Romans 13:1-10 • Love's Victories
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you would look in your Bibles at Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. As I've mentioned in previous week, the book of Romans follows a gospel structure. The first half, as all of Paul's epistles, is an explanation of the mercy of God in Christ, what he has done to provide forgiveness for our sins, pardon from our iniquities. The second half of the book is how we respond to that grace. Sounds logical, very important you know the order is not reversed. God doesn't say, "You be good and then I'll be merciful." He says, "I have been merciful. Now walk with me." The path may take us directions we don't always anticipate. Some sermons are intended to inspire, some to instruct. Today it's instruction on the path of paying taxes. That's actually the subject of Romans 13. Let's look and see. I'll ask as you stand as we honor God's Word, Romans 13 verses 1 through 10. Paul the Apostle writes, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Would you have no fear of one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes. For the authorities are ministers for God, of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed. Honor to whom honor is owed. O, no one anything except
to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments,
you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and every other commandment are summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, you give us the word of truth and you tell us that the truth shall set us free,
that in you we will find life and find it abundantly. We study your word and sometimes find words that make that hard to understand. So open our hearts to your ways, that others may see Christ through us, even in ways that challenge us. We know you are the God who leads us and so we seek you in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. So did you pay your taxes? Did you see that millions did not, in fact, could not? Because this year, if you had gone to the IRS direct pay website on the deadline of tax days, you would find out that a computer glitch had crashed the site. Instead of being able to pay your taxes, this year you would have found a note that said, "This service is unavailable." And then after a small apology, this line,
"Please return to this site to pay your taxes after December 31st in the year 9,099," which is a great tax deferral if you can get it. Well, as I said, it was a glitch. Nonetheless, at the website, these words were at the end of that message. "Your tax payment is due,
although the IRS direct pay may not be available." So the government still expected you to pay.
And God still expected you to pay, according to Romans 13. And you might think to yourself, "Why? Why does the Bible talk about things like taxes? After all, we're supposed to be in the portion of the book of Romans where we're talking about our response to the mercy of God for the forgiveness of our sins. What does money have to do with mercy? What does my checkbook have to do with the good book? And why doesn't the pastor get his nose out of my business?"
The answer to all of these questions is based on understanding the ways in which God works in nations and our hearts and among our neighbors. God is not confining His actions to the walls of the church or even the spiritual dimensions of our hearts. He is, for the sake of the gospel, expanding His influence and our testimony to the ends of the earth, including the means with which we use our checkbook. After all, this instruction on paying taxes is really just a piece of a larger instruction on God talking about how we honor authorities for the sake of the gospel. As you look at your Bibles, it will seem that we're only talking about governing authorities, but ultimately the apostle is going to be talking about people who are our employers, parents, those who have other aspects of authority in our lives, and what the apostle is communicating is that if God really sovereignly rules over all things, then He overrules over all things as well, even bad authorities. And so, because God, if He's sovereign, appoints all things that happen in the world for an ultimate purpose, then God is even saying that we should honor authorities. Now, we have all kinds of questions immediately. What if it's ungodly? What if the man is arrogant, adulterous, abusive? Do I still honor that person? We've got to address the subjects, but we start here. God is saying to all of us, "Trust me. I know what I am doing, and rightly
honoring those in authority establishes my rule, shows my love, and ultimately spreads it."
Now, how does all of that make sense? We have to start by just saying, what is God talking about here when He says that we should be in subjection to the authorities? It's first saying, "God requires honor that does not dishonor Him."
What does that mean? What does it require? We are to be subject to the authorities that are above us. Just the very first verse in the opening words, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." Some of your Bible's translations will say, "Be subject to the higher authorities." Those that God has put in authority over us are to be honored. But we immediately begin to object. What does it mean to be in subjection? It's actually a very common word in the New Testament, and it occurs in a number of places. It's a Greek word putting together the words "under" and "arrange." You are to arrange your gifts, your talents, your intellect, your concerns. You are to arrange them under the purposes of another. And so we read, "Wives are told to be subject to their husbands," in Colossians 3. Do you think that's just chauvinistic? "Younger men are told to be subject to older men in the church," in 1 Peter 5. "The church is told to be subject to Christ," in Ephesians 5. "Everyone in the church is told to be subject to the needs of everyone else, in the church," in Ephesians 5. Three observations over that word "subjection." Just first observation, "Everyone is subject to someone." Second observation, "Everyone is to be subject to God." And finally, "Subjection is not blind or mechanical obedience." The word is "subjection." It is not "suppression." We must recognize from the very beginning, if what I am doing to be subject to the needs of another is I am to be examining my gifts, my talents, my treasures, my abilities, and saying, "How can I who have been blessed be a blessing?
I take what God has given and I consider how it may be arranged under the good of another person." I have a goal greater than myself in mind. And the greatest example of this is the church itself, where the church is told to be subject to Christ. And never does the Lord say, "So take your music, take your instruction, take your teaching, take your intellect, and suppress it. Push it down. Don't express it well." Instead, God is saying to the church, "Take all that you have been given, your resources, your talents, your beauty, and express it fully for the sake of Christ. We are after all ambassadors for Christ as though God were making His appeal through us. So we subject what we have been given to be a blessing, not to suppress what God has done, but to express it for the sake of others. Who's supposed to do this? Well, just the opening words of Romans chapter 13 and verse 1, "Let every person be subject to the governing authority." That's all of us. Why? Why are we being told to be subject to governing authorities when it's so obvious to all of us what their flaws may be?
Number one, we are subject because God appointed them. Verse 1, their authority is from God. The end of verse 1, they are instituted by God.
Verse 2, they are appointed by God. If we believe in a sovereign God, one who knows every sparrow who falls to the ground, who knows every word on our tongue before one of it is said, who knows all of our days before one of them came to be, who is working all things together for good, then we don't say, and God didn't say, but I'm not going to touch a political process.
I'm not going to think about who are the rulers of the nations. Quite the contrary. He is saying, ultimately, for His eternal purposes, the rulers of the nations are appointed by Him. Now, I must tell you, that is very hard for people outside the church to comprehend. Last September, there were some evangelical leaders who created quite a stir and got a lot of trouble in the secular press because they said our most recently elected president was appointed by God. And they were just mocked and excoriated in the press because people couldn't believe that you would have church people identifying someone who was profane and adulterous and ungodly in so many expressions and say, "God appointed him." And for a while, the evangelical struggle, how do we explain this? And then somebody came up with the best answer they could think of. Pretty good answer. They said, "God did not just appoint our present leader.
God appointed the past leader too. In fact, He appointed every leader. If there is rule, it is ultimately because of God's intention. The reformers said it long ago, "God's works of providence," where He's working all for and ultimate good. God's work of providence is His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing of all His creatures and all their actions. And when we profoundly believe that, we are not endorsing the evil of particular leaders, but we are saying, "Until that leader requires me to do evil, I am required to honor them so that God's work would go forward." Best example I can think of in the Bible is Jesus on trial before Pilate in John 19. Jesus for a moment is not answering the mocking questions from Pilate. And Pilate then says, "Do you not know that I have the power to release you or to crucify you?" And Jesus then responds, "You would have no power at all unless it had been granted to you from above."
Now, it's the worst thing possible that we can imagine that is about to occur. It is certainly evil. It is no good, but God is working it for good. Even the suffering of His Son for our ultimate good. And that is why the Bible can say God appoints leaders for the end goal, even if there are reasons in the immediate that we would say it seems so very wrong. God is using leaders for His ultimate purpose. Verse 4, right at the beginning, "The ruler is God's servant for your good." We have trouble understanding it, but over and over again, it happens in the Bible that God uses leaders, terribly flawed if not evil, to accomplish an ultimate purpose. Galatians 4 reminds us that when the fullness of time had come, when it was just the ripe moment, God sent His Son to be born of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those under the law. What made it the ripeness of time, the fullness of all of God's appointed purposes to come? Lots of historians say because this was the time at which Rome had the most control over the world in the Pax Romana, the sword enforced piece of Rome. But as a consequence, there was a common language across the civilized world. There was a road system. There were communication systems. So when the gospel entered into that setting, despite the authoritarianness of the rule, the gospel just had all the mechanisms just spread so far and so fast. It was the fullness of time. God was using it in a way that was powerful. The best example I can think of in the modern era is the church in China. Best estimates of those misceologists who look at the size of the church in 1949 in China was maybe 60,000 Christians across the country.
Then Mao Zedong, the cultural revolution, the imposition of terrible authoritarian and cruel rule, but creating order for a society that had been in great foment. And as a consequence of that order across society, no longer 60,000 Christian, but how many? 60 million. And that's a conservative estimate because so many of the house churches do not report for the government figures. China is probably right now the most populous Christian nation in the world. How did it happen? Because even when there was the imposition of so much power and control, there was an order for the society that allowed the gospel to spread. I deal enough with Chinese leaders to know that through the late 90s and early 2000s, the Chinese leaders recognized the great expansion of Christianity was slowing. And they were saying it's because of two things, the greater freedoms and the greater affluence of the society, so that the Chinese are not looking for solutions anymore. And now what's happening as Xi Jinping is beginning to put controls back on the church. Some of you know, taking crosses off the churches across the land. It's actually a moment in which some of the Chinese leaders are saying, "Is the next great growth of the church about to happen?" Because what is happening is a certain amount of order where people are hurt, but the gospel begins to prosper as hurting and dependent people say, "Is there not some answer that's what's happening either in my pocketbook or what's happening in my nation?" People look beyond, and it teaches us what is being said here when we serve leaders, we're actually serving the purposes of God. Verse 2 simply says this, "Therefore, if the rulers are instituted by God, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed." Now, maybe in no message that I've given to you are words and the specificity of their definition important. This resist is not just speaking about in a democratic society, speaking against someone on the political other side of the fence, to speak against ideas or concepts that you think are wrong. The word resist there is talking about opposing an order. It's actually a military term that means breaking the order, breaking the law. If you break the law, if you actually are in resistance opposing lawful authorities, there the apostle says that is actually resisting the purposes of God, and nothing makes it more clear than verse 5, "Therefore, one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, because God's purpose is in that order of nations, but also for the sake of conscience." Conscience is a hard word because we don't have the equivalent for the Greek term there. The apostle saying, "You obey authorities not just so that you don't get in trouble, God's wrath, but because you are self-aware,
you are where God has put you into the society for his representative to make him known." And if you just kind of disobey the law for personal gain, then you're not self-aware of your calling, your mission in that society, which is to make God known that if integrity begins to fall apart, like you don't pay your taxes, like you begin to do things that are unjustified in breaking the law of the land, then you're actually undoing your calling as an ambassador of Christ in that land. And therefore, we are told not just to be subject to authorities that are above you, but actually be to subject, to be subject to God above everything, above all authorities.
Immediately, all of us, you know, we're thoughtful enough to kind of wait, to be subject to authority. Well, what's the limit of that? Where does the ruler, particularly a secular ruler, where does the authority end? And Paul is addressing that. There's a thread, as it were, of meaning that flows through the text, and you'll see it at the beginning in verse 3a. He said, "The rulers are not a terror to good conduct."
Into that same verse 3, "Then do what is good, and you will receive the ruler's approval." Verse 4, right at the beginning, "For he is a servant for your good." Verse 4, a little bit later, "If you do wrong, be afraid." Always there is the understanding that what is binding Christians, what is their concern, is to still be doing what is good, to have their lives move and accomplish what is righteous. And the message is kind of immediately clear to us is, "We cannot do what it really requires if the ruler is requiring unrighteousness." That's the line we cannot cross. We do not go beyond what is good before God in terms of what we do. We never honor an earthly authority who requires of us wrong. I think of Acts 5, I mentioned this a few weeks ago, where the apostles, after the resurrection of Jesus, go into the temple, and they begin to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ. He is the long-expected Messiah. And the Jewish leaders who were trying to suppress the message of Jesus, arrest the apostles and put them into prison. They are released at night by an angel who gives them this instruction,
"Go proclaim to the people the words of life." Isn't that great? "Go proclaim to them the words of life." And so the apostles go back and they begin to say more about, "Jesus is the Christ. They're arrested again." And the leaders say to them, "Didn't you hear what we said to you?
You are not supposed to talk about Jesus." To which the apostles respond, "We must obey
God rather than man." If the authorities of men require you to break the law of God, we cannot honor that command. But to the extent that what they are requiring is within the fence of righteousness, it's not requiring us to break the law, then we are required to obey them. Are there Christians sometimes being required to do what is against righteousness? My mind again just goes to China, particularly during the period of the one-child policy in which Christians and everybody else in the nation, if they had more than one child, was required to abort additional children, at which point Christians fled the nation. Some had not had enough instruction, honestly, to resist the command, but there is a command that is against the words of life. As God is making clear that there are certain things we as Christians are obligated to protect and we do not obey a government when it requires us to break the law. It is one thing, for instance, in an educational system to be required to learn certain thoughts about human origins or human sexuality. It is quite another thing as a Christian to be required to affirm those standards of human origins or human sexuality. If we think about it, there are businesses in which a business person may well be required by those in authority over him to perform well. But the Christian will not do that when in order to perform well, he or she is required to break the ethics of Scripture. That is the law that cannot be followed, the standard that cannot be applied, the ruler who no longer has authority. In essence, we are being told that we do what is required by rulers if it's not wrong, even if it hurts.
Best example again that I can think of in this moment from the Bible is Paul the Apostle, the very one who is writing this in Acts 23. Paul is hauled before the Jewish authorities again, and they do not want to have him talk about Christ as he has been doing. But when he's there on trial before the high priest, the high priest instructs one of the soldiers who's standing beside Paul to slap him on the mouth. And when that happens, the Apostle Paul says to the high priest, "How dare you instruct me to be struck, you whitewashed wall, you break the law and yet you tell me to obey it." And everybody is shocked. And they say,
"How dare you insult the ruler of God's people." And what does Paul do?
He apologizes. He says, "Forgive me, I did not know he was the high priest who gave the order, and I know the word which says, you shall not speak evil of the ruler of the people."
Now, a lot of you are thinking there are people out there in society who wish you could say that verse too, "You shall not speak evil to the ruler of the people," or "of the ruler of the people."
And you're thinking of a particular candidate or official that you like. But maybe you might think back and say, "Do we need to repent of the way that we spoke about a previous ruler of the people? Did we speak evil of some leader that we did not like, not honoring what the word of God says?" Because ultimately what God is seeking to do is to spread His message. And if what we ourselves are saying, "I'll speak kindly to the people who deserve it," you have to say, "What gospel is that that we only show regard for those who are deserving?"
Because we represent the one who said, "Love your enemies and deal kindly with those who persecute you and do all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake," said the Lord. Jesus taught us what it meant to honor authorities as it were for their authority rather than for their personhood, right? It's kind of like when you're in the military, right? And you're told to salute the office even if you don't like the person. And we live in a society where we honor the authority of rulers even where we may know all kinds of evil and wrong things in their pattern, in their conduct, even in the way in which they do things. Best example, Jesus, Matthew 22, some of you will know. What happens? The various Pharisees and Herodians come to Jesus, that is, those who are of the Herod party. They want their person to be in charge. And they say to Jesus, "Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and not a compromiser," meaning you are committed to doing good according to the law. So to trap him, they ask this question, "Should we pay taxes to Caesar?" Now they know no matter what way Jesus answers, they get him, right? If he says, "No, we should not pay taxes to Caesar," they can turn him over to the Roman authorities. But if he says, "We should pay taxes to Caesar," subtext, the idolatrous pagan oppressor of the Jews, then the Jews will turn on Jesus. Either answer will satisfy them. What does Jesus do instead?
Should I pay taxes to Caesar? Somebody give me a coin, which is the means by which you pay taxes to Caesar? Whose image is on it? Caesar. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. If it does not require you to break God's law, you are required to do it even if it hurts. Like pay taxes. Even if it hurts, we do. We honor the earthly authority even if it hurts because we have a testimony, a reason that we are living in the society. Our self-awareness of our purpose is to be overriding our self-interest. If we ask the question, "Why does God's honor require that we display His love in particularly this way, honoring authorities?" It's going to begin to unfold in the text in front of us. As we're asking the question kind of way back from the beginning, what does mercy and money have to do with each other? Why does honoring governing authorities require if they are not honorable? Probably no better answer than just to remind yourselves. Paul knows who he's writing about here when he says that we are to honor rulers and authority, but not more so than Peter. I mean, the Apostle Peter and his epistle that will come later. Well, actually, just in one verse have this simple statement, "Honor the King." "By the time of Peter, do you know who is king in Rome? Nero." What do you remember about Nero? He fiddled while Rome burned. And then who did he blame for setting the fire that he himself set? Who did he blame? He blamed the Christians so that he could persecute them and murder them in awful ways so that they were dispersed across the kingdom with an amazing spread of the gospel.
But even Peter says, "Honor the King." Does he know who he, Nero, is and what Nero, he surely knows. So why are we called to honor authorities to pay taxes? Verse 7, "Pay to all what is owed them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed." Just the terms themselves are hard on us. To pay taxes means you honor the government. To give revenue to whom revenue is owed. Sometimes we struggle with that word. It may be customs, taxes, or tolls. It may actually be talking about business revenue here. If you owe somebody money in business, give them what they are owed. Harder words to come, "respect to whom respect is owed." Here's the notion of formally honor them. Say, Mr. President, say to the boss, "Yes, sir, whatever is."
The harder word is what follows, "an honor to whom honor is owed." Here's the word for not formal recognition, but heart esteem. Esteem them well. Remember Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar? There he is a slave. He's enslaved as his people have been for over 70 years. And yet when he talks to Nebuchadnezzar, he addresses him with kindness and gentleness and love. Remember Jeremiah instructing the people of God who would be taken into captivity, "Pray for the peace of the city to which you go. Be concerned for their good. Christ died for such people." And so we esteem their needs. Even though we may find despicable their actions, we are going to esteem as best we can to show love to those for whom Christ died, for whom God Himself has brought His Savior into the world. To honor authorities is ultimately to love our neighbor. That after all is what the apostle is saying in verse 8, "Oh, no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." Oh, if I love someone, I'm actually fulfilling what God requires like what? Verse 9, "For the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covenant." Any other commandment are summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." How does paying taxes end up loving my neighbor?
Well, because in a society we need roads and bridges.
And bridges rightly marked, some of you may recall, in this community. We need education and health care and fair weights and fair measures. Because if we don't have those things, communities collapse and families suffer and the gospel is stifled. And so loving of neighbor is actually supporting those in authority that God has rightly instituted to do His will. To honor authorities is ultimately to preserve our neighbors for the sake of the gospel. We struggle, but it's so important that we recognize what is being said here. Verse 10, "Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." God is requiring we love one another as He has loved us. That's the basic line, bottom of the law. And as we are acting with integrity, as we are taking care of a society as well as ourselves, then the apostles saying that's part of showing the love of Christ to people who wouldn't have any other reason to deal with Him. They're actually recognizing in you the care that they ought to have to cheat on the taxes,
cheapens others' standard of life. To cheat in business is to damage the gospel. To fail to recognize authorities as a child or a parent who allows your child not to recognize authorities is to raise a child who will know only heartache in the rest of life. It's actually loving neighbor and friend and family to insist that until somebody requires you to do what is against God's law that we try to honor them as God calls us to. We know that if we stop operating with integrity, we damage the testimony of Christ.
This past week, some of you may have seen in the news that the leader of the American atheist society was kicked out of his organization for unspecified charges. The spokesman for the American atheist society said this was done in order that the society would not be damaged and the bad reputation of the leader would not be used against the society.
Now folks, if even atheists know that lack of integrity damages their reputation, what should Christians know? That our lack of integrity before friend and family and others is going to damage our witness to others. I mean, Paul's ultimate concern is in the last verses of this chapter that I did not read to you. Verse 11, "Why are we having to fulfill the law of love?" Verse 11, "Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to awake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us. Now then, when we first believe the night is far gone, the day is at hand, so let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." Hey, the world's got enough dark out there. Put on the armor of light. People are looking for light from you. Verse 13, "Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy." Now that's the list that you expected Paul to be talking about, right? All these immoral things. Isn't it interesting that in one verse he puts together all these immoral actions that Christians aren't supposed to be involved in, and he spends ten verses talking about our money. Why is that? Because the apostle knows just like the rest of us that when you become a Christian, often the last body part to be sanctified is your wallet. And so he says people are watching, and your children are watching, and your neighbors, and your government, and people are being influenced by your actions. So be self-aware and live as people of light so the world will not see darkness from you. And the essence of it all is verse 14, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify His desires." Make no provision for the flesh. You're the instrument of Christ in the world. Live as though you are that ambassador. I try to think of what that just means. I have to think about my own flaws and weakness. And I recognize that at tax time, I use a tax preparer, and I have for years two reasons. One, ministers' standards are complex, and I want her to figure it out rather than me figure it out every year. But there's a second reason I use a tax preparer, and it is this. If I give her the materials and she prepares my taxes, I'm less prone to fudge on my figuring. If she has it entirely, then she will do what's according to the law, and I'm less tempted, as all of us are by my own wallet.
It is such a powerful, powerful thing in this world to live with integrity before God's people and before the society which is wondering what God's people are about.
I'm going to be oblique in what I'm about to say to you. I will tell you that in the last several days, I was dealing with a young man who works for a company that is much in the news these days for various scandals that have come upon it. And he said to me, asking for some counsel and asking for some courage probably at the same time, he said, "I know what the next likely scandal is,
because I am being required by my employer to do things that I know are wrong."
He says, "The problem is not simply that I am being required." He said, "I have Christian bosses above me, and they have been agreeing to do it for years. And for me to object means I will probably lose my job. What should I do?" I said, "You already know." And he did. Two things. Two things. I am humbled by the example of a young person who says, "I trust God more than I trust money. I trust the sovereign God of the universe more than I trust my career path. I believe that God will preserve me and my family as he knows his best, maybe not pleasant in the world. And I am humbled as well as honored to see such a person. I am ultimately inspired by it." As I was by a young family in this church just in the last week who heard about this campaign to try to release our mortgage so that we have more ministry opportunity and can minister to families particularly special needs families. Do you know there's a young family in this church who came to us and said, "We were planning to move, but instead we are not going to move so that we will have more funds to give to the church for special needs families that our particular hearts concern."
I'm not just humbled, I'm inspired. And I want to say, "I want the God of those people. I want people like that to teach me what Jesus is really like." And that's not just me, that is the world around us. When we have put our wallets before God, we tell the world what we really trust and God will use it for His glory. Praise God.
Would you stand with me? I'm going to pray. Father, I ask that you would teach us that our wallets are not our redeemer, that you are more powerful and gracious than any matter that we might preserve by our own strength and wisdom. And that when we live for you, not borrowing the phrases and the talk and the bitterness, not cheating, not looking away at what we ought to see, not hiding what should be known, that you are working through a testimony of integrity such as the world will recognize because we're dealing with the world on its terms. They will simply say, "You believe something powerful, and if there is such a God who will hold your heart and your future in His hands and you believe it so much, tell me about Him. Help us to live for you by loving one another as you have called us, we pray, in Jesus' name."