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What is the relationship between religious law and state laws?

The Bible teaches Christians to obey the “law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Since Jesus is the “King of kings and the Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16), we are to give our ultimate allegiance to Him.

Does this mean Christians can ignore or subvert the laws of the state? Not at all. Christ commanded his followers to obey the laws of the land. When asked about paying taxes, Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Matthew 22:21).

The apostle Paul echoed Jesus’ words when he wrote: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1).

Since God has sovereignly established human government, obeying the laws of the state is one way Christians obey the law of Christ.

The earliest Christians understood this. The Epistle of Diognetus, a document from the 2nd century, contains this description of Christians: “They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all.”

The only time Christians cannot submit to human authorities is when the laws of the state contravene God’s laws. So when Peter and John were commanded by government officials to stop talking about Jesus, they replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19-20). They respectfully refused to be silent, choosing to suffer the consequences for their allegiance to Christ.

Christians are to honour Jesus as our true King and view our eternal citizenship as in heaven (Philippians 3:20). However, we are still to be model citizens on earth.

These questions and answers originally appeared in the Ottawa Citizen's "Ask the Religion Expert" Special Report.

What is the relationship between religious law and state laws?...more

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