Acts 5:27-29 “And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, (28) saying, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man's blood on us!" (29) But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men.”
As revealed in the above passage of scripture, there is a limit to the obedience that the saints are to walk in as far as governments are concerned, for we see from this passage that when a government dictates that saints should obey statutes that are contrary to God’s laws then the saints are to refuse to do so by obeying God rather than men. Obviously the refusal to obey a government’s laws that contradict God’s laws can have adverse and even severe consequences for the saints, ranging from reprimands, to fines being imposed, to imprisonment, and even martyrdom in some cases. In the above quoted passage of scripture we see the account of the Lord’s apostles refusing to obey the government’s order not to preach the gospel, because of which they were arrested and put in prison. If you read the rest of the account in scripture you will see that as a result of their civil disobedience they came close to being executed, but due to the intervention of the Lord and a Pharisee named Gamaliel, their punishment for disobeying the law was reduced to being physically beaten before being released from prison.
Michael E.B. Maher
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