How do we navigate earthly authority while remaining faithful to God's commands?

Jeffrey D. Johnson emphasizes the importance of recognizing the authority God has given us by creating us in His image. As believers, we are called to protect and care for our families, ensuring their physical and spiritual well-being. This responsibility means we must carefully discern any actions or commands that could potentially harm our loved ones. Johnson points out that no one, not even governing authorities, has the right to compel us to act against our conscience when it comes to the health and safety of our families.

Our duty to love and protect our families aligns with the broader command to love God and our neighbor. This love sometimes requires resisting directives that contradict our understanding of God's will, especially when such directives could harm our children or ourselves. Johnson reminds us that true love does not submit to harm but rather seeks the good of others, even if it means standing against powerful earthly authorities. Our ultimate allegiance is to God's commands, which guide us in making decisions rooted in love and care.

Acts 5:29 (NKJV): "But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: 'We ought to obey God rather than men.'"

No one can tell you to hurt yourself because God gives you authority that you're made in the image of God. So anything that you're not convinced is going to be for the betterment of your soul and your body. You don't submit to anything that would be detriment to the destruction of your children. If a guy come to my house and says, I'm going to kill your kids, I mean, I'm going to protect my family. If the government says you're going to have to take this vaccine, and I view it and my conscience says this is going to be detrimental to their health, I cannot submit to something that I know or at least in my conscience thinks potentially dangerous to the health of my children.

I have to resist Because I love my children and God has called me to protect my children and to submit my children or myself or my wife or my family to something that is detrimental to their spiritual or physical health is to hate them. And I'm called to protect them and to love them. And so no earthy authority has the right to tell me or to tell any of us to go against God's commands. And it's God's command for us to love God and love our neighbor.