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God’s Word for You

Acts 18:12-16 Church and State

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, October 28, 2020

12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal. 13 They said, “This man is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.” 14 Just as Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some wrongdoing or serious crime, I would have a reason to listen to you. 15 But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law, see to the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” 16 Then he drove them out of the tribunal.

Gallio’s brother was famous enough that you may have heard of him: Seneca, the Roman statesman. Both of them and a younger brother had physical problems throughout their lives, and had weak constitutions. Until a limestone inscription was discovered in 1909, critics pointed out that no one but Luke ever calls Gallio a “proconsul.” But the inscription that was discovered not only calls Gallio by that title, but it also confirms the dates he served Corinth and Achaia: from May of 51 AD to May of 52 (the inscription says “the 12th tribunician year of Claudius,” and proconsuls served from May to May). Some older commentaries do not take the proconsulship dates into account, but this verified date becomes the main historically verifiable date in Paul’s ministry. We hang the dates in Paul’s life backward and forward from this fixed date in mind, like hanging pictures based on where we find a stud in a wall.

Paul must have arrived in Corinth in the fall of 51, and when Gallio arrived from Rome, late in May of 52, this incident took place. Since Paul was in Corinth a year and a half, he would have departed in the spring of 53, perhaps April or May.

The Jews attacked Paul as they had in other places: Thessalonica, Philippi, and so on. But the charge they brought before Gallio was only that Paul was worshiping God in a way not sanctioned by Jews. The Jews were a “legal religion” in the Roman Empire. The accusation was about Paul’s preaching: Christ as fulfillment rather than as a promise, and Christ keeping the law in our place and dying for the forgiveness of our sins. This is what Gallio meant when he said, “words and names and your own law.” Gallio had no jurisdiction over this, and he had no time for it. As one commentator said: “This Roman proconsul wants these Jews to understand that he knows what sort of people the Jews are. Claudius had to drive them out of Rome; Gallio had just come from Rome; and here in Corinth this whole crowd of Jews was invading his court immediately after he had assumed his office and trying to start trouble when everything else was to occupy his attention” (Lenski, Acts p. 757).

Having dismissed the case, the accusers should have left the court. The only reason for Gallio to “drive them out” was because they refused to go. So he had his bodyguard, the lictors, use their rods and sticks to attack the mob in order to maintain discipline in his own courtroom. Mobs who don’t know the law behave the same way. When they don’t get what they want, they insist that those who are in charge should ignore the law in order to make changes. But no one can do that. A governor, mayor, police chief, or whoever, can’t contravene the law in order to pacify a crowd. He would lose his office, and for what?

Gallio understood that the state must not interfere with the workings of the church. The church should also not interfere with the workings of the state. The tools that church and state use to carry out their missions are separate and distinct. We do not harvest fish with a sickle, and we do not harvest corn with a fishing pole. The means that the church uses to carry out her mission are the Word of God and the sacraments (Matthew 28:19-20). People are converted by the message of the gospel, not by being compelled to look or act as if they are Christians. Conversion is not a task for a shoehorn. In the same way, the government’s task of governing is done with civil law, which includes punishments and rewards. A wise government might also use reason and education to instruct its people in civil obedience and may also appeal to conscience since the conscience is the inner voice that applies a natural knowledge of God and of the law.

We obey the government as an authority established by God (Romans 13:1-7). That doesn’t mean that the government is always a godly institution, nor does it mean that it will be staffed by Christians. But it exists for our good, and so we give our government, no matter who governs, those things that we owe to our government: taxes, revenue, respect, and honor (Romans 13:7). When the secular government permits us to sin under its laws, we will, as Christians, refrain, even though others might choose to sin. When the secular government commands us to sin, we will not, for we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). But when the government permits the work of the church to move forward, and for the church even to benefit from the laws and rewards of the state, we may accept these things when they do not bind us to any conditions or to forsake the gospel. But we are also free not to accept such rewards out of a sense of caution or conscience, or because such benefits are not necessary.

Thank God for his blessings through both church and state. Ponder those blessings, and consider how blessed we are to live in a nation so unlike other nations over the long course of the history of the world. We are permitted to have a say in who governs, and how, and for how long. We are permitted to say in one election, I will vote this way, and in another election, I will vote that way. God does not command how we vote, or whether we vote. But God blesses us through both his institutions, the church and the state.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

Pastor Tim Smith
About Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.

 

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