God’s rule is inherently true and doesn’t require that we force it on anyone

The problem is that the unbeliever thinks of the government as the highest power—denying Christ’s superiority and higher kingdom over the believer’s mind and heart. If all is reduced to political kingdoms, the spiritual kingdom is minimized and made less important. That is a grave error in our political season—thinking civil laws matter more than preaching the Gospel, which does not use the force of legal process to make children of the Father. It is legalism and bound up in the elemental principles of this world. God the Father rules through Christ by giving His Spirit freely in the Word. Christ “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). —ed.