God's Flowchart

I ask you to imagine what people call a flowchart. Very often the chart has boxes, one at the top and others below, which, as they descend, represent lesser and lesser authority until it reaches the furthest down of those having no authority at all. A flowchart visually maps out processes that involve different decision-making points, approvals, or roles with specific responsibilities.

God is sovereign, so He is in authority over every other institution. In fact, God Himself created those institutions in the boxes under His solitary box at the top of all others. Everything is under Him. In that next line of boxes under Him are the family, government, work, and the church. Because God is over all, none of the institutions in fact contradict or conflict with any of the other, as long as each submit to God. Someone once told me, “Duties never conflict.” That’s not in the Bible, but I believe that it is true, again, if each institution submits to God.

For instance, regarding government, the Apostle Peter said in Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” People should disobey government when it means disobeying God. What would Peter and others go ahead and do in disobedience to government, one of God’s created institutions? The government ordered Peter and other men not to preach the gospel in Jerusalem. Peter was saying, “We’re going to go ahead and preach the gospel.” The government doesn’t have to tell most Christians not to do that. They’ll volunteer.

What about something like faithfulness to church services? Does that conflict with these other institutions: work, family, or government? You work during church or your family schedules activities during church? I don’t think the government stops church attendance yet. I’m asking you to consider God’s flowchart, what it means.