Key Christian Duties – Romans 13:1-14

Romans 13:1-7 – Respect for Authority – The Sovereignty of God

13:8-10 – Results for Agape-Love – The Second-half of the Greatest Commandment

13:11-14 – Reason for Austerity – The Urgency of Christlikeness

Romans 13:1-7 – “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.  ² Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.  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.  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.  ⁵ Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.  ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.  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.”

Romans 13:1 – “Have every soul submit to [the] above-held authorities; for [there] is no authority, if not [ones] under God; but the authorities being are ones having been arranged by God.”

Every person must respect all civil authorities.  Every authority has ultimately come from God.  God has ordained and established any and every authority that exists.

Submissiveness to authority does not necessary means obedience.  To obey [hupakouo] is a different Greek word than to submit [hupotasso].  Obedience involves submission, but not necessarily the other way around.  Obedience is rather absolute.  Submission involves some “wiggle room” for judgment and decisions made under an authority..  Submission can involve obedience, but there is room in our teaching here for “civil disobedience” that involves respect of authority nonetheless.

Ex. 22:28 – “Do not curse a ruler of your people.”

Prov. 21:1-4 – “The heart of the king is like canals of water in the hand of Yahweh, and He bends it wherever He desires.”

Also, see Matthew 8:5-10; 23:1; Acts 23:1-5; 1 Peter 2:13-17; 2 Peter 2:10

Civil authorities are established by God, as was Nebuchadnezer in Dan. 2, Pharaoh in Rom. 9:17; Pilate in John 19:11, and Nero here at the time of Paul’s writing Rom. 13.

Our founding fathers recognized this and such abuse:  “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776.

2 – “Therefore, the one opposing to the authority was resisting the arranged ordinance of God, but the ones having resisted will receive to themselves judgment.”

So then, anyone rebelling against any civil authority is standing against what God has established.  God will punish those who do this.

3 – Civil rulers, good or evil, are nonetheless used by God for good (see Prov. 21:1) to Restrain Evil – Can a government legislate morality?   Well, a government must legislate against immorality.  They cannot codify attitudinal morality, but they can codify behavior morality.  God has for the believer codified both, such as in the 10 Commandments.  Commandments #1 & #10 are attitudinal morality, as issues of monotheistic faith and covetousness, where #2-#9 are behavioral morality, as issues of idol-making, blasphemy, murder, stealing, etc. 

Practically, all human laws have some morality issue.  Driving on the correct side of the road is a moral issue of endangering others, as also stopping at a red light.  Even matters of courtesy have moral values.

So then, behavioral morality becomes the issue.  Attitudes do bring about behavior, but it is with behavior that the codificational line is crossed in legislation or developing a Code of Ethics.  The question within the controversy is not some much, “Can you codify morality?”  but “Whose behavior morality do you codify?”

Gen. 9:6 is the first mention of the law of capital punishment.

All murder is killing, but not all killing is murder.

The concern about capital punishment eventually points to the cross of Jesus Christ.  Who killed Jesus Christ on the Cross?  My sins?  No, God did according to Isa. 53:4-6, 10 and Acts 2:23.

God also ordains rulers to reward good.  This is why they are called “peace officers.”

A good society and government are what make doing good easy, where an evil society and government are what make doing evil easy.

4 – Government rulers and officers, though believers or not, are described here as “servants of God” or “ministers of God.”  God uses civil authorities to His own ultimate ends.

Capital punish is a part of God’s moral law.  The Sixth Commandment applies to individuals (and not the community or state) and to unjust, homicidal murder.  Capital punishment shows God’s high respect for life, in that murder cannot be ignored by being without dire consequences.  If this physical life is all that there is and there were not life beyond the grave, then there would never be any basis or reason for capital punishment – it would be out of the question.

5 – For the non-Christian, the motivation to obey civil law is fear of punishment.  However Paul asserts for the Christian that the real motivation for obeying civil law is having a clear conscience before God!  One will try to drive under the speed limit for conscience’s sake, but you do know the uneasy feeling of seeing flashing lights in the rear view mirror.

“All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them, or a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man.” Robert Winthrop, U.S. Speaker of the House in 1849.  “Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.” Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172 from his “Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.”

“We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.  Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.  Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other...{so great is my veneration of the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens in their country and respectful members of society}.” John Adams in a letter to the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, October 11, 1798. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), Vol. IX, p. 229, October 11, 1798) in Richardson’s A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897.

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” - George Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796.

Capital punish is a part of God’s moral law.  The Sixth Commandment applies to individuals (and not the community or state) and to unjust, homicidal murder.  Capital punishment shows God’s high respect for life, in that murder cannot be ignored by being without dire consequences.  Now interestingly on the other hand, as an atheist or agnostic would believe, if this physical life is all that there is and there were not life beyond the grave, then there would never be any basis or reason for capital punishment – it would be out of the question.  God sees the opposite.

Who killed Jesus on the cross?  God did, as capital punishment for our sins, by pouring out our sins and the sins of the world on Jesus to bring about the atonement.

6 – Paying taxes, legitimate taxes, is also a Christian duty, although some have brought of the question, “If 10% is good enough for Jesus, shouldn’t it be for Uncle Sam?”

7 – The term, “customs,” here can refer to tax duties.

Romans 13:8-10 – “⁸ Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.  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.”  ¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

8 – Christians need to be careful about indebtedness.  Being debt is when one’s liabilities are greater than one’s assets.  Christians need to pay their debts (see Ps. 37:21).

Our capitalistic economy is based upon Judeo-Christian ethics from the Bible.  Today we have come to see a violation of this.  Why would some loan institutions intentionally make loans to people who they knew could not pay them back on schedule or at all?  They knew that they could “resell” these loans at a profit…to Freddie Mac [Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC)] and Fannie Mae [Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA)].  They were left holding bad loans for the US taxpayers to pay for.  The waves of this violation of our ethical values are growing!

Agape-love thinks, decides, believes, communicates, and acts unconditionally and sacrificially. Agape is a positive, constant mental attitude of willfully choosing to love another unconditionally with “no strings attached” even sacrificially.  A great amount of feelings and emotions will come from it but are not used to produce it.  Emotions can shift and change, come and go, but agape never comes to an end (1 Cor. 13:8).

9-10 – As Jesus in Matthew 22:39-40 noted this in the second-half of The Greatest Commandment from Lev. 19:18 on which “hang all the Law and the Prophets” summing up Commandments #6-#10 (and #1-#5, also).

Romans 13:11-14 – “¹¹ 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.  ¹² 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.  ¹³ Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.  ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

11 – For each of us who are saved, every moment of every day puts us closer to The Rapture of the Church where our resurrection will be the salvation of our body, as Paul earlier described in Rom. 8:23.

12-13 – The Christian life is living like Christ – Christlikeness.

14 – Paul gives a fuller description of this Christlikeness in Gal. 4:19 & 5:1-25.

Questions to consider:

1. Does Paul offer any exceptions for respect of civil authority?
2. Can a Christian following God’s biblical teachings exercise civil disobedience and still show a respect of civil authority?
3. How is “conscience” a higher and more spiritual motivation than fear of punishment?
4. Are we to pay taxes?
5. How important is agape-love toward others?
6. Are we Christians under a sense of urgency in light of the Rapture?