July 4 2023 Devotion

1 Peter 2

16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."

— Abraham Lincoln

We cannot serve two masters is how Christ taught us. As Christians, we live in two kingdoms, God's and our earthly kingdom. Most of us reading this are in the United States of America which is a land that ensures certain rights for its citizens.

Many people talk about battles in the Revolutionary War as "the shot heard 'round the world," but in my humble opinion, it was the ideas expressed by our leaders of that day that carried forward through present day that are the "shots heard 'round the world." Words matter, as do ideas that words center around.

However, we know as citizen's of God's kingdom, our work here is to bring people to Christ (Augustine), Scripture is silent on government in terms of rights and citizenship in this world, only acknowledging that governments are placed here by God to keep and maintain order (Paul). There is a scene in 1 Samuel 8 in which Samuel laments that Israel insists on an earthly king because, well, everyone else has one, and God tells Samuel to take heart, it's not his fault. God then tells Samuel exactly what we get when we ask for a king (government) which reads like Jefferson's quotes in the Declaration of all the "sins" the king in his day committed to justify this separation.

President Lincoln notes during one of the more stressful times in our nation's history of his hope in the restoration of liberty which attracts people to our nation. However, our hope is in Christ. Peter notes that we "fear God, honor the emperor." 

Think today of the liberties we enjoy and are entrusted with as a generation handing the next generation the rights and privileges we enjoy. Pray that God watch over us and keep us secure in those "freedoms" of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and pray that God help those who are of faith in lands that are openly hostile to that faith to the point of imprisonment and death. Pray that one day all the saints are together in God's kingdom in His presence. God is our ultimate sovereign and to Him be the glory.

Have a blessed 4^th of July.