How Should a Christian Engage with the Government? (Romans 13:1–7)

Introduction

We're continuing our series in the Book of Romans, and today is going to show why I really love expositional preaching. If you ever wondered why we preach through a book of the Bible at a time, we preach through the Bible because all of God's word is God's word. We don’t need to just hear some of it, we need to hear all of it.

If I were just picking and choosing topics, I may not have necessarily thought of this one today. But as I've been studying these verses this week, I believe this is going to be really practical for you today. We're going to look at the question, how should a Christian engage with the government?

Now you might ask, why even ask the question, “How should a Christian engage with the government?” This question really is a question about how we engage with the world. The way we engage with the world is a testimony of our faith in Christ.

Now this is a political season, and some of us might be trying to avoid our social media feed at this time. Some of us might be trying to avoid others of us who are saying, “You need to vote for this person!”

And I’m not talking about anyone here, so please don’t think that, but the way people talk online, especially now, can really start to expose some heart issues.

Now, it’s not wrong for a Christian to engage with the government. Christians are called to be good citizens. In fact, governments around the world should say, “We need more Christians, because Christians are good citizens!”

What does that look like for us today? What does it mean for a Christian to be a good citizen? If you have your Bible, we’ll be in Romans 13:1-7.

Scripture Reading

We’ve been in Romans 12 the last few weeks talking about the characteristics of genuine Christian love. At the end of Romans 12, we’re encouraged not to avenge ourselves, but to leave room for God's wrath. Romans 12 ends by saying in Romans 12:21, “Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.”

Then we get into this conversation about the Christian and the government. We'll talk more about that, but let's read this first. Romans 13:1-7:

Romans 13:1–7 CSB

1 Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. 2 So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. 4 For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong. 5 Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience. 6 And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks. 7 Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.

Pray

If you're familiar with the movie “Up” from Pixar, there's a dog in the movie named Doug. Doug is a golden retriever, and he has a collar that allows him to talk to people. But Doug has this habit of getting easily distracted. It's always with a squirrel. He'll be talking, and then you hear him say, “Squirrel!”

That's almost what this section in Paul's letter to the Romans feels like. Romans 12 is going along. He's describing what should be the authentic marks of love in every Christian. Then it almost feels like he gets here in Romans 13 and says, “Squirrel!”

Romans 13:1-7 is sandwiched between two conversations about love. Paul is talking about genuine Christian love in Romans 12. Then, in Romans 13:1-7, he starts talking about the government. But right after verse 7, he goes right back to speaking about love. In Romans 13:8 he says, “Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another.”

So in Romans 13:1-7, is Paul getting distracted with a side discussion about the government? I have some friends like that. You’ll be talking about the weather, and then they’ll say, “Yeah, that’s why I don’t trust the government.” What? Where did that come from?

I don't believe this is a case of Paul getting distracted. I believe what's happening here in Romans 13:1-7 is an extension of his conversation about the Christian and confrontation that we saw at the end of Romans 12.

Last week, we said that, for a Christian, any confrontation has at least three people. It's myself, it's the person that I'm having the confrontation with, and it is God who is above us all. In any and every confrontation, I am responsible to God for how I react to the person, and the person on the other side is responsible to God for how they react to me.

At the end of Romans 12, Paul is focusing on how I as a Christian react to another person. According to Scripture, in any confrontation, the Christian must react as someone who is, first and foremost, submitted to God. Christians don't seek revenge. Christians leave justice in the hands of God. Christians react to people with kindness.

But I think in Romans 13, Paul is preempting the argument from a Christian who might say, “Well, am I just supposed to let someone take advantage of me?” He's going to preempt this by now focusing on the other person in the confrontation.

He’s going to do that through speaking about governing authorities. I’ll explain more as we go through this.

First, he says to (this is our first point),

Recognize that God has sovereign rule over governing authorities.

He starts in Romans 13:1-2,

Romans 13:1–2 CSB

1 Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. 2 So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.

He starts this section by outlining a framework.

The first part of this is that, “there is no authority except from God.” God has ultimate authority. The word authority can also mean power, and it refers to the authority that a person has over a domain or a sphere of influence.

For instance, the United States government has authority over the domain of anything that is under its control. It doesn't have authority over Russia or China. It has authority over US territories. Whatever the US owns is its sphere of influence.

The power to give authority has to come from someone who already has authority.

For instance, if I don't like the store manager at Starbucks, I can't walk into the store and say, “I declare that you are no longer the store manager. My friend Bill is now the Starbucks store manager.”

Why can't I do that? I can't do that because I don't have the authority to delegate command. Only people in the company have the authority to delegate command.

So when he says that, “There is no authority except from God,” he is stating that God is at the top. God rules over all governing authority. God, by being God, is the source of all authority.

Then he says in Romans 13:1 that the “the authorities that exist are instituted by God.” If you follow this train of thought, God is at the top, authority comes from him, and he delegates his authority on Earth to governing authorities.

He follows that up in Romans 13:2 by saying that, “the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command.” Now, I don't know about you, but as I was reading this I said, “I hear you, and I have questions.” I tried to picture myself as a Christian sitting in North Korea and illegally reading a Bible, because it's illegal to have a Bible there, looking at Romans 13 and saying, "Do I submit to a government that wants me to worship the leader and not God?”

When Paul is writing this letter to the Romans, he is writing this letter under the authority of a regime that's not exactly Christian friendly. He’s writing this under the beginning of the regime of Nero, who would eventually become a terrible persecutor of the church. The Romans wanted their citizens to worship the emperor, something a Christian can’t do.

So Paul's wording in Romans 13:1-2 is very intentional. Submitting to earthly authorities never overrules submitting to God's authority.

We see this over and over again in scripture.

In Exodus 1, the king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives to kill any child of a Hebrew who is a boy, a son. But in Exodus 1:17,

Exodus 1:17 CSB

17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

They feared God over the government.

We could talk about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3 who refused the king’s command to worship an idol and instead chose to be thrown into the fire.

We could talk about Daniel in Daniel 6 who refused the king's edict not to pray to God, and instead continued his act of worship of praying to God three times a day.

We could talk about the early church in Acts who, when told by the Jewish authorities not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, responded to them in Acts 4:19-20,

Acts 4:19–20 CSB

19 Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Over and over again, the witness of scripture is to obey God over governmental authorities. Even today, we have brothers and sisters in Christ sitting in prison camps in North Korea, arrested in China, and persecuted under other governments around the world because they fear God more than they fear the government.

Christians submit to God first before submitting to any government. But Christians are not anti government. We're not leading a political rebellion. Listen to the words of Christ in Mark 12:17,

Mark 12:17 CSB

17 Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.

Submitting to God includes recognizing that God has given Caesar, or whatever modern day government equivalent, authority over certain things. Christians trust God's over ruling authority and his divine purpose and plan.

God is not limited by the government, but God can use the government to accomplish his purpose and plan.

Think of the trial of Jesus.

The Lord is taken from the Hebrew authorities and brought before the Roman authority in Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate. Pilate talks to Jesus, but he doesn’t answer. He then tells Jesus, “I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you.” He starts pointing to his authority. Look at how Jesus responded to Pilate in John 19:11,

John 19:11 CSB

11 “You would have no authority over me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”

No human being in and of himself has authority. Each of us receives the right, and with that the responsibility, to live out our God-given authority, including Pontius Pilate.

Pilate had his God-given authority to accomplish God’s divine purpose an plan, that the Son of God would die on the cross for you and me.

God has sovereign rule over governing authorities.

Second,

Our obedience to governing authorities is an act of submission to God.

Let's take a look at Romans 13:3-4,

Romans 13:3–4 CSB

3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. 4 For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For it is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.

I want to bring us back to the statements I made about confrontation. At the end of Romans 12 that in any confrontation, Christians are called to respond with kindness.

I think here in Romans 13 is where Paul starts to focus in on the other side of this confrontation. This is really important: If someone has done genuine harm to someone else, it is not unloving or unkind to allow consequences to occur.

The summary of what he is saying in Romans 13:3-4 is if you don't want consequences, do what is right. Listen, if you're hurting someone, if you're trying to take advantage of others, God has set up authorities in place to correct your behavior.

As he’s writing this, it's almost like he can predict that Christians are going to be confused in what to do in a confrontation. A Christian might hear love our enemies and say, “I don't want to call the cops. I don't want that person to go to jail.”

Listen, it's not loving to get in the way of consequences. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do is to allow consequences to occur. You can forgive someone and trust that God can use those consequences for good.

Christians should have boundaries. If you're married, boundaries include not committing adultery, not beating the other person. Boundaries for a loved one might include they don’t steal, or commit crimes. If boundaries are crossed, trusting God includes trusting the governing authorities he has set up to bring someone to repentance.

Prison has many testimonies of people who faced consequences and ended up repenting and giving their life to Christ. Pride is hard to break, and often it takes falling on your face to repent.

Listen, sometimes we get in the way because we want to be the answer to the problem. And you may not be the answer to the problem. You many need to lovingly getting out of the way and allow God to work in a person’s heart through consequences.

There's an interesting story in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 5 about a church who would not get out of the way and allow God to work in a person's life through consequences. There was a report about the church in Corinth where there was a man in the church who was involved in sexual immorality. It starts at 1 Corinthians 5:1-2,

1 Corinthians 5:1–2 CSB

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Shouldn’t you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this?

Here's what he's saying: You are tolerating sin among you that's not even tolerated in the world. Even the world can see this and know that this is not right. And it is not loving to continue to provide an environment where the person can feel justified in his sin. The loving thing is to do what it takes to bring that man to repentance. So this is what the church should do in this situation. 1 Corinthians 5:5 says,

1 Corinthians 5:5 CSB

5 hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

This was a man who claimed to be in the church, but he was already choosing the way of the world over the way of Christ. So to help the man deal with his pride, the loving thing to do is to hand the man over to the consequences of his sin. Sometimes we need to get out of the way and allow God to work in a person’s life through consequences.

As a police officer who was a governing authority, I truly felt those words in Romans 13:4 where he describes governing authorities as “God’s servant for your good.” As a Christian, police work no longer work anymore, it was a ministry. Every time we would go into a domestic situation and remove someone who is hurting someone else, or remove a child from a dangerous place, I felt that I was God's servant for the good.

It was difficult to sit across from a person whom I felt was going to get in the way of the help that I could bring. I remember sitting across from a young lady and she was describing we had arrested the boyfriend who was beating her. She was describing to me how this boyfriend had beat her, and her last boyfriend had beat her, and the boyfriend before that had beat her as well. And I remember just wondering, where do you find these guys? Your criteria for guys needs to change.

Many officers who did domestic arrests would get frustrated because what tended to happen was, the girl would allow the guy to sit in jail for one night, and then the next day say, “Oh, he's learned his lesson. Let him go.” Sometimes we need to get out of the way and allow God to use consequences to bring someone to repentance.

If you remember back in Romans 12:18 it says,

Romans 12:18 CSB

18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

If possible, as far as it depends on you. God has called us to live in peace. First: heart check. Make sure you are not the one causing division, causing strife, causing heartache. Put the situation before the Lord, cry out to him and ask for help with your own heart.

But if it truly is not you, God does not want you to live in chaos. Being a peacemaker in your home includes submitting to the help that God has provided.

If you’re not sure what to do, get counsel. Reach out to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Speak to one of our pastors here. If there’s drug addiction in your home, love that person by not creating an environment that helps the drug addiction to continue. Have boundaries. There are great Christian drug rehabilitation programs right here in San Diego. If you’re in a situation that needs legal help, don’t continue to live in the chaos. Get the help that you need. God has instituted governing authorities for your good.

Loving people includes doing what needs to be done for their good. Bless the person by continuing to pray for them, and allow God to work in their life through consequences.

Third and last,

Glorify God by engaging the world with a godly conscience.

Let's take a look at Romans 13:5-7,

Romans 13:5–7 CSB

5 Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience. 6 And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks. 7 Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.

Now, as he sets this up, he tells a Christian that a Christian must submit to the governing authorities, not only because those governing authorities can punish you, but also because you want to live out your life with a conscience that is clear before God. In other words, your obedience to the authorities that God has instituted is part of your obedience to God.

As I was thinking through this, I remember a pastor once who was responding to a question that someone had asked him. A person had noticed his car and asked him why he didn't have a bunch of Christian bumper stickers on there. You know the fish and whatever other Christian bumper stickers are out there. And he responded he didn't have bumper stickers on his car because he was saved but his car was not.

In other words, he was saying that his driving was not always a good testimony of his Christian faith.

Christians should engage society with a godly conscience as a testimony of our faith, which includes being obedient to the law, as long as it doesn’t contradict God’s law. Christians are good citizens.

In verse 5 he says, “because of your conscience.” The conscience is an interesting fact of reality. It's that part inside of you that intrinsically knows right or wrong. For Christians, it's often that place where the Spirit of God convicts you in a certain area, tugging at your conscience.

When someone is falling deeper and deeper into sin, that conscience can get dulled and hardened. But as Christians, the Spirit of God has broken through the hardened heart. And as we walk closely with the Lord, we become sensitive to the leading of God in our lives.

Now, the conscience, in an of itself, is not enough. A conscience can be poisoned with sin. For the Christian, I want you to remember two things: the conscience must be led by the Spirit of God and fed by the word of God. The conscience is what Paul has in mind when he says in Romans 12:2,

Romans 12:2 CSB

2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Our thought process must be renewed. And when our thought process is renewed, our conscience is renewed. That happens by a thought process that is led by the Spirit of God and fed by the word of God. And when you are led by the spirit of God and fed by the word of God, you're going to be able to discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. Being able to discern what is good in the eyes of the Lord is what it means to engage the world with a godly conscience. I can engage the world with a godly conscience because I am led by the Spirit of God and fed by the word of God.

As people who engage the world with a godly conscious, we fulfil our obligations. In verse 6 it says that we should pay our taxes, and in California, it feels like we do that really well.

Notice the list of obligations in verse 7. He says:

taxes to those you owe taxes

tolls to those you owe tolls (now for us, there’s that one part of the 125. Don’t drive down there. But if you do, pay the toll.)

Then he says

respect to those you owe respect

honor to those you owe honor

Here's the summary: Christians are good stewards of our obligations to one another. We are good stewards of our obligations because we love God and others.

As part of society, we fulfill our obligations to society with a godly conscience.

As part of the church. we have obligations to one other. We our obligations to our church.

And ultimately, as a child of God, we fulfill our obligations as a testimony of our faith in Christ. We live under his grace.

Engaging the world with a godly conscience means recognizing the role that God has placed in your life and being obedient to that role.

We have obligations as a husband or wife, and we're obedient to God in that role. We have obligations to our children, and we're obedient to God in that role. We have obligations to the church, and we're obedient to God in that role. We have obligations to our workplace, and we're obedient to God in that role.

Conclusion

Christians respond with a godly conscience, not because we are so good, but because we serve a good God who has been good to us. God has shown his love to the world through the Son of God, Jesus Christ, through his life, death, and resurrection. Because he has taken our sins on the cross, we now have the power and the ability to live in the power of his Spirit by being a testimony to the world of God’s goodness and his grace.

Our role as good citizens is a testimony to the world of God’s good work is us. So let’s testify to the world of his goodness,

Recognize that God has sovereign rule over governing authorities.

Our obedience to governing authorities is an act of submission to God.

Glorify God by engaging the world with a godly conscience.

We do this all by the power of his Spirit who lives in us. Amen.

Prayer

Last Song

Doxology

Numbers 6:24–26 CSB

24 “May the Lord bless you and protect you; 25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’

Jude 24–25 CSB

24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.

You are dismissed. Have a great week in the Lord!