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“The powers that be are ordained of God…wherefore ye must needs be subject [you must obey them]” (Romans 13:1,5).
“We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
As I write this in February 2022, while the Covid-19 pandemic is still going on, many Christians are struggling with these two verses. On the one hand, we are told to obey the government and the laws they make; on the other hand, sometimes governments may tell us to do something that we feel is wrong. How do we make the decision?
When the book of Romans was written, Christians were under Roman rule, and the emperors were often corrupt and unreasonable. In their personal lives they were usually very wicked men. Yet Christians were told to respect and obey them. It is the same today. We are to obey the government the Lord has allowed to be in power, unless the law forces us to sin against God, and to do something against the Word of God. This usually makes the decision easy for us, and not only honors the government over us, but honors the Lord too.
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