Unjust Law
Posted on Jun 19, 2018 by
I am truly troubled these days, and I feel I need to share my concerns. As I am sure you have read or seen on TV, the United States has embarked on a practice of separating children from their immigrant parents who are attempting to enter this country illegally. Now, before I go any further, I am fully aware that we have laws, that we need laws, and that we need to enforce our laws; after all, that is what St. Paul meant in Romans 13:1 when he said, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.” But to use this biblical passage to justify an act that is morally wrong and unjust as Jeff Sessions did recently is atrocious. It is a gross misunderstanding and misuse of scripture, and I am not only troubled that we have thousands of children being taken from their parents, but I am also greatly troubled that our government is using scripture to justify such a horrific practice.
I am in full agreement that God institutes government, but to assume all government law is right, just, or morally acceptable is not scriptural. In fact, the prophet Isaiah warned government leaders not to institute immoral laws when he said, “Ah, you who make iniquitous (immoral) decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey! What will you do on the day of punishment, in the calamity that will come from far away? To whom will you flee for help” (10:1-3). Yes, governments are to make laws, but if we want to be faithful to God, governments are to ensure that their laws are in line with God’s teachings and God’s ways, which means they are to be just. When St. Paul wrote to the Romans about following laws of the government, there is no doubt he was saying they were to follow laws that were acceptable to God’s statutes. After all, Paul was a Pharisee, which meant he knew God’s law, and he was a teacher of the law.
To use Romans 13 to justify such immoral actions takes this single passage completely out of context. Romans 13:1 comes in the midst of Paul’s teachings about love. Just before this verse, in Romans 12, St. Paul said, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2). Then, in 12:13, St. Paul adds a few words about what it might mean to practice the “will of God” when he said, “Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.” The Greek word here for hospitality is “philoxenian,” which literally means “to offer brotherly love to one far from home” (the stranger or the immigrant).
If we want to use scripture to justify our actions, then we need to understand the whole story, and here Paul has been teaching the community of followers that, as Christians, we must love, and that love must extend to everyone, even the stranger/immigrant. It is only then that Paul says we also should follow the laws of the land, but he is not saying we are called to follow laws that are unjust or immoral. In fact, Paul himself disobeyed many-a-law when he preached the gospel, which was against Roman law. As Christians, it is our duty to seek change to immoral or unjust laws.
My heart is breaking today as I think of children being taken from their parents because they are strangers in a strange land. I am heartbroken because the country I love is using God’s word to practice immoral and unjust laws, and so I must speak out, and I believe all Christians are called to speak out.
Do we need to reform our immigration laws? Absolutely! Should we have immigration laws and should we protect our borders? Absolutely! But we should never use immoral or unjust laws to achieve our goals. We are followers of Jesus Christ, and to allow such practices to continue denies the very command that Jesus taught was the greatest of all commands when he was asked, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:36-40).
I pray we might always seek to institute and practice just laws.
Shalom, Pr. Dave