A. The Christian and
government.
1. (1-2) Government's legitimate
authority and the Christian's response.
Let every soul be subject to the governing
authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and
the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore
whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God,
and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
a. Subject to the governing
authorities: The connection between Romans 12 and Romans
13 is clear. If the Christian is not to seek personal
vengeance, it does not take away the government's authority to
punish wrongdoers.
b. Every soul certainly includes
Christians. Paul simply says that we should be subject to the
governing authorities. This was in contrast to groups of
zealous Jews in that day who recognized no king but God and
paid taxes to no one but God.
c. For there is no authority
except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed
by God: We subject ourselves to governing authorities because
they are appointed by God and serve a purpose in His plan.
i. No authority except from
God: God appoints a nation's leaders, but not always to
bless the people. Sometimes it is to judge the people
or to ripen the nation for judgment.
ii. We remember that Paul wrote
this during the reign of the Roman Empire. It was no
democracy, and no special friend to Christians - yet he still
saw their legitimate authority.
iii. "Remember your Savior
suffered under Pontius Pilate, one of the worst Roman
governors Judea ever had; and Paul under Nero, the worst Roman
Emperor. And neither our Lord nor His Apostle denied or
reviled the 'authority!'" (Newell)
d. Therefore whoever resists the
authority resists the ordinance of God: Since governments have
authority from God, we are bound to obey them - unless, of
course, they order us to do something in contradiction to
God's law. Then, we are commanded to obey God before man (as
in Acts 4:19).
e. Those who resist will bring
judgment on themselves: God uses governing authorities as a
check upon man's sinful desires and tendencies. Government can
be an effective tool in resisting the effects of man's
fallenness.
2. (3-4) The job of government:
to punish and deter evildoers.
For rulers are not a terror to good works,
but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do
what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he
is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be
afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is
God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who
practices evil.
a. Do what is good, and you
will have praise: Paul's idea is that Christians should be
the best citizens of all. Even though they are loyal to God
before they are loyal to the state Christians are good
citizens because they are honest, give no trouble to the
state, pay their taxes, and - most importantly - pray for the
state and the rulers.
b. He is God's minister:
Paul describes government officials as God's minister. They
have a ministry in the plan and administration of God, just as
much as church leaders do.
i. If the state's rulers are
God's minister (servant), they should remember that they are
only servants, and not gods themselves.
c. An avenger to execute wrath on
him who practices evil: It is through the just punishment of
evil that government serves its function in God's plan of
holding man's sinful tendencies in check. When a government
fails to do this consistently, it opens itself up to God's
judgment and correction.
d. He does not bear the sword
in vain: The sword is a reference to capital punishment.
In the Roman Empire, criminals were typically executed by
beheading with a sword (crucifixion was reserved for
the worst criminals of the lowest classes). Paul, speaking by
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has no doubt that the
state has the legitimate authority to execute criminals.
3. (5-7) The Christian's
responsibility towards government.
Therefore you must be subject, not
only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake. For
because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's
ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render
therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due,
customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom
honor.
a. Therefore you must be subject:
We must be subject to government; not only because we fear
punishment, but because we know it is right before God to do
so.
i. For conscience sake: Christian
obedience to the state is never blind - it obeys with the eyes
of conscience wide open.
b. You also pay taxes . . .
Render therefore to all their due: We are also to pay the
taxes due from us, because there is a sense in which we
support God's work when we do so.
i. By implication, Romans 13:6
also says that the taxes collected are to be used by
government to get the job done of restraining evil and keeping
an orderly society - not to enrich the government officials
themselves.
c. Taxes . . . customs . . . fear
. . . honor: We are to give to the state the money, honor, and
proper reverence which are due to the state, all the while
reserving our right to give to God that which is due to God
alone. (Matthew 22:21)
d. In light of this, is rebellion
against government ever justified? If a citizen has a choice
between two governments, it is right to choose and to promote
the one that is most legitimate in God's eyes - the one which
will best fulfill God's purpose for governments.
i. As well, in a democracy, we
must understand that there is a sense in which we are
the government, and should not hesitate to help "govern" our
democracy through our participation in the democratic
process.
B. The Christian's obligation to
his neighbors.
1. (8-10) The obligation to
love.
Owe no one anything except to love one
another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For
the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall
not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false
witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any
other commandment, are all summed up in this saying,
namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does
no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the
fulfillment of the law.
a. Owe no one anything except to
love one another: On a personal level, the only "debt" we are
to carry is the "debt" to love one another - this is a
perpetual obligation we carry both before God and each
other.
i. Some take this as a command to
never borrow, but Jesus permitted borrowing in passages like
Matthew 5:42. That isn't the sense of what Paul is saying
here, though the Scriptures do remind us of the danger and
obligations of borrowing (Proverbs 22:7).
ii. "We may pay our taxes and be
quit. We may give respect and honor where they are due and
have no further obligation. But we can never say, 'I have done
all the loving I need to do.' Love then is a permanent
obligation, a debt impossible to discharge." (Morris)
b. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself: Paul echoes Jesus' words as recorded in Matthew
22:36-40. This is one of the two commands upon which hang
all the Law and the Prophets.
i. Love your neighbor means to
love the people you actually meet with and deal with every
day. It is easy for us to love in the theoretical and the
abstract, but God demands that we love real people.
ii. "No man can compass the ends
of life by drawing a little line around himself upon the
ground. No man can fulfill his calling as a Christian by
seeking the welfare of his wife and family only, for these are
only a sort of greater self." (Spurgeon)
c. Love is the fulfillment of the
law: It is easy to do all the right religious "things" but to
neglect love. Our love is the true measure of our obedience to
God.
2. (11-14) The urgency to love
and walk right with God.
And do this, knowing the time, that
now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our
salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us
cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of
light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and
drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for
the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
a. The night is far spent, the
day is at hand: Because we know the danger of the times and we
anticipate the soon return of Jesus, we should be all the more
energetic and committed to a right walk with God
instead of a sleep-walk with God.
I. How important it is to awake
out of sleep! We can do many Christian things and
essentially be asleep towards God. What a difference it makes
when we are awake!
?
We can speak when we are asleep
?
We can hear when we are asleep
?
We can walk when we are asleep
?
We can sing when we are asleep
?
We can think when we are asleep
b. Cast off the works of
darkness, and put on the armor of light: The illustration
is from taking off and putting on clothes. When you get
dressed every day, you dress appropriately to who you are and
what you plan to do. Therefore, everyday, put on the Lord
Jesus Christ!
i. We must cast off before
we can put on. "The rags of sin must come off if we put
on the robe of Christ. There must be a taking away of the love
of sin, there must be a renouncing of the practices and habits
of sin, or else a man cannot be a, Christian. It will be an
idle attempt to try and wear religion as a sort of celestial
overall over the top of old sins." (Spurgeon)
c. The works of darkness are
characterized as revelry and drunkenness, licentiousness and
lewdness, strife and envy. These are not appropriate for
Christians who have come out of the night into God's
light.
i. The idea behind the word for
licentiousness is "the desire for a forbidden bed." It
describes the person who sets no value on sexual purity and
fidelity.
ii. Lewdness has the idea of a
man who is lost to shame. They no longer care what people
think and flaunt their sin openly, even proudly.
d. The armor of light is related
to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When we put on Christ, we
put on all the armor of God and are equipped to both defend
and attack.
i. "Putting on Christ is a
strong and vivid metaphor. It means more than put on the
character of the Lord Jesus Christ, signifying rather
Let Jesus Christ Himself be the armor that you wear."
(Morris)
e. Yet, we are still called to
make no provision for the flesh. We have a work to do in
walking properly, as in the day - it isn't as if Jesus does it
for us as we sit back; instead, He does it
through us as we willingly and actively partner with
Him.
f. God used this passage to show
Augustine, the great theologian of the early church, that he
really could live the Christian life as empowered by
the Holy Spirit - he just had to do it. And so do
we.