Well, now, most of you will probably remember that we are engaged at the moment in considering

those seven verses, the first seven verses in the 13th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans,

which we read at the beginning. We've been looking at this most important statement

for several Friday evenings before the break over Christmas.

It's an important statement for many reasons, many of which we've already discovered.

It's one of those unique passages in the scripture dealing with a particular subject.

And therefore, it is vital that we should pay great attention to it.

It's a very contemporary statement, as we've already seen, because here the apostle deals with this great question of the relationship of the Christian believer to the state in which he lives. We've already considered his view of the state.

I've been trying to take these points in a kind of logical order.

The first thing is we must have a right view of the state.

We have seen that many Christian people in different times, different centuries, have gone

astray even over that, and thereby have produced much trouble for themselves and for the

church.

So we started with that, the Christian's view of the state.

Then secondly, his attitude towards it, in other words, to its

demands upon him and his response to those demands.

And we considered that in particular with regard to the question of capital punishment,

and last of all, the question of pacifism.

Now, these, as you realize, are very contemporary questions,

and therefore we should all be grateful to God

that we have a passage of scripture such as this

that gives us light and instruction

...