De Rebus Civilibus
Lawful Civil Callings
Christians are free to hold public office, serve in the military, and participate in other lawful civil duties as good works of God.
Concerning civil matters, they teach that legitimate civil ordinances are good works of God, and that it is lawful for Christians to hold public office, to administer courts, to judge cases according to imperial and other existing laws, to lawfully impose punishments, to lawfully wage war, to serve in the military, to contract legally, to hold private property, to take an oath when required by magistrates, to marry, and to take a wife.
Correcting False Perfection
The confession condemns the Anabaptist rejection of civil offices and their false equation of perfection with abandoning society, affirming instead that the Gospel preserves civil order.
[They] condemn the Anabaptists, who forbid Christians from holding these civil offices. [They] also condemn those who do not place evangelical perfection in the fear of God and faith, but in abandoning civil offices, because the Gospel delivers eternal justice of the heart. Meanwhile, it does not destroy polity or economy, but especially demands that people preserve them as ordinances of God, and exercise love within such ordinances.
Obedience and the Limits of Authority
Christians must obey their governing authorities, except when those commands require sin, in which case they must obey God rather than men.
Therefore, Christians must necessarily obey their magistrates and laws. Unless they command people to sin, for then Christians ought to obey God rather than men, Acts. 5.
Read the original Latin
De rebus civilibus docent, quod legitimae ordinationes civiles sint bona opera Dei, quod christianis liceat gerere Magistratus, exercere iudicia, iudicare res ex Imperatoriis, et aliis praesentibus legibus, supplicia iure constituere, iure bellare, militare, lege contrahere, tenere proprium, iusiurandum postulantibus Magistratibus dare, ducere uxorem, nubere.
Damnant Anabaptistas, qui interdicunt haec civilia officia Christianis. Damnant et illos, qui Evangelicam perfectionem non collocant in timore Dei et fide, sed in deserendis civilibus officiis, quia Evangelium tradit iustitiam aeternam cordis. Interim non dissipat Politiam aut Oeconomiam, sed maxime postulat conservare tanquam ordinationes Dei, et in talibus ordinationibus exercere caritatem. Itaque necessario debent Christiani obedire Magistratibus suis et legibus. Nisi cum iubent peccare, tunc enim magis debent obedire Deo quam hominibus, Actor. 5.
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