It's estimated that the Roman government was made up of approximately 25-40% slaves. That means 2-4 out of every ten people in that culture was a slave. Indeed, we might think that the empire could not survive without an emperor, but actually, it would have done just fine. It would, however, have collapsed in a day without its slaves. They were everything from low laborers to house and state managers to doctors. The entire culture was dependent upon their submission to their authorities, and without that submission, Rome would have fallen apart because the fruit of the kingdom was dependent upon their loyalty to their tasks at hand.
Because the promise of the new covenant, as we have seen, look more like they are the curses of the old covenant in this world, a radical reversal in Jesus' teaching that not only promises suffering but makes it the primary catalyst through which the faithful are transformed into those who long for and are fit for the world to come, the question becomes, What role should Christians play in the world when it comes to the nations in which they reside? Are they to seek to take over them either through the gospel or some other means? In other words, do we see in the Bible that it is God's goal to use Christians, through whatever means, to take over the nations, and should they actively be talking about and seeking to do that?
There is, of course, a prophetic voice that Christians can play, but the question becomes what the content of the message should be as well as how that message should be delivered to those who are in authority over them.
It is not a mystery as to what the content of the message is. Throughout Acts, the apostles come into contact with their pagan leaders and their message is singular to them. God has fulfilled His promise of salvation through Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead. All are now called to repent for the forgiveness of their sins and live righteously in that hope.
In other words, they preached the gospel. They weren't preaching about taking over the nations. We know this because we don't believe the apostles are liars and lying about what their message is. Preaching about taking over nations and making them Christian nations would have been treason. Yet, the entirety of the Book of Acts makes a literary argument that Christians are not preaching that message. Hence, the leaders should conclude with Agrippa's council after hearing Paul's defense of the gospel and what he is actually preaching, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment" (Acts 26:31).
Now, one might say, "Well, the taking over nations is implicit," but the pagan leaders aren't that stupid to miss the implicatures if they were there. It is clear that the message of the apostles is strictly religious in nature. In other words, whether the entire nation were the believer it or whether only a few believe it, the apostles do not have the goal to change the culture of the nations in which they reside. If all became Christians, certainly that would change the culture, but that is not the goal of the apostles. Rather, their goal is to save all sorts of people, as many as have been appointed to eternal life, by calling all men everywhere to repent from their idolatry and believe the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 17:30). "For this is what the Lord commanded us: 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may be bring salvation to the ends of the earth." That salvation is not ambiguous. It's not talking about the redemption of culture, but the individual forgiveness of sins and redemption of that life both now and on the day of judgment. In other words, although cultural change would surely take place IF everyone repented, the goal is restoration to God through Christ in the hope of the resurrection for the world to come, not the changing of this world, whether that were to occur as a byproduct or not.
Hence, the commands given to Christians are not to become loud voices for social change in their communities. It's not to become political critics of policies or preach moralism to the pagans when they are not fulfilling their role God laid out for nations in Genesis 9, which I discussed previously. It recognizes that the world is dark, the devil has rule of it, and men need to be transferred out of its citizenship rather than stay in it and rearrange the furniture in a burning house (Acts 26:17; Eph 2:1-3, 12, 19-20; Col 1:13-14).
And this is significant since the Romans are not fulfilling their role as government in so many ways. They are in other ways, but in terms of protecting children, not waging wars of conquest, unjustly enslaving people, etc., they are a far cry from being what they should be. Yet, the apostolic message does not include a critique of their failure to govern as God has commanded in Genesis 9 and an encouragement to do so. We might say it would be fine to include it in a rebuke that preceded the gospel since law before gospel is something they do preach (cf. Acts 17). However, there is never a goal to change the government moralistically. There is no condemnation that they aren't using the Mosaic lawcode or biblical law as their standards to govern their nations. That's because the apostles aren't sent with that message. They aren't sent with that purpose. They are sent to save men.
Paul, therefore, commands all Christian men to pray as follows.
Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. 9 I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. A woman should learn in quietness and full submission . . .
In other words, pray for the individual salvation of everyone and pray not only for leaders to be saved but that they may not persecute you as a Christian so that you can live out your Christian life QUIETLY. Notice, that you might live a quiet life, a life not filled with conflict between you and government because they are not coming down on you. How would one live a quiet life, however, if he's commanded to change the culture and involve himself in culture wars? It would not depend solely on the government, so praying for it to get off your back wouldn't have the effect of you living a quiet life anyway. But here, it does. That's because Christians aren't called to get involved in culture wars and make political changes in government. Certainly, a Christian can do that on his own, but this isn't the goal and message of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A Christian can decide to change the way shoes are made or invent a new way to travel. Great. That isn't the goal and purpose of God in the gospel and therefore it is not the message the church should spend its time speaking to the world and to Christians.
Peter states that all are to be subject to every HUMAN authority (1 Pet 2:13-15). He uses the phrase every human authority to let Christians know that human authority is God's authority and to be in subjection to it is to preach the gospel message to those in authority without opening the mouth. This is repeated to women who are under men who are not obedient to God's Word. They are to win over their husbands, not by critiquing their wayward government over them but rather "without a word by the way you live when they see your pure and reverent conduct" (1 Pet 3:1-2). In other words, as we show that we honor and fear the authorities placed over us, we preach, without a word, that the gospel is true because when normally men would want to protest, we have come into a control of our tongues and lives believing that Jesus is Lord and trusting in Him and the hope He gives us, and so we do not protest but rather submit to even unjust governments.
Hence, Peter argues that God wants us to be in submission to human authorities, whether kings or lower all lower authorities over us, because by doing so we "silence the ignorance of foolish men by doing good" (2:15). Notice, not with words of protest, critique, sitting around on Youtube talking about taking over governments and making them Christian, but by our good deed of being a fully loyal and submissive servant of the human authority that we honor that does not complain about it, we establish the truth of the gospel before it is preached with words. And then what is that gospel? God has brought about the salvation He promised in the prophets through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in whom we now may receive the forgiveness of our sin by repentance and loyalty to Him.
Hence, Peter commands, "Keep your behavior excellent among the pagans, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation" (1 Pet 2:12).
In other words, the goal of every Christian is to preach the gospel and adorn it with their complete submission, honor, and conduct in the world as they lead quiet lives of devotion to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. When given opportunity, they preach the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection and call people to repent and give their allegiance to Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
They don't go on and on blabbering about how we need a Christian prince because the authorities we have now just don't cut it. Does that sound respectful to you? Does it sound loyal? Imagine if Daniel were to be constantly talking to other people about how Nebuchadnezzar is not as good as an Israelite king who would rule so much better and so much more in accordance with God's law. Maybe an Israelite king would be better, but that would be seen as treasonous and shameful conduct for Daniel to conduct himself in such ways when he is under the particular authority of a non-Israelite king. Loyalty and submission to an authority a Christian is under is a greater witness to the world of Christ's sovereignty than complaining about current authorities and talking about making all things Christian. In other words, those who talk about culture change are just complainers and rebellious men who testify to the world the same thing that everyone else does, i.e., when things don't go as they like, since they are their own masters and Christ does not rule over them, they complain about it and protest that those things they don't like should change. I can get that from spoiled children. The Bible calls us to a better witness to adorn the actual message we should be proclaiming, which isn't Christian nationalism but rather Jesus Christ and Him crucified and resurrected.
In short, maybe Christians need to shut up more. Maybe they need to sit down when they want to stand up because although standing up will get changes made, sitting down causes a different kind of change that God wants to happen in the midst of a messed-up culture and bad leadership. Maybe quite conduct is a louder message that speaks to a world beyond the concerns of this one. Maybe we need more Christian slaves than princes.
