Romans 13:1

Romans 13:1

Romans 13:1-7 says, "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. Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will you then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and you shall have praise of the same: For he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he bears not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil. Wherefore you must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. Because for this cause pay you tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor."

Romans Chapter 13 verses 1-7 is a great passage in the Bible on the subject of what should be the attitude of the Christian to the governmental authorities and other authorities under which the Christian lives. There is a right attitude towards authority and there is a wrong attitude. The right attitude is given in Rom. 13:1. It says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers."

All of human life is organized with various levels of authority. The persons at each level must be in submission to the persons in the level above them. At the highest level is God, and everyone ought to be in submission to God. Your ability to be in submission to the human levels of authority may very well be a reflection of your ability to be in submission to God.

God has established every level of authority. The last part of Rom. 13:1 says that "the powers that be are ordained of God." That means that anyone who is in a position of power or authority at any level was given their position by God. From a human standpoint we know that people obtained their positions through hard work, or deception, or hunger for power, or some other means. But in reality they only obtained their position because God permitted it to happen. God put that person into the place of authority.

One of the greatest problems of mankind and one of the greatest sins of mankind, is that of rebellion: rebellion against God and rebellion against constituted authority. Wherever you go in life and whatever your circumstances, you will face the recurring situation where you must decide if you are going to obey, honor, and respect those in authority or if you are going to disobey, dishonor, or disrespect someone who is in authority over you. The first circumstance in life for every human is being in a family in which as a child you are told to honor your parents. One of the Ten Commandments is addressed to children and it says, "honor your mother and your father." It’s the only one of the Ten Commandments that is addressed to the parent-child relationship, and it puts the responsibility on the children to make the situation work.

After childhood a human often enters the marriage relationship, but that does not end for the requirement for submission in family situations. Rom. 13:1 says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers." The same Greek word that is here translated as "subject" is also translated as "submit" and is used in Eph. 5:21-22 that says, "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Christians are supposed to submit themselves one to another. Assuming that both the husband and the wife are Christians, that means that the wife should submit herself to the husband and that the husband should also submit himself to the wife. There is an emphasis on equality, teamwork, and partnership in the leadership of the home. One spouse should not dominate the other or rule over the other. There are times when the man should submit himself to the wife and there are times when the woman should submit herself to the husband. Perhaps we can say that the husband is the CEO of the family and the wife is the CFO or has some other powerful position. Both are in positions of authority. On rare occasions the husband may have to over-rule the wife because he is the CEO, and on these occasions the wife should submit to him. But in most of the day-to-day operations of the family, both should be submitting to each other depending upon who has been given control of what in the family unit.

The Bible does not present an image of a man dominating or controlling a woman. Most of Proverbs Chapter 31 is a description of the type of woman who should be greatly praised as a wife or mother, and she is presented as a person who has much responsibility and who makes important decisions and who even has control over finances. It says in Proverbs 31:16 that "she considers a field and buys it." And it says in Proverbs 31:11 that "the heart of her husband does safely trust in her." The wife is shown in charge of things, and the husband is shown in the background, depending upon the wife and trusting in her in certain situations.

In Ephesians believers are told to submit to one another and then wives are told to submit to their husbands. The best explanation for correlating the two verses together is probably to say that a husband and wife should both submit themselves to each other. But in the issues where things cannot be solved by the mutual attitude of submission, the tiebreaker should come down to the wife submitting to the husband. The scripture does not present male dominance over the female: what it presents is submission to authority, wherever that authority is found. And both the husband and the wife are in positions of authority in the household.

The attitude of submission to others should exist in the Christian home by all members of the family. Submission should exist in the church by all the members of the church to each other. The Christian should also demonstrate the appropriate submission to civil and other authorities in the society. In other words you are to view yourself as a servant, and everyone that you are around, as those whom you serve. Did not Jesus call Himself a servant, and did He not also tell His believers that they were to be servants?

God has established the authorities that exist in human society, and the main reason that God puts the civil authorities into their positions is, according to the Bible, that they would punish evil doers. In any society, those who commit crimes should pay for their crimes. The last part of Romans Chapter 12 told believers to forgive their enemies, to do good to them, and to not recompense evil for evil. Here in the first part of Romans Chapter 13, we are told that civil leaders are responsible for making sure that evil doers are punished for their evil deeds. This is not a contradiction. On the one hand we are told how to treat people in reference to our personal relationships: we are not to render evil for evil. But on the other hand we are told that the same principle does not refer to the responsibilities of civil and judicial authorities in regards to punishing law-breakers. Some people make the mistake of thinking that the teachings of Jesus in regards to forgiving one’s enemies are supposed to be applied to the procedures of the courts of law.

Most of the laws passed by any government can be obeyed by Christians. About the only exception would be laws that are passed that would attempt to forbid the worship of the one true God through Jesus Christ. We will die rather than obey such a law, just as Christians did under the Romans. Laws against the true worship of God will arise from time to time in human societies. It happened in the Roman Empire, and it may have started to happen in America especially with the Supreme Court decision to outlaw prayer in public schools. Governmental laws against the free worship of God have also taken place in our lifetime in Communist countries and Moslem countries where Christianity has been persecuted. It will happen again, according to the book of Revelation.

The day will come when people will be beheaded simply because they believe in Jesus. The public expression of faith in Jesus will be considered a crime. But remember that when Paul wrote these words in Romans Chapter 13 to the believers in Rome, they were under the authority of the cruel Roman Empire; but they were still told to obey, honor, and respect those in authority. Probably every president that we have had in our country has been many times better than the Caesar’s of Rome, and therefore are deserving of even more respect than that which is presented here. Analyze the attitude of those who are the opponents of any given administration. If their opposition is with a spirit of dishonor or disrespect or rebellion toward the governmental leaders, then they are not of the Spirit of God. We have become a society where incivility and meanness of spirit is too often accepted. It should be the goal of the Christian to treat every leader according to Rom. 13:7 which says, "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor."

Throughout the history of the human race, the laws that have been the most intolerable are the taxes that have been levied on people. In the Bible heavy taxes levied by King Solomon and then his son Rehoboam were the principle reason for the civil war and splitting of the nation of Israel 1000 years before Christ. The American Revolution was principally over the issue of taxes. Most recently in American politics, if a politician is identified as a person who raises taxes, he or she is in danger of losing the election. And so it should be. The more that a people are taxed by their government, the less freedoms that they will have. Every government needs some taxes in order to provide the services that they must render, but taxes are already way too high. Citizens should use every legal and ethical means to see that taxes are reduced. But even if taxes increase, the Christian should pay what he is legally obligated to pay. That was one of the lessons that Jesus taught Peter. When Jesus said to Peter, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s," Jesus was talking about taxes. Paul is teaching the same thing here in Romans Chapter 13.

Two reasons are given in Rom. 13:5 for why we should be subject to those that are in authority. It says, "You must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake." The first reason to obey and honor those that are in authority is because of wrath. Those that are in positions of authority have been given the responsibility from God to punish evil doers. The evil doers are whoever breaks their laws. If the holders of authority do their job, and if you break the law, then you will be punished. Most of the people sitting behind bars today would not be there if they had more honor and respect for the laws of the land and for those who enforce the laws.

We honor those that are in authority for a very practical reason: to avoid becoming the objects of their wrath. We also honor them for a reason that is more spiritual than practical: "for conscience sake". It’s the right thing to honor those that are in authority and it’s the wrong thing to dishonor them. Even if there were no consequences to bear, we would still honor them because it is the order of things as God has established them. Whether we are talking about a manager in your corporation, a local, state, or federal government official, an enlisted person or officer in the military, a police officer in the local community, or the pastor of a church: we honor and respect them because of the position that they hold. To do any less would be to sin against God. Therefore, we do it for conscience sake: in order to retain a good conscience.

Rom. 13:8 says, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law." When you owe someone, in a sense you are their servant. When you are under financial obligations, those obligations can bind you and hold you down and keep you from doing other things that you would prefer doing. When you are in debt, your priorities change, and you are forced to do things in order to relieve the debt. If at all possible stay out of debt, live within your means, save as much as you can when you can because the day may come when life will be harder and you will need then what you can save now. That theme is found throughout the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments.

But there is one thing that we do owe and will always owe to all the people of the world: love. The reason that we owe them love is very simple: because God has loved us. He loved us when we were unlovely. He loved us when we were alienated from the family of God. Because God has so greatly loved us, we have a debt to pay and an obligation to fulfill, and that is to try and be a little bit like God and to love others.

When we love others, not only are we fulfilling a debt that we owe, but we are also fulfilling the law. Paul quotes the Old Testament and lists five of the Ten Commandments, when he says in Rom. 13:9; "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

This teaching about love is the same thing that Jesus taught. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God with all the heart, and that the second greatest commandment was like unto it: to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Instead of the Ten Commandments and the other commandments of the Old Testament, there are only these two commandments that you really must remember. If you keep these two commandments, then you will keep all the rest. Some of the commandments in the Bible refer to a person’s relationship with God, and all the other commandments refer to a person’s relationship with his fellow man.

If you love your neighbor, you will not commit adultery with his spouse because that would harm his family unit, would wound his pride, and would hurt his heart. You would want to see your neighbor happy and secure in the love of his wife. If you had love, you would want to see no ill come to your neighbor, and therefore you would not commit adultery. Whenever you break a commandment, it should be a reminder to you of what the problem really is, and why it happened. You simply did not have the love that you should have had, because "love is the fulfilling of the law."

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