day no. 17,496: parasite princes and suffering servants

"He (i.e. God) has no other way to let the differences appear to men's eyes between His servants and parasite princes, than only by persecution." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

A Christian prince would not dare betray his God by betraying His people. Parasite princes, however, reveal their true nature in oppressing the very ones they have been elected to represent. Persecution reveals which uniforms the sides are wearing.

Philippians 1:28-29

And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

Do not shrink back from suffering, but instead, lean into it when and if it comes in order to prove who you are and to reveal who your persecutors are in the process.

"If he that is persecuted, feels in his conscience, that he may do God greater service and glorify by suffering than by fleeing, he ought rather to suffer a thousand deaths, that to flee one foot. But if his conscience witnesses with him that he may do God greater glory by fleeing that by tarrying, but is bound by the commandment to depart. 'If they persecute you in one city,' says Christ, 'flee to another.' And he did not only teach it, but did it himself, forsaking Jewry, and going into Galilee, when he heard John the Baptist was laid by the heels, because the time was not yet come, wherein he was appointed to glorify God." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

There is glory in going down with the ship if that is the post God has called you to keep and there is no shame in living to fight another day if God has given you leave and called you to regroup in order to jump back into the fray another day. We can defend the city or we can flee the city to try to save the country and ultimately the city at a later date, but we cannot merely operate out of self-preservation for the one who seeks to save his life will lose it.

"Seeing that God wills princes commandments should not be obeyed in all things, but will have His rather suffer a thousand deaths, than do anything that is evil: and since also many evils and mischiefs may follow in this life, where wicked princes will may stand for laws, men ought, both for God's sake and commandment, abstain to obey such commandments, and cleave unto this maxim: We must obey God rather than man, for whose sake if we lose both goods and life, we ought to rejoice, that we be called to serve him, and not doubt, but as He is able to recompense it, so will He (according to His promise) reward it." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

Disobeying tyrannical orders honors God and loves our neighbor. We do not love God or our neighbor by complying with ungodly demands are wicked restrictions. We must not be hellbent on doing what we want, but we must not be bent over by whatever our overlords dictate. We must be willing to obey things we don't like and we must not disobey things simply because we do not like them. If our first allegiance is to God then we will do what we can to obey the state where and when we can, but we will also remember that the state is God's servant, not our god.

day no. 17,495: minor keys and major bummers

"If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals." — G.K. Chesterton, On Lying In Bed

The only thing worse than minoring on the majors is majoring on the minors. To elevate a secondary thing is idolatry, but to reduce a primary thing is blasphemy. 

You must give primary focus to foundational things. If you neglect them, the whole house falls down. Throw pillows cannot hold a house up, but being overly interested in them can cause a house to fall down.

day no. 17,494: look away to see what's right in front of you

"A call to look away from your heart is not a call to ignore your own condition, it is the only healthy way for you to ascertain your condition... Look to yourself, and you will be sucked into a black hole that only the grace of God can free you from."  — Douglas Wilson, So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ

You cannot perform your own eye surgery. If something is wrong enough with your eyes that they require incision to remedy, you are not seeing well enough to see that.  Or if you can tell that something is wrong from first hand experience,  you no longer have the ability to see the source (or the potential remedy).

The same can be said about heart surgery. You cannot be both the surgeon and the patient. If you need a new heart, you cannot be the one to perform the procedure.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The same is true of our spiritual eyes and hearts. We cannot identify our vision problems because our eyes have logs in them. We cannot renew ourselves because we cannot die and resurrect ourselves. We could rip our old heart out, but even then, we likely could not finish the job before succumbing to the violence of the procedure. 

All that to say, if we are going to see or be saved, we need outside assistance.

James 1:25

Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

We cannot look inside, we must look outside. We must not look to our own conscience, we must look to the perfect Law of God. That mirror will give us a glimpse of how bad it is and the ability to be made new. Without God, we do not see and without Him we die from heart disease.

day no. 17,493: governors and the governed

"His word is so plain that none can contradict that they are to be subject and obedient to God's laws and word. For the whole Decalogue and every part thereof is written as well to kings, princes, and other public persons, as it is to private persons. A king may no more commit idolatry than a private man: he may not take the name of God in vain, he may not break the Sabbath, no more than any private man. It is not lawful for him to disobey his parents, to kill any person contrary to God's laws, to be a whoremonger, to steal, to lie and bear false witness, to desire and covet any man's house, wife, servant, maid, ox, ass, or anything that belongs to another, more than any other private man. No, he is bound and charged under great pains to keep them more than any other, because he is both a private man in respect of his own person, and a public figure in respect to his office" — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

The world is not divided into governors and the governed as though those who govern were excluded from the category of created beings. Governors are not above the law they are elected to enforce. They may be sovereign over a certain jurisdiction, but they are also subjects. Christ is King of kings and any command of His is as fit for a lesser magistrate as much as it for a milkmaid. Both are subject to Him and to His law. Both have responsibilities and obligations that must be carried out according to His Word.

Romans 13:1

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

No earthly authority is absolute, which is to say that all earthly authority is borrowed from its Author. There are those invested with real authority here on earth as His deputies, but none are so authoritative as to bring any new rights into existence. All authority here is derivative. It depends on the Author. It cannot usurp its Author, but it can oppress other image bearers by usurping their ability to defend themselves or by taking advantage of their dependence upon them to wield their swords well.

"So then if by this word, soul, is meant every spiritual and temporal person, man and woman: and by this word, power, the authority that kings and princes execute, then can not kings and princes be contained under this general word, soul, as well as others? And they being but executors of God's law, and men's just ordinances, not be exempt from them, but are bound to be subject and obedient unto them. For good and just laws of man are God's power and ordinances, and they are but ministers of the laws, and not the law itself." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

No soul is exempt from God's Law. There is no diplomatic immunity here on earth or in Heaven. If God cast the rebellious angels out of Heaven and stripped them of their former ranks, how much more so will He cast out rebellious image bearers from the face of the earth?

"The good emperor Triananus (who for his just behavior, the Senate of Rome took to be a god) being in possession of his office, and minding to show that he was not ordained to be a tyrant, but to see the people well governed, and that, albeit he was the minister of the laws, yet he was subject to the laws, took a sword, and gave it to the captain of the horsemen, and said: 'Take this sword, use it for me against my enemies in just causes: and if I myself do not justly use it, then use it against me.'" — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

A good king gladly subjects himself to the weight of the law. He maintains his office by enforcing the law, executing justice, and promoting the good all according to the strict standard of God's laws.

"Zaleuchus the ruler and maker of laws to the Locres, when he made this law, that an adulterer should be punished with the loss of both his eyes, and his son had committed this offense, although the people made great intercession, that his punishment may be pardoned, he would not consent to it, by pulling our one of his sons eyes, to fulfill and keep the law, he suffered one of his own eyes to be pulled out as well." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

A just ruler recognizes he righteousness of God's law regardless of who is involved. The weight of the law is no less heavy on those elected to enforce it, if anything, it should weigh even heavier upon them.

"It is requisite and just that a prince obey his own laws. For then he may look to see that others keep his laws, when he himself honors them. Justice wills that princes be obedient and bound to their own laws, and that they can not in the own doings condemn those laws which they prescribe to others. The authority of their saying is just and indifferent, if they suffer not to do what they prohibit unto their people." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

No one below is above the law. The law goes before us all and will be all of our judge in the end. Praise God that in Christ we, who are lawless, are considered righteous and our trespasses are not counted against us. May God give us masters who understand that they are slaves and elected officials who understand that they are servants. Amen.

day no. 17,492: the civil must war or civilization will be defeated

"He is a good citizen that does not do evil (so said a noble wise man) but he is better who does not allow others to hurt or do injustice to the innocent. For the blood of the innocent shall be demanded not only from those that shed blood, but also of those that make or consent to wicked laws, to condemn the innocent, or suffer their head to kill them contrary to just laws, or to spoil then of what they justly enjoy be the order of law." — John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power

A good citizen does not do evil to his neighbor, but a better citizen is one who does not allow other to do evil to his neighbor. God is a God of order, not chaos. Good order is a by-product of following God's good laws and submitting to His good rule. Those who love the Law seek to keep it and to protect others from those who seek to break it.

"A civilization is not destroyed by wicked men; it is destroyed by weak men who cannot defend what is good.” — G. K. Chesterton

Civilization is not maintained by those who merely seek to avoid evil, it is sustained by those who seek to keep others from carrying out their wicked designs. 

“Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.” — G.K. Chesterton

When we become too content with staying out of trouble we allow troublers to corrupt our cousins. It is not enough to merely keep yourself from corrupting others, it is a matter of keeping the corrupted from carrying out their schemes and confronting them in the midst of their corruption.

“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.” — Thomas Sowell

Civilization requires confrontation. Evil does not forget its ancient enmity, even when good grows content to forget. Barbarism must be battled. Force must be applied because it lacks the self-control to stop itself. If good men will not step up to stop it, bad men will step all over them.

day no. 17,491: nuptial nations

"Instead of the old social distinction between those who are married and those who are unmarried, there will be a distinction between those who are married and those who are really married. Society might even become divided into two societies; which is perilously approximate to Disraeli’s famous exaggeration about England divided into two nations. But whether England be actually so divided or not, this note of the two nations is the real note of warning in the matter. It is in this connection, perhaps, that we have to consider most gravely and doubtfully the future of our own country. Anarchy cannot last, but anarchic communities cannot last either. Mere lawlessness cannot live, but it can destroy life. The nations of the earth always return to sanity and solidarity; but the nations which return to it first are the nations which survive." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

No fault divorce has produced no reason marriages, but not every marriage is for no reason and not every married couple would get divorced without a Biblical cause or fault. So, in this sense, we do have two tier marriage. We have those who are married according to vows made before God and men and we have those who are married according to the whims of the State and the state of their current mood. But this produces two societies. One in which men and women keep their promises and one in which they don't. The blessing of God to the faithful is the curse of God on the faithless. That which cannot go on forever, won't. Insanity is not a long term strategy. Anarchy is unsustainable. And so, the fruitless and faithless will cut themselves off from the future. The tragedy is the destruction they cause on their way down. Like a drowning victim, they are dangerous and likely to take some down with them, but they refuse to be saved by those with a foot on solid ground. That is intolerable. It is a lack of empathy and they refuse to receive a helping hand from those who claim to have the high ground.

day no. 17,490: no fault divorce and no reason marriage

"The obvious effect of frivolous divorce will be frivolous marriage. If people can be separated for no reason they will feel it all the easier to be united for no reason. A man might quite clearly foresee that a sensual infatuation would be fleeting, and console himself with the knowledge that the connection could be equally fleeting." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

No fault divorce leads to no reason marriage. If there isn't real money on the table, people will risk more than normal because there are no serious consequences attached to it. In other words, the risk is nearly eliminated. No one has any fun playing poker for pieces of candy they don't care about. It may be one way to gamble without "gambling," but it isn't really poker if there isn't anything real at stake.

The same can be said for marriage. If the vows aren't real, the breaking of them isn't a big deal. If everyone knows that no one means it, it means less if they get tired of playing along later. 

If covenants can be dissolved willy nilly they will be entered into willy nilly. If promises can be broken without consequence, they will be made with more regularity. Why not? What's the worst that could happen? Such is the mindset of those who approach covenants lightly and the lay of the land is the worst that could happen: evil is rewarded as good and good is derided as evil.