Lesson 3, Part 1 (Notes follow the video for the hearing impaired.)

Titus 3:1 NLT

[1] Remind the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good.

            Titus Chapter 3 begins with an admonition to submit to government and its officers, with the additional statement to be obedient and to always do what is good.  The implied meaning could be to follow civil laws, which are supposed to punish evil and protect the population from those who do evil.  We mentioned this concept in the last video.

            There is something I would like to point out about having civil governments that is not mentioned much from spiritual leaders.  God demonstrated in the Old Testament that it was His desire to have people of faith be directly in communication with Him as their Lord.  That meant God would be their provider and protector, but it also meant He would set the standards for behavior in their daily lives.

            Prior to the crowning of King Saul during the time of the prophet Samuel, God had called individual leaders to guide His people.  He had brought to the forefront people like Noah, Moses, Joshua, the various judges and then the prophets.  God had brought these people to positions of authority and had spoken to people through them.  They were His spokesmen and women, but He had been the ultimate ruler of His people.

            When the people clamored for Samuel to appoint a king over them, Samuel complained to God, but God told him the people were rejecting God’s leadership, not Samuel’s.  Then God described what a king would do, what and how much a king would take from the people, and the ultimate price people would pay for having a king lead them, instead of God leading them.

            Unfortunately, the people wanted a human leader to fight battles for them.  The same tendency can be seen today in societies throughout the world.  And the governments are still taking the best from the people, just like God said they would do.  And human governments are still abusing their powers, just like God said they would.

            In spite of the fallacies of having human civil leaders, God still wants us to obey the laws established by them and to do good and not evil.  He has allowed the laws to exist, and, as long as the laws do not violate God’s spiritual principles, we should obey them and respect the offices filled by those in governmental authority.

            We’ll look at Titus 3:2 in the next video.