for all these are the instruments of the servant of God. With them he does the will of God and a service to the Church, the power of governing and of executing is the foundation of the wealth and self-sufficiency of the Church.
The apostles of the original Church of Christ were all bearing the weapons of executive and punitive authority on their necks, on their sides, and on their bodies,[458] they were bathed in blood and condemned to death by the instruments of the executioner for the name of Christ; and now these same instruments are for the protection of the Church, used for the shedding of the blood of those who resist the Church and who criticize her avariciousness and simony through the truth of the gospel of Christ!
CHAPTER 60
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
[ Let us go to the Scripture to see what is meant by the expression “servant of God.” It cannot be given the sole meaning that the Church of Rome attaches to it. In the Scripture we find the words: ]
You established the earth and it stood fast. By your ordinances they stand today, for all things are your servants.[459]
All things serve God which do His will… God wills it that birds should exist until the end of the world; and so a bird builds a nest, lays eggs and brings up little birds; in doing this it fulfills the will of God, and the bird is a “servant of God.” It is God’s will that men multiply by birth; therefore, when a woman bears the children of men, she does the will of God and is His servant… Good men and bad men do the will of God, some better, some worse… But how could that pagan, the Emperor of Rome, the unfaithful idolater, the murderer and persecutor of the apostles and many faithful Christians, be called a servant of God? [ They who live by faith are the true servants of God. He is the sovereign of the world, ruling over peoples and kings. ] The Scripture says:
Listen, therefore, kings, and understand. Pay attention, rulers of the people, who boast of multitudes of nations, for your dominion was given you from the Lord, and your sovereignty from the Most High. He will examine your works and inquire into your plans, for though you are servants of his kingdom, you have not judged rightly or kept the Law or followed the will of God.[460]
Many a king does not know the King of Heaven, but he still is like a plough in the hands of the ploughman; the plough does not know what the ploughman intends. [ The people of the earth are evil and would devour each other, did not the kings maintain some sort of order. ]
God uses (the rulers) as a plaster on an abscess, so that the evils will not spread. If this medicine does not help, He sends other kings in their stead, as He had done with the stiff-necked Jews…
