Scripture also restricts how the state can act. The most important limitation flows from the First Commandment. This century has been marked by secular rulers and systems making pretentious claims of near-divinity. Today, the government purports to set moral standards, meet personal needs, and even give life meaning. The Bible suggests that an expansive state is also bad because it will reflect the sinfulness of its participants and therefore routinely mistreat its citizens.
Man is a fallen creature all too willing to do wrong.
In fact, the pandemic use of government by influential interest groups to enrich themselves by restricting competition and extorting subsidies would appear to fall within the biblical meaning of oppression. In such cases, some involving the best-intended initiatives, such as the minimum wage and trade restrictions, powerful interests use government to unjustly enrich themselves. The least important person for whom Christ died is of greater value than the grandest empire. Moreover, people must be free to respond to God's grace, worship him, and integrate obedience to him into their daily lives, liberties that inevitably suffer as the state expands. Finally, Christ's injunction that believers be salt and light requires an abundant communal life free from political control.