Romans 13:1-10
Notes
Transcript
Romans 13:1-10
Romans 13:1-10
Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.
So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.
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.
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.
Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience.
And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks.
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.
Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.
This section of Scripture is broken into two sections. It can look like they are two different things but there is a bridge in the middle that connects them.
Like the School House Rock song Conjunction Junction there is a connection point that connects these two ideas.
The first section is about our relationship and responsibility to government the second is about our relationship and responsibility to one another.
We are going to sum up relationship and responsibility with the word, obligation.
There are two words in Greek that come up in this section and they are similar to each other.
opheilé - ofilo
opheilē - ofilay
They both mean a similar thing - what is owed, our obligation.
What the Bible wants us to understand is that something is owed, we have an obligation.
First our obligation to government and ruling authorities
First our obligation to government and ruling authorities
As Christians we have an obligation to the Government or ruling authorities because God instituted the government and/or ruling authorities.
First let us clear up a question, what if the government or ruling authorities are bad? Depending on your political beliefs or alignment you will always like or dislike who is in power. That is ok you do not have to like them.
As Americans who live in a republic we are allowed to vote and change our representatives. We do not always have to like them. We can change them. Go vote, go let your voice be heard, go and work within the system to change things. If you feel strongly enough run for office and become an agent of change.
As we mentioned with Tory Dees we need followers of Christ in schools, business, in civil service areas, and in politics. I myself have thought about running for some type of office some day. We can and should do something about it, but we also must submit as long as we are not being told to do something that violates our conscience or God’s law.
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;
If they are not telling us to violate our conscience or God’s law we obey.
In Paul’s day the government was not good, they were not kind, they were not just opposed to the God of the Bible in word but in great evil deeds.
Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. - Tacitus
Christians were tortured and killed for sport and entertainment. They were put on poles and used as lamps.
It is under this that Paul writes,
Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.
It is not they are good but that God is. It is not that they are right but that God is. It is not that they are doing God’s will but that Christians are.
Shortly after this time, many Christian apologists start writing and showing how it is a bad idea to kill Christians because Christians are the best citizens.
“We who loved above all else the ways of acquiring riches and possessions now hand over to a community fund what we possess, and share it with every needy person; we who hated and killed one another and would not share our hearth with those of another tribe because of their [different] customs, now, after the coming of Christ, live together with them, and pray for our enemies, and try to convince those who hate us unjustly…” - Justin Martyr
Why?
Christians pray for leaders.
Christians pray for leaders.
We pray for our leaders in two ways.
That they would be blessed and follow Christ. We pray that they would know the love and forgiveness of Christ. We pray for their immortal souls and ask God to save them.
We pray for our leaders that they would leave us alone.
for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
Pray for leaders so we can be left alone. If leaders leave us alone then we can be left alone to focus on being what God calls us to do and doing what God calls us to do.
Christians Pray for and seek the good of our communities.
Christians Pray for and seek the good of our communities.
Find wives for yourselves, and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease.
Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”
Christians are people who pray for and seek the good of the cities in which we live.
We understand that our home is not here but the Kingdom of God and yet in the waiting we pray for and seek the good of the cities in which we find ourselves. We are to understand that a rising tide lifts all ships.
If Amarillo or Canyon are blessed then we are blessed because we live here. If she does well we do well so we seek the good of the city. It is the same with the church. If the church is having issues then find ways to bless and pray for her because then she will be better.
This basic practical thing applies to everything and ever relationship. When I worked in technical sales I understood that if my company is blessed I will be more blessed because the more business we get the better I can be paid and the less stress my boss has. If he has less stress he leaves me alone.
Christians Pay their taxes
Christians Pay their taxes
And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s servants, continually attending to these tasks.
If ever there was a verse I wish was not in the Bible it was this one. But there it is and it has convicted me numerous times. We are called to pay our taxes.
I have a tax bill from my time of being self-employed. I don’t like it, I don’t want to pay it but it is due. I have an obligation.
When Jesus was sitting around with the disciples and the Pharisees, the Pharisees tried to get him to say something that would get him into trouble with the Roman government. They asked him if they should pay taxes.
In their day there were all sorts of taxes and it was a government that was opposed to them and occupying their land. They used these taxes to pay the soldiers who were harassing them. Paying the people in charge who are giving them a hard time. Again not friendly people and yet Jesus says,
Matthew 22:21 (CSB)
Then he said to them, “Give, then, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
The picture on the money was the image of the government so it belonged to them. Give to Caesar what is Caesars. But we give to God what is Gods.
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.
Whether it is money, respect, or honor we give it to those who sit in a position to receive it.
This does not mean it is easy. I once had a job I was struggling in, I wanted to speak my mind and get my due. As I prayed about it I clearly felt God tell me to submit. How can I lead if I cannot submit. It was not the man I was submitting to but the office. We are called to give honor and respect to those in positions of authority. If for no other reason than, to quote Winters in Band of Brothers,
We salute the rank, not the man.
I make it a practice to never put someone in a position of authority that cannot submit to authority and I try never to promote those who cannot submit. Not necessarily to me but to whatever authority is above them. Leaders who cannot submit and pay their obligations to those to whom it is due even when they do not like it, make bad leaders.
Verse 8 is our conjunction, it is our bridge between the he first section and our obligation to government the second is about our obligation to one another.
Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Love is our main obligation, love is our motivation.
Love is motivation and love is our assurance of victory.
It is not our own love or something we manufacture but Christ love working through us.
Christ paid a great debt when He saved us. We owed a debt we could never pay off, He paid the sin debt in our stead. Then He says, go and love. Love is obligation owed.
If we call ourselves followers of the Messiah then we owe a debt of love.
For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.
We can have a desire to love without Christ, we can have a want to love, but without Him we cannot fulfill this. Instead we twist it and make our love, our version of love, our broken version of love the most important thing and we try to live that out.
The problem is our love without Christ can only go so far and it is almost always self-focused.
Selfish-Love is always conditional. It always has strings attached.
Selfish love is about loving as long as you get repayed. It is, as we have said before, an economy of exchange and not an economy of grace.
An economy of exchange is good for business. It is good in the marketplace. I will do X for Y. I will exchange my time for your money, or this product for that product. This is how a financial economy works and thrives. This is ok. But it is not meant for people.
People are not commodities to be exchanged.
Let’s go back to what Jesus said. I am a big fan of going back to what Jesus says.
Matthew 22:21 (CSB)
Then he said to them, “Give, then, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
We pay taxes because the coin has Caesars image on it. It has his likeness so it belongs to him. We give to congress what belongs to congress. We give to God what belongs to God.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
People are made in the image of God so they belong to Him. So we do with them what He does with them, we love them.
The reason the law says.
The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Is because people are not commodities to be exchanged but beings created in the image of God to be loved.
This means we have obligations.
We pray for people
We pray for people
Just like we are obligated to pray for our leaders and nation we are obligated to pray for each other.
In addition, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you,
Over and over the Apostle Paul and others asked for prayer. They knew they needed others to be praying for them that they would be healed, have open doors, find direction and wisdom and so on.
We have to be praying for one another. We must seek the kingdom for other people. Praying is not a side thing or the last thing we do when all else is exhausted. It is not, well we have done everything we can all we can do now is pray.
No, we
PUSH - Pray until something happens
We carry each others burdens
We carry each others burdens
We pray and we work. We pray with our hands to the work.
who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried the loads worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.
We hold the sword with one hand we work with the other. We pray and work. We do both.
Galatians 6 tells us that we carry each others burdens especially the members of the household of faith.
Brian Mullins is good at this and he reminds me, don’t just ask what someone needs look for opportunities.
This requires intentionality. We look for ways to serve each other. How can I help carry the load.
One of the best scenes in all of film is at the end of The Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King. Frodo has been carry the ring all the way from the Shire to Mount Doom. He is tired, he has no strength left, and he is ready to give up. Sam has been with him the whole time, and Sam cannot carry the ring but he can carry Frodo so he does.
Who can you carry. Who can you be a Sam for? That is what we are called to do for both the government or ruling authorities and for the people around us. That is our obligation. We are called to carry them in prayer and in practice when possible.
The obligation to love and serve the government and the people around us is that we look for ways to help carry the load. In prayer and in work.
We cannot do everything for everyone but we can do something for someone.
But we only do this because of what Christ has done for us. Because He gave HIs life and gave us His Spirit in us we can do this. If you have never accepted Christ at best you have a selfish-love. First accept Him as Lord and Savior, bend the knee to Him and then carry others in His strength.
