Codes and regulations
Code and Regulation No. 3: No licence asked of the world
There is a way of enlisting the world in your obedience that costs nothing, asks no quarrel, and is signed for in an afternoon — and we counsel you to have nothing to do with it. A licence is a favour granted by the world, and what is granted may be withdrawn. But the reason to refuse it is not that the world is strong. It is that everything is God’s, we are only stewards of it, and we do not need the world’s permission to do the will of the Father.
Why a code about this
The world does not usually stop a man with a fist. It stops him with a counter, a queue, and a form. It asks whether he has registered; whether he has paid the fee; whether his name is on a list somewhere; whether a committee has seen fit to number him. And when he has answered, it gives him a piece of paper, and calls that piece of paper permission.
Nothing in that transaction belongs to God. That is the whole of the objection. To seek such a paper is to treat the world as the source of our standing — to go to the thing we were set apart from, and ask it for what was never its to give. We are not tenants on this earth waiting for a landlord’s nod. The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; we hold it as stewards, and a steward does not ask the land he stewards whether he may water what has been entrusted to him.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
Psalms 24:1
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they] [be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”
Colossians 1:16
“As every man hath received the gift, [even] [so] minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
1 Peter 4:10
So we counsel our people to hold their citizenship from the King directly, and to let the world issue its papers without answering. This is not a law, and it is not a mood. It is what we believe to be right, and we set it down here so that any man who thinks otherwise may answer us from the Word.
We are ambassadors, and the permission is God’s
The God who made heaven, earth, and sea did not consult the world about how it should be run. He spoke, and it stood. He called light, and it answered. He made man in His own image, and did not apply to anyone for leave. When He brought His Son into the world, He did not file a petition. And when that Son says “as the Father hath sent me, and I also send you”, no earthly registry is made a party to the commission.
We are not citizens of the world who have petitioned for a licence to exist. We are ambassadors, sent out to speak for One we did not choose and do not represent. An ambassador does not ask the court he is accredited to whether his mission is approved; he asks the court that sent him. And the man who signs his name at the counter has not thereby become that court’s subject, whatever the stamp says.
This is the whole answer to the world’s paper. The permission is God’s, and it was given before we asked. A permission from Him may not be withdrawn by Him. A licence from the world may be withdrawn by the world. A steward may not act unfaithfully; but a steward is never a tenant, and never asks the landlord whether the garden is his to tend.
“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech [you] by us: we pray [you] in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
2 Corinthians 5:20
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;”
Acts 17:24
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”
Acts 17:28
“For the gifts and calling of God [are] without repentance.”
Romans 11:29
What the devil wants us to believe
The world’s paper is a means, not the end. The end is a belief: that we belong to somebody. The devil does not merely want us taxed and registered; he wants us convinced that we are subjects, that our standing rests with the creature rather than the Creator, and that there is a queue for it. That belief is the whole of his trade.
And he must be resisted — this is not a counsel of passivity. Scripture names him as our adversary, roaring like a lion, seeking whom he may devour, and it is to us that the appeal is made: be sober, be vigilant. He is the liar who would have God’s people believe they must bow to him, as though he were the one with a claim on them. He has none. The Son of God came to break his hold and did it at the cross, and the ground on which we resist him is not our own courage but the finished work behind us.
And we do not stand there alone. Scripture calls them ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation; they are an innumerable company, and they are given charge over us to keep us in all our ways. When we come to the line, we do not come as a man alone against a lion. We come as a household with a garrison.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
1 Peter 5:8
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].”
Ephesians 6:12
“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
Hebrews 1:14
“But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,”
Hebrews 12:22
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
Revelation 12:11
Nothing can separate us
We are asked, sometimes, whether the world’s power is enough to stop us. Let the verse answer. Death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God. The powers are named there among the things that cannot do it. Whatever is on the other side of the paper is on this list, and it is not strong enough.
That is the ground of steadiness. Not a confidence in ourselves, which can be shaken, but a confidence in the One who cannot be shaken and has already said He is ours.
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38–39
“[We] [are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we] [are] perplexed, but not in despair;”
2 Corinthians 4:8
“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? [It] [is] God that justifieth.”
Romans 8:33
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
The real enemy is fear
If the devil works through fear, we had better know which fear. There is the fear that keeps a man from evil, and Scripture commands that and calls it good. And there is the fear that keeps a man from good, that makes him bow at a counter he need not bow at, that signs what he has not been asked to sign because he cannot bear to be seen to refuse. The second is not the same thing as the first, and the Bible says plainly which one is to be obeyed.
Our Lord puts it plainly: fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. The earthly power can take the life and stop there. It cannot touch the soul. It has no part in the life to come, and it is not therefore the thing a soul should bow to. It can end a man’s life; it cannot end him.
So the fear that makes a man enfranchise with the world is the fear of a creature who cannot kill what matters. The One who can is the One we serve, and Him we are told to fear — not for destruction, but for love. This is why the counsels here are written in a calm voice. We do not counsel bravery, and we do not counsel rage. We counsel a company that has been given the Spirit of adoption and has never received the spirit of bondage again to fear.
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Matthew 10:28
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
Romans 8:15
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”
1 John 4:18
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
Psalms 27:1
“The LORD [is] on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”
Psalms 118:6
On enfranchising with the world
We use an old word here, and we mean it precisely. To enfranchise is to bring somebody into a citizenship that is not your own — to make another’s polity your own, and to accept its liberties along with its obligations. We are not of the world, and we do not seek its franchise.
Registration is the usual door. It is not in itself sinful, and we will not say so: men are obliged to live in the world they are in, and a man may pay a tax he thinks unjust and not thereby sell his soul. But we will counsel you to know which door you came through. A registry that records what you own does not trouble us. A registry that decides who you are has asked a question that was never its to ask — and if your standing in your own kingdom rests on its answer, then you are not the citizen of the King first. You are the client of a clerk.
The same is true of a licence. A licence is a permission to do what another has allowed. There is a kind of work that is freely given and never once applied for, and a man who cannot tell the difference between the two has been made dependent without noticing it.
“And [that] he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
2 Corinthians 5:15
“For the gifts and calling of God [are] without repentance.”
Romans 11:29
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Hebrews 4:16
What this looks like on an ordinary week
None of this asks a man to hide, or to suffer a fine, or to leave his work. We counsel that he should simply stop treating the world’s paperwork as the foundation, and carry it as what it is. And when a man lives as an ambassador — sent, not franchised; steward, not tenant — his own dealings begin to reflect it. The register he fills in honestly, the name he gives as his own, the way he holds what he has been trusted with: these are the small places where the standing shows. He is not pretending to be exempt. He is simply not dependent, and a dependent man cannot be told what he is.
| The thing | What it is | What we counsel |
|---|---|---|
| A licence to trade | A permission from a local authority to sell | Obey the law while it stands, and let no licence decide whether you are counted among God’s |
| A vehicle registration | A record of what you own, so you may be charged for it | Pay what is owed; do not let a plate stand for your standing |
| A company, partnership or LLC | A legal form, which is a filing | Use it if you must; never take your name from it |
| A church register, or a public worship | An earthly roll of names | Go in; but hold your citizenship from the King and not from the clerk’s book |
| A mark, permit or consent “for the public good” | The world’s word that your doing is approved | Do the will of the Father and neither seek that word nor fear its absence |
The last row is the one that matters. None of the rest decides who you are; only that one was ever pretending to.
What this code does not say
We will not overstate this. It does not make a man a citizen, and it does not keep one from falling. It cannot do either. Citizenship is the new birth, and nothing a man files or declines to file has any part in it; we have said so plainly on Our Citizens. Judas held an office under a licence from men and lost it anyway, and the loss was nothing to do with paperwork. A man may hold every paper the world offers and still be lost; a man may hold none and be kept.
Nor does it make a man a martyr. We counsel no conflict with the authorities. The law of the place is to be obeyed in its lawful measure, and a man does not wound his own cause by a needless contest. What is refused is not the law but the worship — the one thing that was never the world’s to give, and so was never the world’s to withhold.
Some will have heard us counsel submission, on Our Government, and will ask how that sits with a code that refuses the world’s permission. It sits exactly where it was meant to. The submission we counsel is submission to God first, and to the ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, as a free servant obeying a lawful authority and not as a subject owing his standing to it. The two are not rivals, because they answer to different kings. We do not submit to the world because it has the right to rule; we submit to the ordinance of a God who does, and to no lesser claim. A man who pays a tax he thinks unjust has still not called the tax-collector his lord, and we would no more have him worship at the counter than we would have him despise the counter’s occupant.
And let it be said plainly, because it is the heart of this code: the evil is not the building the licence is issued in. It is the bow. Men have bowed to worse than a counter and called it obedience, and have been praised for it.
“They say unto him, Cæsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Matthew 22:21
“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”
Acts 4:31
“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Titus 2:14
So let the papers be what they are, and let the standing be where it belongs. This code is housekeeping, like the one before it. The root is the Word, and the name in that Word, and none of it is filed anywhere.