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Faith

Leveraging your citizenship

Jesus did not possess powerful relatives; he did not hold an official position conferring power; he did not have patronage from powerful people; he did not have access to a stash of wealth. His power came entirely from within, and that makes it seem somehow wrong for one of his followers to attempt to take advantage of any sort of power other than power which comes directly from Jesus and the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

On the other hand, it also seems wrong for us to refuse to use in God’s service the tools and talents which God has given us, including any earthly sources of power. On several occasions, the apostle Paul was able to use his Roman citizenship to his advantage, including the occasion reported in Acts chapter 22, when he exercised his right as a Roman citizen to avoid being flogged without first being found guilty of an offence.

Earlier, in chapter 16, Paul and Silas had also proclaimed their Roman citizenship, but surprisingly on that occasion they had waited until after their beating and imprisonment before saying anything. What, if anything, can be drawn from these two incidents? Perhaps the conclusion that there is nothing wrong about using worldly sources of power, but those worldly powers are unlikely to have any significant influence on the advancement of God’s kingdom, which relies exclusively on heavenly power.