This is also why you pay taxes,
for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.
Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue,
then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Romans 13:6-7)
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be
weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less
honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are
treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no
special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to
the parts that lacked it, (I Corinthians 12:22-24)
Remember the scene in Beauty and the Beast, where Belle does something
Beast doesn’t like, and he points at her and glares at his servants with a look
that says, “See, didn’t I say she’s being so difficult?” That’s the look I’d
like to give you right now and point at all the people of a particular
political ideology and then at today’s passage. And I’m sure they’d like to
give you the same look and point at me. And quiet honestly, I can be difficult.
But I want to pull this discussion out of
the political realm, or perhaps out of that
political realm. Yes, taxes, God’s servants, etc., but the second sentence is
where our attention is needed.
Give to everyone what you owe
them. Scripture
teaches us that we are all equals, all part of the Body whose head is Jesus
Christ. We owe each other love. We are to submit to one another, serve one
another, and respect one another. We are all created in the image of God as
such, we should dignify and honor one another.
It’s difficult to love, submit, serve, respect, dignify, and honor one
another when one person believes one thing, and another believes something quite
different. It’s made harder because there’s a tendency to believe that what the
other believes is dangerous to us – and sometimes, it is.
But Scripture doesn’t tell us that we don’t need to love, submit,
serve, respect, etc., those who disagree with us. In fact, we’re told that parts
of the body that are less honorable need to be given special honor. In other
words, when they’re being difficult, we need to try harder.
So, what does this look like? This is incredibly important for those of
strong opinion. Loving, submitting, etc., requires that we separate the person
from what the person is saying. It means that we have no right to dictate to
anyone what they must believe or what they must do. It means we must not label
or denigrate those who don’t agree with us.
If we are to love them, we must act in their best interest. Sometimes,
that means not doing what they want. Submission doesn’t mean throwing facts and
reality out the window and living according to the other person’s dictates.
Respect doesn’t mean agreement, but it does mean at least giving a proper consideration
of the person and/or what he says. Dignifying someone doesn’t involve making a
god of them. Honor doesn’t mean pretending they are perfect. But doing all of
these things does require that we separate them from what they say or do. We’re
to love them, etc.
The whole social distancing thing has shown both the positive and the
negative side of this issue. The government called up on to stay home as much
as possible, to maintain social distancing as much as possible and wear gloves
and masks when we do go out in public. I’m one of those who doesn’t think this
is absolutely necessary, possible, or wise. But, to love, submit, respect,
dignify and honor, now that I have found a mask, I wear one, and when I have
gloves, I wear them.
There are those who believe they have the right to dictate and enforce those
dictates. A complaint was raised that the executive of my county violated her
stay-at-home order. She did, and her reasons were understandable and, I think,
valid. But one of the people feeling the need to defend her dismissed the
complaint on the grounds that the county executive is a “strong and intelligent
woman.” This person was saying that the county executive can do whatever she
wants because she is some combination of “strong,” “intelligent,” and “a woman.”
Everyone else must abide by the county executives’ rules, then, because they
are either not strong, not intelligent, or not women, or some combination thereof.
In short, the argument is that the county exec can do these things, but “you”
are a weak idiot (and/or male) who can’t or won’t consider the options and take
the best course of action.
This is what we must avoid. We must be willing to make allowances. The county
exec had unusual circumstances that necessitated her risk. We must not make
them in a way that attacks another person. The issues need to be discussed, but
the person is not an allowable target. This differentiation is not
easy, but if we are to obey what Scripture teaches, it is absolutely necessary.[1]
We are called to do battle against the beliefs and ideological system – not the
people.
[1] There is, I think, a caveat
that needs to be added here. This separation must be extended to each
individual. However, to say that “Liberals believe” X or “Conservatives believe”
Y is a reasonable and allowable thing because Liberals are Liberals,
Conservatives are Conservatives, Baptists are Baptists, Catholics are
Catholics, and Methodists are Methodists because they hold certain religious, philosophical,
and political beliefs in common with others of their groups. It is not
necessarily appropriate to claim that a specific member of one of these groups
believes all of what the group in question believes, but we may not require others
to assume that they don’t hold those views. It is their job to correct the person
who is discussing those who have the more common beliefs.
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