The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
The Los Angeles Patriots
No, this devotional is not about a new sports team in Southern California! A report, with drone video confirmation, is making the rounds of the internet that, just last weekend on July 4, 2020, “Los Angeles Banned Fireworks So Patriots Fired Them Off Illegally All Across The City!” In the face of government mandates against any kind of Fourth of July celebration modes, many people in Los Angeles reportedly exercised their First Amendment rights by having block parties and shooting off fireworks all over the city. It’s an amazing video to see. I was unable to confirm the full authenticity of the video, but it certainly looks real, perhaps looped.
In first century Judea, there was no such thing as First Amendment rights to establishment or free exercise of religion, freedom of speech or of press, peaceful assembly, and “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (The Bill of Rights 1-10 ratified Dec. 15, 1791, Amendment I). So when Peter and the apostles were arrested and taken before the High Priest in Acts 4, they were commanded to stop preaching the gospel. Their response was “…Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19).
After threatening them, the council let them go since they could not deny the evidence of the healing involved in this case, that of a 40-year-old man who had been lame from birth.. The people were so in awe of the miracles they had seen, “…that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them” (Acts 5:15).
This wasn’t the only time the apostles were called on the carpet for their preaching. In Acts 5 they were again arrested and, this time, put in prison. When they were called for the next morning, Peter and the apostles were nowhere to be found in the prison, however. An angel had come in the night and opened the prison doors, telling them to “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life” (Acts 5:20). Late in the morning someone came to report to the council that the men they were looking for were in the temple preaching.
They came peacefully when the officers brought them before the council and the High Priest who objected to their preaching and to the apparent intent to “bring this man’s [Jesus’] blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:28-29). Gamaliel, a “doctor of the law”, brought the voice of reason to the gathering with his reminder of previous protests that had fizzled and disappeared on their own. He ended his speech with, “And now I say unto you. Refrain from these men and let them alone. For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nothing. But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it; lest it turns out that you are found even to fight against God” (Acts 5:38-39).
After beating them, the council let them go with another plea to stop preaching. Instead of grumbling and complaining about their treatment at the hands of the powers-that-be, Peter and the Apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
How do we respond to government intervention and discrimination, or to the increasing personal persecution in our nation regarding our exercise of religion? We do have the legal protection of the First Amendment in America. But that does not stop the current inequities in the name of governance, and the misdirected pushing of legal limits.
While we do have a legal right and should stand up and speak out against this incursion on our civic rights, we also have the superseding mandate from God to love one another. This mandate stands above all our rights as individuals as we speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Speaking up is, in itself, an act of love as long as we still have the legal right to do so. But cruelly shredding other people and blasphemy in the process does not uphold God’s call to love Him and one another (Eph. 5:2, Tit.3:1-2). Patiently enduring the backlash and destructive haranguing of those who disagree with us does uphold that oft-repeated call to love.
Do not forget the response of Peter and the Apostles to their unjust treatment at the hands of governing entities. Like them, we are citizens, patriots, of Heaven. As such we can expect no better treatment than Jesus did when He was on earth. And we are called to rejoice when, like Him, we are treated with the hurtful disdain of a people whose direction comes from the enemy of our souls and all we hold dear as Christians. Like Abraham and Sarah of old, we desire a better country “…that is, a heavenly [country], wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:16). Even so, come Lord Jesus!
