Chapter 2
What Governments Should
and Should Not Do
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
— Isaiah 9:6-7 (NKJV)
So Samuel told all the words of the LORD
to the people who asked him for a king.
And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king
who will reign over you:
He will take your sons and appoint them
for his own chariots and to
be his horsemen,
and some will run before his chariots.
He will appoint captains over his thousands
and captains over his fifties,
will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest,
and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for
his chariots.
He will take your daughters to
be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.
And he will take the best of your fields,
your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants.
He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage,
and give it to his officers and servants.
And he will take your male servants, your female servants,
your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work.
He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants.
And you will cry out in that day because of your king
whom you have chosen for yourselves,
and the LORD will not hear you in that day.”
Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel;
and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us,
that we also may be like all the nations,
and that our king may judge us
and go out before us and fight our battles.”
And Samuel heard all the words
of the people,
and he repeated them in the hearing of the LORD.
So the LORD said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.”
— 1 Samuel 8:10-22
(NKJV)
Therefore submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,
whether to the king as supreme, or to governors,
as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers
and for the praise of those who do good.
— 1 Peter 2:13-14 (NKJV)
As 1 Peter 2:13-14 tells us, Christians are to submit to
man-made laws as well as to those who enforce them. God has placed government
leaders above us for His purposes, and our job is to obey them. In some cases,
these leaders are Christians. In other cases, the leaders aren’t Christians but
the Lord intends for them to serve His purposes anyway. As an example, consider
that providing or receiving a government service (or being affected positively
or negatively by government) can help guide an unsaved person onto a path to
gain Salvation and then to become more fruitful for the Lord.
Before describing what
governments should and should not do for fostering more fruitfulness for the
Lord, let’s consider some worldly influences on governments. Such influences
represent potential sources of stalls (bad thinking habits) as well as
breakthrough solutions for Godly purposes and actions that help increase
fruitfulness.
Although most people are inclined
to emphasize the accomplishments of the leaders they approve of, the reality is
that few government leaders have much time and expertise to apply to anything
other than acquiring and exercising power. If you don’t believe that
observation, consider how much money an American politician has to attract
simply to run for national or statewide offices. Once elected, many leaders
report spending most of their days on fund-raising to pay for the next
campaign.
In addition, few elected
positions have term limits, and incumbents for positions where seniority
provides advantages for constituents are almost always reelected. As a result
of being secure in office just as long as they spend a fortune on each
campaign, elected officials don’t feel much pressure to create better results
of any sort. That’s how it works for a republican or a democratic form of
government. In countries with unelected governments, gaining and holding power
can easily become all-consuming activities. The 2011 revolts in the Middle East
and North Africa have undoubtedly made such
leaders even more insecure and focused on retaining their power.
Elected government leaders in
most countries are more likely to be trained as lawyers than to come from any
other educational and work background. While such a background can be useful for
drafting laws, the legal perspective alone often doesn’t provide much insight
into how to make a nation more fruitful for God. I feel entitled to make that
observation as someone who was trained as a lawyer and who knows many lawyers
well who have held and now hold elected positions.
Let’s look at motivation as well.
Why would a governmental leader have any interest in making a nation more
fruitful? The most common answer is simple: when such fruitfulness helps the
government leaders to acquire and to exercise more power for accomplishing
whatever led them to seek office.
Of course, some governmental
leaders are guided by a heartfelt desire as followers of Jesus to serve God and
His people. Those leaders may well be attracted to creating lots of increased
fruitfulness, knowing that many unsaved people would be helped as well. I pray
that there will be more such leaders.
What can elected governmental
leaders hope to accomplish while in office? People who want to be governmental
leaders and those who are relatively new in office usually make promises that
they will deliver more for the electorate. In reality, whether citizens’
circumstances improve is mostly affected in the near term by the overall
economic environment and the general long-term trend to slightly higher
productivity. As a result, there is a likelihood of economic and social
improvements occurring regardless of who the political leaders are. But over
periods of two to six years, the long-term improvement trend can be reversed so
that citizens’ circumstances worsen or stay stagnant.
After such a stagnant or
retrograde period, the rate of economic improvement is going to be strong and
most political leaders know that. Therefore, they will often take a
wait-and-see attitude toward change at such times. However, there are two
circumstances under which it may be easier to interest governmental leaders in
focusing more on encouraging fruitfulness:
• at the end of a long period of
economic improvements (because the expectation is that a decline in circumstances
will follow)
• after a stagnant or retrograde
period in economic growth if the expected rebound doesn’t occur on schedule
This perspective summarizes the
outlook for gaining broad political attention for supporting growth in
fruitfulness in most economically advanced countries.
In lesser developed countries,
government leaders sometimes realize that by focusing citizens on the right
tasks, a lot of the economic and social gaps between their country and the most
economically advanced nations can be reduced or, in some cases, eliminated.
With such a focus, the potential benefits from working on greater fruitfulness
can be extraordinary for citizens and their leaders.
In addition, some lesser
developed countries have been wracked for many decades by wars, disease,
famine, low prices for their exports, weak currencies that raise the cost of
imports, corruption, excess debt, scarce capital, high interest rates compared
to inflation, poor education, few public services, limited infrastructures, and
other severe problems. Everyone knows that these nations are performing
economically and socially at artificially low levels compared to what most
other countries accomplish with comparable resources and knowledge.
Some government leaders in such
unusually depressed circumstances see the opportunity to gain a revered place
in their society and in history. And some of those leaders are Christians. I
believe that it is with these government leaders that the most substantial
opportunities can be found for encouraging national fruitfulness. In this
chapter, I focus many of my comments on what can be done with such leaders in
mind.
In focusing on this group of
leaders, I don’t mean to suggest that other governmental leaders won’t be
interested in encouraging fruitfulness. In addition, I don’t believe that the
largest possibilities for improvements are in the depressed, lesser-developed
countries with the most legacy- and reputation-oriented leaders. The biggest
untapped potential to accomplish more fruitfulness will be found elsewhere
simply because improving from a base of more resources and capabilities expands
total benefits much faster than building on low performance.
Let me be clear about my purpose.
I’m looking for this book to help most where leaders are interested in
encouraging fruitfulness and opportunities are substantial.
In more developed countries,
governments will be among the least flexible and interested institutions when
it comes to identifying, creating, and expanding greater fruitfulness. In lesser-developed
countries, government leaders will often be anxious to do whatever it takes to
accomplish more because it’s easier to believe that opportunities exist, and
the wide evidence of suffering can move leaders to feel more desire to act.
One exception to there being less
interest in encouraging fruitfulness in economically developed countries can
occur where the career bureaucracies are filled with highly capable staffs that
have power to issue rules that can strongly affect citizens’ behaviors. Another
exception may come in economically advanced Christian countries where the
lessons of becoming more fruitful in serving God are well understood, but there
is a long tradition of not taking government actions that might appear to favor
one type of faith over others.
What should governments help
accomplish? Let me start by listing some activities where governments can
potentially change what they do in ways that will encourage more fruitfulness:
• Eliminate any legal and
regulatory limitations on what Christians and their churches and organizations
can do in serving God to carry out what the Bible calls believers to do.
• Measure how government actions
and inactions are influencing the fruitfulness of churches, Christian
ministries, Christian and secular nonprofit organizations, schools,
universities, voluntary associations of children, foundations, social
enterprises, local and state governments, for-profit enterprises,
problem-solving professionals, the employed, the unemployed, those who wish to
go into business for themselves, residents who aren’t citizens, and visitors.
• If no credible organization or
individual takes on the task of measuring the nation’s fruitfulness for God,
some part of the government should sponsor or conduct the surveys that were
described in Chapter 1 and publish the results to encourage more and more
effective action by citizens, residents, and visitors.
• Based on what the measurements
of government influence on fruitfulness reveal, propose changes in rules,
resources, and encouragement that will make government less of a barrier and
more of a help in allowing citizens, foreigners, and their organizations to
accomplish more for God.
• Review the effectiveness of any
governmental changes in encouraging more Godly fruitfulness so that helpful
adjustments can be made to such governmental changes.
What should governments not do?
• Establish or attempt to
establish Christian theocracies.
• Put legal or regulatory limits
on sharing or peacefully practicing any faith.
• Turn Christianity or any other
faith into the “official” religion of a country.
• Encourage or permit
discrimination based on a person’s faith.
Think of what I am describing as
establishing a more spiritually neutral form of government. In doing so, I
don’t mean to suggest that government should exclude or ignore spiritual
questions and considerations. In fact, government should seek greater
consideration of the spiritual implications for all of its decisions and
actions. Let me provide an example. While governments look at many economic
factors, costs, and potential benefits in licensing new gambling outlets,
seldom is the effect on spiritual fruitfulness considered. With more knowledge
of how God’s purposes might be affected from looking at the evidence of fruitfulness
effects in similar situations, governments would undoubtedly choose to make
some licensing decisions differently. Governments in too many cases have become
spiritually negative forces by denying any purpose to considering effects other
than man-made economic ones. A spiritual decline is bound to follow such an
approach. Economic considerations have been turned in many cases into something
like idols that are served, regardless of any other considerations. Even from a
financial point of view, that’s a major mistake because God’s blessings will
greatly exceed any man-made benefits.
Being more spiritually neutral
also doesn’t mean letting fruitfulness sink into obscurity because people don’t
investigate it. If a nation finds that its people are spiritually ignorant,
governments may well have roles in encouraging greater spiritual understanding
while not favoring any particular faith. Saved people, in such a circumstance,
have nothing to fear from any neutral encouragement to such knowledge seeking
because the Holy Spirit will help lead people to Salvation and to greater
fruitfulness.
Many people want a bigger role
for government. Other people seek a smaller role. Both points of view are a
little off target. The goal is for God to have a bigger role in directing
government to serve His purposes. When God’s role is large enough, governments
will always be just the right size. In many cases, that size will be a lot
smaller because receiving His blessings and having fewer problems will reduce a
lot of needs that governments serve now.
While I could certainly write a
lot of details here about how governments should operate to make such shifts in
their roles, I can think of many good reasons not to do so. Let me simply
observe that more beneficial adjustments by governments to favor Godly
fruitfulness will occur simply by electing and selecting government leaders who
are champions of being fruitful in their personal lives and work than by
anything else I can describe. Currently, many candidates for elected offices
are not even asked about whether they have obtained Salvation and their Godly
fruitfulness. Such information should be a required part of any candidate’s
public filings. Could it be that candidates don’t disclose such information in
some cases because they aren’t saved and aren’t fruitful for God? I fear that
some of such candidates then may be motivated in running for office more by
personal desire for power and recognition than by serving God. How sad for them
and for us when that occurs. I’m sure God isn’t smiling, either.
If you are wondering why there
isn’t a bigger role for governments defined here for increasing fruitfulness,
it’s because God hasn’t called for governments to do very much in this regard
except in cases where He wants some nations to deliver His messages to other
nations. Such callings come only occasionally, on a case-by-case basis.
Governments should be aware that such callings could be placed on them from
time to time and be prepared to act on them.
Governments are not alone in affecting
a nation’s fruitfulness. In the following chapters, we shift our focus to those
institutions, organizations, and individuals that can increase or decrease
fruitfulness. We begin this examination by considering what churches should
concentrate on in Chapter 3.
Copyright
© 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Donald W. Mitchell.
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Scripture
quotations marked (NKJV)
are taken
from the New King James Version.
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© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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