the Medo-Persian government were dictatorships that were flawed and had serious problems with corruption. And it was a society that didn’t follow Daniel’s God. Daniel was surrounded by a culture that didn’t follow Yahweh. But Daniel didn’t focus on those problems, instead he focused on doing everything he could to ensure the success of Babylon and the Medes and the Persians. (The Book of Daniel)

That’s exactly what God instructed Daniel and the Israelites to do: “The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

You and Me and the U.S. Government

It’s the same for you and it’s the same for me here in the United States or wherever you live. What we’re supposed to do is to bless the communities and organizations God puts us in. Our family, our class, our school, our workplace, our city–and yes–our country. If Daniel, an exile, could serve the greater good of the dictatorship in Babylon, you can serve the greater good of your nation, regardless of who’s in power.

Paul himself wrote about this in his epistle to Timothy:

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

1 Timothy 2:1-2

In the World but not Of the World

I think it’s worth noting that Paul and Daniel, and Jesus as well, while they worked for the greater good of the society they found themselves in, they also didn’t succumb to the social norming of their culture. Paul lived among the Jews, the vast majority of whom opposed Jesus. Obviously Paul took the same stance as Peter, when Peter was before the same high court. The high priest and his Sanhedrin court laid down the law and “. . . charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” (see Acts 4:1-22)

So Paul, and Peter, and the apostles all taught about Jesus, even though their governing religious authority ordered them not to.

When Daniel came out of the den of lions, he said to the head of the government, “O king, live forever!” And Daniel continued to serve his government and the community there in Babylon. But of course Daniel never supported the law that forbade people from worshipping God.

Jesus said of you and of me that we are not of the world, just as Jesus is not of the world. And he said in the same passage (which is a prayer, the longest recorded prayer of Jesus) that he, Jesus, sent us into the world, sanctified in God’s truth. (John 17:14-18) So our allegiance must always be with Jesus and God and God’s truth and the way of Jesus, before any allegiance to our politics. Like Paul and Peter and Jesus, we always have to put what God wants before what the culture wants and before what the government wants–whenever and wherever they’re in conflict.

While also serving the greater good of the community and the country where we find ourselves.

Jesus and Caesar

So it’s fine to be involved in politics, as long as politics doesn’t become our God. For some of us, if we spent as much time loving and serving God and our community, as we do following politics (and posting our political views on social media) our lives and the lives of the people around us would be changed, for Christ, dramatically. More of the love of Jesus would be unleashed on the world. And more than anything or anyone else, it’s the Spirit of Jesus who can change the world.

When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees and the Herodians about whether or not the Jews should pay taxes, Jesus tells them to show him a denarius. So we still have these things around today, these denariuses (or denarii, if you like). And we know what was on that coin was the image of Tiberius Caesar. So Jesus asks them, Whose image is on the coin?

Caesar’s, they answer.

“Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” Jesus said. (Luke 20:20-26)

So the coin made in Caesar’s image is to be given to Caesar. And you, and I, who are made in God’s image, are to be given to God. (Genesis 1:27) So yes, it’s good to love your country. It’s good to be enthusiastic for and helpful to our country (in a godly way), as long as our passion for patriotism doesn’t become primary and take the place where God belongs.

Give yourself to the One in whose image you’re made. Give your whole self to God. Seek Him first. You will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Put Him first. Make God your ultimate, far above your politics, and give Him all of yourself. (Deuteronomy 4:29)

And where politics is concerned:

If you’re a Jesus follower, your love should dwarf your political opinions.

Craig Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, IVP Academic; 2nd edition, January 3, 2014, pp. 391

Some content in the above blog post is from a previous God Running article: Patriotism, God, and the 4th of July–Does God Want Me To Be A Patriot?, July 3, 2014

Image of friends shaking hands by Kamaji Ogino via Pexels–Free to use, no attribution required

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• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
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