Calvin: the limitations to civil obedience

Friday, May 27, 2016
    Commemoration of John Calvin, renewer of the Church, 1564
Meditation:
    But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”
    —Acts 5:29 (ESV)
Quotation:
    In that obedience which we have shown to be due the authority of rulers, we are always to make this exception, indeed, to observe it as primary, that such obedience is never to lead us away from obedience to him, to whose decrees all their commands ought to yield, to whose majesty their scepters ought to be submitted. And how absurd would it be that in satisfying men you should incur the displeasure of him for whose sake you obey men themselves! The Lord, therefore, is the King of Kings, who, when he has opened his sacred mouth, must alone be heard, before all and above all men; next to him we are subject to those men who are in authority over us, but only in him. If they command anything against him, let it go unesteemed.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, IV.xx.32, p. 662 (see the book)
    See also Acts 5:29; Mark 7:7-9; Acts 4:19; Rom. 13:1-7; Tit. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:13-17; Rev. 7:9-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we follow You in submission. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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