Romans 13:3
"For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you."
The primary function of the governing system that God established on earth is to punish the wrongdoers. That's the reason that at the end of Romans chapter 12 Paul advised believers not to seek revenge for themselves, because the Lord will avenge on our behalf through the power of government, which is supposed to maintain order and promote justice in the society. Therefore, Paul told us that we do not need to be afraid of the authorities on earth is we do the right thing. Even if we are persecuted for our righteousness, we truly believe that God will ultimately save us. The will of God is for the church to be a lighthouse, but not a ivory tower.
God needs this generate to proactively witness for the Lord. We often say that God is love, but how to the non-believers feel God's love if they don't know where God is? The only way is for us to pay the price of sacrifice to love them. We often say that God is light and the light will shine into the darkness of the world, but how to the non-believers know that they are in darkness and that they need the light of God. It doesn't help if we just keep on preaching to them - the more we call them sinners, the less they will believe, unless they actually see the testimony of light from our lives. Testimony of light doesn't mean we need to have halos of the saints above our heads, but it means we must stay away from sin and do good.
Not only does the Bible refer to Jesus as the light of the world, Jesus also said that "you are the light of the world." So, the responsibility of being the light doesn't just rest with God; as long as we live in the world, we have the responsibility of using the light of the Lord to influence this age of darkness. The most basic thing is the bring faith into our daily life. Often we hear one thing in the church and do another in our daily life, and that's why we can't seem to influence people around us. God's word is not difficult to understand, but for some people the more they study the more confused they are. In fact, the Bible clearly told us what God wants us to do; we will only better understand God's word if we strive to follow it.
Bible studies are not supposed to be sharing of opinions or conference in theological studies; the real purpose of Bible studies is for us to find out what God wants us to do and to do what we've learned. May the Lord help us to proactively influence this world by the testimony of doing good deeds; if we are not proactively influencing the world, the world will proactively influence us.
Pray with Pastor Tong Liu
Dear Lord, please help us to become your glorious witnesses in our daily life. Let people around us see the testimonies of light and love from us so that they will be attracted to you because of our obedience. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!
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