The issue then remains that we suscribe to a set of carnal beliefs, and say 'this is a good system, this is a bad system'. In this very doing, we eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, making ourselves judge over matters, rather than choosing life, Christ.
You are simply placing yourself in the moral high ground because you merely safe "Christ first!" in everything. Prentis, that's a wonderful attitude to have but you need not assume everyone else does not place God above everything else because they might see something different than you. It's not your job to declare that, because as I'm sure you'll admit you're making that accusation from a carnal nature to use your wordings.
Matthew 22:17-22
Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?Show me the coin for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?"They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
I don't know about others here, but I see that as clear reasonable command to fulfill your duties in the governmental system that happens to be over you. Pay your taxes to Caesar, be a model citizen and do the right thing
unless it attempts to trump God. Obviously is President Whomever declares I need to worship someone or something other than Jesus, then we have problems, but that's another story.
I Peter 2:13-17
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution,twhether it be to the emperort as supreme,or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servantst of God.Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
God grants us sight into his heart. We don't do good for the sake of glorifying the government. We do good within whatever system (and keep it mind this was quite the repressive system, they were conquered people afterall, who had been in rebellion!) for the sake of glorifying God Almighty! If people look at Christians and say "wow, they do the right thing when the time comes even though they may be treated this way, I want to know more about a God that instills that level of confidence!"
This is really one of the matters that the Bible is pretty crystal clear on. We surely don't worship the system. We surely don't attempt to place the state, leader, or whatever else anywhere near God, but the Bible, the Word of God, very clearly says be a good citizens, do your duties to honor God.
Just to close out on one more example, let's look at Nehemiah. Nehemiah not only petitioned the king for who he was cup-bearer, but he requested the necessary political tools to travel from Persia to Jerusalem. (Using the system of the day where a king's word meant everything.) When he gets to Jerusalem, he very politically gathers his data at night and devises a plan knowing that hostile peoples encompass him and that getting his own people to see beyond the mess will take an act of God, but he still prepares a plan and doesn't just ask God to make it happen overnight.
Nehemiah 4:15-20
When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah,who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me.And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, "The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us."
Nehemiah = man of God. When the people of Jerusalem who were rebuilding the wall were presented with a very real danger of military attack, Nehemiah firstly prayed to God for God's protection. It's one of my new favorite prayers in the Bible because Nehemiah just unloads. Imagine Nehemiah's prayer one Sunday morning - most people would probably throw the pastor out of the building...
I digress, though. God protects the land from the immediate attack just before this passage. However, Nehemiah provides a core function of the entire purpose of government (to provide for the common defense- DOI) here when he instructs them to arm and maintains a defensive watchful force. Good citizen....Good leader.
You nailed it right on, Buzzfruit! We don't get involved, this is not our home, and we promote another home. Very wise!
While I agree with Buzzfruit's analogy(which is why I am trying to stay patient and point out we ultimately agree more than we might realize), I do not agree with this statement on top of it. This statement is overused time and again to abscond ourselves from blame or simply to make it seem easier. Yes the Apostle Paul longed to be with Jesus (who shouldn't if you really understand the Savior and what he's promised to us!), but it was not in the sense of this world being a cosmic apartment-for-rent.
Just as I presented above, we teach, preach, proclaim, declare and whatever reasonable else we have to do about Jesus. We take care of what we have been given of God, political system included (while God did not say "Here's democracy, the absolute perfect government!" like some wanna contend, He did form you and place you in a time where he knew full-on what kind of government you'd be under). That means we should treat this world incredibly nicely for no other reason that our really awesome God who should be magnified through all of it!
