The general principle is we bend over backwards to be submissive to authorities.

But we stand with ramrod defiance when the magistrate commands disobedience to God.

We are always to obey those in authority over us,

unless that authority commands us to do something God forbids,

or forbids us from doing something God commands.

If the husband says to the wife, I want you to earn some extra income for us by turning to

prostitution, none, and he may she disobey him, she must disobey him.

On the other hand, a woman is married to an unbelieving man.

And the man says to her, you may not go to that church on Wednesday night and join the choir.

What should the wife do?

She should stay home.

Because God nowhere commands women to sing in the choir.

I plead for it, but I can't command it.

But what if the husband says to the wife, you are not permitted to go to church on the Sabbath

and join the corporate worship of the people of God.

Not only may she disobey him, she must disobey him because God commands her to be in the assembling

together of the saints. Do you see how this can be very painful and very costly when we are

caught in this vice between two authorities that differ.

And we can never use the cop out, I'm just a bang orders, as a license or an excuse for sin.

But the other side of it is this. Just because God gives us the right

and the responsibility to disobey when an authority over us commands us to do something he forbids

or forbids us from doing something God commands, that is not a license to be disobedient just when we disagree with the authority.

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