"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's."
Mark 12:17
In the last two years, as governments around the world responded in various ways to COVID-19, the church in North America has had to wrestle with their response to mandates and restrictions, especially as they impact the gathering of local believers.
In many cases, church leaders went straight to passages like Romans 13:1 and 1 Peter 2:13, and they submitted to the restrictions put in place by the government, closing churches and moving to online services. And we did the same. At that time, we knew little, if anything, about this virus, other than rumours of high mortalities. Besides, we were told it would be "two weeks to flatten the curve".
But weeks, and months, went by. "Zoom services" were clearly a poor substitute for in-person gatherings. I and my co-pastors wrestled with several questions:
- Is virtual communion actually a valid ordinance when the description in Scripture details a physical gathering together to remember the Lord in His death?
- How do we perform a baptism? How long do we hold off on obedience to the Spirit?
- How do we "stir one another up to good works" if we're not actually with one another?
- How do we, as pastors, shepherd a flock we’re not in contact with?
- How do we carry out discipleship?
And it became rapidly clear that our people were suffering: the isolation, the loneliness, and the resulting depression, without the weekly gathering to worship, in prayer and in song, was taking a significant toll. We soon realized that our people -- not to mention we ourselves -- needed to gather; the writer to the Hebrews instructed the saints to "not forsake the gathering of yourselves together" (Heb. 10:25) and immediately followed that instruction with a serious warning regarding apostasy, a significant risk associated with not gathering in corporate fashion.
In addition, there were more and more indicators that the virus was not quite as terrifying as we first anticipated. That is not to say it wasn't serious, but it wasn't Ebola. As time went on, it became clear that the suffering to our congregation resulting from not gathering was at least equal to, if not greater than, the risk posed by the virus. And it was also clear that the Church could not be the Church, with all of its blessings and responsibilities, without physically gathering (Heb. 10:25). Those blessings and responsibilities include: encouraging one another through corporate singing (Eph. 5:19-21), teaching and admonishing one another through the preaching of God’s Word (Col. 3:16), stirring one another up to love and good works (Heb. 10:24), fellowshipping with one another corporately (Acts 6:6, Gal. 2:9, 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Thess. 5:26) and serving one another (1 Peter 4:10). Anything else would be less than God intended.
Other church leaders had determined the same ... and had opened their doors, resulting in fines and, in some cases, even imprisonment, something we NEVER anticipated here in Canada. Tragically, what proved to be most heart-breaking was the disparaging comments and criticisms against those courageous church leaders by their own brothers and sisters in Christ in other churches. Here's a quote from social media:
"It has been disappointing to hear of churches encouraging their congregations to disobey our government. So today we were so glad that {our church} encouraged us to be Romans 13 Christians. In case you don’t know what that is, Romans 13-1 says “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.” In Canada we are very blessed to have our government working hard to give us protection from COVID-19 in the midst of a world-wide pandemic and I for one thank God for them."
Most often, what was brought up as justification was Romans 13, specifically verses 1-4:
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer."
But does Romans 13 actually teach that we, as followers of Jesus, should do everything the government instructs us to? Almost immediately, all believers would respond with "Of course not! When the government instruction would cause us to sin against God, we need to obey God, just as in Acts 5:29, when Peter said "We must obey God rather than men." But we're in a pandemic; the lockdowns and capacity restrictions are not requiring us to sin."
And this is where we are going to differ. There is a precedent in Scripture to disobey the authorities when they ask us to do what God has commanded us not to do (ie. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3). There is also a precedent in Scripture to disobey the authorities when they ask us not to do what God has commanded us to do (ie. Peter and the apostles in Acts 5:27-42). Whenever we don't obey a direct instruction from Scripture, we are sinning. So when we don't gather together (because of government mandates), when we don't stir one another up to good works, are we not disobeying what Scripture commands? When we don't sing in church (because the restrictions say we can't), when we don't address one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, are we not following the dictates of men rather than the commands of God?
More importantly, does the government have the authority to dictate how worship and all other practices of the church should be carried out?
Scripture teaches that God is sovereign over all and, in Matthew 28:18, we read that the Father has given all authority to the Son, because the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, is the "kingdom of His beloved Son" (Col. 1:13). That kingdom is not simply a future, heavenly kingdom; it is a kingdom that is already present here on earth. In fact, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, in Matthew 6:10 "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."
Scripture also teaches us that God has established three key institutions on earth: the family, the government and the church. To each of those He has delegated authority; the authority is still His by right, but He has delegated His authority to leaders within those institutions, to be used in the ways, and within the bounds, that He has defined. Within the family, the husband has been given authority, within the government, the rulers have been given authority and within the church, the elders have been given authority. The husband's authority does not extend to the government or to the church, the elders' authority does not extend to the government or to the family, and the rulers' authority does not extend to the family or to the church. As a result, the government does not have any Scriptural authority to direct the affairs of the church, whether it is to restrict those who gather, or to determine how worship will be carried out. It may be that the elders of a church make decisions that coincide with decisions made by the government, but this in no way implies that the government has the authority to make those decisions on behalf of the elders.
According to passages such as Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, the government's authority extends to the following:
- punishing evildoers
- rewarding those who do good
- protecting the freedoms of the people from those who do evil
When a government is acting within its sphere of authority, we have a Scriptural imperative to submit ourselves to them. But when the government asks us to do what God has commanded us not to, or to stop doing what God has commanded us to do, we must obey God rather than man. This will involve a level of civil disobedience. {Please note: I am by no means advocating violence or anarchy. We are still instructed in Scripture to respect the authorities; this means that we will likely suffer consequences for our obedience to God, like fines, arrest or even imprisonment. If and when it happens, we ought to respond respectfully and not with hatred or violence, just as Paul did in Acts 23.}
Sadly, judging by the responses of many Canadian believers and their church leaders (and I suspect the same is true of many American believers), there is a great lack of accurate teaching on ecclesiology and church authority. I pray that Christians across North America, especially Christian pastors, would study to regain a robust view of the importance of the church, of the value and significance of gathering corporately to worship God, to be taught from His Word, and to encourage one another; virtual platforms should never take the place of this corporate gathering as a regular practice. It took time for my understanding in this area to shift.
Originally, when we were virtual, we decided not to practice communion, until such time as we could do so as an entire local body of believers. As time went on, we recognized the importance of, and need for, that ordinance and began celebrating communion in small house churches; while we firmly believed that it was intended to be practiced corporately, in person and together with as many of the local body as would gather on a Sunday, we also realized the deep longing for that remembrance feast among ourselves and our people, and we acted and obeyed according to the circumstances and the best of our understanding. In this area of church authority and sphere sovereignty, my understanding has also changed, and I recognize that I am not omniscient; I may learn something new that would enlarge or even change my understanding again. But here is where I have landed presently, with prayer and study, and here is where I stand until God shows me otherwise.
I pray that pastors and elders worldwide would revisit the passages in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 (and others), as I did, and recapture an accurate understanding of the authority that Jesus has delegated to them within their churches. And I pray that they would have humble hearts, ready and willing to learn and perhaps be corrected, that we would return to a bold and confident ecclesiology, rather than a passive one. The challenges by the enemy and the world are not done; the form in which they come may be different, but the call to surrender our church authority will be the same. We need to be prepared.
And above all, may we stand before our Master in that future day and hear Him declare "Well done, good and faithful servant!"
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