First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 1 Timothy 1.1, 2

Paul adds a fourth criterion of the good society: It is friendly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “This is good,” the Apostle observes, and therefore it is the duty of government, which is God’s servant for good, to ensure through public policy an environment in which the Gospel can flourish for the benefit of all.

Here we venture into the realm of freedom of religion, which our Constitution guarantees, at least for the present.

An environment hospitable to the Gospel does not just “happen.” Nor does it continue apart from continuous vigilance on the part of those who understand the true nature and importance of religious freedom. Indeed, as Paul indicates in Romans 1:18-32, the natural tendency of humankind, once God is rejected and replaced with idols of various kinds, is to drift further and further from the kind of moral environment which the Gospel finds hospitable to one in which the Gospel is regarded as an enemy of human “freedom.”

No one is going to come to our defense in working to maintain the religious liberty our Founders inscribed in the Bill of Rights. Christians must work to ensure that the government which serves them remains friendly, not just to “religion” in general or to some vague notion of “worship,” but to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the faith once for all transmitted to the believing community.

Scripture provides grounds and means for civil disobedience of any government which would hinder the preaching of the Gospel, and Christians must be neither ignorant of these nor reluctant to employ them when appropriate. God’s desire is for all to be saved. They will not all be saved, of course; but public policy must not be the reason for that. Government must not throw up a hindrance to anyone hearing the Good News.

T. M. Moore

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