Matters of Faith
Dr. Bob Burrelli answers Songtime listener questions
Answer: Wait. Don't be so quick to reply. You may have been conditioned to give an unbiblical answer; that can easily happen in our day, where the feel-good mentality reigns and there is a great lack of good Bible teaching in churches, which makes answering the question all the more necessary.
Well-intentioned church minds today use several ways to motivate people to evangelize, all of which have become popular and none of which are biblical.
One way is to teach believers that people are of great worth to God and, consequently, worth our time and effort. The Bible teaches the exact opposite: There is not one who is righteous; All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; All our righteousness are as filthy rags in His sight; What is man that Thou art mindful of him . . ."
Another way is to teach believers that if they do not witness to the lost, who die and go to hell, then God will hold them responsible for the condemnation of the lost. This view is founded upon a misinterpretation of Ezekiel 3:16-19 (cf. 33:7-9), a passage which has nothing to do with eternal destiny. Furthermore, there is not one passage in the New Testament which teaches that one person is responsible for the condemnation of another; the burden of proof lies with those who think otherwise. We do know that each person will have to give an account of himself or herself to God.
One final way worth mentioning is to teach believers about the horrific consequences of hell so that they will want to evangelize to keep people out. This popular way, however, underestimates the sinful human heart and could have the reverse effect-there is always the temptation to refuse to witness to someone that we think especially deserves God's wrath and forget that we all do without Christ.
You see, when emotion becomes the primary motivation behind evangelism, then there are legitimate instances when we can refuse to witness and be fully justified in doing so. We simply say "I don't feel like it today".
What should motivate us to witness is that which motivates us
to do anything else in life; namely, because God commands me to
and I please Him when I obey. If this is our primary motivation
for evangelism, and everything else, then we are never justified
in not keeping God's will at any point, including making disciples.
Answer: The specific biblical commands for believers to obey those in authority over them, regardless if those authorities are Christian or not, abound:
"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established (Romans 13:1)"; "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account (Hebrew 13:17)"; "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord (Ephesians 5:22)"; "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right (Ephesians 6:1)". Is this always right to do in every instance, even when the authorities to whom we submit are wrong? It all depends what you mean by "wrong".
Most of the time, it is not a matter of right or wrong, but a matter of preference. We might not like to buckle up when we drive, but government has passed a seat-belt law. Several in the congregation do not approve of the Elders' choice to have a Sunday evening worship service, but they must submit to spiritual leadership under God. A wife may consider her husband's solution to a great family dilemma to be inadequate and offer a better one, but in the end he has the final say. She must concede to his course of action. A child might honestly believe that his parents' decision to move to another state is wrong, because for him it means making new friends.
In these contexts, while we may find the decisions made by the authorities over us mysterious, illogical, not to our liking, or simply not the best, we would be sinning if we did not submit. God expects us to.
On other occasions, when "wrong" is understood as contrary to God's Word, we must disobey the authority over us in order to obey God. If preaching the gospel was against the law, Christians should prepared to go to jail. If the Elders were teaching a false gospel and refused to stop, a spirit-filled congregation should reject them. If a husband asked his wife to rob a bank with him, she should say no. If Christian children were ordered by their parents to shoplift for them, these children should refuse.
In these contexts, we are put into a situation where obeying authority means disobeying God. When that happens, we must disobey authority. God expects us to.
The biblical principle is this: God expects Christians
to obey their authorities without disobeying Him (cf. Acts 4:19-20;
5:29). It may not be easy to practice in every situation, but
it is absolutely necessary.