When we think of the term “government,” our thoughts usually take us to an impersonal large institution, and we assume that the subject matter is the civil government. However, the definition of government according to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary has a much wider range than the concept we are familiar with these days. This is the key foundational issue in our understanding and expectation of government!
Watch the YouTube teaching above or listen to the podcast by clicking on one of the links below:
Apple Podcast: God and Government – Self-Government
Spotify: God and Government – Self-Government
In the video and the podcast, I define the term “government,” and then I explain the concept of self-government, which is foundational to the health of a society. Below are the definition and the scriptures that I used in my video and podcast.
According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary:
GOVERNMENT: Direction; regulation. These precepts will serve for the government of our conduct.
- Control; restraint. Men are apt to neglect the government of their temper and passions.
- The exercise of authority; direction and restraint exercised over the actions of men in communities, societies or states; the administration of public affairs, according to established constitution, laws and usages, or by arbitrary edicts…
- The exercise of authority by a parent or householder. Children are often ruined by a neglect of government in parents.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28
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Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you[ shall surely die.” Genesis 2:15-17
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And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3: 8-13
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So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Genesis 4:6-8
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
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Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; Philippians 2:12