So what do you do when your minister quits working? Do you believe he has failed God and the church? Do you replace him? Of course, ministers who don’t minister shouldn’t keep their jobs very long in a church. But what about when that minister is a government?
Did you know that Paul calls the government “a minister of God to you for good” (Romans 13:4). The word “minister,” is from the Greek for “servant” or one who “executes the commands of another.” So if our government has shut-down, has our minister quit ministering? And if so, how should Christians react?
Jefferson reasoned that after a long train of “abuses and usurpations” the people have a “duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” Yet, Romans 13:1-2 makes it clear that God established the government and that whoever rebels against it actually rebels against Him. So what is a Christian to do?
There is a clear distinction between open rebellion against God and working within the rights given by the laws of the land. In America, we have an amazing privilege – the right to vote. And I am guessing that many current leaders will suffer at the polls next election. But we would do well to remember that we will answer for every word we utter in this lifetime (MT 12:36). Many Christians are posting some really nasty things about their minister lately. I ask this: “Would you post the same comments if your minister at church stopped doing His God given work or would you handle it with a bit more dignity?”
Ministers who fail to minister will be judged for their actions – in this lifetime possibly, but certainly in the next. But I believe we would conduct ourselves with more dignity if it were our minister…and it is. So even if you have to “fire” a minister at the ballot box for failure to minister, let’s watch what we say about our minister in public. The world is watching how Christians react, even under duress.
