Self-government. It's vital to our lives. But how well do we understand the essential elements of good government that enable not only individuals but institutions and nations to govern themselves and to live harmoniously with their neighbors?
A good place to start is to look more closely at the life and teachings of Christ Jesus, the master of self-government. To Jesus, good government meant God's government. His respect for and understanding of the fundamental elements of God's government—including authority, law, and consent to that government—gave him the self government he needed in order successfully to exercise authority over sickness, sin, and death. Jesus understood God to be supreme—the only authority in the universe. He knew God's law—that man is subordinate to God, and to God alone. And he taught and proved over and over again that consent to God's supreme authority and law is what gives us dominion over whatever is opposed to good, to God.
In a rather extraordinary account in the Bible, a lawyer comes to Jesus with a penetrating question. Although the Bible account indicates that the lawyer was attempting to trap Jesus, the implications of his question were profound. He asked the Master, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus' answer firmly and clearly put human law in its proper place—subordinate to the law of God, to which it must ultimately conform. See Matt. 22:35-40 . First, he stated the two fundamental commandments of God, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Then he said, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
