Christian has civic duty to cooperate with government

Is the Christian obligated to support all governing authorities, regardless of whether or not these leaders seek order and good among the people they serve? In Romans 13:1: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” Christians who sought to justify their support of Hitler in Nazi Germany may have used Paul's writing to say yes, but that is not the message of Paul here. Instead, he states three important things: governments are God's servants, governments are to work for an ordered society, and governments are to work for the good of the people.

It is the Christian's civic duty to cooperate with governments as they seek these things. Paul gets practical, too. He encourages us to pay our taxes so the government may carry out its work. He might have included voting on the list of Christian duties if he had lived in a later time.

We are called to participate in making good governments because God works through governments for the common good. With this said, are we getting good government

Sam McCord

Cedar Rapids