Early Christians did not deny or defy the existence of civil governance, and thus recognized Roman civil law and the emperor and governors as legitimate civil authority.
That does not mean there wasn't a fundamental clash and tension between Christianity and Rome--obviously there was. Roman imperial theology and Christian theology were directly antithetical to each other.
Caesar wanted to be honored as the divine ruler of the world, and thus Caesar was to be regarded as the king of kings and lord of lords, homage to be paid by confessing Kaiser kurios, "Caesar is lord".
But Christians confessed another Divine ruler, another who was King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus the Christ, confessing Iesous Christos Kurios--"Jesus Christ is Lord".
So that is the tension of the ancient Church, confessing an inherently anti-imperial theology and faith while also acknowledging civil authority as maintaining societal order.
The basileus was to be honored, and prayed for, but not to be worshiped. Allegiance belongs to Christ, the civil authorities come and go, and we aim to live lives of peace as we serve our God and King.
The Church can have no ambition for the establishment of its own civil authority, to establishment of a Christian theocracy; but rather lives in this world as pilgrims, confessing a foreign King, confessing a foreign kingdom--but as pilgrims living peaceable, law-abiding lives.
Law-abiding, however, must never be confused with blind obeisance; but rather that for the general welfare and good of our neighbor we live in accordance with civil law. But as St. Augustine reminds us (and whom Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr quotes) an unjust law is no law at all; thus one must not believe themselves or their conscience constrained by the whims and dictates of prevailing authority--but must aim to do what is right.
If the king tells you to murder, you must not murder. For we follow Him who commanded, "Thou shalt not murder."
Therefore it is important that we understand that peaceableness is not passivity. It is not being the neighbor who sees an attacker in the night and closes their blinds saying, "Not my problem." That is not peaceableness. Neither is peaceableness blindly saying yes to those in authority; for again, if the king tells you to worship idols, do not do it--for God has declared, "You shall have no other gods" and "I alone am God", worship God alone.
When the churches in Nazi Germany acquiesced and adopted the ideology, theology, and abominations of the fascists, that was not peaceableness. That was not being a law-abiding citizen. That was blind obeisance and betrayal of Christ's Lordship, it was a betrayal of their neighbors, it was a betrayal against God, and all God's creatures. Nothing short of apostasy.
We are not anarchists.
We are not worshipers of Caesar.
We are Christians.
-CryptoLutheran
