authority, honors, and enrichment?”[396] And they call it a good thing! Therefore Jesus forbids his disciples all lordship with its pride and cruelty and compulsion… “Do you want to be like them? You do not know what you ask for. But not so with you; rather let the greatest among you become as the least.”[397]
Such pagan lordship does not befit the people of Jesus, which ought to stand together in an equality of a fellowship of love, and whose ruler is King Jesus. This has been confirmed by that faithful Jew of the Old Testament, Gideon. He, after winning a great victory over his pagan enemies, was asked by the liberated Jews to become their king. But he answered them saying, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my sons rule over you, since God the Lord rules over you.”[398] Behold the nobility of this honest man who realized … that God alone should be their king. [ All this proves that the exercise of authority is not becoming a Christian. ]
CHAPTER 36
THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)
The fifth objection against a good Christian’s participation in government is this: … He cannot be king even over evil men … that is, the Christians who have strayed from … the path of perfection. No matter how good the intention of a Christian ruler would be, [ the result would always be bad and the man himself would get involved in the snares of evil. ] A good king … must abide by a law that he orders … his people to obey. There exists no king who could rule without having some law… A good Christian who would intend to be a king over an evil people for the purpose of their improvement, could have no better law for this end than the divine law… [ In other words, this divine law would make human laws as well as his rule superfluous. ]
And what if he who purports to be a king for (the purpose of) betterment of evil people takes the Old Testament for his (law)? And it is a good law since God Himself gave it to His chosen people. The Jewish kings … led people to do good even by coercion. They were even allowed to war in accordance with this law… But a Christian cannot obey this law because Christ is the end of the Jewish law for the justification of the believers. (In this way we must understand) Saint Paul when he says,
If you receive circumcision according to law, Christ will be of no advantage to you. You are severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.[399]
… Being circumcised, that is, being bound by obedience to the Law, they could war, murder, steal and otherwise shed blood, all in accordance with the Law; but obeying this Law leads not to salvation in Christ. Thus, a true Christian desiring to be a king could not abide by the old Jewish Law in order to improve evil men. If he really desires to make his people better, he can do this according to the law of Christ … which means to love God and all neighbors…
