Though respect for authority has not always or often come easily to me, it is clearly something that the Bible consistently commands, and therefore I struggle to obey it even though it comes with extreme difficulty.  Respect for authority in any respect does not come very easily–both because the times are full of rebellion and sedition (which influence me more than I would often wish to be the case) and because authorities are so visibly corrupt, a consequence of the greater knowledge and awareness we have in these times about the lives and behaviors of our leaders.  With familiarity comes contempt.

In examining this command I would first like to look at this command and how it is applied and used in the Bible itself.  I would then like to examine its purpose and reason for being, an what it relates to in a more broad and general concern.  I would then like to examine what makes this command so hard to obey in this time and what ways this command is applicable in our present times, where our example (mine included) has often fallen short of the biblical command.

The Command And Its Application

Exodus 22:28 reads very plainly:  “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.”  It does not leave a whole lot of ambiguity in terms of its requirement that we honor and respect God as well as our leaders.  We certainly have an obligation to condemn wicked behavior–but to curse people is unacceptable.  We must respect those in authority over us even if they are unworthy of the office–for the sake of the office alone, if nothing else.

That this interpretation is not merely mine but the Bible’s would appear to be indicated by the two passages that cite this scripture, one indirectly and one directly.  First, let us take the indirect approach and examine Ecclesiastes 10:20, which says:  “Do not curse the king, even in your thought; do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; for a bird of the air may carry your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter.”  This wise advice has never been more true in this age where one’s thoughts and words, written on blogs (even anonymously) to curse or revile one’s leaders can easily reach the eyes and ears of other people.  Very little is private any longer, and while that can be good, it can be bad if our thoughts erode the respect for authority that ought to exist.  After all, God is a God of order and decorum, and that requires a respect for offices, and a desire that they be filled with godly people, a circumstance that can only happen when those offices are respected.  It is respect for an office, after all, that will lead honorable people to desire it, and lead us to place honorable people there.  To curse leaders is to avoid our responsibility in choosing wisely and in training to become leaders ourselves.  The fact that we will suffer sanctions for cursing and reviling leaders is also true–even, at times, after those leaders are dead, and even where there was no intent to revile.

A very direct, and unpleasant, application of this precise law comes in Acts 23:1-5:  “Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.”  And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.  Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall!  For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?”  And those who stood by said, “Do you revile God’s high priest?”  Then Paul said, “I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’ ”

Here we see that despite the fact that the high priest abused authority and acted against the law that Paul was in the wrong for insulting the high priest as a whitewashed wall.  Now, Paul was certainly very fierce, but a lot less fierce than many things I have heard or even spoken or written about leaders myself.  As Paul was in the wrong in breaking this law, many of us (myself included) have been guilty of breaking this law numerous times, a law that is still in force and that Paul, under the inspiration of God, applied to himself and his own speech.  As Paul applied this law to himself, so should we all.  We cannot insult and revile those who are our rulers, even when they are wicked–though once those people leave the offices over us, by their own choice or others, they may be addressed in a more forceful manner, having left the sanctity of those offices in authority over us.

Why Does This Command Exist?

Let us ask ourselves why this command even exists, though.  Why does God command respect for both the offices of king and priest in the Bible, covering both civil and religious authorities, though they may be (and often are) corrupt and wicked and power-hungry individuals?  There are probably several reasons, but I would like to explore two of them.  The first is that respecting flawed human authorities trains us and disciplines us to honor a perfect God whose ways are often mysterious to us.  The second is that we are being trained for leadership positions and it is necessary to respect authority before one can be trusted with authority.  Let us examine both of these possibilities in turn.

Let us not forget that one of the ten commandments clearly relates to the honor of offices, the fifth commandment, which commands the honoring of one’s father and mother.  Now, without going into detail, this has been a huge problem for me in my life, and has probably made the respect of authority in general much more difficult than it would otherwise be, but the Bible’s commands are unmistakably clear, as in Exodus 20:12:  “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”  God’s command to honor one’s parents is directly tied to the longevity of life people have.  Those who do not respect and care for their own parents will not be respected and cared for by their children–those who sow rebellion to those in power over them will reap rebellion from those who they are in authority over.

And, it should be made clear as well that God sees Himself as the father of all, and worthy of the same honor and respect He commands to be given to physical parents, as he says in Malachi 1:6:  “A son honors his father, and a servant his master.  If then I am the Father, where is My honor?  And if I am a Master, where is My reference?”  Here we see that as God is the Creator of all and the Father of all, he is worthy of respect, honor, and reverence from all human beings, respect He does not often receive.  If we fail to respect our earthly leaders, we will not have acquired the self-discipline and habits to respect and honor God.  We learn the spiritual through the physical, and honoring physical authorities is necessary to respect the authority of God in heaven.

In addition to this concern, there is an additional element.  We respect authority so that we will ourselves be worthy of respect.  To attack the dignity of the office is to attack the legitimacy of the power we seek to possess ourselves, though we may often be unaware of our assault on the foundations of our own legitimacy.  If we expect to be parents, to attack the authority of parents is to cut off the ground of respect we expect in the future from our own children.  If we wish to have a family, we must respect and honor our own, even if (maybe especially if) those families are dysfunctional.  To break the cycles requires that we respect and honor even those who are grossly unworthy of it.  After all, if we can respect and honor unworthy authorities we ought to have no difficulty showing honor and respect to worthy ones, or becoming worthy ones ourselves as well.

This is especially true in light of the fact that the Bible consistently proclaims the destiny of physical (in Exodus 19:5-6) and spiritual Israel (in 1 Peter 2:9-10) to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  The fact that believers are in training to be civil and religious leaders themselves requires that they learn how to respect and honor civil and religious authorities.  Again, those who wish to and seek to inhabit honorable offices and conduct themselves with honor must learn how to respect and honor the offices themselves.  Even if (again, especially if) the people who hold those offices are unworthy of honor due to their own conduct, maintaining a respect for the office means the increase of our own fervent desires to fill those offices faithfully and with integrity ourselves, to be worthy of those offices in contrast to our predecessors.

How Does This Matter Today?

The consequences of the command to respect and honor authorities are clear and unmistakable.  We are forbidden from cursing and reviling either spiritual authorities (God) or physical authorities (parents, kings, priests).  This means we cannot insult and mock presidents, congressmen, mayors, governors, ministers, parents, bosses, or other authorities.  Clearly, as there are a lot of people in positions of authority, there are a lot of people who cannot be reviled.

What does it mean to revile anyway?  Freedictionary.com gives a few revealing definitions for revile, including:  to spread negative information about, malign, abuse, smear, villify, slander, bad-mouth, libel, denigrate [1].  So, if someone is in authority over you and you speak negatively and falsely about them–you have just broken God’s commandment and are an evildoer.  If you have insulted someone in authority–you are an evildoer according to this commandment as well.  Clearly, as someone who has often been guilty of this, I speak with a fair amount of concern, but whether an authority is civil or religious over you, respect is necessary, respect for the office and respect for the truth.

As many of us have broken this command often–it is broken regularly on anonymous internet forums, talk radio and television, blogs, and even occasionally in sermon messages by people who ought to know better–let us realize that to obey this commandment (which tripped up even the Apostle Paul) requires a repentant and humble heart willing to accept wrong from those in authority while knowing that God will avenge, and that respect for office is necessary for us to be honorable people in those offices ourselves.

Let us therefore seek to be aware of and obedient to this obligation to respect human and divine authorities, even when it is difficult.  The fact that leadership has so often been corrupt means all the more that the legitimacy of government is threatened and we need to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.  The ability to respect an office even if the person holding that office is ungodly and corrupt means that we will not aid the destruction of proper order and decorum in a given society, and that we ourselves are fit to preserve the honor of the offices we are given through honorable and decent conduct.  Let us therefore strive to obey this command and so become worthy of holding the offices God wishes to give us, for we will not command if we cannot respect.

[1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/revile