Struggle

Love suffocates under domination.  Principalities rise up as they consolidate wealth and power through the domination of the many by the few.  Jesus Christ has a message of love that stands for shattering this dominance.  The gospel of Christ does not oppose, or have us oppose, these systems in a superficially oppositional sense, but on a deeper level that undermines and erodes principalities in a foundational and spiritual way. 

Paul instructed the Roman ekklesia in Romans 13:1-2, "1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment...".  Paul is simply explaining that submission to authority is the more practical course of action than rebellion, given their impending freedom and victory in Christ Jesus.  Superficial conflict only turns us into targets for the enemy to attack in the frenzy of its inevitable defeat.  Even slaves need not even seek their own freedom, as it was to be more effective to further the kingdom of God from wherever they found themselves than to struggle openly against domination. Like all of Paul's words, this instruction is situational.  This instruction is conditional upon the truth of the following statement in Romans 13:3, where it says "For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval".  These are certainly the words of a leader who recognizes the surveillance of his people and advises submission in order to avoid direct reprisal.  We know that this verse is not true of all times and places, as too many leaders to mention have repaid good conduct with suffering and death throughout history.  It certainly did not turn out to be true for the Roman Christians either, whose persecution continued to escalate after Paul wrote these words.

Jesus seems on some level to speak against family ties, stating that "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple."  I don't Jesus as advocating for the dissolution of families in the sense that we typically imagine, as with families that grow apart from one another in malice and distrust.  In the Greco-Roman world, as per Aristotle, the oikonomia or household was the fundamental unit upon which the empire was built.  Jesus' words can be interpreted as striking at the foundation of a kyriocracy that was built upon the household, and dependent upon it as a means to ensure submission.

Should we seek to topple the authoritarian systems of men?  Or is that line of reasoning/course of action a trap that gives evil even more of an opportunity to corrupt power, exacerbate inequalities and choke love from the life of people through subjugation and suffering.  Is revolutionary confrontation an inevitable 'journey to the Dark Side'?  I believe that we must seek guidance through prayer, being mindful of our opportunities to stand in solidarity with one another in Christ Jesus.  Paul reminds us that the coming kingdom of God will supercede these authoritarian systems of men.  But this is far from a recommendation not to worry about such things.  He is reminding us that it will be us who bring the kingdom of God to all the earth, eroding the foundations and assuring the destruction of principalities and powers of this world.

Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, I believe that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" and stand in opposition to evil when it "degrades human personality."  We must have faith that the Spirit will lead us to know when God would have us stand in opposition authoritarian systems of men, and when to wait in submission.