Lesson 29 – Romans Chapter 13:1-10
As we leave chapter 12, we can’t help but reflect on all the pearls of wisdom Paul brought to us through the Holy Spirit. If we put into practice verses 1 and 2 daily, we can be sure that God will lead us into obeying the commands in the rest of the chapter.
Just to refresh your thoughts;
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (NLT)
These to verses help us with our relationship with God and the rest of chapter 12 instructs us in our relationship with brothers and sisters in Christ, then ends with our relationship toward our enemies.
Now we are going to switch gears in chapter 13 by exploring some of our responsibilities as Christians in living in this world, but at the same time not “being of the world.” When you think about it, Christians everywhere should be the shining example in this world as to just how a person should conduct themselves within society.
In chapter 13 Paul will give us four motives for obeying human governments.
(1) For Wrath’s Sake (13:1-4)
(2) For Conscience Sake (13:5-7)
(3) For Love’s Sake
(4) For The Savior’s Sake (13:11-14)
I think you will find this a very timely message in light of current events.
Rom. 13:1
“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.”
It says, Be subject to the governing authorities… or be in subjection to… or also, Everyone must submit to governing authorities.
Whether we like it or not, this is a command from God, to obey our government. If God says it, we need to obey it.
For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God…
God is our supreme Sovereign Lord and He has ordained that there should be governing authorities.
John 19:10-11
“Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?” Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over Me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.”
Government power has been given from “God above” as Jesus has said. When Paul was writing these very words, Nero was in control (A.D. 54-68). At the age of 16 Nero was left uncontrolled to pursue his own tastes, pleasures and desires. Nero’s extreme punishment on the Christians was perhaps one of the most despicable displays of human cruelty. He held parties in his gardens while the Christian’s punishment served as their entertainment for the evening. Covered with the skins of animals, they were torn apart by lions and perished, or they were nailed to crosses (Peter was nailed to a cross upside down), or they were doomed to the flames by becoming human torches in Nero’s garden, to serve as a nightly illumination.
• If in some way, somehow, our government of today were to re-enact these very same atrocities… would you be willing to still submit yourselves to its authority?
Remember, in chapter 12 we were instructed to “love our enemies.” When Paul was writing this he knew what was going on all around him, and yet he says; Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.
Paul knew at the time that this authority, as evil as it was, it was ordained by God Himself.
Matt. 10:28
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
We must realize the fact that even an “unsaved” government official is a minister of God… I know, this is hard to hear.
Today, in our country, we see the wide-spread corruption and deception within our government going on all around us. We have government officials that find pleasure in removing God from every aspect of our American culture. They’re constantly instituting laws that kill the unborn, promote and encourage perverted morality, and infringe on our religious freedoms, plus many other factors as well. But, even if we can’t respect the person or persons doing all of this, we must respect the God-ordained office.
Jon Courson; “Come on,” you protest, “God would never ordain Adolf Hitler to come into power.” Really? What does history tell us? The nation of Israel would never have been born had not world sentiment, for a short period of time, been sympathetic toward the Jew because of Hitler’s atrocities. As World War II came to a close, newsreels showed bodies of Jews being bulldozed into ditches, the mounds of eyeglasses, false teeth, and shoes… producing horror in the heart of humanity. And so it was, that, although it went right down to the wire, the League of Nations voted in favor of the establishment of the nation of Israel.”
At the time of Hitler’s atrocities many people thought for sure that he was the antichrist, just because of the presence of evil. If we believe the word of God (and we do), we know that God put Hitler into office.
Isa. 55:8
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Rom. 11:33
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”
I Cor. 2:9
“But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Let these scriptures sink into your soul for a moment, and then ask yourself if you really trust God completely. I hope your answer is yes.
The world cries out and shakes its fists at God, and says, “If your God is a God of love, why does He let evil take place?” Do you have an answer for them?
Evil is hard to watch and there is evil in this world much worse than we could possibly imagine. But, God is still on His throne and He is in full control. Our job is to walk by faith and seek Christ all the days of our life.
The only real person you can ever control is yourself. See to it that you’re doing your very best to follow hard after God.
Matt. 6:33
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
God’s got you! His word tells us that we are to be subject to the governing authorities.
• When should we not obey the government?
We are to obey the government so long as it doesn’t cause you to sin. Make sure if you decide to go against the authorities, that you have the Scriptures in context and rightly divided and it’s not just a feeling that you’re going on.
Rom. 13:2
“Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.”
“So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.” (NLT)
Paul says human government is ordained by God for the benefit of society. In whatever many forms government exists, all civil authority comes directly from God.
Psalm 62:11
“God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you;” (NLT)
John MacArthur; “The entire world, everything in heaven and earth, including satan and his hosts, are subject to their Creator. God sovereignly created and absolutely controls the universe, with no exceptions or limitations. Also, without exception, the power that any person, group, or society may possess is divinely delegated and constrained. How well or how poorly that power is used is another matter. Paul’s point here is that this power has only one source… God.”
You might be thinking at this point, “I just don’t like the way things are going in our country or in the entire world right now.” All things considered, you really shouldn’t like what’s happening and here’s the reason, God, in His sovereign wisdom has permitted satan to have massive, but limited power over the whole world, and even everything that mankind does. Satan doesn’t have the power to make man sin, but he does have the power to present temptations in the most attractive ways, just look what happened to Adam and Eve.
Eph. 2:1-3
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
“The course of this world,” is going according to plan… satan’s plan. Do you think for a second that any of this has taken our God by surprise?
This may cause us to say, “Is God really in complete control?” The concept of the control of God over everything is called the “sovereignty” of God. Nothing gives us strength and confidence like an understanding of the sovereignty of God in our lives. God’s sovereignty is defined as His complete and total independent control over every creature, event, and circumstance at every moment in history. The problem is, we tend to put God in a small box, we have to stop doing that. Our God is so immense, so powerful, that even when we’re in heaven with Him, we will never fully know Him.
“So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.” (NLT)
Punishment or judgment does not necessarily include eternal punishment.
God may judge people through the human authorities He has put in place. Because civil government is an institution of God, to rebel against government is to rebel against God who has established it.
In his commentary on Romans, the nineteenth-century Scottish evangelist Robert Haldane wrote; “The people of God then ought to consider resistance to the government under which they live as a very awful crime, even as resistance to God Himself.”
To see what God thinks about rebels, we need only to look at Korah and the 250 malcontents in the book of Numbers.
Num. 16:2-3, 20-21
“And they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”
“And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.”
The next day, a large number of people came to Moses complaining about what just happened to Korah, then God sent a plague and instantly 14,700 were killed.
For us today, should we obey our government who kills babies, promotes homosexuality, and hates our God? Yes. We only disobey government when it tries to make us sin against God.
Rom. 13:3
“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 the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you.” (NLT)
A pastor writes, “While driving a tad bit faster than I should’ve been, I saw red lights in my rear-view mirror. After pulling me over, the officer asked for my license, and said, “Aren’t you a minister?” “Yeah,” I said, “And, according to Romans 13, you are too.” So the next time you get pulled over, thank that minister, even if, like me, you get a ticket, for, according to Paul, he is truly there for our good.”
This little story segues right into verse 4
Rom 13:4
“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.”
“The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong.” (NLT)
The sword spoken of in this verse is an instrument of death. Government has the right within the proper circumstances, to impose capital punishment as well as to wage war. In Paul’s day, the common method of capital punishment was decapitation with a sword. If you were obeying the civil laws, you had nothing to worry about. This applies today as well.
Gen. 9:6
“If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.” (NLT)
God established government way before the law was given. Government was to serve as a warning to evil through the execution of capital punishment. Perhaps this might sound a bit harsh to you, but the fact remains that, after watching mankind live through the evil depravity, violence, promiscuity, and wickedness of the days of Noah, God pretty much said, “From this time on, I’m going to let mankind share the responsibility to police and govern himself.”
Rom. 13:5
“Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience sake.”
“So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience.” (NLT)
To put this very simply, believers must obey government not only because it’s their civic duty, but because it is their spiritual duty before God.
I Peter 2:13-15
“For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority – whether the king as head of state, or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right. It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.” (NLT)
As children of God, we need to realize that disobedience of and disrespect for the government is wrong, unless the government is urging us to sin.
Rom. 13:6
“For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.”
“Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do.” (NLT)
There are those who say that they’re not going to pay any taxes, they say, “We’re part of the God, Gun, and Gold movement.” Their excuse is that tax money goes to all kinds of ungodly stuff. So, let’s think about what Nero did with the taxes from the people, it was used for every kind of evil beyond our wildest imaginations. Paul is telling us to pay our taxes!
Matt. 22:21
“And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
The governments which God has established thousands of years ago needed money to function, the same is true today.
Rom. 13:7
“Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”
“Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority.” (NLT)
In Israel, as in most other parts of the empire, nationals of the country were appointed (usually after paying a high fee) as tax collectors and were given specified amounts to collect for Rome each year. They were free to charge virtually any rate they wanted and to collect taxes almost as often as they wanted, all under the protection of Roman soldiers.
Whatever they collected over the prescribed amount for Rome, they could keep for themselves. As would be expected, abuse was rampant, and because most of them were fellow countrymen, tax collectors were more hated than the Roman officials and soldiers.
Matt. 9:10-11
“Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
Paul knew at the time of his writing that his readers were perhaps financially stretched in the same way many of us are. The old saying is true from Benjamin Franklin, that the only sure thing in life is death and taxes. History has proven him right.
Taxes are a reality of life whether we live in Africa, Europe, the Far East or North or South America. But taxes do change, even though usually for the worse.
Rom. 13:8
“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
“Owe nothing to anyone – except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” (NLT)
This is a little different from us owing taxes. The only thing we are to owe is love for one another. Jesus told us; that besides loving the Lord with all that is within us, we are to love our neighbor. Then He adds, “The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:40)
The love we see in verse 8 is: Agapaō, it’s used as a verb, unlike agape which is a noun.
Agapē vs Agapaō…
Agapē: Rom 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Love here is a thing, not an action.
Agapaō: as in “Love for one another” this is an action on our part.
Love in this verse is an action on the part of the believer, a debt that can never be paid in full… we are always to keep on doing it according to Paul. If we “didn’t” do this, it would be like saying to someone, “I’ve loved you quite a bit, I think I’ll stop now.” As Paul likes to say, “may it never be.”
Jesus expressed both Agapē and Agapaō love for each and every one of us at the cross. First, as a deep-seated everlasting love. Jesus said “I Love You” with His life by coming to this earth and giving us hope for our messy lives.
He left His throne to come here and save us from our miserable selves. It’s through His life and presence in our hearts that we can learn to love ourselves and others.
Jer. 31:3
“Long ago the Lord said to Israel: I have loved you, My people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to Myself.” (NLT)
I John 4:10-11
“This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.”
Second, is the love action that Jesus took…
Eph. 5:25
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,”
How much did Jesus love His church? He loved her so much that He gave His life for her… this was love in action in its purest form.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The Father gave His Son… this was “the” love action for all time, it is higher than any other love action that has taken place.
Here’s another love action for us…
John 14:21
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
The love action for us here is to obey all that Christ has commanded us to do. We will continue to obey because we love God. While our love for God can eb and flow, God’s love for us has always existed and will never run out.
Having love for others might seem like a drudgery now, but once we pass through to the other side, loving everyone will be as natural as breathing air.
Rom. 13:9
“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.”
If we add love into the equation to cover all these commands, none of them would ever be an issue for us.
We’ll close with verse 10…
Rom. 13:10
“Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
The issue is not “who is my neighbor?” but, “to whom can I be a neighbor for the glory of Christ?” While the believer lives under the law of the land (obeying government), the believer abides by a much higher law as a citizen of heaven; the law of love. As the great prophetic band of yester-year “The Beatles” sang, “All you need is love.”
Our take away tonight is, besides obeying authority and paying taxes:
Reach out to people who are bent on harming us, pray for them.
We owe it to Christ to love people who aren’t like us, pray for them.
Love has a duty toward our fellow man. Love seeks to build up, not tear down. Love does no wrong to anyone. Let the love of Jesus dwell within you.