At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
“Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity”
Proverbs 17:26
“Also, to punish the righteous is not good, nor to strike princes for their uprightness”
Proverbs 17:26
Christians who want their fellow believers simply to defer to the state whenever some decree or other is handed down are quick to appeal to Romans 13. But that famous passage does not teach us that citizens are subjects who must do whatever they are told.
No, that passage teaches us that all of us are under authority, the magistrate as well as the citizen. The magistrate is called diakonos twice in v. 4 and leitourgos in v. 6). The magistrate is a servant, a deacon, a minister. He is under orders. In that passage, he is commanded to reward the righteous and to punish the wrongdoer (vv. 3-4).
That point is reinforced in this proverb. When the magistrate rebels against his heavenly commission, and begins to punish the righteous, we have crossed over into a state of tyranny. Proverbs says that to punish the just is “not good.” In the same way, it is not good to strike at princes who are, unlike the king, standing uprightly.
If the king has gotten out of line, the princes are lesser magistrates, and they might be in a position to do something about it. Moreover, taking all of Scripture into account, they are under an obligation before God to do so.
When a citizen takes a righteous stand, say by protesting at an abortion clinic, and he is arrested and wickedly charged, this is a photo negative of what the magistrate—God’s deacon, remember—is charged to do. It is not the case that Christians who resist this are rejecting God’s authority. They are resisting a man who took the badge that God gave him, spit on it, and threw it away.
