John the baptist said we ought to be happy with our wages.
John was an Old Testament prophet. Jesus' teachings supersede John's and Jesus didn't teach, "be happy with your wages".
Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
And
Luke 7:28 For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
Submit to the goverment is clear throughout the bible.
Depends on how you interpret each sitatuation
Mathew 5:25 "25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him;
Depends on what your adversary wants you to do. If a cop pulls me over and asks me to perform a sobriety test (and I know I'm sober) I could become indignant and argue my way into deeper trouble, or I could just perform the test and move along.
Mathew 22:21 "They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."
After we've given to God what belongs to him, what's left for Caesar?
John 19:10-11 "Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin."
I'm not sure how this is meant to be an example of submitting to government. I think you meant it to show that God sometimes gives authority to earthly governments? Except that it also shows there are times when God does not give such authority.
Romans 13:1-3 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:"
I'm inclined to believe passages like this were added by government authorities themselves, but it's probably more likely a government-hired translator was pressured somewhere along the way and took extreme journalistic license with the original sentiment. Either way it doesn't matter since we have so many other references to go by. Government authorities may be ordained by God at some point, but in just about every case it doesn't take long for them to become very far from God.
Romans 13:4 "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
If I find a governmental employee who's being a minister of God then I'd be far more inclined to abide by that person's judgment. However, I suspect the bottom line of this teaching is more about Christians not getting the idea that they are above the worldly law just because they are "in the world but not of it". Paul said something like this to the Galatians in that Christians should not use their freedom as an excuse to be selfish.(Gal 5:13).
Romans 13:6-7 "6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour."
Government employees attending constantly on being ministers of God? When circumstances consistent with what this verse describes presents itself, I'll be willing to talk about dues.
Acts 5:29 "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."
Thanks for including this. I think it presents good balance to the issue. All those teachings about obeying powers and honoring the king etc, they only make sense in the context of being "in the world but not of it". As peace makers we need to get along with our neighbors. If that means following some of their rules, then that's what we should do. Some of those rules are quite helpful or even consistent with our own rules.
I think most Christians have a basic concept of following their conscience when it comes to really clear issues like governments outlawing Christianity.
The problem becomes more tricky when the rules are much closer to being consistent with Christianity yet still fundamentally different, like (hypothetically) churches being forced to declare how they use their finances. In some ways this could be good in keeping church leaders accountable financially and cracking down on fraud, but it would also obligate them to talk about their charitable giving (if they do any), which Jesus said we should keep secret.
