In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
- Genesis 1:1
In the famous opening sentence of his Treatise on the Social Company, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, “Man is born free, but he is everywhere in change.”
While Rousseau’s social compact theory of government is not Christian, his observation that man is everywhere in chains certainly rings true. We can see this in the history recorded for us in the Bible as well as from secular sources. For that matter, we can see it simply reading the news of the day.
Jesus himself noted the authoritarian nature of civil government in his response to the disciples’ arguing about who among them was the greatest. Jesus responded to them,
The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves (Luke 22:25-26).
Note that the kings of the Gentiles do two things. First, they exercise lordship. The Greek verb translated “exercise lordship” can also mean “be the lord or master of.” Perhaps another way of expressing the meaning of the Greek is to use the English expression “lord it over.” We talk that way. We say so and so is lording it over someone. Certainly, that was true of the kings and emperors who governed during Jesus ministry. They lorded it over their people. What the kings of the earth wanted, they took, and there was little to stop them.
The second thing these kings did was be called “benefactor.” On one hand they oppressed their people, but on the other, they wanted to be known as men of generosity. A modern example of this is Joseph Stalin, who, while being one of the most ruthless of the 20th century dictators used the title “Dear Father” among others.
From Jesus response to his disciples, we clearly see that there is a large gap between the Biblical teaching about how government should operate – the idea that government is a servant to the people – and how it actually does operate.
But even more basic than the questions what should government do and how should it go about doing it is the question, why should one man obey another man?
To answer these questions, we must turn to the Scriptures where we find the origin of civil government.
Lux Lucet 