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Subject To The Governing Authorities

             Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. (Romans 13:1)

            It’s Election Day! I’ve heard people talk about not voting because they’re disgusted with the way things are, but Scripture tells us to be subject to governing authorities. Usually, we think of these as people like kings, governors, and even police officers or teachers. But there is another form of authority: written.

We have Scripture. If you don’t think we should obey the principles God teaches through Scripture, that will be for you to discuss with Him. No doubt, we all have qualms with at least one thing we find in Scripture, but if we are to be subject to governing authorities, God and His Word certainly fit that description.

The other piece of the puzzle is that our government’s authority is based on laws, the foundation of which are the Constitutions of the United States of America, each state, county and municipality. This is not to say that all laws passed by humans are just and good. There are unjust laws against which we need to stand, but we can do so in a spirit of submission and cooperation with the system.

In our system of governance, we vote for those who will represent us to the government. We cannot obey Scripture by being subject to that unless we vote. This is not to say that there might not be some other reason that we might rightly choose not to vote, but in general, Scripture teaches us that we should cast a ballot.

The second piece of this is that being subject to authority by voting necessitates that we do something to be sufficiently informed about the matters on which we vote. I fall short on that one. 

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