|
E. H. Gifford, in F.C. Cook, ed. The Bible Commentary
p. 211
This is like Hodge's statement. Why is this said
to be such a full or extensive statment about the State and its
evil deeds? |
St. Paul passes naturally...to the duty of obedience to civil
authorities. This is a subject rarely noticed in his other
epistles: see I Tim. ii.2. Why then does he treat it so fully
and emphatically in writing to the Romans?
[T]he Roman government, regarding religion as a matter of state
policy, sternly repressed every innovation which threatened to
disturb the public peace.
Charles Hodge
on ch. 12, remark 6, p. 404
6. One of the most beautiful exhibitions of the character of
our Saviour was afforded by his conduct under persecution.
"He was led as a lamb to the slaughter;" "when he
was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened
not." Even martyrs dying for the truth have not always been
able to avoid the prediction of evil to their persecutors; so much
easier is it to abstain from recompensing evil for evil, than really to
love and pray for the good of our enemies. This, however, is
Christian duty; such is the spirit of the gospel. Just so far,
therefore, as we find even a secret satisfaction when evil comes upon
them, are we unchristian in our temper, vers. 19-21.
p. 404
The duty of obedience to those in authority is enforced, 1. By the
consideration that civil government is a divine institution, and,
therefore, resistance to magistrates in the exercise of their lawful
authority is disobedience to God, vers. 1,2.
p. 406 on verse 1, "For there..."etc.
This is a very comprehensive proposition. All authority is of
God. No man has any rightful power over other men, which is
not derived from God. All human power is delegated and
ministerial.
(same G)
All magistrates of whatever grade are to be regarded as acting by
divine appointment....
(same G)
There is no limitation to the injunction in this verse, so far as the
objects of obedience are concerned, although there is as to the extent
of the obedience itself.
(idG)
The actual reigning emperor was to be obeyed by the Roman Christians,
whatever they might think as to his title to the sceptre. But if
he transcended his authority, and required them to worship idols, they
were to obey God rather than man. This is the limitation to all
human authority. When ever obedience to man is inconsistent with
obedience to God, then disobedience becomes a duty.
verse 2, p. 406
If it is the will of God that there should be civil government,
and - 1 -407 persons appointed to exercise authority over others, it is
plain that to resist such persons in the exercise of their lawful
authority is an act of disobedience to God.
p. 407
It was to Paul a matter of little importance whether the Roman
emperor was appointed by the senate, the army, or the people; whether
the assumption of the imperial authority by Caesar was just or unjust,
or whether his successors had a legitimate claim to the throne or
not. It was his object to lay down the simple principle, that
magistrates are to be obeyed.
R. C. H. Lenski p. 783
(C)hapter 12 shows the Christian among Christians, a member of the
spiritual body (12:4,5). The conclusion which states how he is to
act toward his enemies touches also upon his relation to non-Christian
enemies, thus preparing us for the next view: -The Christian in the
Secular World-. He lives in a secular world that is controlled by
a secular government.
verse 1, p. 785
It is significant to note that Calvinistic writers subscribe to
Paul's dictum with a reservation which even Robertson enters in his very
brief note in W(ord) P(ictures). "Nor does he oppose
here revolution for a change of government." Paul does
oppose this very thing on the part of the Christian.
The reason for Christian self-subjection is the fact that
"authority (namely governmental) does not exist except by
God," by agency of God. We commonly say that the state is a
divine institution and thus put Paul's dictum into other
words. It is God's own doing that - 1 - 786 such a thing as
governmental authority and power (exousia covers both) exists among
men. God has issued no decree on the subject but as constituted
man so that in any community, large or small, he must have order and
some sort of authority to enforce that order.
p. 786
One implication is plain: anarchy is not according to the will of
God. While it has had its theoretical advocates it could not be
established so as to continue, for it is the abolition of all
governmental authority.
p. 786
When Paul wrote he scarcely had in mind his personal experiences as a
Christian under Roman authority, the climax of which was uet to come
when he suffered martyrdom; but he certainly had in mind the Jewish
authority which forced Pilate to send Jesus to the cross and his own
violence as a rabid tool of the Sanhedrin which led to the martyrdom of
so many of the first Christians. The fact that authorites and
authority may act criminally changes nothing as to God's will regarding
their establishment among men.
787
"And those existing exist as having been arranged by
God." Here the plural is again in place, for it includes all
governmental authorites from the highest imperial to the lowest
magisterial.
792
The fact that Christianity and the New Testament sanction the death
penalty and that they ought not to be cited to the contrary, is
plain. The New Testament, however, lays down no laws for the
secular state on any matter. This is left to the natural sense of
right and jutice (sic) found among men, who also bear the responsibility
for the laws they put into force and must bear the consequences, whether
these are beneficial or detrimental. Shall a state inflict or not
inflict the death penalty for extreme crimes? The answer is one
that the state must give.
Lange; Riddle's note, p. 398, col. 2
The simple, pellucid meaning of the Apostle is, that civil government is
necessary, and of Divine appointment. We infer that anarchy is as
godless as it is inhuman; that magistrates are not "the servants of
the people," nor do they derive their authority from
the people, but from God, even though chosen by the people; that
republican officials, no less than the hereditary monarchs, can
subscribe themselves, "by the grace of God." Unless the
principle be of universal application, anarchy will be justified
somewhere. This principle, moreover, respects the office, not the
character of the magistrate; not the abstract authority, indeed, but the
concrete rulers, whatever their character. If it be deemed too
sweeping, then its self-imposed limitation has been overlooked.
For as the obedience is demanded because of God's appointment, then it
is -not demanded- in matters -contrary- to God's appointment. When
the civil power contadicts God's Word and His voice in our conscience,
then it contradicts and subvers it own authority. Herein the
superior wisdom of Christian ethics is manifest. Human self-will
leads to anarchy, human power to despotism; but obedience to -de facto-
rulers as a Christian duty has led, and must lead, to true civil
freedom, since it alone makes the individual truly free, and, by
asserting the higher law as the basis of the lower authority, ever
elevates the lower authority nearer the Divine Law. For, as Alford
observes of the duty here laid down: "To obtain, by lawful means,
the removal or alteration of an unjust or unreasonable law, is another
part of this duty; for all powers among men must be on accord with the
highest power, the moral sense." And the elevation of the
moral sense of individuals will accomplish more than revolutions,
however justifiable and necessary.
John Murray, NICNT, p. 148
p. 148,
The term for "subjection" is one more inclusive than that for
obedience. It implies obedience when ordinances to be obeyed
are in view, but there is more involved. Subjection
indicates the reconition of our subordination in the whole realm of the
magistrates' jurisdiction and willing subservience to their authority.
id.
(2) When he says they are "of God," he means that they derive
their origin, right, and power from God. This is borne out by
several considerations urged later in this passage but here it is
expressly stated and excludes from the outset every notion to the effect
that authority in the state rests upon agreement on the part of the
governed or upon the consent of the governed. Authority to govern
and the subjection demanded of the governed reside wholly in the fact of
divine institution.
id.
(3) The propositions that the authorities are of God and ordained
of God are not to be understood as referring merely to God's decretive
will. The terms could be used to express God's decretive
ordination but this is not their <p. 149> precise import
here. The context shows that the ordination of which the apostle
now speaks is that of institution which is obliged to perform the
appointed functions. The civil magistrate is not the only
means decreed in God's providence for the punishment of evildoers but
God's instituted, authorized, and prescribed instrument for the
maintenance of order and the punishing of criminals who violate that
order. When the civil magistrate through his agents executes just
judgment upon crime, he is executing not simply God's decretive will bu
he is also fulfilling God's preceptive will, and it would be sinful for
him to refrain from so doing. (Note 8: -Cf.- review by the
present writer in -The Westminster Theological Journal- VII, 2, May
1945, pp. 188ff.)
p. 150
Again Paul does not deal with the questions that arise in connection
with revolution. Without question in these two verses we are
not without an index to what we ought to do when revolution has taken
place. "The -powers- that be" refer to the -de facto-
magistrates. And in this passage as a while there are principles
which bear upon the right or wrong of revolution. But these
matters which become acute difficulties for conscientious Christians are
not introduced in this passgage. The reason lies on the
surface. The apostle is not writiong an essay on casuistical
theology but setting forth the cardinal principles pertaining to the
institution of government and regulating the behaviour of
Christians. (note 10: "With the origin of a government,
or its political form the Apostle does not concern himself:
nor does he enter upon the question at what point during a period of
revolutionary change a given governmen is to be considered as -ousa-, or
as non-existent; and when a government, originally illegitimate,
acquiresd a prescriptive right. The imperial authority was too
old, and too firm to make these questions practical" Liddon: -op.
cit.-, pp. 247ff.). = Explanatory Analysis of St. Pauls's Epistle
to the Romans (N.Y. 1897).
p. 152
The term "minster of God" hearks back to verse 1 and 2 where
the "authority" is said to be of God, ordained of God, and the
ordinance of God. But now ther is intimated the spcific
capacity in which this ordination consists. This designation removes
every supposition to the effect that magistracy is -per se- evil and
serves good only in the sense that as a lesser evil it restrains and
counteracts greater evils. The title here accorded the civil ruler
shows that he is invested with all the dignity and sanction belonging to
God's servant within the sphere of government.
WGTShedd, p. 376
If a Christian is defrauded of his property by a fellow believer,
he ought to "take the wrong, and suffer himself to be
defrauded," rather than "go to alw one with another," I
Cor. vi.7. In like manner, in regard to merely worldly good, the
Christian should forego his rights and allow himself to be ill- treated
even by the government under which he lives, rather than organize a
rebellion and bring on war with its untold evils. Political
freedom is one of the most valuable of merely earthly blessings; and
political slavery is one of the greatest of merely earthly
evils. Yet Christ and his apostles nowhere teach or imply,
that either individual or organized action was justifiable, even under
the tyranny of Rome, in order to obtain the former, or abolish the
latter. On the contrary, they dissuade from and forbid it. Compare
Mat.xvii. 24-27; xxii. 17-21; I Cor. vii. 21,22; I Tim. vi.1.
Haldane, p. 576
In the most solemn manner, subjection to the existing powers in here
enjoined. This is contrary to the wisdom of the world,
which takes offence at such subjection, and contrary to the proud heart
of man, that would make religion a pretence to cover its secret
reluctiance to submit to disagreeable restraints. How natural the
opposite doctrine is to the carnal heart, may be seen from the general
sentiments entertained on the subject by rulers and ruled -- by infidels
and professed Christians -- by <577> statesmen and people of all
ranks. With one consent, the generality of men, even in this
country, which is comparatively so much enlightened by the Scriptures,
proclaim that subjection to reulers is, even in things civil, limited
and conditional -- that in case of the breach of the supposed compact
between the rulers and the ruled, rebellion is lawful, and resistance a
duty. Even in the houses of Parliament is this docrine boldly
maintained. It is much to be desired that among hose who thus
trample on the commandments of God, and set aside the Scripture doctrine
on this subject, there were no real Christians. It is lamentalbe
to reflect that, to justify resistance to the civil powers, many of the
people of God have resorted to the same false rules of interpretation
which Neologians and other perverters of the Divine word have invented
to baish the doctrines of grace from the Bible. No expedients to
explain away the meaning of any part of Scripture were ever more forced
than those adopted to make this chapter accord with the right of
resisting the powers that be.
p. 578
-For hre is no power but of God.- -- The meaning of the first clause,
'Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,' is clear as noonday;
this second gives the reason why subjection is demanded, --for tere is
no power but oGod; not 'by Divine permission,' according to Mr. Stuart,
but by Divine appointment. The expression -of- or -from God-,
cannot mean Divine permission. What we permit is not in any sense
-of us-. There is no power but of God; because it is God in
His providence who confers power on every man who holds it.
No tyrant ever seized power till God gave it him.
Haldane p. 581
In spite of all the eveils that derogate from its (magistracy) proper
character, it promotes the good of society. But none are so much
indebted to it as Christians, to each of whom it mayindeed be
emphatically said, it is the minister to -thee- for good.
Were the restraints of government removed, Christians would be attacked,
persecuted, or destroyed in any country. Even the persecution of
the worst government would not be so bad as the persecution of the
world, if freed from the restraint of law. Notwithstanding the
numerous persecutions endured by Christains under the Roman emperors,
they were still to them the ministers of God for good, without whose
government they would probably have been exterminated. 'The
Christians to the lions!' was the common cry of the multitude among the
pagans. The Roman government afforded protection to Paul for along
period, and saved him on different occasions from suffering death by his
countrymen. Let Christians, then, in every country, instead of
joining with the enemies of its established order, be thankful for the
Divine ordinance of civil government, and exert themselves to maintain
obedience and peace. It is of the utmost importance for them in
every counry to understand their dutyto civil government. In this
way they will most effectually commend the Gospel to the world, and
remove some of the most powerful obstacles to its progress.
p./ 581
The institution of civil government is a dispensation of mercy, and its
existence is so indispensable, that the momoent it ceases under one from
it re-establishes itself in another. The world, ever since the
fall, when the dominion of one part of the human race over another was
immediately introduced, Gen. iii.16, has been in such a state of
corruption and depravity, that without the powerful obstacle presented
by civil government to the selfish and malignant passions of men, it
would be better to live among the beasts of the forest than in human
society. As soon as its restraints are removed, man shows him-
self in his real character. When there was no king in Israel, and
every man did that which was right in his own eyes, we see in the last
three chapters of the Book of Judges what were the dreadful
consequences.
F.F. Bruce, 232
There is another side to the picture of Christianity's realtion to the
state. Christiantiy started out with a tremendous handicap
in the eyes of Roman law, for the sufficient reason that its Founder had
been convicied and executed by the sentence of a Roman magistrate.
The carge against Him was summed up in the inscription attached to the
cross: 'The king of the Jews.' Whatever Jesus may have said
to Pilate about the nature of His Kingship, the one record of Him known
to Roman law was that He had led a movement which challenged the
sovereign claims of Caesar. When Tacitus, many years later, wishes
he readers to know what kind of people Christians were, he deems it
sufficient to say that 'they got their name from Christ, who was
executed under the procurator Pontius Pilate when Tiberius was emporer.'
(n.1: Tacitus, -Annals- xv.44.) That was sufficient to
indicate their character. When Pauls' opponents at Thessalonica
wished to stir up as much trouble for thim and his companions locally as
they could, they went to the civic magistrates and laid information
before them: 'These men who have fomented subversion
throughout the world have come here too...they all act contrary to
Caesar's decrees and claim that there is another emperor, Jesus' (see
Acs xviii.6,7). This was a subtle misrepresentation of the truth,
but one which was <233> rendered te more colourable by the fact
that Jesus Himself had been arraigned before Pilate pon the charge of
being an agitator and leader of sedition, and of claiming Kingship for
Himself.
p.233
Paul places the whole question on a very high plane. God Himself
is the fount of all authority, and those who exercise authority on earth
do so by delegation from Him; therefore, to disobey them is to disobey
God. Human government is a divine ordinance, and the powers of
coercion and commendation which it exercises have been enrusted to it by
God, for the repression of crime and the encouragement of
righteousness. Christians of all people, then, ought to obey
the laws, pay their taxes, respect the authorities -- not because it
will be the worse for them if they don't, but because this is one way of
serving God.
But what if the authorities themselves are unrighteous? What if
Caesar claims not only the things that are his, but the <234>
things that are God's? Paul does not deal with this question here,
but it was to be a burning question in Rome for generations to
come. Caesar could so far exceed the limits of his divinely-given
jurisdiction as to claim divine honours for himself and wage war against
the saints. Can we recognize Paul's magistrate, 'the
minister of God', for reward or retribution, in John's 'beast from the
abyss', who receives his authority from the great red dragon and uses it
to enforce universal worship of himself and to exterminate those who
withhold worship from him? We can indeed, for Paul himself foresaw
precisely such a development when the restraint of law was withdrawn (s
Thess. ii.6 ff.). 'Without justice,' said Augustine, 'what
are kingdoms but great gangs of robbers?'
p. 236
And what of the 'higher powers'? Are they angelic powers, or human
powers, or both angelic powers and human powers, as has been argued by
Oscar Cullman? (nt1: bibliog) The general biblical
view is that secular power is wielded by 'the host of the high ones that
are on high' as well as by 'the kings of the earth upon the earth (Is.xxiv.
21). It is likewise true that the plural of -exousia-
('power') is used freely by Paul in the sense of angelic rulers, whether
benevolent or malignant (cf. Rom. viii. 38; Col. i. 16, ii. 10,15; Eph.
i. 21, iii.10, vi. 12). We may compare what he has to say in I
Corinthians ii.8 about the 'princes (-archontes-) of this world', who in
all probability include hostile angel-princes as well as human
rulers. Yet in the present context the 'powers' appear to be human
rulers, who wield 'the sword' for the punishment of wickedness and the
protection of the good, who therefore command and should receive
obedience, and who are to be paid appropriate taxes and other dues,
together with fiting reverence and honour. Pauls's references
elsewhere to the angelic powers are very far from suggesting that
Christians should be subject to them in any sense; on the contrary,
Christians are liberated from their jurisdiction, being united to Him
who is the creator and head of all those powers (Col. i.16, ii.10), and
conqueror or those that set themselves in hostility to Him and His
people (Col. ii.15)
4. -A revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth
evil-. The state thus is charged with a function which has
been explicitly forbidden to the Christian (xii.17a,19).
p. 239
But the following erses make it plain that the duty of obedience
to secular authorities is a temporary one, for the present period of
'night' (verse 12); in that 'day' which is 'at hand' a new order of
government will be introduced, when 'the saints shall judge the world'
(I Cor. vi.2). The state is to 'wither away' (on this Paul and
Karl Marx agree); 'the city of God remaineth.'
F.F. Bruce, 242
12. -The works of darkness . . . the armour of light.- The
antithesis between light and darkness is found repeatedly in Pauls's
writings (cf. 2 Cor. vi. 14; Eph. v.8; Col. i.12f.; I Thes. v. 4f), as
well as in John's It is one of the most obvious points of contact
between the New Testament and the Qumran texts, where all men are
governed either by the Prince of Light or by the Angel of Darkness, and
the great conflict of the end-time is called 'the war of the sons of
light against the sons of darkness.' The 'armour of light'
is described in greater detail in I Thessalonians v. 8 and Ephesians vi.
13-17.
Baarclay, 188
(iv) To the state ordinary people owe a wide range of services which
individually they could not enjoy. It <189> would be
impossible for every man to have his own water, light, sewage, transport
system. It would be impossible for a man by himself to enjoy a
system of municipal services and of social security. These things
are only obtainable when men agree to live together. And it would
be quite wrong for a man to enjoy everything wherewith the state
provides him and to refuse all responsibility to the state. No man
can take everything and give nothing. That, in fact, is one
compelling reason why the Christain is bound in honour to be a good
citizen, and to take his part in all the duties of citizenship.
(v) But Paul's main view of the state was that in his day, as he saw
things, the Roman Empire was the divinely ordained instrument to save
the world from chaos. Take away that Empire, as Paul saw it, and
the world would disintegrate into flying fragments. It was
in fact the -pax Romana-, the Roman peace, which gave the Christian
missionary the chance to do his work. Ideally men should be bound
by Christian love; but they are not; and the cement which keeps them
together is the state.
Paul saw in the state an instrument in the hand of God; the state
preserved the world from chaos; those who administered the state were
playing their part in that great task. Whether they knew it
or not they were doing God's work, and it was the Christian's duty to
help and not to hinder.
Calvin, 478
-For there is no power, &c.- The reason why we ought to be
subject to magistrates is, because they are constituted by God's
ordination. For since it pleases God thus to govern the world, he
who attempts to invert the order of God, and thus to resist God himself,
despises his power; since to <479> despise the providence of
him who is the founder of civil power, is to carry on war with
him. Understand further, that powers are from God, not as
pestilence, and famine, and wars, and other visitations for sin, are
said to be from him; but because he has appointed them for the
legitimate and just government of the world. For though tyrannies
and unjust exercise of power, as theyare full of disorder, (ataksias)
are not an ordained government; yet the right of government is ordained
by God for the wellbeing of mankind. As it is lawful to
repel wars and to seek remedies for other evils, hence the Apostle
commands us willingly and cheerfully to respect and honour the right and
authority of magistrates, as useful to men: for the punishment
which God inflicts on men for their sins, we cannot properly call
ordinations, but they are the means which he designedly appoints for the
preservation of legitimate order.
2. -And they who resist, &c.- As no one can resist
God but to his own ruin, he threatens, that they shall not be unpunished
who in this respect oppose the providence of God. Let us then
beware, lest we incur this denunciation. And by -judgment-, I
understand not only the punishment which is inflicted by the magistrate,
as though he had only said, that they would be justly lpunished who
resisted authority; but also the vengeance of God, however it may at
length be executed: for he teaches us in general what end awaits
those who contend with God.
p. 480
3. -For princes, &c.- He now commends tous obedience to
princes on the ground of utility; for the causative -gar, for-, is to be
referred to the first proposition, and not the last verse. Now,
the utility is this, --that the Lord has designed inithis wy to provide
for the tranquility of the good, and to restrain the waywardness of the
wicked; by which two things the safety of mankind is secured: for
except the fury of the wicked be resisted, and the innocent be protected
from their violence, all things would come to an entire confusion.
Since then this is the only remedy by which mankind can be
preserved from destruction, it ought to be carefully observed by us,
unless we wish to avow ourselves as the public enemies of the human race
And he adds, -Wilt thou then fear the power? Do good.- By
this he intimates, that there is no reason why we should dislike the
magistrate, if indeed we are good; nay, that it is an implied proof of
an evil conscinece, and of one that is devising some mischief, when
anyone wishes to shake off or to remove from himself this
yoke. But he speaks here of the true, and, as it were, of
the native duty of the magistrate, from which however they who hold
power often degenerate; yet the obedience due to princes ought to be
rendered to them. For since a wicked prince is the Lord's scourge
to punish the sins of the people, let us remember, that it happens
through our fault that this excellent blessing of God is turned into a
curse.
Hence he teaches us here the end for which magistrates are instituted by
the Lord; the happy ef- fects of which would always appear, were not so
noble and salutory an institution marred through our fault. |