Romans 13

Being Subject to governing Authorities

I have been thinking about the scripture that we are primarily going to deal with today for a number of weeks…

The reason being is that it is about how Christians should treat the government and as you know, there are really no other topics that unite and bring people together like talking about our government.

So I think the entire Bible is relevant all the time, I can not help but wonder if Romans 13 feels a bit more relevant living in Sacramento because many of you work for the state are for all intense and purposes part of government in one way or another

Talking about government in the church seems a little odd right…But Paul does and we will. So before we even get into it today I want to remind you that Paul the author of Romans believed in the kingdom of God. Which is inherently a political statement. A kingdom where Jesus is king. A kingdom where the rule of law is the sermon on the Mount. A kingdom where you love your neighbors…And this kingdom or mini goernment or governance of God happened in church to church

So in the text we are going to look at today Paul doesn’t argue for a governmental system but simply how to interact with whatever system you are a part of

Now before we get there we actually have to cover some ground from last week.

If you remember Last week was all about the way that God shapes community. and God’s desire for the church to become this amazing family…And God centered community has its origins in humility and love so lets look at the last part of last week really fast:

Romans 12:9–21 NIV

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Now again before we get to Paul’s instructions on government. …

Remember: Paul like to think of all possible responses to his teachings…all possible ramifications

Look at that verse, Romans 12:14

Romans 12:14 NIV

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

What Paul is saying is apply the ethics of Jesus to whatever kingdom you are in…

But from a practical perspective..>When Paul is writing this

Who is persecuting the church?

Who killed Jesus?

Who will eventually kill Peter and Paul?

The Romans!

The governing authorities!

So if you were a christian and you were to take vengeance on the main group who is persecuting you then who might you want to take vengeance on?

Probably the government.

Therefore Paul reminds the church that it is their job then to bless and to not curse.

It is the churches job to overcome evil with good

Live at peace with everyone

Feed your enemy, give them something to drink…

and many people thing that to burn heaping coals on someones head means that you kill them with kindness or somehow if your the nice guy then they will get theirs in the end….or you make them burn with anger…

But one of the things I learned while I was in Israel was that coal was made out of a bush called the broom bush.

It is called the broom bush because if you were to break off a branch you would have a really great broom. So the burning coals that Paul is talking about here would have been really small and thin coals

So if someone dumped them on your head you would kind of just scratch them off…

It gives the picture of when someone does something nice for you when you were just mean to them then you would be sort of scratching you head and wondering why.

The idea is that when you give kindness for someones evil then they will wonder why and probably take a good look at your life and wonder what is different about you

So Paul says all of this as a matter of christian ethics….

Here is how your faith is worked out in real life

So Paul gives the church a teaching about governing authorities…Which transcends whatever type of government there is and I think that it is worth it to look at it today because in Paul’s most influential letter he wrote it down!

So I think before we ever get to Romans 13, the point that Paul is trying to make is to apply the Ethics of Jesus to whatever kingdom you are a part of

Governments have a divine mandate to preserve order.

Romans 13:1–3 NIV

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.

Now the first thing to notice here is what Paul Says

“Let Everybody”

The word everybody in the greek is translated “Every Soul”

So the first thing to notice here is that Paul is talking to everyone….Not just Jews and Christians…everyone needs to be subject to governing authorities

Why? Because God is a God of order and there is a democratization to the way that God works.

It started in the garden. God Makes a garden and who oversees it? Who govern’s all creation? Humans do.

God’s design in the beginning was for humans to rule over creation. It is our job

God orders society.

But what we have to understand is that Romans 13 Pre-supposes the government is acting in a way that benefits its people

God sets up king but it doesn't mean he condones all the actions of the king

We know that goevrnments do evil things all the time and the Bible is full of stories of people who disobey the government…

Exodus 1, Egyptian midwives didn't listen to Pharaoh and it is a good thing that they didn’t!

Shadrach Mishack and Abendago when a command was blasphemous to God, they stood up to the tyrany of the king and were willing to surrender their own lives rather than to violate God’s law

It brings us to a sub point that is very important here

Government is authority delegated by God not

John 19:11 NIV

Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

What is important to see here is that Jesus tells pilate that his power over him was from above

Government is an authority not the supreme authority

Paul says there is no authority other than what God has established.

Now what I want to do is to take a 5 minute detour to survey God’s authority over the nations in the Old Testament….Why? because it ends with the Eschatological purpose of the Lord! And hopefully you will all see this in the next couple of minutes.

So what I am about to share with you I am going to use the ESV Bible because the ESV Old Testament translation takes into account the Dead Sea scrolls. And in my mind for the Old testament it is more logically coherent.

So stick with me here because I am 99.9% sure that you will have never heard what I am about to tell you in church

And where I am about to go with this is a rabbit hole but please indulge me on this one

What I want to share with you begins at the tower of Babel. In Genesis 11

In this story the whole earth unites under human authority!

This is so key in understanding governance! Babel is a picture of humans trying to be the ultimate authority

And then we see this

Genesis 11:7–8 ESV

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

In verse seven there is a small thing to notice with huge ramifications: Come let us confuse their language!

It uses the same plural, of Genesis 1:26…Let us make mankind in our image

So as in genesis 1:26, the Plural announcement follows the action of one Yahweh

It is at this point in the Bible that most people think…Ok we have nothing else to think about here…

But there is another old testament passage that speaks about Babel and that is Deuteronomy 32

and while we should look at the whole thing, we can not do that we are going to look at 2 verses

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 (ESV) When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 describes how Yahweh’s dispersal of the nations at Babel resulted in his disinheriting those nations as his people.

This is the Old Testament equivalent of Romans 1:18–25, if you remember back a passage wherein God “gave [humankind] over” to their rebellion.

Yahweh in effect decided that the people of the world’s nations were no longer going to be in relationship to him.

He would begin anew. He would enter into covenant relationship with a new people that did not yet exist: Israel.

I know this is confusing stuff but it is seen really easily seen at Babel

The whole world is scattered or “given over” to their sin and Abraham is called out of that mess to make a new nation

So the effect of Babel is for God to start over with one guy…Abram and through Abram the promise is that all the all of these nations…The nations who were scattered because of Babel would somehow be blessed!

Genesis 22:18 ESV

and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

So let’s go back to Deut 32:8-9

What that is trying to tell us and by the way this isn’t just my crackpot idea, there is a long history of biblical scholarship on this…

Israel was placed under the authority of Yahweh

and the other nations were placed under the authority of lesser members of God’s divine counsel.

I don’t want to go too far down the rabbit hole here because if I haven’t already I could really lose everyone here in some technical stuff

Here is at the end of the day what I hope you will see.

Paul is saying that Governments have a divine mandate to preserve order

He tells them not to rebel against what God has created.

Why?

Well that is what happened at Babel and those nations were disinherited

and the Babel rebellion set into motion this idea that Israel is Yahweh’s portion and all other nations were given over to the lesser Elohim or the lesser gods

And God’s Big plan is that all of the rebellious nations will come back under his wing

When Jesus talks about the end coming this is what he says:

Matthew 24:14 NIV

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

This statement goes all the way back to Babel…

It is the idea that Jesus restores the rebellion of God’s people…

Now where you think I am just some kind of Quack pastor or not, this is the way the ancients viewed their governments

that there was a diety behind all that they did..

Rome had the goddess Roma, Babylon had Marduk,

And we can look at that and think it is just myth but this is actually what The bible says that God did he handed rebellious people off to his divine counsel.

Its why at the time when you think about an ancient kingdom there is a god attached to it..I thnk the Bible teaches that some of those “gods” were actually rebellous members of his divine council.

But its 2025, we are more sophisticated than that now right?

But in and through this we cam see the mission of Jesus and indeed the mission of Paul is to the Gentiles…

Who ancient Jews would have seen as rebellious people from Babel!

So ley me cover the rest of what Paul says in Romans 13:3

Romans 13:3 NIV

For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.

Paul says to submit to your earthly leaders because when when you live in truth and you do the right thing then leaders will have no reason to come after you!

By doing what is right…I think Paul is saying, “apply the ethics of Jesus to your community.” to your government…Even if they don’t apply them to you

Now that is assuming that this is a government that actually does what Paul says next

The purpose of Government is to work for the good of their people (Romans 13:4)

Romans 13:4 NIV

For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

Now there are many christ following elected officials that get that they are God’s servant for the people.

The word Servant that Paul used is a very lowly term it is the same term that is used for a common table server

But there are also many who use their elected office to serve themselves….Paul here lays out…so maybe you’re here and you are a government official. Whether your a clerk or hold a high position…You do not serve the elected official, but the Lord for the good of people…

Your job is to bless people

And Paul says look. If you do wrong, the government has the death penalty. It is going to get you Paul, even goes as far as saying is that the government punishes for sin.

Now here is where Romans 13 comes into conflict

what happens when government doesn’t work for the good of its people?

Can we think of examples? OF COURSE

Hitler…Thats an easy one

Dietrich Bohnhoffer a christian pastor actively worked against him because Hitler was obviously working agains the good of the Jews

Even countries who acknowledge God in their founding and allow for religious freedom have missed the mark…

Was Martin Luther King Junior disobeying Romans 13 when he promoted civil disobedience?? Some christians thought he was at the time…

But what he and others were doing is pointing out that the government failed to exist for the good of the people!

I think that there are times when Christians have a responsibility to disobey the government.

If the government is going to compels us to violate a divine commandment or stops working towards the good of people

when it openly denies its divine commission to preserve order and justice.

Or when the government stops working for the good of its people and actively works for the bad of their people.

Our attitude toward government should be one of respect

Romans 13:5–7 NIV

Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

See what Paul is saying is don’t just submit to authority because you are compelled to. Submit out of a matter of conscience.

Sorry Guys the Bible says to pay your taxes!

In our system you have a say in government, you get to vote, but imagine being a christian in Rome.

You have this country who persecutes you and all of your people and yet you keep paying taxes and showing them respect.

After a while it does what Romans 12 says…It pours during coals on their heads

I want to show you how this all works together with that little tangent that I took you on earlier

If you remember Deut 32, Israel is Yahweh’s portion and his disinheritance of the nations.

lets just keep reading

Romans 13:8–10 (NIV) Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Let no debt be outstanding except for the debt of love

Now because there is a separate heading here you might be tempted to think this is a new section we are not talking about the governing authorities. But the reality is that this is a continuation of what Paul had just said

Paul said to treat the governing authorities with respect and then he says look, pay your debts and don’t owe anyone anything

If you have ever been in debt you might know there is a feeling of crushing anxiety like I just can’t do anything, I need to pay this off

And what Paul is saying is I want you to always walk around as if you owe others love and that includes government officials…

Even the ones you can not stand and do not value anything that you value.

Even the ones you would never vote for!

as a christian Jesus has given you so much love by the forgiveness of your sins that you owe everyone love!

And here is where Paul connects the old testament

Romans 13:11–14 NIV

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

He ends with this urgent thing that he says…Look the time is near!

Let us behave decently…Our behavior should match our faith

And in this way…Our way of life reaches the nations, because the ultimate goal of the father is to return all nations back to the heart of the father

and here is where I am at with this today.

There was some technical stuff in this message but if you don’t get anything else out of today

Owe a debt of love to everyone

And do so in such a way that people come to know Jesus…