In the world we live in today, it is common place to speak evil of the government and its leaders; especially if they are a member of the opposing party that you are a member of. In many circles it is common to take to the streets in protest of the government and its leaders. Many times, these protests lead to violence, looting, destruction of businesses, and of course murder. In fact, many groups encourage people through social media to do these despicable things. Many Christians support these actions, believing God has given them authority to do so. Well, thankfully this is easy to prove or disprove. As always, let's turn to God as our final authority.
Many of the protests we see today are because people hate our president. Now I am not here to show support for him or to say you have to like him. Of course you don't have to like the president or support him, however, God tells us how we should treat our leaders. (Exodus 22:28) Clearly states that we are not to curse him, but respect him. The Bible does not tell us we must vote for the man, but respect his authority as long as he is in office. There are no passages found saying anything different.
Ecclesiastes chapter 8 takes it even further. In verse 3, Solomon says that we should not take a stand against our rulers, even if it is against an evil thing! Christians are not to be in the streets protesting or committing violence! In America, we protest by going to the ballot box. As we have seen, the protests, both peaceful and violent, have done nothing to change things. In fact, it can be argued that it makes things much worse. We can see this in cities such as Portland and Los Angeles today.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus again emphasizes that we are to respect governing bodies. He says in (Matthew 22:17-21) to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". He never states that we should rise up in protest or fight against the ruling power. Why is that? Because God has the ultimate authority and we should put our trust in Him. Leaders will come and go, but He lasts forever. Lean on Him. Paul continues this thought in Romans 13:1-8 when he says we must submit to our government; that is to obey their laws to keep peace. We should be thankful that we live in a country where we have an opportunity to change our leaders every 4 years.
There are a few other verses in scripture that deal with civil authorities and governing bodies (1 Tim. 2:1-2; Titus 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:10-17), but they all agree we must obey our leaders and respect them. It is not Christian to take to the streets in protest, or even on social media to say horrible things or call him evil names. We need to act like Christians at all times. Maybe the best example to give is the apostle Paul. While he was falsely arrested and brought to trial, he was given the opportunity to defend himself. He was a Roman after all, which meant he should have been free to go. He could have railed against the Jewish leaders who were bringing these charges against him. Yet he took that moment instead to teach about Christ. This is the example that is set before us! Stay calm, because things will change eventually.
