Romans 13.1a-Paul Commands Romans To Continue Voluntarily Subjecting Themselves To The Governmental Authorities
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday December 2, 2009
Romans: Romans 13:1a-Paul Commands Romans To Continue Voluntarily Subjecting Themselves To The Governmental Authorities
Lesson # 431
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 13:1.
This evening we will begin a study Romans 13:1 in which Paul commands the Roman believers to continue to voluntarily subject themselves to the governmental authorities because there is no authority that exists on earth except from God and those which do exist at any time are ordained by God in eternity past.
In Romans 13:1-7, Paul teaches his readers that the righteousness of God is manifested in the believer’s conduct in relation to civil government.
Romans 13:1, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”
Romans 13:2, “Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.”
Romans 13:3-4, “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 on the one who practices evil.”
Romans 13:5, “Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.”
Romans 13:6, “For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.”
Romans 13:7, “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.”
Romans 13:1-7 refers to one of four institutions established by God, namely human government.
Each of these institutions is a system of authority designed to protect the freedom of members of the human race, both unbeliever and the believer.
(1) Volition: You have authority over your own soul (Gen. 2:16-17).
(2) Marriage: Husband has authority over the wife (Gen. 2:22-24).
(3) Family: Parents have authority over the children (Gen. 4:1; Ephesians 6:1-2).
(4) Government: Government has authority over its citizens (Gen. 9:5-6).
Authority is the right to rule and make decisions and is the power or right to enforce obedience and is the right to control, command or determine.
God has instituted authority in order to: (1) Protect free will (volition) (2) Protect the human race from self-destruction (3) Give order to life (4) Maintain peace (5) Allow the Gospel to spread and influence people. (6) To support the believer’s witness by their authority orientation in the devil’s world.
Paul in Romans 13:1-7 expands upon what our Lord said in Luke 20:25.
Luke 20:25, “And He said to them, ‘Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’”
Paul’s teaching in Romans 13:1-7 regarding civil authorities echoes the teaching of the Old Testament.
Proverbs 24:21, “My son, fear the LORD and the king.”
Ecclesiastes 8:2, “I say, ‘Keep the command of the king because of the oath before God.’”
The apostle Peter taught his congregations to be obedient to civil authorities (1 Peter 2:13-17).
Not only does Paul teach that all Christians are to respect the civil authorities but also he commanded his congregations to pray for their leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-8).
Let’s concentrate now on verse 1 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 13:1, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”
“Every” is the nominative feminine singular form of the adjective pas (pa$), which is modifying the noun psuche, “person” and is used in a distributive sense referring to each and every one of Paul’s Christian readers in Rome without exception, regardless of their race, gender or social status.
The word denotes “no exceptions,” which would make clear to Paul’s Christian readers that each and every one of them with no exceptions are to be in subjection to the governmental authorities.
“Person” is the nominative feminine singular form of the noun psuche (yuxhv) (psoo-kay), which refers to Paul’s Christian readers in Rome emphasizing their personhood or in other words, that they are living beings who are moral rational creatures.
He is not addressing the unbelievers obviously since in context Paul is addressing the Roman Christians directly and wrote this epistle to them specifically.
“Is to be in subjection to” is the third person singular present passive imperative form of the verb hupotasso (u(potavssw) (hoop-ot-as-so), which is used with the Roman believers as its subject and the governmental authorities of the Roman Empire as its subject.
The verb means “to voluntarily subject oneself to” human government indicating that each and every one of the believers in Rome is to voluntarily subject themselves to the governing, civil authorities in Rome.
It is used this way in several other places in the New Testament.
Titus 3:1, “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.”
1 Peter 2:13-14, “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.”
In Romans 13:1, the present imperative form of the verb hupotasso is a “customary present imperative,” which indicates that Paul is commanding the Roman believers to “continue to make it their habit of” voluntarily subjecting themselves to the governing authorities.
Paul’s statements in Romans 1:8 and 15:14-15 imply that the Roman believers were already voluntarily submitting themselves to the governing authorities in Rome.
The passive voice of the verb is a “permissive” passive, which emphasizes the volitional responsibility of the Roman believers in submitting to the governing authorities in Rome.
Therefore, the permissive passive voice of the verb hupotasso indicates that Roman believer are to “voluntarily” subject themselves to” the governing authorities in Rome.
Romans 13:1, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”
“The governing authorities” is the dative feminine plural form of the noun exousia (e)cousiva) (ex-oo-see-ah), “authorities” and the dative feminine plural present active participle form of the verb huperecho (u(perevxw) (hoop-er-ekh-o), “the governing.”
In Romans 13:1, exousia is used in the plural and means “authorities” and refers to the civil governmental authorities in Rome who were delegated authority and power by God as His servants to govern the affairs of men and to exercise justice against law breakers.
The word speaks of the power or right to govern and to exercise authority over the citizens of the Roman Empire.
The Latin equivalent of this word was imperium, which referred to the right to rule or govern.
An archon in the Roman Empire who possessed imperium had the power and authority to issue the death penalty, capital punishment to convicted criminals.
This is the power Paul speaks of in Romans 13:1 when he uses the Greek noun exousia, “authorities.”
The archon, “rulers” in Romans 13:3 refers to those government authorities who possessed the power and authority (imperium) to administer the sentence of capital punishment to citizens or non-citizens in the Roman Empire.
In Romans 13:1, the verb huperecho means “to exercise authority over someone” and is used of the exercise of the authority delegated to the officials in the Roman government by God.
Therefore, we see that Paul is issuing another command to the believers in Rome, which requires all of them to continue making it their habit of voluntarily subjecting themselves to the governmental authorities in Rome.