There’s a list of words that used to be so socially inappropriate that we’d just refer to them by the first letter, as in "Mommy, he said the D word, or the S word or the B word" etc. etc. It seems though, nowadays most of these words have become very common place. I was listening to a news item the other day. It was talking about how hard it was to get people to agree to certain laws that were changing. It seemed that the bottom line was the C word. It seems the C word has become the most hated word in American culture. Anytime that C word was mentioned or in part of legislation it was doomed to failure. That C word is of course “control” as in I have rights, you can’t tell me what to do, I’m not gonna stand for it, this is America, and so on and so on.
That brings up an interesting thought. We say God is in control, but are we willing to let God be in control? Are we willing to give up control? How much control do we want to maintain for ourselves? We tend to want to be independent in our thinking and in our actions, we don’t like being told what to do.
1 Peter 2:13-16 “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by Him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.”
But what if we don’t like what the authority says? What if we don’t want to do it, should we submit anyway or resist? I wonder if God would say, “If it doesn’t conflict with the 10 commandments that I told you, do it.” It may require a price or a cost we don’t want to pay, but could the cost ever be more than that which Christ paid?