James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Who Governs You?

From Steve Scott:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 [Emphasis mine]

It is interesting that Scripture paints controlling one's self, i.e. governing one's self, as the very fruit of the Spirit. Neither family government, nor church government, nor civil government are the fruit of the Spirit. But self-government is. It is also very interesting that, according to God, there is no law against the fruit of the Spirit. No law at all. Imagine that. Nobody can legislate against the Holy Spirit. But what about civil government laws that are against the fruit of the Spirit? Well, God's word tells us. There is "no law" against such things. If something is against good fruit, then it is "no law" at all, and we aren't bound to obey it.

And from Vache Folle:
I was complaining that my town spent tax dollars on frivolities like Christmas trees and lights, and one woman remarked that she liked it when her town had those things. I asked her if she liked it so much that she would be willing to hire armed goons to shake her neighbors down for the money to do it. Another conspecific chimed in and said that my characterization was unfair because, as he put it, “you can say thing about anything government does”. “Precisely!” said I. We should have the state do only those things that we consider so important that we would be willing to set goons on our neighbors to get them done. “That’s the problem with democracy,” mused my conspecific. “We don’t think about what we are doing in those terms.”

1 comment:

  1. well chosen tidbits - but the bread and circuses crowd controls the seat of power, not religion or wisdom. The idea that the powers that be can use force, while the people must follow volumes and volumes of inaccessible law make the system unresponsive to everyone. However, the impending economic collapse should level the playing field - if you're not dead, you're on your own wits for survival.
    If we do lose the economy in a blink, then the immediate official response will likely be knee-jerk. In other words - look out below.

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