What is the role of government?
And why does government matter?
Watch our Truth in Two to find out why God’s common grace is imperative for living in a nation where government is for the people, by the people, to protect the people (full text below).
Christians bear responsibility to pray for “all those in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
Subscribe to “Truth in Two” videos from Comenius (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).
Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
What is the role of government? Government is responsible to protect its citizens so that citizens can help neighbors and families. Government should maintain the rights of property owners, to care for their homes. Government is responsible to provide space for entrepreneurs to produce goods to sell. Government should provide safety for its people, so that people can govern themselves. Government’s role is to protect citizens, no matter ethnicity, status, identity, or belief. Government’s job is to protect freedom. If government protects freedom, then people are free to care for family, neighbor, workplace, and country.
Government protected freedoms allow atheists, Muslims, Jews, and Christians to work together. A theological principle called “common grace” promotes a view that people can live and work together. I bear responsibility to live graciously, in common, doing good on behalf of my neighbor. Americans may differ on the role of government. But we do not differ on responsibility to neighbor. I believe that’s where we begin; with what we agree on, the “common grace.”
Serving the common, public interest means that government’s role is to create boundaries of law that benefit all. If all people – the public as well as politicians – abide by the same laws, our opportunities to help our families and neighbors increases. Government’s role is not top-down, “I’m going to tell you how to run your personal life.” Government’s role should be to protect the God-given rights of all people. Government’s responsibility is not to hinder freedom but to enhance it. Government is a God-given institution for the common good established by God’s common grace.
For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.