THE NET OF FAITH
by Peter Chelčický
translated by Rev. Enrico Molnár
CHAPTER 56
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4
Saint Paul goes on to say:
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good.[451]
Here we are always caught between the fences, as it were, when we look to the interpretations of the Church of Rome (derived from the Emperor), and it is difficult to get to the true intention of Saint Paul’s meaning. [ The Church applies these words to any authority and any prince. This interpretation caused the enslavement of the people. But Paul always spoke of the rulers who lived before the time of Jesus Christ, who were not Christian, and when as yet nobody ever heard of the Christians. The Church gives her interpretation in order to please the rulers and thus to induce them to join her. But in Paul’s days the pagan rulers persecuted the Christians. Having those cruel princes in mind, Paul says to the Christians: “Obey your authorities, do good, and do not antagonize the authorities against yourselves.” ]
And concerning the sentence, “rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad,” we must remember that the rulers were pagans. How then could they be able to distinguish between good and bad deeds? [ The Roman rulers and princes knew legal goodness only. That is, they were concerned with checking crass injustices, violence, theft, disputes, murders, robber bands, bandits, and adulteries. They checked these evils by their authority of compulsion. If they did not do so, their kingdom would perish. ]
For even among pagans peacefulness is a great virtue… The gospel praises the saintly people Zechariah and Elisabeth that they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.[452] They lived virtuously, for no one sued them and they in turn did not dispute with anyone. Therefore, nobody could bring complaint against them, unless it was done by false witness and jealousy. That is what Saint Paul means when he says, “the rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.”
CHAPTER 57
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
[ The justice and righteousness according to Christ is an altogether different matter. The pagans do not understand it and, therefore, persecute its adherents. ] Paul could not have said, “Do good, and you shall be praised for it.” Both Christ and his apostles did good, yet they did not ingratiate themselves to the authorities. Instead, they were put to death because of their good works. Saint Paul did nothing but good, professing in Rome the name of Christ; he did not ingratiate himself to Nero nor did he win his praises, but on the contrary lost his life by his order. [ Do good, says Paul, and you shall receive the approval not of the authorities but of God. The apostle well makes a distinction between the justice of faith and that of the rulers when he says, ]
Among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.[453]
[ They crucified him even though he brought people back to life. They hated his message and the Christians of Rome had to separate on that account from the pagan rulers. This gave them freedom to resist authorities by virtue of the same principle that made the Jews of the old days resist the compulsion of Nebuchadnezzar, Ahasuerus, and Antiochus.[454] They were morally obligated to obey the authority of God, even though that meant their death at the hands of the secular authority. ]
CHAPTER 58
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
[ Faith in Jesus Christ was the real cause of persecutions of the Christian community in Rome. They were a small minority in the midst of a pagan majority. ] However, God ruled over the Christians, the pagans, and their mighty emperors. For the pagans could not pluck even a hair from the heads of the faithful without His will.[455] Therefore, if they were killed, it was in accordance with His will; He wanted to test His servants and to magnify their glory through their martyrdom; He did not tempt them beyond their strength, but provided, along with the temptation, also a way of escape, that they might be able to endure it.[456] [ In this way the pagans were an instrument of the faith of Christ hidden in the hands of God. But the true faith is always unknown and hidden to the rulers and pagans as well as the unfaithful Christians. ] The knowledge and the wisdom of the faith of Christ is hidden from those who seek God in a painted wall, and no one can discover this hidden secret unless it is given from above, by God. Being hidden and secret it is contrary to the world and the world despises it. A world faithfully praying to painted walls cannot know God. This world, which seeks God on the surface, is like a goat gnawing the outer bark of a willow; the power and aliveness of faith is hidden from it.
Therefore, speaking of faith, it is wrong to say, “Do what is good, and you will be praised for it,”[457] unless the life of faith had preserved the Christians. They may have received praise from other (faithful), but none from Emperor Nero.
CHAPTER 59
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
To this Paul adds, “The servant of God is for your good.” On this word hangs all the assurance of the Church, and the Church Doctors deduce from it all ecclesiastical authority to the great comfort of the powerful priesthood. They say that with these words St. Paul confirmed the position of Christ’s servant with the sword, namely, the supreme lord the Emperor, for the benefit and protection of the great and holy mother – the Church of Rome – and of all the sons born of her, in order that she and her sons might not suffer the untowardness of the cross, that she be not bothered by contrary winds, that he might bear her temptations with his sword, to enable her to recite her matins unmolested, and to sing and direct her litanies and praises to God.
Therefore, let no one rebuke the servant of God and of the sword, for the servant of God is a very great blessing to the Church. The sword of the servant of God is the peace of the Church. Let no one blame the hosts of knights for they exist for the good of the Church; let no one criticize the burgomasters, the councilors, the bailiffs, the executioners, the town-halls, the jails, the bilboes, or the racks, for all these are the instruments of the servant of God. With them he does the will of God and a service to the Church, the power of governing and of executing is the foundation of the wealth and self-sufficiency of the Church.
The apostles of the original Church of Christ were all bearing the weapons of executive and punitive authority on their necks, on their sides, and on their bodies,[458] they were bathed in blood and condemned to death by the instruments of the executioner for the name of Christ; and now these same instruments are for the protection of the Church, used for the shedding of the blood of those who resist the Church and who criticize her avariciousness and simony through the truth of the gospel of Christ!
CHAPTER 60
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
[ Let us go to the Scripture to see what is meant by the expression “servant of God.” It cannot be given the sole meaning that the Church of Rome attaches to it. In the Scripture we find the words: ]
You established the earth and it stood fast. By your ordinances they stand today, for all things are your servants.[459]
All things serve God which do His will… God wills it that birds should exist until the end of the world; and so a bird builds a nest, lays eggs and brings up little birds; in doing this it fulfills the will of God, and the bird is a “servant of God.” It is God’s will that men multiply by birth; therefore, when a woman bears the children of men, she does the will of God and is His servant… Good men and bad men do the will of God, some better, some worse… But how could that pagan, the Emperor of Rome, the unfaithful idolater, the murderer and persecutor of the apostles and many faithful Christians, be called a servant of God? [ They who live by faith are the true servants of God. He is the sovereign of the world, ruling over peoples and kings. ] The Scripture says:
Listen, therefore, kings, and understand. Pay attention, rulers of the people, who boast of multitudes of nations, for your dominion was given you from the Lord, and your sovereignty from the Most High. He will examine your works and inquire into your plans, for though you are servants of his kingdom, you have not judged rightly or kept the Law or followed the will of God.[460]
Many a king does not know the King of Heaven, but he still is like a plough in the hands of the ploughman; the plough does not know what the ploughman intends. [ The people of the earth are evil and would devour each other, did not the kings maintain some sort of order. ]
God uses (the rulers) as a plaster on an abscess, so that the evils will not spread. If this medicine does not help, He sends other kings in their stead, as He had done with the stiff-necked Jews…
CHAPTER 61
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
[ With all their evils, are kings servants of God? The Bible gives the answer: ] Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, was a great king and a very evil tyrant. And yet, God ordered all the earth to submit to the power of the King of Babylon… Therefore, when the Jews hardened and refused to obey the will of God, He ordered the prophet Jeremiah to say to the Jews:
Because you have not listened to my words, behold, I am sending for a family from the north, and will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and will make them a horror, a scorn, and an everlasting reproach; and I will banish from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness.[461]
Nebuchadnezzar was a servant of God in that he … became an instrument of His wrath. [ That is why Paul calls the evil and cruel kings “servants of God.” But this does not mean that the priests of the Church should praise these Caesars and emulate their deeds and techniques, incorporating them as an article of faith into a system for the defense of the Church. ]
CHAPTER 62
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
[ However, the arguments of the Church and of her wise doctors in defense of authority are not Christian. ]
Therefore, no Christian should deviate from the path of faith in order to follow the Emperor and his sword, for indeed, the way of Christ has not been repealed just because the Emperor is “Christian.” In the beginning, the Christians were obligated to follow Christ in patience and humility, and they were expected to persevere in this even under the Emperors. If they have rejected patience for the purpose of defending the Emperor, they have been seduced from faith by the Emperor; they no longer are of the faith of Christ but of the faith of the Emperor. He introduced the religion of the sword to the Christians. These were formerly beaten for the sake of Christ and were rewarded by him; now they stand guard with a sword, and expect to be rewarded by the Emperor. Where Caesar is, there they are too. Man shall be rewarded fittingly in accordance with what he believes.
CHAPTER 63
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
[ We cannot be true servants of God unless we follow the precepts of Christ. Secular authority is too much confused with evil and violence. Christ said, ]
If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.[462]
Therefore, to serve God according to Christ’s faith means to follow his example in patience, in humility, in poverty, and in saving work. It is an extraordinary thing that the world cannot recognize this service; neither can an evil man recognize it, but only he whom He chooses; for it depends on the true love of God – a love which the world has not, knows not, and cannot comprehend, since it is filled with evil graces contrary to the Divine love. A dirty barrel … cannot be a fitting container for new wine; similarly, the service of God cannot be confused with the ways of this world… [ Serve God, or serve Nero and the pope – you cannot serve both. ]
CHAPTER 64
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
Says Saint Paul about the servants:
If you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrong-doer.[463]
[ The pagan ruler, says Paul, is the rod of God’s anger, and therefore His servant. ] It would be little virtue, akin to pagan virtue, if the Christians were doing good only because of fearing the sword. Before this (passage) Paul wrote them about fear saying,
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba, Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that also we may be glorified with him.[464]
He who does good because of the fear of the sword may save his physical life, (from the threat of the sword). Therefore, I have said that Saint Paul, considering the inclination of this people to do good works by the grace of God, spoke about the sword on account of an especial carefulness and goodwill toward the lords to whom they were subordinated. But had this people been living in the Promised Land, like the sons of Israel in their days of freedom, when they had no secular lord with authority over them, Saint Paul would never have written that they ought to do good and to eschew evil in the fear of the sword. For they had too good a rule given them by the apostles, and had no need to be prodded to goodness by the authority of the sword… [ Paul certainly did not act contrary to the feelings of Samuel who regretted that the Jews preferred a king to freedom under God.[465] He simply urged them to show Christian submission to their rulers, and to suffer their injustice with Christ-like patience. ] The non-Christians, fearing the retribution of the sword, do not transgress the laws of their king. [ In this way the kings are serving God ] for they preserve from annihilation the fallen generation [ keeping it for God’s own time. ] God alone knows why he wants to have this generation saved and maintained by paganism.
CHAPTER 65
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
[ The pagans do good only because they are driven by fear of punishment. ] That is why Saint Paul warns the Christians: “Be good and beware lest you fall into the hands of the pagans.” No great harm is done when pagans sue pagans; they know no better way… [ But when Christians commit some wrong and are tried in pagan courts, they appeal to pagan authority and confess that their faith is impotent to solve disputes. They are, in fact, renouncing the authority of Christ and expect a verdict from the authority of the sword; and this is to be avoided. ]
CHAPTER 66
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONTINUED)
Our own authorities are pagan… Our secularized priesthood loves authority, as it guarantees an easy life of comfort. [ And, since the Church has allied itself with the secular authority, the injunction that St. Paul made to the faithful in Rome is not valid any more. For the Church herself has become a secular power. She defends herself in the same way as any state does. ] The admonition, “do good if you do not want to fear the authority,” has become pointless because … both the state and church authority have lost the moral right to punish evil … when they themselves are steeped in all evils… All they care about … is that (the Christians) attend masses, vigils, and other formal ceremonies. The Church authority stakes the salvation of all on masses … and eternal prayers; she intermittently sings psalms for the dead; in the end she always sings them out of hell… Now this authority has nothing left with which to threaten, because she can redeem the dead souls from hell by her ceremonious acts.
CHAPTER 67
INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:3-4 (CONCLUSION)
[ The Church has completely lost her moral right of judgment. She has become a fortress of authority and her strong ammunition is provided by her learned Doctors and Fathers who – with the cunning use of Biblical texts – sanction her revenges, wars, and murders. ] As if we could not see that she does not follow the law when she busies her self with reprisals and wars; whenever she has some hosts available she fights and murders.
[451] Romans 13:3-4, RSV.
[452] Luke 1:6.
[453] 1 Corinthians 2:6-8.
[455] Acts 27:34.
[456] 1 Corinthians 10:13.
[457] Romans 13:4.
[458] Acts 28:20.
[459] Psalm 119:90f, AT.
[460] Wisdom of Solomon, 6:2-5, AT.
[461] Jeremiah 25:8-10, AT.
[462] John 12:26, RSV.
[463] Romans 13:4, RSV.
[464] Romans 8:15-17, RSV.
[465] 1 Samuel 8; Cf. page 93.