Thought for the Day 16/04/21 - Living life two steps behind

 AUDIO

Let me be honest ... I'm not a great Royalist.

But even I haven't failed to notice, with a certain sadness, the passing of a very major Royal, who is now due to be buried tomorrow.

Prince Phillip hasn't had the easiest of lives, let's face it.

• He had a terrible family background.
  
  
• He never lived in his family home after the age of eight.
  
  
• His family were refugees from Greece.
  
  
• His mother lost her mind and was committed to an asylum (as that's what happened in those days).
  
  
• His father dropped her like a hot rock and Phillip grew up in one brutal school followed by another.
  
  
• He needed a stable family setting and he finally found love with the princess who so very soon became Queen and has stayed the Queen longer than any other British monarch in history.
  
  
• And then at her coronation he had to kneel before his wife, do her abeisance and 
  
  
• He's been the longest serving consort in British history ... the MASTER of doing what propriety demanded and walking two steps behind His Queen.
  

A vigorous man physically, emotionally and mentally, this wouldn't come to him naturally: living two steps behind throughout his marriage to a Queen.

Seventy. Three. Years of it.

Whatever we make of the monarchy we have to say that Prince Philip appears to have paid quite  a personal price for giving honour where he thought honour was due.

After the childhood he had, and the war that he had ... how would you have felt about that?!

And how do you feel about our Verse for the Day?

"Give to everyone what you owe them: 

    if you owe taxes, pay taxes; 

        if revenue, then revenue; 

            if respect, then respect; 

                if honour, then honour."

                                  Romans 13:7

Surely this all raises the question ... how do you feel about bowing to authority, about living your life two steps behind?

It's an important question for all of us who live in any sort of ordered society, and respecting proper authority  lies at the heart of a Christian committment.

Jesus's repeated call to fishermen, priestly renegades and tax collectors, rich and poor people alike was to acknowledge that the Kingdom of God had come in the person of Him - King Jesus - and to turn their lives around to follow along behind Him.

And this following ... it's the language of discipleship in the New Testament ... is NOT in this case an affront to our human dignity, but a matter of giving honour where honour is due.

And it's not just to His authority that we give all due honour as followers of His, but also to those others He puts in positions that also require it because they carry His authority delegated to their function.

So here's how Paul puts it in the verses we've been talking about ...

"This is also why you pay taxes, 

for the authorities are God’s servants, 

who give their full time to governing. 

Give to everyone what you owe them: 

    if you owe taxes, pay taxes; 

        if revenue, then revenue; 

            if respect, then respect; 

                if honour, then honour."

                                  Romans 13:6-7

Firstly, give everyone 'what you owe them' ... their dues.

What sort of thing does Paul MEAN what he talks of their 'dues'?

Helpfully, here's a list that follows in those verses of things that might constitute their dues, and some of them would have been hard for those Roman readers of these verses to swallow:

• Taxes

This was the Tribute, the annual tax levied by the Roman Empire on houses, lands, and persons.

• Revenue

This was the toll, the custom an indirect tax on goods, ungraduated taxation that hurt the poor somewhat more than the rich.

• Respect

The word is φόβος (phobos) which means fear ... reverence for those that you must stand in awe of.

And then, finally, comes honour.

• Honour 

The Greek word for honour here is the honour which one has by reason of rank and office which is held ... it amounts to both deference and reverence.

Keeping up two steps behind

All this amounts to taking second place and being ready to walk two steps behind ... two steps behind King Jesus but also two steps behind the people that God puts in positions where He wants you to walk two steps behind them FOR HIS SAKE!

Two steps behind Him is one thing.

Two steps behind other humans that He delegates authority to, is clearly another level of challenge altogether.

The Point

To be a Christian, from the first, was to be a follower of Jesus ... and that means putting ourselves behind Him in every way.

But look, how much honour is actually DUE to King Jesus?

Well ... quite!

So that's why we are HONOURED to walk as close as two steps behind this King!

The Takeaway

We live in a world that idolilses the individual and hails self-serving as the highest moral 'good'.

• Following Christ recognises that it isn't our due to come first in this world.
  
  
• Following Jesus recognise Him, and therefore readily de-prioritises 'me'.

Recognising the honour that is due to King Jesus, readily follows two steps behind.