“Government preserves the “public peace” and “provides that each man may keep his property safe and sound.” Countless families will sit down this evening to sup together in relative safety because their governments — by virtue of exact laws enacted and enforced — safeguard that privilege and joy.”

In Calvin’s estimation, the Christian life is properly one of constant gratitude. Gratitude bears fruit in holiness — we can and should say “thank you” to God with our lives as well as our lips. The root of gratitude is constant and careful attention to God’s remarkable gifts to us in spite of our creaturely finitude and culpability both for Adam’s sin and our own. God’s greatest gift to us, of course, is Jesus Christ, to whom we are joined by the power of the Spirit as the basis of our forgiveness, renewal in the divine image, and restoration to fellowship with the Triune God. But God has given other gifts to us — gifts that are common to believers and unbelievers alike, but should no less be noted and appreciated.

Government is one such gift. Any reflection upon civil government which does not ultimately lead to gratitude (and therefore greater holiness) is faulty by Calvin’s standard. Thus he introduces the subject of human government in his Institutes by observing: “It is of no slight importance to us to know how lovingly God has provided in this respect for mankind, that greater zeal for piety may flourish in us to attest our gratefulness.”

It is, importantly, not government in abstracto that should lead us to “gratefulness” but government in concreto. To put a finer edge on this point: it is this government — this president, this congress, this parliament, this prime minister, this monarch, this mayor, etc. — that should properly catapult us into a posture of prayerful gratitude before God. Calvin has little interest, in fact, in government in the abstract. Thus he dismisses debates/conversations about the “best kind of government” (whether monarchy, oligarchy, or democracy) as an “idle pastime” for persons who have no real influence upon the particular form of government where they live. He proceeds, ironically, to spend some time considering the advantages and disadvantages (and there are both) of each “kind” of government, but concludes the matter by highlighting the superfluity of even his own words: “All these things are needlessly spoken to those for whom the will of the Lord is enough. For if it has seemed good to him to set kings over kingdoms, senates or municipal officers over free cities, it is our duty to show ourselves compliant and obedient to whomever he sets over the places where we live” (emphasis mine). What really matters, in other words, is not what government would be best, but what government you’ve been given. That is the government to which you must submit; that, by the same token, is the government for which you should offer thanks, with both your lips and your life, to God.

Why should government inspire gratitude in us? Most obviously, of course, there is (or are) the benefits that accrue to us from the existence of government per se. These benefits pertain to the individual, the family, and the Christian church. Government preserves the “public peace” and “provides that each man may keep his property safe and sound.” Countless families will sit down this evening to sup together in relative safety because their governments — by virtue of exact laws enacted and enforced — safeguard that privilege and joy. Government, moreover, prevents “public offenses against religion,” and so — without assuming any functions of the church — creates safe space for the church to be the church. Countless ecclesiastical families will sit down to hear God’s Word proclaimed and (ideally) to Sup Together this Sunday in relative safety because their specific governments — by virtue of exact laws enacted and enforced — safeguard that privilege and joy. Therein lies cause for gratitude.

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