Since the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, I’ve watched the same battle lines get drawn. The script writes itself: “Take the guns. Prayer doesn’t work. Faith isn’t enough.” It breaks my heart – not only because of the lives shattered, but because half of America’s first instinct is to strip away our God-given rights.
But the answer isn’t taking things away. The answer is realizing that people are broken, and only God – not government – can heal broken people.
And if the church shooting wasn’t proof enough of how far we’ve drifted, the recent Colorado General Assembly Special Session sealed it. It was 100% performative. Speeches, posturing, endless grandstanding. But not about fixing problems. Why? Because too many lawmakers believe cutting the size of government means abandoning people. They’ve forgotten the role of the church. The job of feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and caring for the broken never belonged to the state. That’s the calling of God’s people.
That’s why I want to talk about Romans 13, the founders, and why government makes a terrible substitute for God. Because the more we shove Him out of the picture, the more we demand government to fill His place – and that never ends well.
Romans 13 is a tough chapter to wrestle with when you’re involved in public service. Paul makes it clear: government has a God-ordained role – keep order, punish evil, protect the innocent. That’s it. Not glamorous, not complicated. Just do justice.
But we humans? We’re not great at staying in our lane. We love to stretch. We love to imagine government as the answer to every problem. And right now, half the country has basically turned Washington, D.C. into its new temple. Government as savior. Bureaucrats as priests. Programs as sacraments.
But here’s the problem: the Bible doesn’t allow that. Government is not God. Paul calls rulers “God’s servants.” That’s servant language, not master language.
John Adams nailed this nearly 250 years ago when he said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” In other words, our system isn’t designed to function without God. A free republic depends on a moral people who govern themselves under His authority.
And that’s where the Golden Triangle of Freedom comes in. The founders understood that freedom isn’t free-floating. It’s not “do whatever you want.” It has three sides:
- Freedom requires virtue.
- Virtue requires faith.
- Faith requires freedom.
Round and round it goes. Break one side of that triangle, and the whole thing collapses. Freedom without virtue becomes chaos. Virtue without faith becomes moral relativism. Faith without freedom becomes tyranny. That’s why Adams was right: our Constitution can only survive when people fear God more than they fear man.
And here’s the ugly truth: our problem isn’t too little government – it’s too little God.
Look at homelessness, hunger, poverty. Do we really believe the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or the USDA, or whatever alphabet agency is best equipped to heal broken people and broken families? These departments can play a role, but they won’t fully fix the problem. These problems aren’t just material – they’re spiritual. They’re relational. They’re moral. The only real answer has always been God’s people loving God and loving their neighbors.
The early church got this. Read Acts 2: believers sold their possessions to care for one another. Paul’s letters are full of calls to generosity. The safety net of society was never supposed to be a federal bureaucracy – it was supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus (that’s us).
But somewhere along the line, we traded God for government. We stopped trusting His people to carry His mission, and we outsourced compassion to committees. And the result? A bloated bureaucracy that promises salvation but delivers dependency.
Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 both say rulers are supposed to punish evil and commend good. That’s the lane. But today, we’ve got governments punishing good and rewarding evil, micromanaging lives, and trying to replace the very institutions God Himself ordained – family, church, and individual responsibility. That’s not government being God’s servant. That’s government trying to be God. And history tells us: it never ends well.
I’ll be blunt: this is why prayer matters so much in public service. Every vote, every policy, every ordinance carries weight. Romans 13 says rulers don’t “bear the sword in vain.” That sword isn’t symbolic – it’s authority with teeth. And if I wield it without God’s wisdom, it can wound instead of protect.
But here’s the thing: this isn’t just about commissioners or sheriffs or presidents. Romans 13 was written for citizens, too. Respect for authority (Democrats AND Republicans) – imperfect authority – is part of God’s design for order. But there’s a line. When government rebels against God, when it rewards evil and punishes good, the church must stand and say what Peter did in Acts 5:29: “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” Submission is not the same as blind loyalty.
Which brings me back to this simple truth: if we want smaller government, we need bigger faith. We need to recover the mindset of the founders, who knew freedom only survives when people are moral, and morality only endures when people fear God.
Jack from Lost had it right – we have to go back. Back to the God who ordains order. Back to the faith that produces virtue. Back to the virtue that sustains freedom.
Not more government. More God.
Because when we put Him at the head of society, government can shrink back down to its rightful size: not a savior, not a master – just a servant.
