Matthew Henry on Prayer & The Spirit's Intercession

Roman 8:26-28

The apostle here suggests two privileges more to which true Christians are entitled:

I. The help of the Spirit in prayer. While we are in this world, hoping and waiting for what we see not, we must be praying. Hope supposes desire, and that desire offered up to God is prayer; we groan. Now observe,

1. Our weakness in prayer: We know not what we should pray for as we ought. (1.) As to the matter of our requests, we know not what to ask. We are not competent judges of our own condition. Who knows what is good for a man in this life? Ecclesiastes 6:12. We are short-sighted, and very much biassed in favour of the flesh, and apt to separate the end from the way. You know not what you ask, Matthew 20:22. We are like foolish children, that are ready to cry for fruit before it is ripe and fit for them; see Luke 9:54-55. (2.) As to the manner, we know not how to pray as we ought. It is not enough that we do that which is good, but we must do it well, seek in a due order; and here we are often at a loss - graces are weak, affections cold, thoughts wandering, and it is not always easy to find the heart to pray, 2 Samuel 7:27. The apostle speaks of this in the first person: We know not. He puts himself among the rest. Folly, and weakness, and distraction in prayer, are what all the saints are complaining of. If so great a saint as Paul knew not what to pray for, what little reason have we to go forth about that duty in our own strength!

2. The assistances which the Spirit gives us in that duty. He helps our infirmities, meant especially of our praying infirmities, which most easily beset us in that duty, against which the Spirit helps. The Spirit in the world helps; many rules and promises there are in the word for our help. The Spirit in the heart helps, dwelling in us, working in us, as a Spirit of grace and supplication, especially with respect to the infirmities we are under when we are in a suffering state, when our faith is most apt to fail; for this end the Holy Ghost was poured out.

Helpeth, sumantilambanetai - heaves with us, over against us, helps as we help one that would lift up a burden, by lifting over against him at the other end - helps with us, that is, with us doing our endeavour, putting forth the strength we have. We must not sit still, and expect that the Spirit should do all; when the Spirit goes before us we must bestir ourselves. We cannot without God, and he will not without us. What help? Why, the Spirit itself makes intercession for us, dictates our requests, indites our petitions, draws up our plea for us. Christ intercedes for us in heaven, the Spirit intercedes for us in our hearts; so graciously has God provided for the encouragement of the praying remnant. The Spirit, as an enlightening Spirit, teaches us what to pray for, as a sanctifying Spirit works and excites praying graces, as a comforting Spirit silences our fears, and helps us over all our discouragements. The Holy Spirit is the spring of all our desires and breathings towards God. Now this intercession which the Spirit makes is, (1.) With groanings that cannot be uttered. The strength and fervency of those desires which the Holy Spirit works are hereby intimated. There may be praying in the Spirit where there is not a word spoken; as Moses prayed (Exodus 14:15), and Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:13. It is not the rhetoric and eloquence, but the faith and fervency, of our prayers, that the Spirit works, as an intercessor, in us. Cannot be uttered; they are so confused, the soul is in such a hurry with temptations and troubles, we know not what to say, nor how to express ourselves. Here is the Spirit interceding with groans that cannot be uttered. When we can but cry, Abba, Father, and refer ourselves to him with a holy humble boldness, this is the work of the Spirit. (2.) According to the will of God, Romans 8:27. The Spirit in the heart never contradicts the Spirit in the word. Those desires that are contrary to the will of God do not come from the Spirit. The Spirit interceding in us evermore melts our wills into the will of God. Not as I will, but as thou wilt.

3. The sure success of these intercessions: He that searches the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, Romans 8:27. To a hypocrite, all whose religion lies in his tongue, nothing is more dreadful than that God searches the heart and sees through all his disguises. To a sincere Christian, who makes heart-work of his duty, nothing is more comfortable than that God searches the heart, for then he will hear and answer those desires which we want words to express. He knows what we have need of before we ask, Matthew 6:8. He knows what is the mind of his own Spirit in us. And, as he always hears the Son interceding for us, so he always hears the Spirit interceding in us, because his intercession is according to the will of God. What could have been done more for the comfort of the Lord's people, in all their addresses to God? Christ had said, “Whatever you ask the Father according to his will he will give it you.” But how shall we learn to ask according to his will? Why, the Spirit will teach us that. Therefore it is that the seed of Jacob never seek in vain.

II. The concurrence of all providences for the good of those that are Christ's, Romans 8:28. It might be objected that, notwithstanding all these privileges, we see believers compassed about with manifold afflictions; though the Spirit makes intercession for them, yet their troubles are continued. It is very true; but in this the Spirit's intercession is always effectual, that, however it goes with them, all this is working together for their good. Observe here.

1. The character of the saints, who are interested in this privilege; they are here described by such properties as are common to all that are truly sanctified. (1.) They love God. This includes all the out-goings of the soul's affections towards God as the chief good and highest end. It is our love to God that makes every providence sweet, and therefore profitable. Those that love God make the best of all he does, and take all in good part. (2.) They are the called according to his purpose, effectually called according to the eternal purpose. The call is effectual, not according to any merit or desert of ours, but according to God's own gracious purpose.

2. The privilege of the saints, that all things work together for good to them, that is, all the providences of God that concern them. All that God performs he performs for them, Psalm 57:2. Their sins are not of his performing, therefore not intended here, though his permitting sin is made to work for their good, 2 Chronicles 32:31. But all the providences of God are theirs - merciful providences, afflicting providences, personal, public. They are all for good; perhaps for temporal good, as Joseph's troubles; at least, for spiritual and eternal good. That is good for them which does their souls good. Either directly or indirectly, every providence has a tendency to the spiritual good of those that love God, breaking them off from sin, bringing them nearer to God, weaning them from the world, fitting them for heaven. Work together. They work, as physic works upon the body, various ways, according to the intention of the physician; but all for the patient's good. They work together, as several ingredients in a medicine concur to answer the intention. God hath set the one over against the other (Ecclesiastes 7:14): sunergei, a very singular, with a noun plural, denoting the harmony of Providence and its uniform designs, all the wheels as one wheel, Ezekiel 10:13. He worketh all things together for good; so some read it. It is not from any specific quality in the providences themselves, but from the power and grace of God working in, with, and by, these providences. All this we know - know it for a certainty, from the word of God, from our own experience, and from the experience of all the saints.

From the electronic edition on e-Sword of Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible

Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714)

J.I. Packer On The Law And Gospel

Cars are complex contraptions, and with their thousands of component parts much can go wrong. The maker’s handbook, however, tells you how to get from your car a satisfying performance, with minimum wear and tear, and if you mishandle it so that it goes wrong, you cannot say that you were not warned. With the wisdom contained in the repair manual which the manufacturers also issue, the car can be mended, but as long as you pooh-pooh the maker’s instructions, trouble is all you can expect.

Our cars are parables of their owners. We too are wonderfully made, complex physically and even more so psychologically and spiritually. For us, too, there is a maker’s handbook—namely, God’s summary of the way to live that we find in the Ten Commandments. Whether as persons we grow and blossom or shrink and wither, whether in character we become more like God or more like the devil, depends directly on whether we seek to live by what is in the Commandments or not. The rest of the Bible could be called God’s repair manual, since it spells out the gospel of grace that restores sin-damaged human nature, but it is the Commandments that crystallize the basic behavior-pattern which brings satisfaction and contentment, and it is precisely for this way of living that God’s grace rescues and refits us.

Suppose someone says: “I try to take the Ten Commandments seriously, and live by them, and they swamp me! Every day I fail somewhere. What am I to do?” The answer is: now that you know your own weakness and sinfulness, turn to God, and to his Son Jesus Christ, for pardon and power. Christ will bring you into a new kind of life, in which your heart’s deepest desire will be to go God’s way, and obedience will be burdensome no longer. That folk who take the law as their rule might find Christ the Savior as their Ruler is something to pray and work for.

God’s love gave us the law just as his love gave us the gospel, and as there is no spiritual life for us save through the gospel, which points us to Jesus Christ the Savior, so there is no spiritual health for us save as we seek in Christ’s strength to keep the law, and practice the love of God and neighbor for which it calls.

Suppose people generally began to say: “By God’s help I will live by the Ten Commandments every day from now on. I will set myself to honor God and obey him. I will take note of all that he says. I will be in church for worship each week. I will not commit adultery, or indulge myself in lust, or stir up lust in others. I will not steal, nor leave the path of total honesty. I will not lie or cheat. I will not envy or covet.” Community life would be transformed, and massive national problems would dissolve overnight. It is something more to pray and work for.

Suppose all churches and congregations were ablaze with zeal for God, and for personal holiness, and for national righteousness—why, that would be revival! Revival is a divine visitation of communities, and its moral force is unrivaled. When God quickens his church, the tremendous purging power that overflows transforms the moral tone of society in a way that nothing else can do. That we need revival is not open to doubt; that this need should drive us to prayer cannot be doubted either.*

*Packer, J. I. (1994). Growing in Christ (221–222). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

Weekly Dose Of Lloyd-Jones (On The Christian Life)

The second principle is that the Christian's life is controlled and dominated by Jesus Christ, by his loyalty to Christ, and by his concern to do everything for Christ's sake. `Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.' Why are they persecuted? Because they are living for Christ's sake. From this I deduce that the whole object of the Christian should be to live for Christ's sake and no longer to live for his own. People are unpleasant to one another and may persecute one another, even when they are not Christian, but that is not for Christ's sake. The peculiar thing about the persecution of the Christian is that it is `for Christ's sake'. The Christian's life should always be controlled and dominated by the Lord Jesus Christ, and by considerations of what will be well-pleasing in His sight. That is something which you find everywhere in the New Testament. The Christian, being a new man, having received new life from Christ, realizing that he owes everything to Christ and His perfect work, and particularly to His death upon the cross, says to himself, `I am not my own; I have been bought with a price'. He therefore wants to live his whole life to the glory of Him who has thus died for him, and bought him, and risen'again. So he desires to present himself, `body, soul and spirit', everything to Christ. This, you will agree, is something that was not only taught by our Lord; it is emphasized everywhere in all the New Testament Epistles. `For Christ's sake' is the motive, the great controlling motive in the life of the Christian. Here is something that differentiates us from everybody else and provides a thorough test of our profession of the Christian faith. If we are truly Christian, our desire must be, however much we may fail in practice, to live for Christ, to glory in His name and to live to glorify Him.*

*Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Kindle Locations 2032-2043). Kindle Edition.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven (2)

Now, although I trust it has been answered in part by the first of these posts, we come to the second part of this verse from Matthew 6:10: Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Again, God is the subject of the clause; again, the verb is a tense that speaks to no frame of reference in a particular time, but to the reference of all of time. It is a passive voice, but unlike when this voice is applied to His creatures, we may see this as referring to the fact that God’s decretive will has gone forth from Him actively, from before the ages began, and there is no longer need for Him to actively will to have that done which He once for all decreed: it is happening, it will happen, as the Imperial decree set forth from the beginning (Isaiah 55:10-11; 1 Chronicles 29:11).

It is not that God’s will is not being done, but that, in a timeless (eternal, infinite) sense, it has been done, and we are seeing the results of our sovereign God worked out over the span of time and history. This is the sense in which we see this Imperial statement as it relates to God.

Now, we must consider how this relates to those things of God that were to unfold – and some of which have unfolded – by His decretive will, as given to we who are His creatures – in prescriptive manner; especially as this is to the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, to those things which have to do with the present occupation of this earth by His spiritual kingdom in His body, the church. This is the sense of on earth as it is in heaven, which carries both an immediate sense of doing that which is of the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, and the future sense in which we pray Come soon, Lord Jesus!

Here, the analogy of faith fully comes into play, as we consider godly men of old, the types and shadows of that which our Lord is the substance of, and the entirety of revelation in Scripture pertaining to God’s will being actively pursued by those He has shown His grace in Christ Jesus our Lord too. If we were to consider this verse in a vacuum, simply grammatically, we would be lost as to its import for us, but even in the immediate context, that is not possible, for though it speaks of that kingdom already present which is God’s, and that will of God which has been done, with the results we see in Scripture and the world around us, we are given the area where this is done – on earth – and how it is to be done – as it is in heaven.

To skip past the manner in which our Lord obeyed this commandment would not be to miss the boat; it would be to fail to board it in the first place. He delights to do His Father’s will (Psalm 40:6-8), to do that laid out by the Father from all eternity is that which the Son does (John 5:17); in fact, He depends upon that which is of the Father’s will to do the work He was sent for (John 5:30), and it is the Father’s will which gives Him His sustenance (John 4:34), that He could complete His work during His first advent, continue His work in His mediation for those He came to save, and come again to finally establish that which was intended from the beginning.

In other words, to do that will of the Father which has been established from before the ages began is the entirety of the pleasure, nourishment and life of our Lord as the Messiah, and the reason of infinite, eternal relationship of God the Son within the Triune God, as it will be always (1 Corinthians 15:27-28).

This gives us the context within which we, who are His by His pleasure and grace, are to seek to do His will now, being in this world as our Lord was (John 15:14; 1 Peter 3:13-18; 1 John 3:13).

We will consider further the last part of this verse – God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven by those who are His – in another post.

Mark Dever On The Church

For too many Christians today, the doctrine of the church is like a decoration on the front of a building. Maybe it's pretty, maybe it's not, but finally it's unimportant because it bears no weight. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The doctrine of the church is of the utmost importance. It is the most visible part of Christian theology, and it is vitally connected with every other part. "Christ's work is the church's foundation. . . . Christ's work continues in the church; the fullness of the mystery of God in redemption is disclosed among his people." The church arises only from the gospel. And a distorted church usually coincides with a distorted gospel. Whether it leads to such distortions or results from them, serious departures from the Bible's teaching about the church normally signify other, more central misunderstandings about the Christian faith.

This is not to say that all differences in ecclesiology are tantamount to differences over the gospel itself. Honest Christians have long differed over a number of important issues in the church. But just because a matter is not essential for salvation does not mean that it's not important, or that it's not necessary for obedience. The color of church signs is not essential for Christian salvation, nor is believer's baptism. But everyone would agree that these two matters vary greatly in importance. Perhaps the popular disinterest in ecclesiology results from the understanding that the church itself is not necessary for salvation. Cyprian of Carthage may well have said, "No one can have God for his father, who has not the church for his mother," but few would agree with this sentiment today. The Church of Rome, in the Second Vatican Council, recognized that a normally competent adult is not required to self-consciously participate in the church for salvation. And evangelical Protestants, who stress salvation by faith alone, seem to have even less use for the church, much less for studying the doctrine of the church.

It should not be this way. As John Stott said, "The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history." The church should be regarded as important to Christians because of its importance to Christ. Christ founded the church (Matt 16: 18), purchased it with his blood (Acts 20: 28), and intimately identifies himself with it (Acts 9: 4). The church is the body of Christ (1 Cor 12: 12,27; Eph 1: 22– 23; 4: 12; 5: 20– 30; Col 1: 18,24; 3: 15), the dwelling place of his Spirit (1 Cor 3: 16– 17; Eph 2: 18,22; 4: 4), and the chief instrument for glorifying God in the world (Ezek 36: 22– 38; Eph 3: 10). Finally, the church is God's instrument for bringing both the gospel to the nations and a great host of redeemed humanity to himself (Luke 24: 46– 48; Rev 5: 9). 

...Today many local churches are adrift in the shifting currents of pragmatism. They assume that the immediate response of non-Christians is the key indicator of success. At the same time, Christianity is being rapidly disowned in the culture at large. Evangelism is characterized as intolerant, and portions of biblical doctrine are classified as hate speech. In such antagonistic times the felt needs of non-Christians can hardly be considered reliable gauges, and conforming to the culture will mean a loss of the gospel itself. As long as quick numerical growth remains the primary indicator of church health, the truth will be compromised. Instead, churches must once again begin measuring success not in terms of numbers but in terms of fidelity to the Scriptures. William Carey served faithfully in India, and Adoniram Judson persevered in Burma not because they met immediate success or advertised themselves as "relevant."*

*Dever, Mark (2012-03-08). The Church: The Gospel Made Visible (Kindle Locations 101-127, 136-143). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done

 Your kingdom come,

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10)

As always, the grammar is interesting when considering the statements and petitions of our Lord’s model prayer to His disciples, and so to us (John 17:20; 2 Timothy 2:2); that is, although this is instruction directly to the apostles, we see that it follows in the apostolic tradition that it is propagated from our Lord to them, from them to those they set as elders over the various churches, from those to faithful men duly appointed according to the criterion set forth in Scripture, and in all these, to we who are instructed by such men to be edified and growing in the maturity, godliness, and knowledge which are modeled for us in the words and lives of those who so instruct and disciple us, according to the grace we are found to be in of God, in our Lord Jesus Christ, by dint of our position in the many divine promises set for forth for us in our God’s Holy Writ.

“Your kingdom come” is a statement and a command; it is presently going on, and is given us of our Lord in the language of Imperial Command, yet it is linked to God as the Subject, so we know that our performance of those things which are in accord with this mandate have their root, focus and performance in God, to whom we look for the operation of these things. He has willed to use us to bring this about more and more, and unlike many would think, this is not a Dominion mandate: here, many err most grievously, by supposing that we will do that which was commanded of Adam, and after the fall, again, Noah (Genesis 1:28; 9:1 and etc.), bringing the world under the rule of God’s grace in Christ Jesus our Lord through such a Dominion mandate.

Yes, we are to go to all nations with the message of the gospel, but since even our Lord did not see His kingdom as of this world, and therefore His disciples did not fight (John 18:36), so we are not to engage in such warfare that seeks to transform this world through mundane means; our battle in this war, which has as its certain outcome the victory of our God, is fought against those things which attack us as we model and shine forth He who is our life and the Light of the World, sent from the Father of lights (Matthew 5:14-16; John 8:12; 9:5; 2 Corinthians 4:5-7; Ephesians 6:12; James 1:17).

We must realize that having God’s will done in this world is in and of Him, in our Lord Jesus – our efforts at doing all that is of God are only realized as His working of Himself in and through these vessels of earth; though we have a real responsibility to work, neither the power or the results of anything good we do are of ourselves, but of He who is our righteousness, sanctification, present shrouded glory, and ultimate perfect glory.

Confusing?

It can be – so often, we think of that which we do, because we are responsible to do it, as being of our own power. The problem with this is that we do not recognize that every part in the body of Christ functions solely by the power given them from the Head.

In Ephesians 4:15-16 we read: “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

The interesting thing that does not necessarily come out in the English is that joined and held together are passive – that is, this is an action being done to the joints, or parts, and that action is from the supply of God’s grace which flows to each part by the Head, our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, the continual coming of the already present Kingdom of God is being presently and progressively realized by the power of God Himself effectually working in each part of that body of Christ to show forth His Excellencies, not those of us, who offer nothing good in our flesh, and show and shine forth only good things by abiding in Christ. We do not gain standing with God by performing the tasks of His servants, for all our standing is in Christ Jesus our Lord; nevertheless, we are held responsible to faithfully, as good stewards, perform those tasks, while all the time realizing it is not our power that makes us desire to do the tasks, or makes the tasks either possible or realized, but being in union with Jesus Christ.

This may seem like a roundabout way to get to the plain statement of Your kingdom come, but it is necessary to realize that the verb refers back to God; therefore, when we obey kingdom commands, it is God who is willing and working within us to perform of His good pleasure that brings about the continuing progress of His kingdom. It is an imperative, so a command, but the command realizes the power and authority of the Author to equip us with that which is of Him to carry out this command.

The majority of this post speaks of our God’s kingdom coming, and has been purposely kept to that aspect of the verse under consideration; the doing of His will, by Him, through we whom He has chosen of the merit that is entirely of Christ, will be considered further in a future post.

Rather than being proud or thinking ourselves privileged that we have so been chosen, such must breed humility as we understand that it was, and remains, nothing of ourselves that caused God to choose us, but rather, it was only of His free, sovereign grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the understanding of His loving us so greatly: His immeasurable grace shows forth His glory now, and will do so in the age to come, through Christ (Ephesians 2:4-7).

This seems enough for one post; we dealt primarily only with the first part of the verse – Your kingdom come  –  so we will seek to draw out in more detail in a future post regarding Your will be done.

Why I Ate at Chick-fil-A Today

I ate at Chick-fil-A today.  I went in mid-afternoon after my seminary class got out, and the wait was about 45 minutes.  This was my second time eating there this past week, and my second time eating at Chick-fil-A ever.  I only discovered there was one in the area after the controversy was ignited last week.  As far as the chicken sandwich goes... you know, it's a chicken sandwich.  It's really not that big of a deal.  For fast food, I prefer Subway and Taco Bell.

The present controversy over the religious views of Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, and the statements by mayors of various cities in the United States interacts with several areas of Christian faith and practice.  Over the past week, I've been thinking about how best to think about and understand this controversy in light of what the Bible teaches and what the Bible calls us to do in situations such as this.  I'm temporarily not taking a break from the blog in order to write all this up before I resume my regular break from the blog for seminary.

First of all, let's be clear that this is a religious issue.  Dan Cathy expressed the view that society should keep the definition of marriage as between a man and woman, a view that was no different than the one that the president of the United States publicly held until just a few months ago.  Why did the same people love President Obama from 2008 to 2011 and then vilify Dan Cathy for having the same view in 2012?  It's quite simple - President Obama is not a Christian (see http://cathleenfalsani.com/obama-on-faith-the-exclusive-interview/ for more than sufficient evidence that he is in fact a liberal Christian, and to understand the difference between that and real Christianity, see J. Gresham Machen's book, Christianity and Liberalism), but Dan Cathy is a Christian.

The mayors did not present the argument that they did not want Dan Cathy's company to operate in their cities because he was a Christian.  Rather, they presented the argument that they did not want his company around because of his views on marriage.  They'd be fine with him operating his company in their cities if he held an unbiblical view on marriage - in other words, if he were disobedient to Christ, then that would be fine, but an obedient Christian?  No, that's not permitted, in their view.  In expressing his view on marriage, Dan Cathy was being obedient to Christ.  In objecting to his views, the mayors were opposing a Christian's obedience to Christ.  They may not have called it as such, but they were essentially saying that Dan Cathy's company was not welcome in their cities because his views on marriage are in obedience to Christ rather than in rebellion against Christ.

More than what Dan Cathy said, the objection is against what the Bible teaches.  What he said about marriage was far less than what 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says. When the world calls Christians intolerant bigots for refusing to morally approve of homosexuality, they mean that the God of the Bible is an intolerant bigot and they refuse to acknowledge him as Lord and Judge (or, in the case of the aforementioned liberal Christians, they say that Paul was an ignorant intolerant bigot, but the all-loving impotent God couldn't stop Paul from writing all that intolerant bigotry into the Bible).  The protests against Chick-fil-A aren't about Dan Cathy and his views on marriage, they're about God's views on homosexuality and opposition to the moral authority of the Bible.

Next, think Biblically about this concept: the civil government expressed an intention to prevent a Christian from conducting business because his Lord is Christ.  What passage should that remind you of?  It's Revelation 13:16-18, classic first-century economic persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire under Domitian.  This type of economic persecution happened to Christians in the Roman Empire, and it's happened throughout church history.  (Eschatology notes: 1) This comes from an idealist/historicist view of Revelation.  2) I agree with the preterists that what John wrote applied to his immediate audience.  3) I agree with the futurists that this type of persecution will happen in the future before the second coming of Christ.)  To put it bluntly in Biblical terms, the mayors that were voicing opposition to Chick-fil-A were attempting to act like the beast of Revelation 13 and are being pawns of Satan.  Who would have guessed that in 2012 the mark of the beast would be the moral approval of homosexuality?

Next, recognizing this as it is, an unsuccessful attempt at persecution of Christians by the civil government, what are our responsibilities in this situation?  There are more, but the first I want to mention is our responsibility to other believers.  If a member of your church loses his job because he is a Christian, what do you do?  If the government throws a Christian in jail for preaching the gospel, what do you do?  If the government attempts to stop a person from conducting business because he is a Christian, what do you do?

Hebrews 13:3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

I'm not a big fan of the chicken sandwich, but eating at Chick-fil-A is an excellent application of Hebrews 13:3 in view of the attempted economic persecution of Dan Cathy by the mayors.

Next, I have a couple quick thoughts about how to think about this as someone who is a Christian first and an American second (and also a Canadian third, but that's not relevant here).  How do I glorify God as an American citizen?  I hold the view that we are called by God not only to be obedient to the government, but also to be good citizens, and to the extent that our form of government allows us to participate in the creation of laws and the selection of rulers, we are called by God to rule justly.  Paul instructs us to pray for those who govern, "that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way" (1 Timothy 2:2).  The peace and well-being of Christians and our legal freedom to live godly lives is a worthy goal to both pray for and pursue through our calling as American citizens (this goal is one reason that I think the cult member will be a far better choice for president, but that's another discussion for another time).  As an American, I think the mayors who have spoken out against Chick-fil-A should be removed from office, and I think it's a godly goal for those who live in those cities to work to remove them from office in the name of defending freedom of religion.

One topic that comes up in controversies like this is the idea that government can't legislate morality.  That's a joke.  Civil government always legislates some kind of moral standards for its citizens in order for a society to function together.  The only question is which moral standards will a civil government enforce and whose morals will the government reflect.  Some object that those who derive their morals from religion shouldn't have any voice in what morality the government enforces, but that's un-American as well.  The way that our government is set up, every voting citizen gets to contribute, whether they get their morals from true religion, false religion, lack of religion, their own imagination, or anywhere else.

In response to the idea that Christians shouldn't try to have laws reflect Christian morality because unbelievers are just going to act like unbelievers anyway, I would refer you to writings on what is called the second use of the law - God uses the law to restrain wickedness in the world through civil government.  It's part of common grace.  A society where people are killing each other left and right is worse than a society where people hate each other but rarely kill each other because of the penalty for the crime.  Christians living in the second society there benefit from the law restraining the wickedness in the world through civil government.

Lastly, some wonder where the gospel is in all this.  It's right there in 1 Corinthians 6:11, in fact, but in addition some wonders what societal moral standards have to do with the gospel.  This is the relevant point for discussions about evangelism: Romans 3:19-20.  People need to know that God gives people a moral standard and that by our works, we're all damned without Christ.  When you don't believe that you're in bad shape, you don't think you need a Savior.  When you know that you're in a hopeless state apart from Christ, you then can understand your need for a Savior, why Christ had to come and die in place of sinners, and the necessity of salvation through faith in Christ.  When unbelievers attempt to silence Christians' preaching of the law, it's an indirect attack on the gospel.  The solution isn't to compromise with the world and be quiet about the sins the world currently approves of, the solution is to preach both the law and the gospel in their fullness.  I've heard some people suggest that everybody knows they're sinners, so we don't need to speak about sin, but my experience with evangelism ministries over the past ten years leads me to the conclusion that few unbelievers recognize the severity of their sin.  1 Timothy 1:8-11 was given to the church for a reason, people.