Good Government as Our Daily Bread

Praying for Good Government as Part of Our Daily Bread

In 1 Timothy 2:1-2, the apostle Paul calls on the Church to pray and give thanks for all people, especially "for kings and all who are in authority," so that the Christians "may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence."

In his Small Catechism--based on texts like 1 Timothy 2--Luther teaches that "good government," along with "pious and faithful magistrates," is part of our daily bread for which we pray in the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." According to Luther, the government and government officials ("magistrates") belong to "daily bread" because they belong to "the support and wants of the body," i.e., the things that are necessary to keep our bodies alive while we live here on earth.

In his longer exposition of the Fourth Petition in his Large Catechism, Luther explains why "good government" is necessary to keep our bodies alive in a fallen world:

Now for our life it is not only necessary that our body have food and covering and other necessaries, but also that we spend our days in peace and quiet among the people with whom we live and have intercourse in daily business and conversation and all sorts of doings, in short, whatever pertains both to the domestic and to the neighborly or civil relation and government.

. . . there is, indeed, the greatest need to pray for temporal authority and government, as that by which most of all God preserves to us our daily bread and all the comforts of this life. For though we have received of God all good things in abundance, we are not able to retain any of them or use them in security and happiness, if He did not give us a permanent and peaceful government. For where there are dissension, strife, and war, there the daily bread is already taken away, or at least checked. . . . How much trouble there is now in the world only on account of bad coin, yea, on account of daily oppression and raising of prices in common trade, bargaining and labor on the part of those who wantonly oppress the poor and deprive them of their daily bread!

"Good government" is therefore a good gift of God the Creator of heaven and earth, as Luther explained in his exposition of the First Article of the Apostles Creed in the Large Catechism.

We need to pray for this good gift daily because enjoying the benefit of "good government" is not something that happens naturally. It's also not something that we enjoy all the time. Indeed, "good government" is not something that human beings can bring about and preserve by themselves.

Why? In his exposition of the Fourth Petition in the Large Catechism, Luther points chiefly to the devil: Because he'd rather see us dead--Christ calls him "a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44)--the devil does not want us to enjoy our daily bread in peace. As a result, he tries to subvert good government and turn it into bad government, that is, a government that promotes "dissension, strife, and war," along with the oppression of the poor, so that daily bread is taken away from us.

In addition to the devil, we should also add our sinful nature and the sinful world as two forces who do what they can to undermine good government--and the peaceful enjoyment of our daily bread--because they, in general, strive against God and his good and gracious will. Here we can specifically think of what the apostle Paul calls the "works of the flesh," that is, what comes "natural" to our fallen, sinful nature (Galatians 5:19-21): "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like." Evidently, all these activities undermine the peaceful life together. If the government, instead of checking these, were to foster and inflame them, there would be more "dissension, strife, and war," more oppression of the poor, and less daily bread, that is, the things we need for the support of the body.

In short, then, we must pray for good government because we need it but cannot establish or maintain it on our own, given these powerful enemies of good government. In the preface to his 1519 exposition of the Lord's Prayer for simple laymen, Luther therefore called the Lord's Prayer's seven petitions "seven good lessons and exhortations" and, in fact, "seven reminders of our wretchedness and poverty by means of which man, led to a knowledge of self, can see what a miserable and perilous life he leads here on earth" (Am. Ed. 42:27). Luther here drew on the teachings of Cyprian of Carthage, a third-century North African bishop and theologian, who--in his treatise on the Lord's Prayer--taught that the entire Lord's Prayer is summarized in the seventh petition, "Deliver us from evil."

Good Government Is God's Instrument of Peace and Justice in His Fallen Creation

What then does Luther mean by "good government"? Put differently, what makes government good? No doubt, all sorts of people have all sorts of ideas about this. Some, for instance, might think that any government is good. Others might think that government is good when it is good for them--for instance by providing for their needs or by simply leaving them alone. Others still will have political or economic preferences: A government is good if it is a democracy, a monarchy, an aristocracy--or if it has adopted a capitalist, socialist, or feudal economic set-up, for instance. Or some might think that a government is good if members of one's own group run it--members of one's religious group (e.g., Christians) or members of one's own ethnic/racial group (e.g., Whites).

Yet as far as Luther is concerned, the previous section already gives us the big picture of what he has in mind here based on God's Word: Good government is a government that does its part in delivering us from evil. It does so by keeping and restoring the peace--both within society and in a state's "foreign" relations--so that we can enjoy the other good gifts of the Creator, such as food, clothing, children, and housing.

Peace, however, is also a gift of the Creator, as Luther noted in his exposition of the First Article in the Large Catechism. How does this fit together? Why do we need government to give us peace if God gives us peace? Is there some type of competition between God and the government, so that Christians should choose to get peace directly from God, not from the government?

This is a very important point for understanding the Bible--and Luther's theology--because it touches on how God works in this world. Ordinarily, God works through created means instead of intervening in some direct way. God therefore gives the gift of peace by mean of government.

In his exposition of the First Commandment in the Large Catechism, Luther put it this way:

[E]ven though otherwise we experience much good from men, still whatever we receive by His command or arrangement is all received from God. For our parents, and all rulers, and every one besides with respect to his neighbor, have received from God the command that they should do us all manner of good, so that we receive these blessings not from them, but, through them, from God. For creatures are only the hands, channels, and means whereby God gives all things, as He gives to the mother breasts and milk to offer to her child, and corn and all manner of produce from the earth for nourishment, none of which blessings could be produced by any creature of itself.

Therefore no man should presume to take or give anything except as God has commanded, in order that it may be acknowledged as God’s gift, and thanks may be rendered Him for it, as this commandment requires. On this account also these means of receiving good gifts through creatures are not to be rejected, neither should we in presumption seek other ways and means than God has commanded. For that would not be receiving from God, but seeking of ourselves.

All creatures--including "our parents, and all rulers, and every one besides with respect to his neighbor"--have the command to function as God's "hands, channels, and means whereby God gives all things." We should therefore thank God for giving us his gifts in this way--by means of other creatures. We should not look for ways to obtain God's gifts apart from the means God has instituted.

God ordinarily works through creatures. This is true when it comes to our salvation which was won by the Son of God made Son of Man. Salvation is bestowed by the Holy Spirit through the means of the audible, spoken human word, as well as the water of baptism and the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper.

Yet this is also true for our daily bread, i.e., the things that keep our bodies alive. In his lecture on Psalm 127, Luther therefore describes the government (and all other creatures) as an instrument and tool God has chosen to use to bestow his gifts--including peace--on others.

Yet, as Luther explains in this lecture, understanding creatures as God's instruments does not mean passivity or laziness on part of the government or on part of any of the creatures who are to function as God's "hands, channels, and means." For instance, farmers will not harvest anything if they leave their tractors and combines in the shed, if they do not sow or harvest, and just wait for God to give them gifts without their activity. So, they must plan and work as much and as well as they can.

At the same time, they must not put their trust in their work or their planning as if their efforts would ensure success without God's blessing. God is the One who grants success to human labor when it pleases him--a harvest in the case of farmers, peace in the case of government. So, all who work in this world for the good of their neighbor--that's everybody, whether on the farm, in a factory or an office, in the home, or in government--must put their trust in God the Creator, not in themselves, to grant success to their efforts.

God therefore works in creation just as he works in salvation: He works by grace through faith in Christ in salvation (Ephesians 2). He works by grace through works of love serving the neighbor in creation. And as pointed out before, the specific service the government provides to its neighbor--all those who live within the scope of the government's authority--is the preservation and restoration of outward peace.

As I explain in my book on God's masks, government is to do so by acting virtuously according to the Ten Commandments which are summarized in love of God and neighbor. What does this mean? To put it briefly, the government is to ensure that its people live according to the Ten Commandments while at the same time acting according to the Ten Commandments. Government therefore is to see to it that its people live according to God's law. Yet government itself is also called to act according to God's law.

The Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20) are a summary of God's moral or natural law written into the hearts of all people. They set forth how everybody should act toward God and the neighbor. They are summarized in love (Matthew 7:12; 22:37-40; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14). They are therefore not specifically "Christian," i.e., having to do with saving faith in Christ (which makes us Christians)--although Christ, as the incarnate Word of God made flesh, perfectly lived according to his own moral law.

Importantly, the Ten Commandments are formulated in both negative and positive terms, e.g., "you shall have no other gods" (negative) and "honor your father and your mother" (positive). Because they are summarized in love, Luther understood that all commandments have a negative side expressing what we should not do and a positive side expressing what we should do. You can see this for instance in his exposition of the Ten Commandments in the Small Catechism.

In his exposition of Psalm 82, Luther applied the positive side of the Ten Commandments to government by summarizing them in three main virtues: promoting God's Word, protecting the poor, and a providing a military defense against external enemies. These three virtues correspond to three honorific titles for government officials: saviors, fathers, and deliverers.

How should these virtues look in practice? For instance, when it comes to protecting the poor--the paternal virtue of government--there are two aspects, which Luther distinguished as a human and a divine virtue. The human virtue in this area of government activity is to provide material assistance to the needy. For instance, the government should provide food and medical care to the poor and others in need. Luther pointed to the example of Joseph in Egypt as a model for government action: As he gathered grain in the seven good years to have grain to sell during the seven bad years (Genesis 41:46-57), so governments in Luther's day should establish grain stores to provide emergency food supplies in keeping with "the order of the Holy Spirit" to kings and princes.

While this type of governmental activity is already virtuous and therefore worthy of praise, the truly divine virtue of the government in this area of paternal care for its people was to enact laws and regulations that would prevent people from becoming poor in the first place. By making and preserving just laws, the government becomes a partaker of God's divine majesty and helps God do "divine and superhuman works," as Luther put it (Am. Ed. 13:54).

It is easy to see how a well-regulated society where the poor and the needy are provided for in dignity and where just laws prevent people from becoming poor in the first place is a society where life can be lived in peace.

But it's also easy to see how an overly zealous pursuit of acting on the Ten Commandments in a fallen world can undermine social peace and lead to civil war, as Luther experienced in his own time when peasants went to war against their landlords. This is why Luther emphasized the role of prudence in government.

Prudence was understood as "the charioteer of all virtues," that is, as the virtue who guided the interaction of the various virtues--e.g., justice, courage, moderation--so that social peace would be restored or preserved. Its biblical equivalent is love that does no harm to the neighbor. This is why Luther spoke about prudence in his sermon on Romans 13:8-10.

Prudence considers the concrete situation--persons, times, places, etc.--when considering what should (and can) be done under the circumstances. Prudence includes the ability to discern when a given law--including the commandments regulating our interactions with our neighbors, as outlined in the Large Catechism--needs to be relaxed and when it needs to be enforced strictly.

From Proverbs 28:16, Luther knew that a government that acts without prudence will cause great injustice to many because it will act in childish ways (see Ecclesiastes 10:16). He therefore cited this verse prominently in his 1523 treatise on government, namely, at the beginning of the third part where he gave practical advice to those Christians who desired, or needed, to take on government roles: Instead of giving them a long list of rules, Luther advised them that, above all else, they need to be prudent to know when to apply a law strictly and when to apply it leniently. They even need to know when to overlook the sins of their people. Without this prudent love, Luther recognized, there would be no peace in the land. In fact, Luther asserted that without prudence, it is impossible to be in charge of other people. Indeed, without prudence it is impossible to live with other people at all.

Prudence itself is a gift of God, as Luther emphasized in his exposition of Psalm 127. This is why he encouraged government officials to follow King Solomon's example and pray for wisdom above all things (1 Kings 3:9).

For Luther, then, "good government" that is part of the daily bread we ask our heavenly Father to grant us is virtuous government, that is, government that follows and enforces the Ten Commandments prudently, that is, to the extent God grants it, given the concrete situation and limitations in which it finds itself.

Good but Imperfect Government

When Luther emphasizes that "good government" in this sense is a gift from God, he once again highlights the fact that this is not something we can just assume will always be there. If you're a student of history, you may even conclude that "good government" is an exception, not the rule. As Luther observed, there will not be many government leaders in heaven. As noted above, this is because there are powerful forces in this fallen world which seek to deprive us of the good gifts of the Creator, including the gift of "good government."

These powerful forces are at work also within those who hold government office, even if they believe in Christ. While the Holy Spirit dwells within those who believe in Christ as their only Savior and begins to renew them, they still have the fallen nature in them which seriously limits the powers of their God-given reason, including the virtue of prudence. Even under the best circumstances, government officials will therefore not always get it right, even though they try to get it right. In the worst case, they will actively do the devil's bidding, engage in works of the flesh, and thereby stoke social unrest and division to destroy peace within society and between societies.

Luther knew all this from personal experience and from the bible, as he explained, e.g., in his comments on Psalm 45:6. It's easy to say what should be done, especially from the sidelines, when one does not hold government office. But it's very difficult to do what should be done. This is why laws enacted by the government will necessarily be deficient, no matter how much thought went into their enactment: They simply cannot account for the almost limitless variations of circumstances people find themselves in. And a rule that may work in many circumstances will be absolutely counterproductive in other circumstances. Luther therefore commended to rulers the virtue of equity which--similar to the virtue of prudence--teaches to find an appropriate exception from the rule in an exceptional circumstance, while not discarding the rule itself.

For Luther, these well-known difficulties in government did not mean that the Church should not say what the government should do according to the Ten Commandments. Or that the Church should simply bless the power of the powerful, no matter how contrary to God's law they might act. Luther himself frequently said what government should do. He frequently rebuked those government leaders who saw themselves as being above the law of Him who established their high offices in the first place--God the Creator.

Instead of resulting in silence, the well-known difficulties in government work mean that the Church should speak prayerfully, openly, fairly, and humbly, not by gossip or in a way that stokes dissension and unrest. Part of any instruction in what government--or anybody else--should do should therefore be the reminder that no one--government official, private citizens, fathers, mothers, children, etc.--will do perfectly what they should do. Love, as noted above, includes the ability to overlook and patiently bear the shortcomings of others. And the Fifth Petition of the Lord's Prayer asks God to forgive us our trespasses, so that we might enjoy his good gifts by grace, even our sins render us unworthy of all of them, as Luther explained.

Living under a good yet imperfect government therefore provides Christians with the opportunity to exercise love and patience, to praise God for the good gifts God bestows on them even through an imperfect government. In fact, having in their hearts the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), they can patiently bear misfortune when God withholds good government, outward peace, and other daily bread for a season--and even then praise God for those good gifts, now withdrawn, like Job: "The Lord gave it; the Lord has taken it away. Praised be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).

The necessary imperfections of even the best government on earth will also lead them to appreciate the one government that is perfect and without any injustice, namely, the government of Christ in the kingdom of grace, the holy Christian Church.

Imperfect government also provides them with opportunities to serve their neighbors by protecting and speaking out for the innocent, that is, those whom the necessarily imperfect government may hurt unjustly albeit unintentionally.

These opportunities of service are naturally increased where government ceases to try to be virtuous, where government becomes intentionally vicious and cruel, where the poor and marginalized are deprived of their livelihoods and their access to justice, where the rich and powerful lead their lives without constraint at the expense of others. Think of those who, during the Nazi tyranny, hid and protected their Jewish neighbors from unjust persecution, for instance Anne Frank or those Jews hidden in Catholic convents and monasteries.

Giving Up on Government Altogether?

In his first inaugural address in 1981, President Ronald Reagan declared: "In this present [economical] crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." In an August 1986 news conference, President Reagan commented on the 1980s farm crisis and stated, while the government was acting to mitigate the crisis: "I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."

These two phrases--arguing for the limited utility (or even danger) of government action in the area of economics--were part and parcel of the push for "Reaganomics," i.e., President Reagan's economic agenda marked by tax cuts on high incomes, reduced government spending on social programs (allegedly inhabited by what Reagan and others regularly referred to as "welfare queens"), and reduced government regulations, all designed to advance the idea of "limited government." His eventual vice president, George H.W. Bush, once characterized Reagan's "supply-side economics" as "voodoo economics," fearing that it would increase the national debt. This fear did materialize because tax cuts for the well-to-do were combined with an increase in defense spending at the end of the Cold War.

These discussions about the role of government in the economy following the establishment of governmental agencies and programs beginning with the New Deal in the 1930s--and the far-reaching consequences of the decisions that were made in the 1980s--highlight that it is difficult and controversial to manage the economy properly. These discussions have continued.

For instance, some have argued that government's role in the economy should be reduced to that of a nightwatchman. The "free market"--driven by greed--is to do all the self-regulating that's needed. The role of the government is limited to protecting individual liberties, private property, and free markets. The government's providing material assistance to the needy and regulating private property rights for the good of the community--all that came to be painted with a very broad and misleading brush as "theft" and "socialism."

Others have talked about the need to "starve the beast," i.e., the government. Under this strategy, popular tax cuts were enacted to reduce the money available to the government to finance popular social programs, which programs would then also have to be cut. President Trump recently argued that the federal government should leave the funding of social programs--Medicaid, Medicare, and day care--up to the states and focus exclusively on funding "military protection."

Working and Praying for the Goodness of Government to Glorify God

Luther, as noted above, was certainly no stranger to difficulties when it came to governing or regulating the economy. These "difficulties" are part and parcel of doing anything in a fallen world where everything is subjected to futility (Romans 8:20) so that, as Luther explained in his exposition of Psalm 127, God may be given the glory when something virtuous we undertake actually benefits the neighbor.

Yet Luther pushed back against those who advocated for an understanding of freedom that takes love and service out of our (economic) interactions with our neighbors and reduces them to mathematical equations. Indeed, Luther identified as one example of "carnal freedom"--i.e., freedom driven by a desire to act according to our sinful flesh, including greed (which is in fact slavery to sin)--when the merchants of his day had adopted the practice of charging as much as they could because they were "free," totally unrelated to their role as neighbors, as if they were some kind of god. For Luther, however, the sale of goods or any other (economic) human activity is a work of service to the neighbor governed by love that seeks to benefit the neighbor. Here, in the regulation of human selfishness by just laws, the divine paternal virtue of government, discussed above, has its vast field of activity.

To be sure, as Luther experienced in his day, taxes and government regulations can make life very difficult, to the point of causing an uprising of the poor. Finding the right balance between strictness and lenience, between mercy and justice, is very difficult. Prudence, as seen, is a gift of God. Certain government actions therefore can be problematic.

But this fact does not turn government into "the problem," nor does it turn a helping hand from the government into a terrifying thing, as President Reagan argued. And it also should not excuse the government from its God-given responsibilities when it comes to establishing just laws and regulations and providing material assistance to the poor who, for some reason, cannot provide for themselves, leading the government instead to focus exclusively on "military protection," as President Trump argued.

Government should certainly be limited, but that limitation should be based on God's institution of the government. According to God's institution, good government should prudently practice the virtues God wants the government to practice according to the Ten Commandments to serve as God's instrument of peace and justice. Because government is God's institution and gift, trying to limit or define what it should and should not do by human philosophy would infringe on God's own majesty. Evidently, that would not be a good thing.

All this is to say: The abuse of a good thing does not destroy the goodness of the thing abused. What needs to be corrected as much as possible is the abuse, not the good thing itself.

Christians therefore work for the goodness of government, as Luther advised in his 1523 treatise on government--not because they need the government but because their neighbors need it. As a result, they don't parrot--from the sidelines (Facebook, etc.)--the cynical rhetoric of those who have given up on government as God's instrument of peace and justice in a fallen world.

Yet even as we work for the goodness of government, we known that the goodness of government does not depend on its perfection or on our perfection. As always, God uses our imperfect actions to serve as his "hands, channels, and means" to deliver his life-preserving gifts--our daily bread, including outward peace--to our neighbors.

This is why Christians not only work for the goodness of government. We also pray for it to our heavenly Father. We do so whenever we pray: "Give us this day our daily bread." When we do so out of faith in the Creator, the ultimate purpose of government and of our life as God's creatures is accomplished among us: the glorification of our Creator.

Spreading the Glory of the Creator by the Gospel

Yet that glorification should also spread among those who do not yet believe in the Creator. For this final point, we'll return to where we began, 1 Timothy 2. As noted, Paul calls on Christians to pray for all, especially "for kings and all who are in authority" in this chapter. Paul adds that such prayer is "good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4).

To paraphrase, we pray that God would give us his gift of outward peace through the government so that God's gift of inward peace through knowledge of the truth may come to all people. This truth is first and foremost knowledge of Christ, the one Mediator between God and humans (1 Timothy 2:5). But it also includes knowledge of the Father of Jesus Christ, the Creator of the world, who is the Giver of good government.

The gift of outward peace therefore serves the gift of inward peace and salvation. As Luther recognized, leading a peaceful life that displays the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)--"love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control"--is not only a life that--unlike the works of the flesh--preserves and strengthens outward peace. It is also the kind of life that--again unlike the works of the flesh--attracts people to faith in Christ, the Giver of inward peace and salvation.

Those who receive this gift by faith join the number of those who glorify the Creator by praying and thanking him for his gift of good government and all the rest of daily bread he mercifully bestows on the good and the evil, also through our actions as God's hands, channels, and means.