Christians and Government - Romans 13:1-7

Introduction

Paul has worked us through a series of commands regarding how we are to deal with unbelievers, particularly those who persecute us. He has instructed us to bless them, to rejoice with them, to weep with them, to treat them with humility and respect, to walk before them in moral excellence, to be at peace with them, and above all to overcome evil with good.

Thus far Paul has spoken in the context of the individual Christian relating to the individual non-Christian. He now turns his attention to the Christian’s relationship to civil authorities.

Paul in these 7 verses gives us a singular command, with two reasons for the command and four implications of the command.

So let’s dig in to the text:

The Command - 13:1a

The command here is that every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. Let’s break this sentence down.

Exegetical

Every person

The target of Paul’s command is every person. He speaks in generalities here for a reason. Clearly Paul assumes that obedience to authorities is in some sense part of natural law. This is not just something for believers but for all people. Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. The formula allows for no exceptions.

Be in subjection

The core verbal imperative of the command is rendered be in subjection. This word is used frequently in the New Testament in many contexts.

We see it used of the relationship of the created order to Christ, with Paul describing all things as being subjected to Him.

We see it describing Jesus’ relationship to His earthly parents. We see it describing a wife’s relationship to her husband. We see it describing a servant’s relationship to his master.

So what does it mean to be in subjection? Walter Bauer defines it as follows: Subjection is submission involving recognition of an ordered structure, recognition of the entity to whom or to which appropriate respect is shown. The Bible describes this submissive recognition and respect as being due to husbands, parents, masters, secular authorities, church officials, Christ, and the will of God.

We may simplify the definition down to willing and respectful recognition of the God-ordained hierarchical order.

John Murray provides helpful clarity:

The Epistle to the Romans B. The Civil Magistrate (13:1–7)

The term for “subjection” is one more inclusive than that for obedience. It implies obedience when ordinances to be obeyed are in view, but there is more involved. Subjection indicates the recognition of our subordination in the whole realm of the magistrates’ jurisdiction and willing subservience to their authority. This is enforced still more if the rendering of the whole clause is given the reflexive form: “Let every soul subject himself to the governing authorities”. This rendering, for which much can be said, stresses active participation in the duty of subjection.

So every person is to be in subjection or submission. But to what or to whom?

Paul says “the governing authorities.”

The governing authorities

The words translated here governing authorities actually just means a superior or higher power. It’s actually very general terminology that simply means anyone higher up in the food chain than you. Paul will later in verse 3 narrow his focus down specifically to those who hold public office, but we’ll discuss that in a minute.

Doctrinal

The existence and validity of hierarchical authority

The big picture teaching that Paul is putting forth here then regarding the existence and nature of hierarchy and authority. God did not create a world of chaos, but of order. And in order for that order to be orderly, Paul says that there must be a hierarchy. There must be a chain of command.

Now humans on the whole generally don’t like the concept of authority, unless they’re the ones that have it. Paul knows that, which is why he gives this instruction.

Paul is teaching us that authority is good, it exists for a reason, and we have responsibility to one another and ultimate to God to submit in an orderly fashion to the hierarchy that He has created.

Children are to subject themselves in willing obedience to their parents. Wives are to submit themselves in willing obedience to their husbands. Church members are to submit themselves in willing obedience to the elders of the church. All people are to subject themselves in willing obedience to the ruling authorities, and ultimately all people are to subject themselves in willing obedience to the lordship of Christ.

This hierarchy is the way things ought to be, not only inside the church but outside it as well, and Christians ought to be the ones setting the example in living in peace and harmony within that hierarchy as God has created it.

Polemical

Now Paul speaks against some common teachings that have become popular in the church in recent days.

Since “Covid,” it has become popular for many serious, Bible-believing Christians to take up anti-government rhetoric. They fly yellow flags in the beds of their pickup trucks, declaring “Don’t tread on me.”

Such attitudes run contrary to the command of Paul to Christians here.

Now allow me to make a distinction. Christians do not condone or support evil government. Hear me loud and clear here. I believe that Gavin Newsom is an evil man. I believe that Kamala Harris is an evil woman. As a side note, I actually believe that Joe Biden is mentally ill and elderly, not necessarily more evil than would be expected from someone who doesn’t know Christ savingly.

However, though Christians are not to condone or support evil government, we are to subject ourselves to it. The Christian call is not to rebel against government. It is not to stage revolutions, and yes, I do believe revolutions have no place in Christian ethics. It is not to “rise up.” The call of the Christian is to willingly submit in obedience to authorities with respect and honor.

I truly believe no group in history was better at church-state relations than the Puritans, and Puritan doctrine is summed up with precision in the Westminster Standards. Listen to the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 23, section 4:

The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible Chapter XXIII: Of the Civil Magistrate

It is the duty of people to pray for magistrates, to honor their persons,i to pay them tribute and other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority, for conscience’ sake.l Infidelity, or difference in religion, doth not make void the magistrates’ just and legal authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to them:   from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted;n much less hath the Pope any power and jurisdiction over them in their dominions, or over any of their people; and, least of all, to deprive them of their dominions, or lives, if he shall judge them to be heretics, or upon any other pretence whatsoever.

Do you hear the wording there in that second sentence? Infidelity or difference in religion does not make void the magistrates just and legal authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to them. There are people today who argue that because the American government, at the local, state, and federal levels, is variously evil, foolish, incompetent, and quite often a combination of all three, that this means that we are freed from our responsibility to be in subjection to them. That is simply false. It doesn’t matter, as the confession says, whether they are unfaithful Christians or not Christians at all. We are to be subject to them.

Ethical

So what do we do with this as Christians? How do we live in submission to the government, especially a government that is increasingly hostile to God, the Scriptures, and a Biblical worldview?

Remember that you always have “obedience options.”

What do I mean by this? Let me illustrate with a real story from history and then with a more hypothetical but nearer scenario.

John Bunyan, the tinker of Bedford, and one of my favorite figures from church history, was told not to preach the Bible from his pulpit or he would be arrested. He refused to stop preaching the Word, and refused to obey man rather than God. So he went to jail. He didn’t fight, he didn’t scream, he didn’t cut off the ear of the person there to arrest him. He went peacefully, willingly, and with dignity and respect. Here we John Bunyan with an obedience option. Either he obeys the command to stop preaching or he obeys the command to go to jail.

Here’s a contemporary scenario. Get the Covid vaccine or lose your job. You don’t have to get the vaccine. But if you don’t, you can’t keep your job. So either way you can obey. Obey by getting vaccinated or obey by resigning your position. The Christian attitude in a scenario like that is not to make a scene, not to fight back, not to get rowdy. Sure, the government may be in the wrong. They may be forcing people to sign early death warrants. Who cares? Your responsibility is not to legislate from your armchair. Your responsibility, going back to chapter 12, is to be at peace with all men, and that includes your boss and that includes the government. And you might say “I can’t lose this job! My family will starve!” No they won’t. If you leave your job over a matter of Christian conscience, God will provide. God will take care of you. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and not even two sparrows live and die without His knowledge. How much more then will you, an image-bearer, the crown jewel of the created order be cared for by your Father in heaven?

How about a third scenario that seems absurd, but may not be as far away from our reality as we think?

I came across an editorial piece in a major publication recently whose headline said this: transgender people are divine and should lead us. In a separate event, actress Drew Barrymore, on live television, bowed down before and kissed the hand of Dylan Mulvaney, a mentally ill and deranged man who masquerades on the internet as a little girl.

Both the headline and the TV event are corrupt, evil, and blasphemous. Now right now, this does not affect the individual Christian in any serious way right now. We see of the evil, we hear of the evil, we condemn it as such, make sure our kids aren’t getting corrupted by it, and we move on.

But we may, in this nation, face a Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego moment, where the edicts of the land legislate that we must, like Drew Barrymore, bow down in worship before transgender people, or face the consequences. In that case, Christians would be compelled to obey God rather than man, and willingly subject themselves to the consequences of refusal. Maybe you go to jail, or maybe you lose your tax exempt status as a church, whatever the case may be. But you refuse to compromise your ethics, and you refuse to be combative. Those are the two directives when dealing with government authorities, especially those who hate you.

Remember that our kingdom is not of this world.

Jesus himself said it to Pilate. If his kingdom were of this world, his followers would be fighting. But they don’t, because they understand that our kingdom is not of this world. It is a heavenly, spiritual, eternal kingdom. Too many Christians today want to draw the sword and cut off the ear of the people who are coming against them and oppressing them, when the way of Christ is to go in silence and in peace, knowing that mere mortals can only harm the body, but our souls and our resurrection are safe in Christ.

So we see from Paul here that we are to be subject to authority. Christians are to respect and acknowledge the God-ordained hierarchy of the created order, both inside and outside the church.

Paul now grounds his command in a multi-faceted theological rationale, which we will turn our attention to now.

The First Reason: Divine Right of Rule - 13:1a

Exegetical

Why should we be in subjection to the governing authorities? Simply put, because all authority possesses the divine right of rule.

Look at what Paul says. He gives both a negative and positive.

First, there is no authority except from God, and second, those which do exist have been appointed by God.

This is compelling, and Paul states it both ways for emphasis.

All authority that exists on earth in the civil, corporate, and ecclesial spheres has been put there by God, and likewise, there are no authorities that exist on the face of the planet today, nor throughout history, that are outside the absolute sovereign control of God.

This is illustrated clearly in Biblical narrative with the story of Nebuchadnezzar.

Jeremiah 27:5–8 LSB

“I have made the earth, the men, and the animals which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is right in My eyes. “So now, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him even the wild beasts of the field to serve him. “All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant. “And it will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence,” declares Yahweh, “until I have brought it to an end by his hand.

Let’s make a couple of observations here that teach us about civil authorities, who they are, and where they get their power.

Look at verse 5. Where does ultimate power and authority reside? With God. Look at the end of verse 5. Where does a human ruler get their authority? It is given to them by God. And finally, who does God give authority to? The one who is right in His eyes. Does God make a wrong decision? No. He gives authority to the right person at the right time for His purposes, not ours.

Who does God give authority to here, according to verse 6? Nebuchadnezzar. Now is Nebuchadnezzar a good guy? No. He’s a pagan ruler and he actually proves later in his reign just how pagan and Godless he is. Hang onto that, because this becomes important later.

What is prophesied in verse 7? Nebuchadnezzar’s power as well as his downfall.

Now let’s look at how this plays out in real time.

Daniel 1:1–2 LSB

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

What does Nebuchadnezzar do in verse 1? He sieges Jerusalem and conquers it.

But in verse 2, who is truly responsible for his victory? God is. This little phrase in the introduction to the book of Daniel teaches us a lot about how God deals with pagan kings and rulers. In fact, the book of Daniel is actually a great case study in Christian ethics in a hostile civil environment, but that’s a lesson for another time.

So what happens to Nebuchadnezzar?

Daniel 2:1 LSB

Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.

Nebuchadnezzar has these dreams and they trouble him. Does anyone remember the content of the dream?

Daniel 2:31–35 LSB

“You, O king, were looking, and behold, there was a single great image; that image, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was rising up in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. “The head of that image was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. “You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Nebuchadnezzar dreams about a statue, and this dream is interpreted by Daniel.

Daniel 2:36–38 LSB

“This was the dream; now we will say its interpretation before the king. “You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory; and wherever the sons of men inhabit, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has made you rule with power over them all. You are the head of gold.

What do we see here, again, regarding God’s relationship to Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom? That God is the one who gives the kingdom to him. Whatever Nebuchadnezzar has, he has because God gave it to him and allowed him to keep it.

But let’s continue the interpretation of the dream.

Daniel 2:39–43 LSB

“But after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule with power over all the earth. “Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. “Now in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron; it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. “And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. “And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay; they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not cling to one another, even as iron does not combine with clay.

What does Nebuchadnezzar’s dream tell him about his kingdom? It is it not eternal, it will not last forever, and eventually he will be dethroned by another king, who will be dethroned by another king, and so on and so forth.

And at the end of chapter 5, Daniel lives to see the prophecy come true as Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s son, is killed and the dynasty overthrown by Darius the Mede.

This entire narrative, to which we will return later, serves to demonstrate an important theological point, the point that Paul wishes to press home to his Roman readers and to us.

Doctrinal

Paul’s primary point is really twofold:

God is absolutely sovereign over civil authorities

Kings and nations exist at God’s command, to accomplish God’s purpose, for the proclamation of His glory. Throughout all of history kings and kingdoms have risen and fallen at his command. His is the supreme and absolute authority from which all other authority is derived.

However, as we saw in the life of Nebuchadnezzar, just as God has absolute authority to install rulers, so also He has absolute authority to depose them. These pagan rulers serve God’s purpose for a time, and then He casts them off in favor of another, and all to demonstrate that He alone is God almighty and God eternal. By His word and power kings rise, and by the same they fall.

Listen to John Murray:

The Epistle to the Romans B. The Civil Magistrate (13:1–7)

When he says they are “of God”, he means that they derive their origin, right, and power from God. This is borne out by several considerations urged later in this passage but here it is expressly stated and excludes from the outset every notion to the effect that authority in the state rests upon agreement on the part of the governed or upon the consent of the governed. Authority to govern and the subjection demanded of the governed reside wholly in the fact of divine institution.

All civil authorities have God’s stamp of sovereign approval

All civil authorities possess “the divine right of rule.” This may sound absurd to you, but that is the heart of what Paul is saying here in verse 1. Every ruler who has ever existed, who has ever exercised authority, has done so, in an ultimate sense, on God’s authority.

Polemical

This truth stands in opposition to those who claim that somehow God is not sovereign over evil rulers. That somehow rulers come to power apart from God’s decree and ordinance.

This has become especially true in the modern American political climate, where people often claim that God is “for” or “against” one candidate or another.

The fact of the matter is, if you want to know which candidate God is for, wait until the end of the election cycle, find out who won, and you will find who God is for.

RC Sproul says this:

Romans All Authority Belongs to God

It is the God of providence who raises kingdoms and brings them down. Every king in the history of the world rules and has ruled only by the providential will of God. God casts the final ballot in every election.

Now this is not to say that God favors evil in some sense. We affirm that God is holy and does not tolerate wickedness in an absolute or eternal sense. In the same breath, however, we also affirm that God bears with evil temporarily in order to serve His own good and greater purpose in human history.

We deny, therefore, that any civil authority, whether a district attorney or a sheriff, or a governor, or a president, or a king or an emperor, has or will come to power apart from the sovereign decree and ordinance of God.

Ethical - 13:2

This leads us into some natural ethical implications, and we don’t have to wonder what those implications are because Paul takes us there explicitly in verse 2.

Resisting the authority in which God has vested his sovereign power is to resist the authority of God Himself.

Let me bring this really, really close to home. Election-deniers, those folks who insist that the 2020 election was stolen by fraud from Donald Trump and given to Joe Biden and must be taken back or reversed, those people are resisting authority that has been decreed by God. Here’s the reality, according to Paul. The election might very well have been stolen. There might be rampant fraud. All that may be true, and if you ask me on the side, I would tell you it’s almost certainly true. But here’s the facts. Whether in pretense or in truth, by hook or by crook, Joe Biden is president, and the reason that he is president, ultimately, is that God ordained it to be so. Therefore, Joe Biden possesses the “divine right of rule.”

So what Paul urges us to in no uncertain terms is constantly be mindful of the fact that all authorities, good and bad, are ordained by God and put in place by Him and derive their authority from Him.

Likewise, on the opposite side, the Christian owes governing authorities the honor, respect, and reverence due an office instituted by God Himself.

Paul gives a further and more ominous warning at the end of verse 2: they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

I believe Paul speaks here in both a temporal and eternal sense. Those who oppose civil authorities will receive condemnation now, in the form of legal and penal punishment, but they will also be subject to eternal condemnation.

In the broader context of Romans then, Paul is telling us that to oppose civil authorities, to stage revolts, to commit civil disobedience is a fundamentally unchristian thing to do and brings condemnation upon those who practice it. If we believe what Paul says in Romans 8:1 that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and there is condemnation for those who oppose and resist the authority of the government, then we must conclude that opposition and resistance to ruling authorities is something that should not and cannot be done by those who are in Christ.

And in case you are wondering about a pressing historical implication of this text that may be on your mind, yes, I believe that the American Revolution is not in alignment with Romans 13:1-2. Did God use the disobedience of the American Founders for good? He certainly did. Did architecting and participating in the Revolution exclude the founders from coming to Christ? No. I believe that at least two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence had genuine Christian testimonies. However, I believe that Paul is clear here: the American Revolution, and indeed any revolution against any type of government, is ultimately resistance to God and must be avoided and condemned by those who profess Christ and seek to conduct themselves according to a Christian ethic. Now I am aware that this is an unpopular view, but the text of Romans is clear: resistance and opposition to ruling authorities is resistance and opposition to God Himself.

Let’s think positively then as we close. What should the Christian’s relationship to government?

First, and we’ll discuss this next week, the Christian should pay their taxes. That’s from verses 6-7.

There are some additional positive things that I would encourage each of us to engage in as we think about how to relate to the government.

We are to pray for our government

1 Timothy 2:1–2 LSB

First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

The first and best thing we can do in relation to government is bring it to the throne of grace. Our weekly prayer list has had an item for this for years now. We’ve left this item on the prayer list permanently for this reason. The most important thing we can do for our leaders as we respectfully and honorably subject ourselves to their authority is to pray for them, and especially if they are particularly evil leaders and authorities.

We are to exert Godly influence on government in peaceful ways

Christians are to look for opportunities to build Christian influence in their communities. I think some Christians have a tendency to just isolate themselves and don’t bother to look for ways to impact the culture and the civil landscape for Christ.

We can exert massive influence over our culture and over our society by living ordinary lives of faithfulness. We might look at our world and our culture and our government and feel discouraged by the godless behavior of many in the public sphere. Here would be my encouragement to you: Do something about it. I mean work hard to effect Biblical, Spirit-wrought change in your circle. Not someone else’s circle. Your own circle. With the people that are six feet away from you. This is simple advice, but not necessarily easy to follow. Here’s what you do:

Be vocal. Speak the truth to our neighbors. Strike up conversations over the back fence like Tim the Toolman Taylor and Mr. Wilson. Angelenos live a weirdly frantic lifestyle that ends up leaving us actually pretty isolated, despite the fact that we live in one of the largest and densest population centers in the world. You’d be surprised at just how much positive influence you can have on your neighbors just by engaging with them regularly. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation. Learn their names, greet them with a smile, and wait for them to ask you where that persistent joy comes from.

Find yourself a good local church, namely West Hills Church. Get involved. Build relationships with people, real relationships, over shared life experiences. Get in people’s lives and then speak truth to them. Build them up in sound doctrine and strong ethics and a clear Biblical worldview. Eat dinner and go shopping and go to the beach and watch a movie and go hiking and go to a Trojans game together, and in all of those contexts show Christ to each other.

Commit yourself to the hard disciplines of daily time with God. Alone, you and a Bible and the Lord. Hear Him speak and then speak to Him. Do it every day, and then teach those around you to do the same.

Get your children out of the public school system and train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Yeah, this means you will need to sacrifice. Smaller, older cars. Smaller, older houses. Clothes from Walmart instead of the mall. But I promise you this: you and your spouse are two people. You only have so much influence. But what if you, in keeping with God’s design, made a half dozen copies of yourselves and trained them up to be men and women of conviction and principle and exemplified Godliness to them for 18 or 20 years, and then after that helped them find another who shared those same convictions, and gave your blessing to that union, and then when they, by God’s grace, have children of their own, you take that same level of responsibility with you grandkids as you did with your kids, so that those little kiddos know, like I did when I was a kid, that when they go to papa and nana’s house, it will be fun and you’ll get to eat hot dogs and nana cookies, but after dinner, it’s time to listen to papa teach the Bible. Here’s what truly wild about this, from a mathematical perspective. If Sarah and I have six kids, and they each have six kids, and each of those 36 grandkids have 6 great-grandkids, by the time I’m in my 80s or 90s, that’s 258 people that, by God’s grace, could be walking with the Lord and having a positive Christian impact on the world around them. You might think such a thing is fanciful, but this is my own experience. Tom and Bonnie Watson, in 1969, committed to raising their kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. In 1993, their daughter Jennifer got married to Scott Christensen, a man who shared her same Christian convictions, and in 1994 their son John married Karin Fairweather, who likewise shared those Christian convictions. In 1995, Ashley came along, followed by yours truly in 1996, Anna and Andrew in 1997, Abby in 1999 and Luke in 2000. There was a short gap and then John Jr. came along in 2003, Jeremy and Matthew in 2007, and Jack in 2008. By God’s grace, Ashley, Anna, and Abby have all married Godly men, and myself and my brothers Andrew and Luke have all married Godly women. So last week when I got copies of the photos from Matt and Abby’s wedding, all the photos were great, but two stood out and made me get a little misty-eyed: the first is the picture of the whole family, 24 of us now, 24 testimonies to the faithfulness of God through faithfulness of my grandparents. That picture has 5 pastors, 5 pastor’s wives and 6 lay leaders in churches representing 5 different cities. That’s a picture of how to have influence on the culture. It’s not through rallies, it’s not through debates, it’s not through viral internet videos. It’s through training up a child in the way he should go, so that when he is old, he will not depart from it, and then doing it again, and again, and again. The second photo is of my grandparents, Tom and Bonnie, with their two great-grandchildren, Rex and Sadie. My papa is 84 and my nana is 75. They will not be around forever. But their legacy of Godly faithfulness lives on in the lives of those two babies, not yet one year old.

Work really hard at work you love for the glory of God and shine a light in the workplace. I tell you, one of the most gratifying things for me is to be able to lead a team in the sphere of industry to success and productivity to the glory of God. God has given me a great opportunity to lead by serving and within that to have a positive Christian influence on the world. At SERVPRO, I try to model and build into all of our employees a common, natural ethic that is based in the teachings of the Scripture. Things like do unto others as you would have them do unto you, be faithful over little so that you will be made master over much, and look out not only for your own interests, but also the interests of others.

We’ve been given a privilege in this country to have a voice in our government systems. So get out there and vote. Get out there and talk to others about how their vote is a reflection of what they believe about God and Christ and who they are in Him.

I think you will find that if you are Biblically faithful and consistent in every area of your life, every sphere that you have, whether you have one child or ten, whether you have lots of neighbors or one, whether you lead a team of hundreds or have two desk-clump buddies, you will begin to exert a steady and consistent and positive influence in the lives of people around you. If we all did that, I think we would find that, without ever lifting a finger in resistance or opposition to the government, while being consistently at peace with all men, respecting what is good in the sight of all, we have a strong and positive influence on the world around us.

It’s like Nehemiah’s wall. That’s a big wall with a lot of parts to build, but if each person focused on the section of the wall in front of his house, the thing will be built in no time. The same is true for our influence in the world. If we focus on the people within six feet of us, we’ll find that slowly but surely, God, through His Spirit, will work to effect real good and real change in our culture and in our society, and such good will spread to the point of impacting and influencing even the governing authorities themselves.

Reason #2: You have no reason not to - 13:3-4

Paul provides a second reason for our subjection. Having given us a theological foundation for subjection, demonstrating that subjection to authorities is ultimately subjection to God, he now gives us a more practical reason to subject ourselves to authorities: we have no good reason not to.