16    The Christian’s Response to Government—part 1  Submitting to Government (13:1-7)

Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. (13:1–7)

These seven verses contain the clearest and most specific New Testament teaching on the Christian’s responsibility to civil authority. Every Christian, no matter what form of government he lives under, is under command from the Lord to maintain proper and useful submission to that government for the sake of leading a peaceful life and having an effective witness. This recurring theme of submission to society’s controlling power is nowhere more forcefully dealt with than here.

The first eleven chapters of Romans (in particular chaps. 1–8) explain in marvelous detail what it means to be saved and how men become saved—by being justified by God’s grace working through faith. That whole reality is summed up generally by Paul: “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (3:21–24).

The monumental miracle of salvation impacts every relationship associated with the believer’s life. Paul upholds these implications as chapter 12 begins. First, and most important and obvious, is the effect on our relationship to God. When we are saved, our initial response should be to fully present our “bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual service of worship” (12:1). The apostle’s next concern is for our having a right relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ (12:3–16) and with non-Christians, including even our enemies (vv. 17–21).

After dealing with those matters, the inspired writer focuses on the need to have a right relationship to the human governments under which we live (13:1–7).

Due to the religious freedom that most westerners have enjoyed for many generations, it is difficult for believers living in such countries to fully appreciate the struggle that many of their brothers and sisters in Christ face under regimes that restrict freedom and oppress Christianity.

“Holy wars,” such as the Crusades, that are fought in the name of Christianity, are generally and rightly condemned. But historically, Christians have been involved, frequently in the name of their faith, in the forceful overthrow of oppressive and sometimes despotic governments. Democracy and political freedom are commonly identified with Christianity. For such reasons it is difficult for many Christians to be clear, or even objective and honest, about a passage so unambiguously restrictive as Romans 13:1–7.

Many evangelicals strongly believe that the American Revolution was wholly justified, not only politically but biblically. They believe that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness not only are divinely endowed but that their attainment and defense somehow is Christian and thereby justified at whatever cost, including that of armed rebellion when necessary. Obviously, such action is forbidden by God, and, judged in light of our present text, it is equally obvious that the United States was born out of violation of Scripture. That does not mean that, in His grace, God has not bestowed great blessing on America, which He unquestionably has. It does mean, however, that His blessings have been in spite of the disobedience to His Word which was involved in the revolution bringing the nation into being.

Believing that the end sometimes justifies the means, many evangelicals contend that nonviolent civil disobedience is justified when a cause, such as opposition to abortion, is clearly biblical. Some evangelicals even refuse to pay taxes because part of the money will be used for causes and activities that are unjust and immoral. Many evangelicals believe that Christians should become active in political causes, relying on social action and pressure tactics to change laws and government policies and practices that are plainly evil and to protect cherished religious rights that are being encroached upon. In the name of such concepts as co-belligerency, some evangelicals are joining forces with individuals and organizations that are unchristian, heretical, and even cultic. The reasoning is that it is sometimes permissible to join forces with one evil in order to combat what is considered to be a greater evil. This zeal for preservation of the Christian faith, both culturally and individually, often gets blended in with strong views about economics, taxation, social issues, and partisanship, so that the Bible gets wrapped in the flag.

Even social and political activities that are perfectly worthwhile can deplete the amount of a believer’s time, energy, and money that is available for the central work of the gospel. The focus is shifted from the call to build the spiritual kingdom through the gospel to efforts to moralize culture—trying to change society from the outside rather than individuals from the inside. When the church is politicized, even in support of good causes, its spiritual power is vitiated and its moral influence diluted. And when such causes are supported in worldly ways and by worldly means, the tragedy is compounded. We are to be the conscience of the nation through faithful preaching and godly living, confronting it not with the political pressure of man’s wisdom—including our own—but with the spiritual power of God’s Word. Using legislation, adjudication, or intimidation to achieve a superficial, temporal “Christian morality” is not our calling—and has no eternal value.

In a message delivered at Oxford University in 1898, the British theologian Robert L. Ottley observed,

Some evangelical pastors and other Christian leaders have turned from emphasizing the gospel to emphasizing politics, from emphasizing the Word of God to emphasizing coalitions to “impact culture.” Some Christians expect the government to be not only the church’s ally but its primary partner. But the state is temporal and affects only things that are temporal. It is a foolish and wasteful stewardship that devotes a great deal of time trying to bring people better morality—which at best is transient—but little time bringing them the gospel, which offers eternal life. It really does not matter whether people go to hell as policemen or prostitutes, judges or criminals, pro-life or pro-abortion. The moral will persist with the immoral. Our task is the proclamation of the gospel. Neglecting it is the spiritual equivalent of a skilled heart surgeon abandoning his profession to become a make-up artist, spending his time making people look better rather than saving lives. The mission of the church is not to change society—although that is often a beneficial by-product of faithful ministry and living—but to worship and serve the Lord and to bring others to saving faith in Him.

Much like liberal Christians at the turn of the century, many evangelicals have lost their focus on eternal values and become enamored of temporal issues, creating what amounts to a politically conservative version of social Christianity. Also like liberals who preach only a social message, evangelicals who emphasize social concerns above spiritual ones look more and more to government as a temporal, earthly ally or enemy. But even the absolute best of human governments do not participate in the work of the kingdom, and the worst of human societal systems cannot hinder the power of the Word and the Spirit. God instituted civil authority for an entirely different, temporal, and transient purpose.

It is not that Christians are not to be involved, sometimes directly, in civil government. It is certainly not that believers should avoid expressing their beliefs through voting for the best qualified political candidates and for sound legislation. That is part of doing good in our society (cf. Gal. 6:10; Titus 3:1–2). We should be grateful to God for civil freedom to worship, to preach and teach the gospel, and to live our lives almost without restriction. That is a nice privilege, but it is not necessary to the effectiveness of the gospel truth or to spiritual growth. We also should be grateful for, and, within reason, take advantage of our many legal and effective recourses for changing bad laws and bad governments and for promoting good ones. But that has nothing to do with the Christian’s priority of proclaiming the gospel and living a holy life to demonstrate that God is a saving God.

Both the Old and New Testament present illustrations of believers whose earthly role placed them in civil service, and they were useful to God there. Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon are the two supreme Old Testament examples. After Jesus healed the centurion’s servant, He did not advise him to leave the army (see Matt. 8:5–13). After Zaccheus was converted, he did not leave his civil profession but became an honest tax collector (see Luke 19:1–10). Cornelius, another Roman centurion, was saved through the ministry of Peter and continued to serve in the army (see Acts 10). And there is no reason to believe that the proconsul Sergius Paulus did not remain in his high civil office after he was saved (see Acts 13:4–12).

At issue is the matter of priority, of realizing that even the greatest earthly good we may be able to accomplish in the temporal world pales beside what the Lord is able to accomplish through us in the spiritual work of His kingdom. Like ancient Israel (Ex. 19:6), the church is called to be a kingdom of priests, not a kingdom of social activists. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,” Peter reminds us, “that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9, emphasis added).

Our Lord was born into a society where political corruption and autocratic rule were common. Merciless tyrants and murderous dictators were everywhere, along with human slavery—the antitheses of democracy. Those were almost unchallenged norms. By some estimates, the Roman empire of that day had three slaves for every free person. Although a vassal of Rome, the Idumean King Herod ruled most of Palestine, including Judea and Samaria, with autocratic cruelty. “When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi” regarding the whereabouts of the infant Jesus, “he became very enraged, and,” with absolute impunity, “sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from two years old and under” (Matt. 2:16). During that time, taxes were exorbitant and government-approved overcharging and extortion by tax collectors made the financial burden on the people immeasurably worse.

Like the other conquered peoples, the Jews of Palestine were little more than Roman chattel, an underprivileged and oppressed minority. They had no voice at any level of government and little legal recourse for injustices. Consequently, many reactionary Jews were in constant rebellion against Rome, some outwardly and some only inwardly. Some of the leaders refused to see the reality of the situation because it was so distasteful. They apparently refused to recognize the obvious. When Jesus declared “to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’” (John 8:31–32), they strangely replied, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You shall become free’?” (v. 33). For over fifty years they had been subject to Rome, and before that to Greece, Medo-Persia, Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt. It was certainly their point that they had never been conquered inwardly, that, whatever their knees had to do, their hearts had never bowed to any Gentile power.

Despite heavy restrictions, Rome permitted Jews a remarkable degree of religious freedom. At the time of Christ, they were not required to worship caesar or any pagan deity. They were free to maintain their priesthood and temple and to support these religious institutions by offerings. The Romans safeguarded the Sabbath, the Mosaic ceremonial and dietary laws, and they upheld the Jews’ wish to prohibit idols, including images of the emperor, with the exception of coins, which did offend the Jews. They even upheld the Jewish law that required execution of a Gentile who entered the inner court of the temple. Because the Romans generally considered Christianity to be a sect of Judaism, the early church was able to share many of the Jews’ religious freedoms.

Most Jews, however, chafed under Roman domination, and fanatical nationalists, called Zealots, refused to pay taxes and engaged in terrorist attacks against their rulers. On the basis of Deuteronomy 17:15 (“You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman”), some Jews believed that merely recognizing a Gentile ruler was sinful. Many zealots became assassins, wreaking vengeance not only on Romans but even on their own countrymen whom they considered traitors. Even as the church was just getting started, Jewish insurrection was rapidly expanding and eventuated in the Jerusalem holocaust of A.D. 70, in which the city and its temple were utterly destroyed and some 1,100,000 inhabitants—including women, children, and priests—were massacred without mercy by the retaliating Romans.

Because most Jews of that day believed the Messiah would come as a political deliverer, many of Jesus’ disciples expected Him to free them from the Roman yoke. But He made no call for political or social reform, even by peaceful means. He never attempted to capture the culture for biblical morality or to gain greater freedom. To the contrary, He declared unambiguously, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). On a later occasion He told His disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things, and do not do them” (Matt. 23:2–3). Those wicked leaders were not to be emulated, but they were to be obeyed. Changing the form of government or superficially moralizing it were not Jesus’ goals. He sought to redeem individual souls.

When He was not preaching, He was demonstrating His great compassion for the pain and hardships of men in their personal lives. Even the most casual reading of the gospels reveals that His compassion was not merely emotional or idealistic. He not only empathized with sinners but healed countless thousands of every sort of disease and affliction, often at great personal sacrifice. Social morality and structure were never His concern.

But even meeting physical needs was not the goal of His life and ministry. Above all else, He came to meet a need that far surpasses all other needs, a need that only He could satisfy. He therefore spoke to the hearts and souls of individual men and women—never to their political, social, economic, or racial rights or physical pain and plights. He taught the saving gospel that had power to make their souls right with His Father and to grant them eternal life—in light of which, temporal rights and morals pale in importance. He did not come to proclaim or establish a new social or moral order but a new spiritual order, His church. He did not seek to make the old creation moral but to make the new creations holy. And He mandated His church to perpetuate His ministry in that same way and toward that same end, to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15).

No minority in the United States or in any other part of the western world has had their babies massacred while they slept. Many people on welfare today have amenities, conveniences, opportunities, and rights that even the wealthiest citizens of Jesus’ day could not have imagined. Yet neither the Lord nor His apostles give any justification for political revolt, rebellion, or civil disobedience. There was no effort on His part to eliminate social or political injustice.

What, then, is the Christian’s responsibility to society, and to government in particular, if we are to remain “aliens and strangers” in this world (1 Pet. 2:11) who have a platform to call people to salvation? How are we to live in the world but not be of it (John 17:11, 16)? In the present text, Paul presents the two basic principles that answer those questions. First: Be subject to government (v. 1); and second: Pay taxes (v. 6). Those commands summarize the Christian’s civic duty. It is through fulfilling those two obligations that we “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21).

THE STANDARD: BE SUBJECT TO CIVIL AUTHORITY

Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. (13: 1a)

The basic command is simple and succinct: Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. In the broadest sense, every person applies to every human being, because the principle stated here reflects God’s universal plan for mankind. But Paul is speaking specifically to Christians, declaring, in effect, that Christianity and good citizenship should go together. And, as he will continue to explain, subjection to the governing authorities includes much more than simply obeying civil laws. It also includes genuine honor and respect for government officials as God’s agents for maintaining order and justice in human society.

Because the apostle was writing to the church in Rome, the capital of the empire, some interpreters suggest that he was giving a unique warning to Christians there because of the greater danger to traitors and insurrectionists, real or imagined. Most people did not enjoy the legal protection of presumed innocence, especially in regard to crimes against the state. Long considered a sect of Judaism, with its rebellious inclinations, the church was especially suspect.

But Paul’s arguments here, as well as similar teachings elsewhere in the New Testament, make clear that the principle of subjection to human authority applies to every believer, in whatever part of the world and under whatever form of government. Writing to believers who were “scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Pet. 1:1), Peter said, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king” (1 Pet. 2:13–17).

As always, Paul followed his own instruction. After being falsely accused of breaking Roman law, he and Silas were brutally beaten, thrown in prison, and placed in stocks in Philippi. But instead of railing out against the ones who had mistreated them and demanding their rights from the authorities, they spent the first night in jail (until the Lord miraculously delivered them) “praying and singing hymns of praise to God” (Acts 16:25).

Georgi Vins is a Russian pastor who, for many years before the fall of Soviet communism, suffered, along with many others, great persecution for his faith. Yet he recounts that, however severe their repression and mistreatment became, pastors and other Christians determined to obey every law, just or unjust, with the exception of laws that would force them to cease worship or to disobey God’s Word. Following Peter’s admonition, they willingly suffered “for doing what is right,” but not “for doing what is wrong” (1 Pet. 3:17). They would not “suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler,” but would gladly suffer “as a Christian” (4:15–16).

Believers are to be model citizens, known as law abiding not rabble-rousing, obedient rather than rebellious, respectful of government rather than demeaning of it. We must speak against sin, against injustice, against immorality and ungodliness with fearless dedication, but we must do it within the framework of civil law and with respect for civil authorities. We are to be a godly society, doing good and living peaceably within an ungodly society, manifesting our transformed lives so that the saving power of God is seen clearly.

In his significant book Toward a Biblical View of Civil Government, Robert D. Culver writes,

Be in subjection to translates hupotassō, which was often used as a military term referring to soldiers who were ranked under and subject to the absolute authority of a superior officer. The verb here is a passive imperative, meaning first of all that the principle is a command, not an option, and second that the Christian is to willingly place himself under all governing authorities, whoever they may be.

Paul gives no qualification or condition. Every civil authority is to be submitted to willingly. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul teaches “that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Tim. 2:1–2), again with no exception related to the rulers’ competence or incompetence, morality or immorality, cruelty or kindness, or even godliness or ungodliness. He gives the same instruction in his letter to Titus, to whom he wrote, “Remind them [believers under his care] to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for all men” (Titus 3:1–2). He admonished the Thessalonian Christians “to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need” (1 Thess. 4:11–12).

During the first several centuries of the church, many Christians were so little involved with the societies in which they lived that sometimes they were considered outsiders in their own communities. They were not unloving, uncaring, or insensitive to others, but they lived very distinct and separated lives. And although they were not pacifists or opposed to civil government, few Christians enlisted in military service or sought government office. The third-century Christian writer Tertullian commented that, under the pagan Roman Empire, Christians were not executed for inflammatory teaching or behavior but for presumed antisocial tendencies. Even though that view was biased, it nevertheless reflected the church’s focus on the kingdom of God rather the kingdoms of man. Sadly, that focus does not characterize most of the church today. Even spiritual and moral battles are often fought by worldly, materialistic means. Many of the “weapons of our warfare are … of the flesh” and ineffective, rather than spiritual and “divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor. 10:4).

The principle of civil obedience applied in the Old Testament as well. Even while His people were captive in the distant, pagan land of Babylon, the Lord commanded them, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare” (Jer. 29:7).

As alluded to above, there is but one limitation to the believer’s obligation under the Lord to willing and complete submission to civil authority: namely, any law or command that would require disobedience to God’s Word.

When the pharaoh ordered the Jewish midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill all male babies when they were born, they “feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live” (Ex. 1:17). Because those women refused to disobey God by committing murder, God honored that civil disobedience and “was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty” (v. 20). When the four young Jewish men named Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were commanded to eat “from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank,” they respectfully refused, because it would have meant defiling themselves by breaking of the Mosaic dietary laws. In order to keep from offending the king, Daniel suggested to the commander that the four of them “‘be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be observed in your presence, and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.’ So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.” God honored and blessed that faithfulness, “and at the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food” (Dan. 1:12–15).

It is important to note that, even while refusing to do what God had forbidden, those four faithful men of God showed respect for the human authority they had to disobey. Speaking for the other three as well as for himself, Daniel did not demand deference to their beliefs but respectfully “sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself” (v. 8, emphasis added), and he referred to themselves as the commander’s “servants” (vv. 12–13). In obeying God, they did not self-righteously or disrespectfully malign, contend with, or condemn civil authority.

Two other familiar accounts of justifiable civil disobedience are also recorded in that book. When King Nebuchadnezzar commanded Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego to worship his gods and the golden image he had erected, they “answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up’” (Dan. 3:16–18). Again God blessed their faithfulness, to the extent that “the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them” (v. 27).

At the instigation of his commissioners and satraps, who were jealous of Daniel’s royal favor, a later Babylonian king, Darius, issued a decree “that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den” (Dan. 6:7). Daniel respectfully but firmly refused to obey the decree, and the king reluctantly had him thrown into the lions’ den. Once again, God honored his servant’s faithfulness. “Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he had trusted in his God” (v. 23). Again it is important to note Daniel’s lack of malice and his genuine respect for the human authority his conscience forced him to disobey. After being released unharmed, he said “0 king, live forever!” (v. 21).

When the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem warned Peter and John “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18), the apostles replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). The Lord had commanded, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19–20), and therefore to obey those human rulers would mean to disobey their divine Ruler, which they would not do. When Peter and John persisted in their evangelization, the Jewish leaders warned them again, “saying, ‘We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’ But Peter and the apostles answered and said, ‘We must obey God rather than men’” (Acts 5:28–29).

Like individual believers, a local church is obligated to observe civil laws such as zoning, building codes, fire safety regulations, and every other law and regulation that would not cause them to disobey God’s Word. A church is only justified in disobeying an ordinance that, for example, would require acceptance of homosexuals into church membership or of hiring them to work on staff.

In most of the world today, even including many former communist lands, Christians seldom face the need to “obey God rather than men.” By far our most common obligation, therefore, is to obey both God and men.

Some years ago, the tax department of the state of California issued a broadly-worded form that required all tax-exempt organizations, including churches, to attest that they did not and would not engage in political activities. A number of local congregations arched their backs, as it were, and refused to sign the affidavit, which resulted in their buildings being boarded up by state officials. Although he had no association with those churches and was not asked by them to intervene, a prominent Christian attorney talked with state officials on the churches’ behalf. He explained that a Christian’s conscience sometimes requires him to take certain positions on moral issues that relate to civil laws, but that those positions come from religious convictions that are based on Scripture, not on political ideology. Appreciating that explanation, the state officials reworded the form in a way that better protected religious rights. Conflicts do not, of course, always work out that favorably, but churches and individual believers should make every effort to explain carefully and respectfully their reasons for wanting a civil law or mandate to be changed that they believe would force them to disobey God.

In most matters we are to respect and obey civil laws and ordinances, and we are to do it ungrudgingly. Even when conscience leaves us no alternative but to disobey human authority, we do so with respect and with willingness to suffer whatever penalties or consequences may result.

Although He sends His own people “out as sheep in the midst of wolves,” our Lord commands us to “be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). We are to be alert, cautious, and concerned about what is going on around us and in the world. But that must not be the focus of our attention, and our living in the midst of it must be innocent—free of anxiety, ill will, rancor, and self-righteousness. Men “will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues,” Jesus continued to warn; “and you shall even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matt. 10:18—20). Furthermore, “brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved” (vv. 21–22).

Persecution is not cause for rebellion but for patient endurance and righteousness. It is not that a Christian should seek persecution or should not try to escape it when possible. Persecution in itself has no spiritual value. Therefore, “whenever they persecute you in this city,” Jesus went on to say, “flee to the next” (v. 23).

Regardless of the failures of government—many of them immoral, unjust, and ungodly—Christians are to pray and live peaceful lives that influence the world by godly, selfless living, not by protests, sit-ins, and marches, much less by rebellion. Like the prophets of the Old Testament, we have both the right and the obligation to confront and oppose the sins and evils of our society, but only in the Lord’s way and power, not the world’s. In this way, says Paul, our living is “good and profitable for men” (Titus 3:8), because it shows them the power of God in salvation. They see what a person saved from sin is like.

THE PURPOSE: GOD’S REASONS FOR OUR SUBMITTING TO HUMAN AUTHORITY

For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. (13:16–5)

Paul next presents seven reasons why Christians are to submit to human government: Government is by divine decree (v. 1b); resistance to government is rebellion against an institution of God (v. 2a); those who resist will be punished (v. 2b); government serves to restrain evil (v. 3a); government serves to promote good (vv. 3b-4a); rulers are empowered by God to inflict punishment for disobedience (v. 4b); and government should be obeyed for conscience’s sake (v. 5).

GOVERNMENT IS BY DIVINE DECREE

For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. (13:1b)

First, Paul says, human government is ordained by God for the benefit of society. In whatever of the many forms it exists, civil authority derives directly from God. Like marriage, it is a universal institution of God, and, like marriage, it is valid regardless of place, circumstance, or any other consideration.

There is no civil authority, Paul says, except from God. No matter what form it takes, no human government at any time in history, at any place on earth, among any people on earth, at any level of society, has ever existed or will ever exist apart from the sovereign authority of God, because all “power belongs to God” (Ps. 62:11). 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 circumscribed. 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.

Yet, in His sovereign wisdom, God has permitted Satan to have vast but limited power over the world and the affairs of men. Although Satan was not directly responsible for man’s sin at the Fall, it was his seductive enticement that led Adam and Eve to disobey God and thereby commit the first sin, a sin which they bequeathed to all their posterity. Satan does not have power to make men sin, but since that tragic day in the Garden of Eden, he has used every means at his disposal to entice men to indulge their sinful impulses and thereby express their defiance of God. Paul reminded the Ephesian believers that “you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:1–2). In other words, man’s natural propensity to sin is exploited by Satan’s evil wiles.

Consequently, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), who is “now the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). At His temptation, Jesus did not question Satan’s claim to “all the kingdoms of the world” or his ability to give Jesus “all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish” (Luke 4:6).

From Daniel 10 it is evident that some, if not all, nations are under the charge of a specific demon, or perhaps a group of demons. The context makes clear that “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” (v. 13), who withstood the holy angel (vv. 5–6, 11–12) “for twenty-one days,” was himself supernatural, not human. He was not defeated until “Michael, one of the chief princes” of the holy angels, came to help (v. 13). After predicting the death of the proud and blasphemous king of Babylon (Isa. 14:4), Isaiah addresses one who has “fallen from heaven,” and calls him “star of the morning [Lucifer]” and “son of the dawn” (v. 12). The close association of the human king and the supernatural agent seems to indicate that Satan himself took special charge of that pagan nation.

Although addressed as “the king of Tyre,” the being that Isaiah refers to as having “had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,” as being in “Eden, the garden of God,” and whom he calls “the anointed cherub” (Ezek. 28:12–14) is clearly supernatural and could only be Satan.

In both the Isaiah and Ezekiel accounts, Satan is closely identified with the kings of the nations involved. It becomes clear that, although human government was instituted by God and fulfills, to some extent, His plan for maintaining order on earth, many governments, if not most, are under the influence of Satan and are a means of promoting and perpetuating satanic activity.

The autocratic, ruthless, and demonic regimes of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung were no exceptions to God’s command to be subject to civil authority. The equally ruthless empires of ancient Assyria and Babylon were no exceptions. The Roman empire, sometimes ruled by caesars who proclaimed themselves to be gods, was no exception. The apostate and heretical “Christian” kingdoms of the Middle Ages were no exceptions. Shaman-ruled primitive and animistic tribes of South America are no exceptions. There are no exceptions.

That is part of the truth Paul declared before the pagan philosophers in Athens: “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things; and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation” (Acts 17:24–26).

That is the primary reason we are to submit to human government: it is instituted by the decree of God and is an integral part of His divine plan for fallen mankind.

RESISTANCE TO GOVERNMENT IS REBELLION AGAINST GOD

Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; (13:2a)

The logical ramification is simple. Because civil government is an institution of God, to rebel against government is to rebel against the 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” (An Exposition of Romans [McLean, Va.: MacDonald Pub. Co., n.d.], p. 579).

The seriousness with which God takes rebellion is illustrated vividly in the book of Numbers. God had chosen Moses not only to be the human lawgiver but to be the human leader of Israel as He delivered her from Egypt and led her through the wilderness to the Promised Land. The Lord also had appointed Moses’ brother Aaron to be high priest. During that journey, a group of some 250 malcontents, led by Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On, “assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? … Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, but you would also lord it over us?’” (Num. 16:3, 13).

The Lord was so angered by their insolence “that the ground that was under them split open; … Fire also came forth from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense” (vv. 31–35). Incredibly, the people learned nothing from that awful judgment. Instead of drawing them back to God, it merely escalated their hatred of His chosen leaders. “On the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord’s people’” (v. 41). In response to that defiant accusation, the Lord sent a deadly plague that instantly killed “14,700, besides those who died on account of Korah” (v. 49). Had not Aaron intervened by making atonement for the people, the entire congregation would have been annihilated (vv. 46–48).

THOSE WHO RESIST GOVERNMENT WILL BE PUNISHED

and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. (13:2b)

Paul is doubtless not speaking about God’s direct judgment on those who have opposed civil authority but rather the condemnation men suffer from the government itself as punishment for crime. As the apostle mentions a few verses later, civil authority “is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4).

A graphic and striking illustration of this principle came from our Lord Himself. When He was being taken prisoner in the garden, to be unjustly accused and executed, Peter drew a sword to fight the soldiers (authorities) who came to take Him. If ever there was a just cause for revolt, that would seem to have been it. But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword” (Matt. 26:52). Jesus affirmed that, no matter how noble the cause, government has the right to execute a murderer.

The Mosaic law prescribed many kinds of punishment, all of which were appropriate to the offense committed. For theft, the punishment included restitution, returning that which was stolen or payment of equal value. If he had no money or property with which to repay, the thief was required to work out his debt.

Under Mosaic law, punishment was always public. The offender was shamed before his family, friends, and society as a means of deterrence. Punishment was also generally corporal. The lashes of the whip, for example, brought immediate physical and bodily pain. But with the obvious exception of execution, punishment was also short-term. And, once the penalty was paid, the offender was free to pursue his life again.

Under Old Testament law, punishment was to be without pity for the offender. “You shall not pity him [a murderer], but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you” (Deut. 19:13). That policy is in stark contrast to what is found in many societies today, where often more pity is expressed for criminals than for their victims.

Punishment under Mosaic law had several objectives. First, it was administered as a matter of justice, of appropriate retribution for a crime or other evil committed: “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deut. 19:21). But this well-known precept of “eye for eyes”—much maligned in our day—was given by God as much to prevent over-punishment as under-punishment. It must also be noted that punishment was to be determined and administered by the proper civil authority, not by victims. Personal revenge was not involved.

Second, punishment was to be a deterrent to crime—to discourage the guilty person from committing further crime and to discourage others from following his unlawful example. “Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again” (Deut. 17:13; cf. 13:11; 19:20).

Third, Mosaic law required impartiality. The guilty were to be punished, regardless of their wealth, social standing, or position in the community—even if they were members of one’s own family, “your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul” (Deut. 13:6).

Fourth, punishment was to be without delay. “If the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt” (Deut. 25:2). Most punishment was administered on the spot, immediately after the sentence was declared. The principle of speedy trial and punishment is found in the constitutions of most modern democracies, but unfortunately it is frequently acknowledged more by disregard than by observance. Apparently the principle was also sometimes disregarded in Israel, hence the warning in Ecclesiastes: “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil” (Eccles. 8:11).

Fifth—again with the exception of execution—Old Testament law provided for pardon and rehabilitation. The guilty person could be beaten “forty times but no more, lest he beat him with many more stripes than these, and your brother be degraded in your eyes” (Deut. 25:3). Criminals were not to be permanently stigmatized. Once an offender paid his penalty, he was to be accepted back into society as a respectable citizen.

GOVERNMENT SERVES TO RESTRAIN EVIL

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. (13:3a)

We are to submit to civil authority because God has ordained it as a means of restraining evil.

Paul was obviously speaking in general terms in saying that rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. He had himself suffered a great deal at the hands of rulers who abused him for no other reason than his godly good behavior. But in that day, as throughout history, even the most wicked regimes were a deterrent to murder, theft, and many other crimes of the populace. Although the fact far from justifies totalitarian government, frequently crimes rates under such systems are lower than those in the free world. Until recently, at least, such violations as murder, robbery, and rape were all but nonexistent in some communist countries. In Muslim nations, severe punishment has been a formidable deterrent to such crimes.

When Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, they entered into a knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17; 3:1–7), and that knowledge has been passed down to all their descendants throughout history. It is that knowledge that forms the basis for conscience, even the conscience of the unsaved. “When Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law,” Paul explains, “these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them” (Rom. 2:14–15). When men sin, it is not because they do not know the difference between good and evil but because they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them” (Rom. 1:18–19).

Therefore, through God’s natural revelation in conscience and reason and under His universal common grace, even unregenerate rulers instinctively know right from wrong and consequently know that part of their duty is to punish evil behavior and to promote good behavior. Civil authorities also realize that basic morality is essential to a workable society. No society can long survive wanton murder, theft, dishonesty, sexual immorality, and violence. Good behavior is essential for any nation’s self-preservation. Without it, society self-destructs.

It certainly is not insignificant that, although prisons were common in the pagan lands of biblical times, there is little record of their being used in ancient Israel. Criminals lost their lives or worked to pay reparations. Merely incarcerating them served no good purpose. The reference to imprisonment in Ezra 7:26 was made in the middle of the fifth century B.C., after God’s people had spent seventy years as captives in Babylon, where imprisonment was common. But long-term incarceration was never an option under divinely-revealed Old Testament law.

And although prisons had been common in Europe for centuries, they did not appear in America until the late eighteenth century. Interestingly, the idea was introduced by Quakers, probably on the grounds that imprisonment was more humane than corporal punishment. But the United States now has the dual—and I believe related—distinctions of having the highest per capita number of prison inmates in the western world as well as the highest crime rate. Prisons are breeding grounds for crime, for homosexuality, and for brutality. Because inmates are not able to make restitution for their crimes, there is no restoration of their dignity. Though certainly not meant to be, they are, in effect, government-sponsored crime schools. The fact that an unbelievably large percentage of criminals are never punished or even indicted encourages crime still further. “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil” (Eccles. 8:11). How much more are men “given fully to do evil” when punishment is not executed at all.

GOVERNMENT SERVES TO PROMOTE GOOD

Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. (13:3b-4a)

God intends for civil government to promote public good. Generally speaking, peaceful and law-abiding citizens have been favorably treated by their governments throughout history. With notable exceptions, such people have no fear of authority. As long as they do what is good, they not only will not be mistreated but will have praise from their government.

It is not wrong for Christians to look to their governments for protection of life and property. Paul took advantage of the government’s role in promoting what is good when he used his Roman citizenship to secure justice by appealing to Caesar (Acts 25:11). The apostle also experienced the protection of Roman law while he was in Ephesus on his third missionary journey. When a multitude was incited against him by Demetrius the silversmith, the town clerk took Paul into protective custody and warned the crowd against rioting, saying, “So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against any man, the courts are in session and proconsuls are available; let them bring charges against one another. But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly” (Acts 19:38–39).

Because he represents the God-ordained institution of civil government, a civil official is actually a minister of God, regardless of his personal beliefs about or relation to God. He is doing the Lord’s work whether he realizes it or not, by promoting peace and safety among men.

Robert Haldane comments that

RULERS ARE EMPOWERED BY GOD TO INFLICT PUNISHMENT FOR DISOBEDIENCE

But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. (13:4b)

In order to promote and protect the good in society, human government must punish the evil. Consequently, those who do what is evil have reason to be afraid.

Because the sword is an instrument of death, the weapon here symbolizes the right of civil government to inflict punishment, including the ultimate penalty of death for crimes that deserve it. In the earliest period of human existence, the Lord instituted capital punishment. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man” (Gen. 9:6). When Jesus told Peter, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword” (Matt., 26:52), he was reminding His disciple that the penalty for his killing one of Jesus’ enemies would be to perish himself through execution, which the Lord here acknowledges would be justified.

When Paul stood before the Roman governor Festus and made his appeal to Caesar, he said, “If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die” (Acts 25:11). In saying that, he acknowledged that capital punishment was sometimes justified and that he would willingly accept it if he were to be found guilty of a capital crime.

Robert Culver again reminds us:

When a society rejects capital punishment for even the most serious crimes, including murder, it comes under blood guiltiness from God. After Cain killed Abel, “The Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ And he said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And He said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground’” (Gen. 4:10). Like Satan, whom he unknowingly had come to serve, Cain was both a murderer and a liar (see John 8:44). Immediately after the Flood, God established the divine law of capital punishment for murder (Gen. 9:6). As part of the Mosaic law, God declared, “You shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it” (Num. 35:33).

Among other things, Israel was sent into Babylonian captivity because of the many bloody crimes in the nation that went unpunished. “Make the chain,” God said, “for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. Therefore, I shall bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I shall also make the pride of the strong ones cease, and their holy places will be profaned” (Ezek. 7:23–24). When a nation does not administer justice, it eventually falls under God’s justice.

Abortion is murder of unborn children, and a nation that permits and even encourages this ghastly execution of the most innocent and helpless of those created in God’s image cannot possibly escape His judgment. The land cries out for the blood of the millions upon millions of massacred babies. God will answer.

GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO FOR CONSCIENCE’S SAKE

Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. (13:5)

Christians are to submit to civil authority not only out of fear of punishment, because of wrath, but also for their own conscience’s sake—which for the Christian is for the Lord’s sake. “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution,” Peter declares, “whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Pet. 2:13–15). As God’s own children, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we should realize with spiritual instinctiveness that disobedience of and disrespect for government is wrong, whether or not those sins are punished, and that obedience of and respect for it are right, whether we are personally protected by it or not.