Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Thirteen
SHOULD CHRISTIANS OBEY THE
GOVERNMENT WITHOUT QUESTION?
Scripture Reading: verses 1-3
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 RESISTETH THE POWER, RESISTETH 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.
There was a great need of Paul’s revelation of the proper Christian attitude toward the secular state which was derived from a number of important considerations. The whole Jewish nation groaned under the yoke of Roman tyranny, longed to escape it, and had participated in a number of bloody insurrections against Roman authority. Barabbas, who had come into conspicuous view at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, was a revolutionary, like many others preceding him. Further, at the very moment Paul was writing Romans, practically the whole Jewish nation was preparing its final insurrection which was destined to culminate only a few years later.1 The widespread Jewish attitude toward Rome was well known in Paul’s day, and there can be little doubt that practically Christians sympathized with it and were probably tempted to aid the Jewish cause. To all such people, the question of submission to a government like Rome was no doubt the most burning question of the day.
Furthermore, the Christians themselves were widely regarded as a Jewish sect. They were known to acknowledge supreme allegiance to the Messiah, and were easily confused with the extreme nationalistic movement among the Jews. Paul himself was mistaken for the leader of an insurrection by the military tribune in (Acts 21:38); and thus, it was extremely important that Christian behavior should conform to a strict pattern of respect and submission to the lawful government. Otherwise, the whole Christian movement might have been swallowed up in the then impending overwhelming destruction of Israel.
Also, there were certain Christian practices which might have led them to easily despise the state. In all legal and civil disputes, Christians were encouraged to bypass the pagan courts of justice and settle all such questions, as far as possible, among themselves (1 Cor. 6:1ff). They did not participate in the public festivals and ceremonies given over to the deification of the emperor, and therefore might have been suspect as enemies of the government. Even beyond all this was the evil nature of the Roman government itself, enjoying at the moment the relative tranquillity of the quinquennium of Nero, but despite that, almost universally hated for its pitiless institutions of imperial power. To the gentle, Spirit-filled Christian, Rome must certainly have appeared to be the seat of Satan himself, an impression that would have been “proved” in their view by the murders and debaucheries which occurred soon thereafter, drowning Nero’s administration in blood and shame.
It is such a background which dramatizes Paul’s instructions to Christians in this thirteenth chapter. Some have expressed wonder at Paul’s sandwiching such commandments as these in between two tender and beautiful admonitions on love; but Paul knew what he was doing, and did it in such a manner that none could mistake his intention or misunderstand his commands. The “beseeching” attitude of the previous chapter gives way in this one to the majestic authority of the apostolic command which seems to say, “Make no mistake about it; this is an order.”
Going through the twelfth chapter of Romans, we have considered Paul’s exhortations to Christians relative to their behavior within the Christian sphere. In other words, our behavior toward one another as believers in Christ; and the exhortations given teach Christians how to treat each other. The personal demeanor of the Christian is in view.
In chapter thirteen, Paul is widening out his viewpoint. He is still standing in the courtroom as attorney for the defense. He has the pardoned sinner before him, i.e., the criminal who has not only been forgiven by the judge, but who has also been inducted into the judge’s own family. The judge is God Himself, and through Jesus Christ the pardoned sinner finds himself under the endless and unfathomable love of God his Father. Now, as a son before God, he is instructed how to behave; first in relation to his brethren, and secondly, in chapter 13, how to behave toward governmental authorities which God has established in this world. Chapter 12 is his church life so to speak; chapter 13 his life of obedience as a subject under the government of his country.
The tenor of the exhortations in chapter 13 can be summed up in the word “subjection.” In this connection, perhaps a little further attention to Christ’s teachings along this line may prove helpful.
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). For the most part, His kingdom lies within a sector totally removed and separated from the secular state, that institution being also “ordained of God” but charged with a different function, that of preserving order upon earth. Christ Himself honored God’s ordained institution, the state, ordered the payment of taxes to Caesar (Matt. 22:21), declared that the authority of the procurator, Pontius Pilate, was given to him “from above” (John 19:11), prophetically identified the armies of Vespasian and Titus as those of God Himself sent for the purpose of destroying those evil men and burning their beloved city of Jerusalem (Matt. 22:7), submitted to arrest, even illegal and unjust arrest (Matt. 26:47-56), refused to allow Peter to defend with the sword against such an outrage, and meekly accepted the death penalty, which the state unjustly exacted, and which Christ had ample means of avoiding (Matt 26:53), but did not.
Christ never led a riot, organized an underground, criticized the government, or took the part of the Jews against Rome. He did not offer Himself as an advocate against society on behalf of any so-called victim of social injustice; and, once, He even refused to aid a man who claimed that he had been robbed of his inheritance (Luke 12:13). Jesus Christ was not a revolutionary in any sense of that word today. Although it is true that His holy teachings had the profoundest influence on the course of history, it was always as leaven and not as dynamite that His influence worked.
Some of Jesus’ parables had as their significant and active premises the institutions of civil government, as exemplified by the “king” who stood for God (Matt. 22:2), the legal contract of the householder who let out his vineyard, and even the “unrighteous judge” who granted the plea of the importunate widow, his unrighteousness in no way preventing his appearance in the parable as analogous with God. Had the state and its institutions been otherwise than “ordained of God,” it is unthinkable that Christ would have borrowed such illustrations and made them analogies for the conveyance of eternal truth. Christ’s usage of such terms as the officer, the judge, and the prison, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:25) also fits this conclusion.
All of the apostles understood and reiterated Jesus’ teaching in this field. Both Paul (here) and Peter (1 Peter 2:13-17) emphatically underscored this teaching. Not merely those laws of the state conceived of as “just laws” are to be obeyed; but, as Peter said, “every ordinance of man” was to be obeyed. In the New Testament, there was never any hint of Christians organizing any kind of campaign to change or nullify laws. That some laws were unjust was clear to all; but Paul sent a runaway slave back to his Christian master (Philemon 1:17), and provided specific instructions to both masters and slaves in his epistles to Ephesus and Colossae.
There is no suggestion by Paul here in this chapter of Romans that the evil laws of Rome may be justified, nor the evil laws of any other state; but, in the light of Christian acceptance of such laws under the direct guidance of Christ and the apostles, the conclusion is demanded that the constituted government must be viewed as “ordained of God” and entitled to Christian obedience. Over and above all this, there stands the commandment of the apostles that the public prayers of Christians should constantly be directed to God upon the behalf of the state and its lawful representatives, on behalf of “kings and all that are in high place” (1 Tim. 2:1, 2), to the intent that Christians might be permitted to “lead a tranquil life in all godliness and gravity,” thus by implication making the provision of such privilege for Christians being the state’s intended function.
To those people, present in every age, who reject the meek and submissive attitude of Christ regarding earthly governments, and prefer instead the belligerent posture of the aggressive revolutionary, it should be pointed out that this is not a new attitude but an old and discredited one. It existed contemporaneously with Christ and the apostles. The Jewish people preferred Barabbas the seditionist to the gentle Jesus; but it must be added that when they finally got the revolution they wanted, it terminated in a situation far worse than what existed previously. The tragic results of taking the route of Barabbas, instead of the way of Christ, may serve as a classical example of the superiority of Jesus’ way.
May it never be overlooked that the established order in the civilized world is still far better than anarchy – in spite of its deficiency, despite the inequalities and injustices, despite its halting and stumbling. Even if some complete overthrow of established institutions should occur, the new order, judged in the light of what history invariably discloses, would be no better than the old and would probably be much worse.
Present-day Christians are the privileged heirs of the greatest earthly inheritance ever known in the history of the world, a fact that angers Satan. Don’t throw it away or allow some revolutionary to overtake you intellectually and rob you of it. And if through indifference or tacit support, you should ever contribute to the overthrow of present institutions, and if you should live for a single day without the legacy you now hold in your hands, an ocean of tears could not ease your heartbreak or give you another inheritance like the one in which you now stand secure. Keep it! We are currently passing through an era that glorifies the extremist; the seductive voices of the far left, as well as the far right, are calling. We must stop our ears and bind ourselves to the mast, like the sailors of Ulysses. Death and destruction shall reward us if we turn our backs upon the teachings of the Savior and cast in our destiny with the seditionists. The Marxists, revolutionaries, Rousseauists, terrorist, and screaming agitators are not friends but enemies.
“Take up the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against all the fiery darts of the evil one, and having done all, stand” (Eph. 6:13f).
Reject every form of extremism, and heed the apostolic injunction to “Let your moderation be known unto all men” (Phil. 4:5).
Implications of the Christian attitude toward the state are far-reaching and include the deduction that Christians may serve in military or political capacity, vote, and engage freely in the participation allowed and encouraged by the state itself, the only restriction being that conscience (being under God above all) should not be defiled. It is a comment upon the extreme worthiness of our own government, as compared to other worldly states, that many Christians do share in the management of its institutions and hold offices of public trust, the nation being far better off for the presence of such citizens within the structure of its political and civil institutions.
We are living in a politically minded age when unfortunately many Christian people are more concerned about worldly politics than Christian affairs. Romans 13 provides instruction in that area. We should read it in the light of what Paul discloses in the Philippian Epistle: our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior. In the last analysis, the only politics in which a Christian should be actively involved are the affairs of heaven: the promulgation of the testimony of his Lord in a world that needs the Gospel more than anything else. This should be a full-time occupation for every Christian, leaving little time for our personal interests to be absorbed in worldly affairs. However, we should guard against the idea that a Christian should march across the landscape of this world in robot-style, head in the clouds having no interest in the affairs of his fellow men.
Concerning the government of this world, Christian’s have only one interest – obedience.2
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. There is no power but of God: the powers that be are or dained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.3
The Darby translation of this passage is simpler and more lucid:
Let every soul be subject to the authorities that are above [him]. For there is no authority except from God; and those that exist are set up by God. So that he that sets himself in opposition to the authority resists the ordinance of God; and they who [thus] resist shall bring sentence of guilt on themselves.
In order to get the underlying truth in this passage, let us return to the first of Genesis which is often referred to as “the seed-plot of the entire Bible.”
The fourth day’s work in Genesis one was the establishment of authority. It was for the purpose of dividing between the light and the darkness. There, in embryo, we have what is set forth throughout the Scriptures as the ordination of authority. God was establishing certain controlling factors in the world that recently had been chaotic. God is a God of order, and it is His plan and purpose that His universe shall move in harmonious order. Sin entered into the world and shattered that order, yet God has not yet abandoned His control of the affairs of men. The powers that be are ordained of God.And God made the two great lights; the great light to rule the day, and the small light to rule the night-and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth, and to rule during the day and during the night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning-a fourth day.
We should not confuse the powers with the men who wield those powers. It is the power or the authority itself that God has set up. He who wields it is responsible to God regarding how he uses that power. That was illustrated when Pilate threatened our Lord Jesus after He declined to answer his question. Pilate said to Him, “Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to release thee, and have power to crucify thee?” Jesus answered, “Thou wouldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him. In other words, the power that crucified the Lord was actually misused by Pilate? Yet it was an authority ordained by God.4 Thus, we must distinguish between the authority itself and the man who wields it. In the early days of World War II, some Christians had the temerity to intimate that God had raised up Hitler in order to punish the British for something or other. God never raised up Hitler. The devil raised him up, and he usurped the power that was of God, i.e., the power of the presidency of the German people. Let no one doubt that he will give an account to God for the way in which he brutally misused it.
However, the Christian’s obligation is to obey the power no matter who may wield it. The Christian recognizes that the power itself is ordained of God. Is there any limit to this? Yes there is. Remember when Simon Peter was forbidden by the authorities to preach Christ? He said, “Shall I obey God or men?” Then he made his choice. In defiance of the power, he obeyed God. There may come that rare time when the powers that be issue an edict in direct violation of the Word of God. Then the Christian must make a choice. However, he must be very sure that the power is, in fact, conflicting with the actual Word of God and not with some of his own personal ideas about it. With Simon there was no doubt. The Lord Jesus had said, “I will make you fishers of men.” He had said, “Feed my sheep.” He had sent Simon Peter forth to minister the Gospel. The authorities said, “You must not do that.” Simon Peter made his choice.
