Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/569

180* (:What Paul actually means is this: let the Christians be subject to temporal authorities in externals; but let them remember that the true authority is only the authority of God. Only under that authority can they fully live the Beatitudes. And the Scripture says about those powers that contradict the authority of God:) The mighty will be mightily tested.

(:In Paul's days there were no Christian authorities but only pagan authorities. And these authorities were sanctioned by the God of the Old Testament.:)

Were it not so, Paul could not have exhorted the faithful Christians of Rome to obey Emperor Nero the pagan, saying, "There is no authority except from God." (:But this authority of the pagans cannot make them better men. It is only by accepting the faith in Jesus Christ that they are given the power to become sons of God, and to be better than the pagans. Then the pagan power becomes irrelevant.:) But in reality we do not see that the Christians excel over pagans with their goodness; rather, they excel the pagans in iniquities. Outwardly, with their lips, they confess Jesus Christ, but inwardly they hate faith Instead of faith they have thin water in which they dip the name of Jesus They get away from him as if he were a  Wisdom of Solomon, 6:6.